University sports face cancellation

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This article was published 13/05/2020 (2204 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

All signs are pointing to the Canada West football and soccer seasons being cancelled owing to COVID-19.

On Wednesday afternoon, the University of Manitoba announced the fall semester will be held remotely. Fellow Canada West schools such as the University of British Colombia, the University of Regina, and the University of Saskatchewan have made similar announcements this week. The University of Winnipeg is expected to take the same path as well.

Gene Muller, the U of M’s director of athletics and recreation, said nothing has been officially decided on fall sports, but the writing appears to be on the wall for football and soccer.

“It’s going to take us a few days to work out what the implications are and what the likelihood of sports is when campuses don’t have students,” Muller told the Free Press.

“I’d imagine fall sports would be at risk of not playing, or the season doesn’t start for them, because with soccer and football both being contact sports, and with it being so soon, I’d imagine there’s a probability those sports won’t happen and that Canada West will reassess in terms of the other sports. If I was a betting man, then I’d say the fall sports would be at risk.”

Two days before the U of M’s announcement, Canada West shared its game plan for the 2020-21 season, which features shorter schedules and reduced travel to make things safer for everyone involved and save money. While their ideas for soccer and football appear to be out the window, basketball, volleyball and hockey remain in play.

Basketball has been trimmed to a 16-game regular season and the Canada West conference has been split into three divisions. The Manitoba Bisons and Winnipeg Wesmen are in a Saskatchewan-Manitoba division with Brandon, Regina and Saskatchewan. Each team will play against each other four times.

The local volleyball teams are each scheduled to play a total of 20 games in a Saskatchewan-Manitoba division. Men’s action will only feature four teams as Regina eliminated their men’s volleyball program in 2018.

Hockey will also consist of 20 games and Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Regina will play two extra games against each other to cut back on travel.

If volleyball, basketball and hockey are allowed to happen, it’s likely they won’t begin play until January.

Bisons men’s basketball coach Kirby Schepp said the plan is a solid short-term solution, but he remains cautious.

“I think we still have so many unanswered questions here and whether or not we can consider playing. There’s lots there,” said Schepp. “You try to go about business the best you can, but at the same point, the one thing that you do know is the fact you don’t know anything. You got to be flexible and be able to adapt from week to week and everything we know is going to change. We know that’s going to happen. Certainly, it won’t be status quo.”

You have to wonder if players would even want to partake in a season where they play a handful of teams over and over again. It’s not an ideal way to use up one of your five years of eligibility, especially for veterans. But Wesmen left-side attacker Emma Parker, the school’s reigning female athlete of the year, doesn’t envision that being a problem.

“I have thought about that. It’s gone through my mind, ‘What if I was a fifth-year right now?’ As much as you’d want the full experience, I personally wouldn’t be able to do that to my team. I feel like I’d be giving up and saying ‘No, that’s not good enough.’ Like I want a better year and I want to go out with a bang, but I’m playing for the love of the sport,” said Parker, who’s entering her fourth season.

“I just want to play volleyball as much as I can, so I would for sure keep playing. I can’t let my teammates down. I got to be there for them and there’s no way I’d walk away from that.”

Another unknown is what the pandemic means for non-Canadian U Sports athletes. Spas Nikolov is a 6-9 forward who’s coming off of his third season playing basketball for the Wesmen. Nikolov had a flight home to Bulgaria in May that was cancelled, forcing him to book another one in June. It’s difficult to predict what the travel situation will look like later this year, but Nikolov is crossing his fingers that he’d be allowed to fly back into Winnipeg for the season if there is one.

“I had it in my head for a bit but I’m just staying positive. I hope everything will be OK… I also feel like Canada and Europe are places where people take it more seriously, so they’re more careful. I’m more concerned with if they don’t let us (travel), there wouldn’t be a season anyways,” said Nikolov.

The toll of the pandemic has already been felt by the Bisons men’s volleyball team. They were scheduled to host the U Sports Men’s Volleyball Championship in March, but were informed the night before the tournament began that the plug had been pulled. Outside hitter Owen Schwartz, who capped off his third season with the Herd by being named the team’s most valuable player, and his teammates are trying to remain positive. But if any team has learned how quickly things can change, it’s them.

“They could leave it to the last minute and cancel it. Ever since nationals, we’ve come to expect the unexpected,” said Schwartz.

“You really don’t know what you’re going to get and nothing is really final until it happens. A lot of guys are saying ‘You know, whatever happens, we can’t do anything about it.’ So, there’s no point in getting mad or worrying about it because it’s not in our control at all.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31