It comes with a one-year expiry and no guarantees, but Canada West has announced a modified schedule of what the upcoming fall and winter university sports schedule would look like if given the green light.
And while it’s far from the end of the tunnel, it at least provides some light down a road that’s been shrouded by financial uncertainty and the COVID-19 pandemic.
“While there remains uncertainty around when university sport will return, the Canada West board of directors has worked diligently to ensure that when it does, the conference and our members are prepared to navigate the difficult financial realities ahead of us,” CanWest president Clint Hamilton stated in a press release Monday. “The revised sport formats reflect the financial constraints our members will find themselves in as both a direct and indirect result of COVID-19. We remain hopeful that we will be able to compete during the 2020-21 season and deliver an excellent university sport experience for our student-athletes.”
The men’s and women’s nine-team hockey leagues appear to be least affected, despite losing both programs from the University of Lethbridge last month, and will play a 20-game schedule – down from 28 games last year – across all four provinces.
The 17 teams making up each of the women’s and men’s basketball leagues will be split into three provincial divisions, with the five teams combining between Saskatchewan and Manitoba, to play 16 games instead of 20.
The same format will be followed by the 13 men’s and 14 women’s volleyball teams, who will be split into three divisions and play 16 games instead of 22.
“The new formats will feature fewer games and less travel in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has resulted in significant disruptions to member finances,” the release continued, pointing out the shortened schedules are for the upcoming school year only. “The revised formats will also allow for competition to occur in a condensed period of time should COVID-19 restrictions limit, but not eliminate the amount of time available to complete the 2020-21 season.”
In the fall sports, the 13 men’s soccer teams will be split into Pacific and Prairie Divisions and play 10 games, while the 16 women’s programs will follow the three-division format in a 10-game schedule instead of 14 games.
Football will see six teams play each other once in a five-game schedule as opposed to the usual eight, while new provisions are also in place for women’s rugby 15s, women’s field hockey and the championship sports of cross-country, curling, golf, swimming, wrestling and track and field to continue in 2020-21.
It all hinges, of course, on getting clearance from health authorities in all four provinces. But, for now, it’s at least something to look forward to in a barren sportscape.
“Western Canada has taken a lot of time and put a lot of effort and made a lot of sacrifice to do this right and things are going to open up a little bit sooner for us and stay open long-term, I think, than a lot of places, especially down south,” said University of Alberta Golden Bears football head coach Chris Morris. “The fact that Canada West and U-Sports is comfortable releasing some semblance of a schedule, I think that’s a good sign of how well everyone’s done with this whole situation.
“I’m just happy for the kids that there’s some light at the end of the tunnel on this thing because for the amount of work they put in, it would be a tragedy for them not to be able to play.”
While football teams would still make the complete circuit over the regular season, the other varsity sports in the conference are slated to get even more familiar than they already are with their neighbours.
“For us, we’ll play U of C and Mount Royal six times and the U of A four, and we’ll have one split weekend to start the year,” said MacEwan’s Ken Briggs, who was named 2019-20 CanWest women’s volleyball coach of the year after leading his Griffins to their first playoff appearance in their six seasons of U-Sports competition. “We’ll be well versed in our opponents if the league gets started. We just want to play.
“It’s a lot of unknown right now.”
The modified schedule, Briggs said, represents the best-case scenario at the moment.
“We’re a long way off, I think,” he added. “No sport can even train – and we don’t know what that looks like – until Sept. 1.
“And I think that’s still potentially in smaller groups and things like that.”
E-mail: gmoddejonge@postmedia.com
On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge
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