.jpg;w=960)
With COVID-19 shutting down sports leagues this summer at many different levels, there is also plenty of uncertainty when it comes to sports in the fall as well.
For Sault College, the school is preparing for the potential of some changes when it comes to the athletics seasons at the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association school.
The school, which competes in the OCAA in a variety of sports including basketball, curling, golf, and soccer and hockey at the American Collegiate Hockey Association level on the ice, will look at some possible scenarios later this month at its Annual General Meeting.
“All we can do is run through different scenarios,” said Paul Orazietti, manager of athletics at the school. “We have an AGM in two weeks and we’re going to look at scenarios where there are no fall sports. Scenarios where there are limited fall sports and scenarios where the fall sports are backed up, maybe almost until second term. It just creates a lot of uncertainty. When you look at the big picture, we’re thankful that all of our athletes are healthy and they’re safe. It creates some challenges but in the grand scheme of things, we understand why. It creates some challenges but we’re going to work around those. In some respects, it’s going to allow us to come out on the other side a little better because there are a lot of things in terms of our processes and how we recruit.”
Orazietti did say he’s hopeful things will get back to normal for the winter sports offered by the school.
“I’m hopeful that our winter sports will continue,” Orazietti said. “The only sport that could be significantly impacted is golf. Even with soccer, if they folded the fall soccer (league), what would happen is we would immediately morph into the indoor soccer season and our soccer program would still continue to play and practice in the indoor season.”
The cross-country season could be impacted as well but Orazietti also said it’s a sport that could be moved to the spring if the fall isn’t an option.
The school announced recently that golf was making a return to the school after a short hiatus and is scheduled to begin play in the fall.
Orazietti said the school decided to step away from the sport for a period to look at changing “the dynamic of how the team looks.”
“It was never really the plan to get out of golf and this past year, we had budgeted for golf. It wasn’t that hard to get back into it. We just needed the right timing, the right economic plan, and the right coaches.”
In announcing the return of the team, the school announced that Kyle Thibeault and Mike McMillan were taking over the coaching reigns and would be joined by former Lake Superior State golf coach Brent Pusch.
Overall, the COVID-19 pandemic has already affected sports at the school, including the men’s and women’s hockey programs. The men’s team was scheduled to head south to compete in the ACHA national championship, but the event was cancelled due to the pandemic.
“Sports are a real privilege,” Orazietti said. “When you look at all of the other hardships that are going on around you, you realize that. I know that sounds really philosophical, but we’re looking at it from the point of view that it’s going to affect our athletes and it already has. Our men (in hockey) lost the opportunity to go and play in the national championship and (potentially) win back-to-back in Dallas. For some of those guys on that team, it would have been their first year to go to that tournament. That’s an extraordinary event. That hurts. The recruiting, for sure we’re going to lose recruits, especially ones from out of town that were planning on coming up to the college. That creates a degree of uncertainty in terms of planning for these things.”
