Student sport faces uncertain future

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This article was published 16/12/2021 (1107 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With the Christmas break at hand, Chad Falk, executive director at the Manitoba High Schools Athletic Association took a moment to assess the first few months of high school sports.

“It’s been an interesting fall and early winter,” he said. “We kind of started the school year in a very hesitant way, not really knowing what could be done. There were still quite a few restrictions in place that were preventing us from hosting provincials at that time.”

But high schools were able to go ahead with tournaments and exhibition play, allowing student athletes who’d been raring to play after COVID-19 cancelled most of last year’s sports to get back into the fray.

With easing of restrictions in October, the association started gearing up to get the first of the provincial tournaments in order. The volleyball championships wrapped up on Dec. 5.

“That was our first provincial championship in any sport in almost two years, since the shutdown in March of 2020,” Falk said. “So that was wonderful to get through. They were pretty bare bones, and there wasn’t a lot of pomp and circumstance that you would see at a traditional provincial championship. But we wanted to provide these student athletes with a competitive opportunity, and that’s what we did.”

One major difference to this year’s volleyball provincials: no spectators were allowed in the stands. Falk said while this caused some difficulties for athletes and their families, it was necessary to accommodate different policies throughout various school divisions.

Some allow spectators, some do not. So, Falk defaulted to what he called the “lowest common denominator of safety.”

“We said, let’s go to the safest one, so it doesn’t affect anyone’s participation,” Falk said.

The championships were also condensed to avoid excess travel or overnight stays.

“It was some long days for some teams, but the recipe we came up with got it off without a hitch,” he said. “We were lucky with no COVID concerns and no weather concerns.”

Falk said the organization is keeping an eye on the rising COVID-19 numbers, including concerns over the Omicron variant, and on public health orders.

“My optimism seems to be waning a little bit,” he said. “But we’ll see.”

While his organization is aware that Winnipeg schools have had cases, those cases are dealt with at a school division level.

The association has had no indication that school sports have driven spread of the virus, Falk said. However, earlier this month, concerns over this possibility caused the province to mandate that student athletes between 12 and 17 provide proof of at least one dose of an approved vaccine and of a negative result from an approved rapid antigen test.

“I think like the rest of the world, we’re going to have to wait and see how we emerge from the Christmas break,” Falk said.