High level Athletes in Ontario are out of their sport for the rest of the year.
Written by: Kyle Boudreau for SAY News
(CBC.ca Dec 12th, 2020)
As the COVID-19 Pandemic continues to plague Ontario, sports are completely on hold. Athletes of all calibers will be missing crucial opportunities to play. Some notable examples of high level sports that will not be commencing in 2020 are; University sports in Canada, The Canadian Football League and all high school athletic teams as well.
U Sports, Canadian University Athletics, announced on June 8th, 2020 that their fall season for 2020 would be canceled. They had hopes of playing some fall sports over the Winter season, but on October 15th, U Sports announced that their winter season would be completely canceled as well (Usports, 2020, Usports.ca).
An Offensive Lineman on the Laurier Golden Hawks Football team, Cooper Hamilton, would be wrapping up his second season by this time of the year. Unfortunately for him, he will be missing his sophomore season with the Golden Hawks due to the pandemic. He expressed his frustration with this decision for U sports to cancel the season. “Football is my life, I worked so hard to get to where I am in football, it’s just unfortunate we didn’t get to play.”
These University athletes are missing crucial opportunities in sports that they dedicated their life to. The possibility of U sports athletes missing their 2nd season in a row come Fall 2021 is a concern for Freshman Running Back for York University, Justin Fawcett. Fawcett is already missing his chance to play in his first year as a York Lion. “Obviously there is talk about next season, but everything is still undecided.”
If U Sports does not return soon, the professional scene for Canadian sports could change forever. The NFL currently has 10 Canadian players active on rosters across the league (Canadian Sport Scene, 2020, Canadiansportscene.ca). The number of Canadians in the NFL is low compared to the 1696 players in the league (NFL, 2020, NFL.com). As seniors in U sports are missing their opportunity to play their final and most miss the most important season of their lives. According to CBC, U sports has allowed Seniors one more year of eligibility during the pandemic. This is considered a “One time exception” (CBC,2020 CBC.ca). Their last chance to show coaches and scouts that they have what it takes to play at the next level could be taken away.
U Sports hopes to have all sports back to normal operation come Fall 2021, as long as it is safe to do so. The U sports Chief Medical officer, Dr. Taryn Taylor says “As the number of cases rise during the second wave of COVID-19, and without an available vaccine, on-going sports restrictions are required to ensure student-athlete health and safety” (U sports, 2020, Usports.ca).
The impact of COVID19 on the world of sports is massive and not declining. Measures being taken now are impacting the future generations of sports all around the world.
References
Devin Heroux, 2020, July 27th, Usports Reverses decision on football player eligibility)
https://www.cbc.ca/sports/u-sports-reverse-decision-football-elibility-1.5664298
U Sports Staff, 2020, October 15th, U Sports unable to offer national championships in winter 2021
https://usports.ca/en/championships/final-8/m/news/2020/10/2270303429/u-sports-unable-to-offer-national-championships-in-winter-2021
Jeremy Freeborn, 2020 September 11th, Ten Canadians in the NFL in 2020
U Sports Staff, 2020, June 8th, U Sports cancel 2020 fall championships due to COVID-19
https://usports.ca/en/news/2020/06/4079288233/u-sports-cancels-2020-fall-championships-due-to-covid-19
https://www.nfl.com/players/
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