Regina minor sports leagues feeling effects of COVID-19

“Play ball” might not be a saying heard much in Regina this year.

Many sports leagues’ 2020 seasons are up in the air or already cancelled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Regina soccer zones cancel outdoor season

The various soccer leagues in the city have cancelled their 2020 outdoor seasons.

The Regina East Zone Youth Soccer Association, South Regina Community Soccer, North Zone Soccer, Regina West Zone Soccer Association and Tri-zone (Balgonie, White City, Pilot Butte and other areas) made the decision to collectively put an end to the season.

“We delayed that decision as long as we could because we usually have 1,100 children that register and that involves lots of coaches and lots of kids and families and fans and it’s all fun,” said Kurtis Krug, the president of the Regina East Zone Youth Soccer Association.

“It just got to the point where we just weren’t confident. We couldn’t ascertain that we wouldn’t have a problem going forward.”

The cancellation includes interzone play as well.

Krug said the season would have opened at the start of May and would normally run until the end of June.

Krug said the associations refunded families fully except for the processing fee the third-party money processing provider takes.

Krug said the season was ready to go, with uniforms and other items already being ordered.

The indoor season is expected to go as expected in October but Krug admits social distancing and COVID could still have an effect on it.

Minor, high school football eyeing fall return

The U16 program is on hold and the annual football school put on by the PFC’s Regina Thunder is also on the chopping block in 2020.

“Unless we look at something in July, it probably will be cancelled as well,” said Len Antonini, executive director of Regina Minor Football.

With the cancellation of the RMF high school spring league, RMF will lose out on $75,000 of funds and could see a loss of $25,000 if the U16 league is cancelled. The Thunder football school would bring in $20,000.

The hope is to still have a fall season with registration ongoing.

“We are prepared to have a season with COVID with some rules about washing your hands and that type of thing,” Antonini said.

Antonini said RMF will also monitor any sick players.

Ultimately, RMF will need to follow the guidelines put in place by Football Canada.

“They’re based out of Ontario and I think Ontario is in a way different situation than Saskatchewan (in terms of COVID-19),” Antonini said.

“Whatever is requested, Regina Minor Football has a very strong board of directors. I think we do a lot of things right and anything that we do, we’re not going to do anything that’s going to jeopardize the players or the coaches or any of the volunteers.”

Antonini said any sort of registration fees people paid for the fall league would be refunded if the season is cancelled.

The league is doing a progressive 50/50 to help raise money in order to make up for the loss.

“That may be our only income this year,” he said.

The spring flag football league was also cancelled in Regina.

“It’s very unfortunate but with how things were aligning with the Re-Ppen Saskatchewan platform … we saw that football and more specifically youth sports were in Phase 4 of the plan. The timeline was undetermined,” said Mike Thomas, league convener for the Regina Youth Flag Football League.

Thomas said the league usually likes to finish the season before the school year finishes.

Thomas said registration for the league was in January and organizers had to order the equipment for the league last November.

“We were able to cancel some things, put a stop-payment on others,” he said. “After that we were able to look at the differences and give parents back as much money as we possibly could.”

Thomas said the league spent about $275,000 on items and merchandise in terms of jerseys and shorts.

Thomas said families received an average of 43 per cent back of their registration fees, depending on if they also ordered photos and other extras as well.

The hope is the fall league can still take place.

Baseball, softball hoping for saved season

The hope is that ball diamonds could still see some activity this year.

The Baseball Regina season was supposed to get underway on May 1 but Rob Gartner, president of the Baseball Regina board of directors, said the season is up in the air.

“We really don’t have a specific start date in mind so right now we should be playing baseball and we’re not,” Gartner said.

He said he feels like having a baseball season is an essential service.

“Families want to get out and watch their kids play baseball. We know the kids want to compete and practise and enjoy that social aspect of being on a team but we also appreciate the magnitude of this virus,” Gartner said. “We need to have plans in place to protect our players and our coaches and the families.”

This could include no handshakes or high-fives as well as social distancing within the dugouts and with the fans.

Softball Saskatchewan has postponed all activities until May 31 with regular meetings on the status of the season. Softball provincial championships have not been cancelled at this time.

Gartner said Baseball Regina has had to postpone its player drafts and some evaluations haven’t been cleared.

If the season was cancelled, Gartner said league officials are working on a refund policy.

“We’re hopeful that the season will take place. It will be a modified season and then we’re going to address any refunds accordingly,” Gartner said.

Gartner said the operating budget for a season is around $400,000 with most of it incurred during the regular season due to park rentals, umpire pay and other operational costs.

During the off-season, Baseball Regina runs evaluation camps and has paid employees.

Regina high school spring sports cancelled, hopeful for fall sports

High school teams in the city are learning the fates of some of their sports while the hope is many will be able to return in the fall.

The Saskatchewan High Schools Athletic Association has cancelled badminton, spring golf and track and field for the remainder of the year.

Soccer and volleyball won’t see a schedule released until the first week of September. According to the Regina High Schools Athletic Association, with no students in school right now, coaches don’t know if they will have enough students to field teams or not.

Football spring camps have been cancelled and tryouts would take place in the fall, but that could change depending on what happens with the CFL and U Sports.