Return to play means practicing only for the next 12 to 18 months...

[Old Girls Coach]

The BC government has tasked viaSport to come up with guidelines for a return to sports in BC. Their recommendations include continued social distancing, not sharing equipment like soccer balls, and "practicing personal skills"

Low risk activities that can occur with the following public health recommendations in place: •Ability to maintain physical distancing •Minimal sharing of equipment •Focus is on skill development, not competition •Community focused

Competitive activities are formal, organized games, matches and tournaments between participants where scores are recorded and standings are kept. For the foreseeable future, sport will be more geared towards community participation and training rather than games and provincial competition.
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So it looks like we're not playing league games any time soon. That means no fees to clubs, no pay for coaches, and a long list of very disappointed athletes.

 

[Admin]

I was thinking about that the other day regarding paid coaches - where are the funds going to come from? Will clubs need to lower fees w/o competitive games? How many local soccer suppliers are going to be left when we come out of this? SoccerX was already under going some sort of bankruptcy proceedings beforehand...

 

[Old Girls Coach]

where are the funds going to come from? Will clubs need to lower fees w/o competitive games?
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How many recreational players are going to bother if they don't get to play games? One game 11-a-side likely breaks the 50 person limit on gatherings, especially if a second game is scheduled right after the first. Kids generally dislike practice so why bother if they don't get the pay-off of a game day? If viaSport is serious about social distancing and if BC Soccer goes along with it recreational soccer is going to be devastated. Some of the competitive players may stick it out but even they will find other things to do that meets their competitive needs, if not just walk away altogether. Badminton for everyone!

I suspect the participation ribbon crowd thinks participation is enough. Everything I read at the viaSport site tells me these people want to "transform sports" and make it in to some utopian ideal.

 

[Admin]

Have they sorted out the insurance/liability issues yet? Everything else is a moot point until then I think.

 

[Old Girls Coach]

The BC Soccer website says they are reworking their liability waiver. Their insurance won't cover illness, and it really shouldn't. It looks like they thought that the government was going to evaluate and green light return to play plans, and found out they weren't going to get that. There's been no update since May 13th.