Return of school sports up in the air
SYDNEY — It remains unclear if school sports in this province will restart next week.
When the Nova Scotia School Athletic Federation announced in mid-December that all competitions would be suspended for three weeks — in line with the public school system’s break for the Christmas holidays — Jan. 11 was the earliest date for school sports to resume.
The NSSAF, the governing body which oversees school sports, posted on its home page, “All NSSAF activities will restart on Monday, Jan. 11, 2021” earlier on Tuesday, but that was updated to “All NSSAF activities may restart on Monday, Jan. 11, 2021 provided COVID guidelines allow” later in the afternoon.
Until the NSSAF receives further direction from the province, school sports will remain in a holding pattern.
“There’s nothing until at least the 11th,” NSSAF executive director Stephen Gallant said. “If the green light is provided by the province, we certainly intend to move forward.
“It would be wonderful if we can move ahead,” Gallant added. “But there’s a no fly zone until Jan. 11 as there is for minor sport, for all sport.”
The province didn’t provide an update on school sports during a Tuesday news briefing with Premier Stephen McNeil and Dr. Robert Strang, Nova Scotia’s chief medical officer of health.
“We’re certainly looking at organized sports in general,” Strang said during the briefing. “That’s part of our review of our restrictions. Right now, we’re allowing up to 25 people for sports or theatre events only for practices or rehearsals. So we’ll be looking at that.
“One of the decisions we need to look at is, do we go back to where we were a couple months ago where we allowed up to 50 people, and games and competitions were part of that?
“Our priority will continue to make sure that we make decisions based on the safety of Nova Scotians and, at the same time, balancing opportunities more broadly for both arts, cultural events, as well as physical activity, sports and other recreation events.”
What is clear is that if school sports return next week, the NSSAF will follow its winter sport schedule.
That means a provincial volleyball champion will not be crowned. When COVID-19 cases spiked in late November, it forced the postponement of the NSSAF volleyball championships, scheduled for Dec. 4-5.