Sports leagues preparing to kick off with new rules
50-person cohort won’t guarantee safety but offers health benefits, Hinshaw says
Local Edmonton sports leagues can now take the field to kick off their seasons, but many unknowns are swirling as they grapple to comply with the province’s 50-person cohort rule.
Under the second stage of the province’s COVID-19 economic relaunch that started Friday, summer sports can start with additional restrictions in place.
Alberta’s chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw announced organized sports can continue in mini-leagues with up to 50 people.
These cohorts include players, officials, coaches and any other participants who cannot maintain a two-metre separation distance.
“We recognize that people cannot play team sports while maintaining a consistent two-metre distance at all times, and we also recognize sports provides mental and physical health benefits,” Hinshaw said during the Stage 2 relaunch announcement Tuesday.
“These numbers do not guarantee safety. What they do is they help us contain, if there is an exposure or small outbreak, the total number of people who would be exposed to make sure that it doesn’t spread widely.”
Youth and adult sport organizations are still making plans for modified seasons that can range from smaller league play to a focus on practices and training in order to comply with the new rules.
For Football Alberta and its 400 teams, registration and on-field practices started on Friday for play running through July.
Executive director Tim Enger said the leagues typically don’t run until August, but the association decided to lift the restriction with athletes eager to get back in uniform.
“You never know what you have until someone takes it away. We’ve found a lot of people who were iffy about their football participation and now are absolutely clamouring for it,” he said. “For now you get to play football, but you have to stay in your 50-person group.”
This could mean a scrimmage of 12 against 12, or breaking those down to even smaller six-person teams from the same area playing against each other, with the format up to each individual league.
Cohort groups are expected to play in a specific region to avoid significant travel.
“We have to be very grateful that the flexibility was put in place and we have to not blow it,” he said.
“We have to take every opportunity to follow physical distancing.”
Alberta Soccer is hoping to have its 100,000 members back into game mode by the end of this week by moving into the second stage of its relaunch plans.
How the seasons will operate is up to the individual 22 member leagues, executive director Shaun Lowther said, as long as they follow the province’s rules. Teams are currently allowed to return to training, which he said has been welcomed by many high-level players itching to get back to honing their skills.
The Edmonton Sport and Social Club, which offers dozens of recreational sports leagues for adults, will open registration for its summer programming Monday.
Senior marketing manager Caitlin Richler said the club expects to run all of its outdoor sports including soccer and slo-pitch, but is still not certain about some indoor sport offerings in order to comply with health rules.
Also, with the city’s recreation facilities remaining closed until at least early July, space is limited.
“We were thrilled when we saw that they did decide to move team sports into Phase 2. It’s obviously the news we were looking for after a couple months of uncertainty there,” she said.
Richler said typically 10,000 participants sign up for summer sports and the club is still anticipating up to 7,000 this season spread out among smaller divisions.
To allow games to resume, the City of Edmonton is accepting bookings for unstaffed sports fields as of Monday.
The city’s seven staffed sports fields remain closed indefinitely.