Minor sports welcome a return to skills training
Baseball, soccer organizations ready to give kids something to do this summer
The fourth phase of the Re-open Saskatchewan plan was a long time coming for Baseball Regina president Rob Gartner.
Gartner has been waiting since March 17, when all sports were shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, for minor baseball’s return.
On Tuesday, the provincial government announced that outdoor sports can resume Monday as part of the fourth phase of reopening Saskatchewan. Baseball teams can train until receiving clearance from the government and Baseball Saskatchewan to start playing games.
“It has been a long road,” Gartner said. “We’ve all been living in this quarantine and isolation and things are starting to open up. Finally, we can say the kids are able to do something and we’re quite excited about that.”
Gartner’s sentiments are shared by other Regina sports organizations.
“We’re adapting to the new normal for now and hoping for the best,’’ said TJ Singh, executive director of the FC Regina soccer program. “We’re hoping that things turn out good and that the kids have fun. That’s all that matters because they have been sitting at home for a long time now. They won’t be going to school until September, so they will be looking forward to some sort of sports.”
There may be delays in teams having access to the City of Regina’s sports facilities on Monday. Many of the athletic fields, baseball and softball diamonds have received basic care while being closed during the pandemic.
Rod Schmidt, the City of Regina’s acting manager of sports facilities and special events, said two weeks’ notice were required to prepare the fields for play after the government’s announcement.
They had some warning last week when it was suggested that outdoor sports would resume in Phase 4.1 and started preparing the fields for play. For that reason, most athletic fields won’t be available until June 27.
However, baseball diamonds that are looked after by community organizations like Baseball Regina and the Kiwanis and National Little Leagues should be available on Monday.
“We realized that they have been doing their own maintenance work and they could be ready to go on Monday,” Schmidt said. “If they can’t, they can go after that.”
Gartner said the Baseball Regina board has been meeting weekly and preparing for when teams would be allowed to begin training. Baseball Saskatchewan has also contributed to the reopening of outdoor sports by preparing guidelines regarding a return to training and playing.
The online document covers many aspects of training during a pandemic, from social distancing in and outside the dugout to prohibiting the sharing of water bottles to banning spitting, chewing gum or the consumption of sunflower seeds.
Gartner added that each Baseball Regina team will have a safety officer in place whose responsibilities will be making sure the guidelines put in place are being followed.
“These are new things, but for our board we feel they are worth it just to be able to play,” Gartner said.
FC Regina already has plans for a youth soccer camp that stresses skill development while following social-distancing protocols. Singh is optimistic that when sports organizations are allowed to play games, FC Regina’s season for youths and adults could start in mid-july.
Mike Thomas, Football Sask’s director of football operations, said their guidelines for return to play will be available Monday. However, touch and flag football programs can start training Monday. It may take more time for players involved on the tackle side to be able to resume training.
“We did give them a warning that the game we played back in 2019 won’t be the same in 2020,” Thomas said. “We need to adapt to what those particular changes might be, whether it be to roster numbers, game differences and the personnel for teams.”
When teams will be cleared to play games wasn’t part of Tuesday’s announcement. Some clarity could be included when the second part of Phase 4 is announced next week.
“When we get that date, then we’ll schedule our season,” Gartner said.