The play must go on
When the field hockey team at Trafalgar Castle School in Whitby held their first inter-school game, the excitement was palpable. “it was the first time the team has been back since November 2019,” says Karen May-kim, athletic director. “It was pretty awesome to be back on the field. There was a lot of high spirits and excitement.”
“Typically at this time of year we would be seeing full practices, student volunteers helping with equipment, and lots of people in gyms and on fields giving high fives and singing on the bus to and from school. Parents and students would all be there to watch games against other schools,” says Dr. Leanne Foster, head of school.
In 2020 all athletic activities were on hold, but this year private schools are carefully navigating a comeback for athletics in a way that balances participation with safety, she says. “We can’t put children in bubbles, but at the same time we want to make sure we find modified ways to still have fun.”
Some schools are focusing strictly on outdoor sports such as field hockey, cross-country and soccer, and shelving indoor high-intensity sports at this time, she notes. “We are still running basketball practices and skills drills on the outdoor court,” says Foster. “In the winter, we’ll be doing snowshoeing, cross-country skiing and outdoor winter soccer.” Archery is earmarked to be part of the outdoor spring activities.
League team play has been limited, particularly for children under 12 who are unvaccinated. Anyone engaging in sports with other schools must be fully vaccinated or have a rapid antigen test prior to playing, says Foster. “We are very supportive of that because we want our students back on the field and back in competition. Everybody is in the same boat.”
“Last year there was nothing. This year the general philosophy is for the school to get back to normal as safely and quickly as possible while ensuring all guidelines are met,” says Graham Brown, director of athletics at St. Andrew’s College, Aurora. “It makes it relatively easy when the guidelines are all aligned.”
Like most schools, staff, students, faculty and any visitors on campus have to show proof of vaccination, he adds. “All schools that play here have to follow our policies. The same holds true for teams going off campus. If we go to play UCC, we would follow UCC policies.”
One positive note is the willingness for everyone involved to follow procedures, says Brown. “That’s encouraging to see. We rarely see anyone without a mask or not social distancing. That helps to bring a reasonable amount of normality.”
COVID has been a significant gamer with respect to schools’ ability to provide co-curricular programs, says Scott Cowie, dean of student life and wellbeing at Upper Canada College (UCC) in Toronto. “We are all definitely following Ministry, Conference of Independent Schools Athletic Association [CISAA] and public health, as well as our own guidelines for athletic programming.”
UCC does allow some noncontact sports indoors including volleyball. While inter-school sport is for vaccinated only students, he says, “We may try to do some limited athletics later on for students under 12.”
For now, winter programs are to be determined, he adds. “We recognize sports is such an important of the student experience, so will do all that we are permitted to do. We’re confident we can offer a pretty rich program despite the circumstances.”
One interesting change is that after a year of no athletics, kids have been keener than ever to sign up for sports and other cocurricular activities, says Cowie. “We’ve had a huge response, more so than in previous years. It has been great to see how much students want to return to athletics. And it’s really uplifting to see our fields with students on them again. It’s also nice to see the coaching staff’s enthusiasm.”
Given the long hiatus and despite the limited options, athletics are drawing more students than ever, confirms Foster. “They want to be here and play. There was so much excitement about going back to normal even though it’s not really back to normal. It means so much to them to get to compete with friends. It takes a lot of creativity to figure out how we can do this. But our teachers are doing an amazing job.”