Women’s game in jeopardy

Only three programs left in Western Canada

The sudden demise of the University of Alberta women’s field hockey team last week could see the sport fold at the college level in Western Canada, the head of the CIS says.

While the body governing Canadian university sports will look for ways to save the game in meetings over the coming weeks, CIS head Marg Mcgregor says folding it out West is a possibility.

“That’s one of the conversations we will have with Canada West (conference),” Mcgregor says.

But, she said, there are no immediate plans to give up on the sport, despite the fact the league is now in violation of a four-team minimum rule the conference imposes on its sanctioned sports with only British Columbia, Calgary and Victoria left.

But being a lower tier sport, exceptions to the four-team rule could be made for field hockey, or another school might be enticed to join in, Mcgregor said.

“We’re currently running sports that do have regional associations of three programs in the sport, so it’s not unheard of,” she says.

“We give ourselves the latitude to be able to look at the full picture and then make some decisions that make sense in that context.”

Alberta athletic director Ian Reade shocked players and coaches last week when he told them at a hastily called meeting that the school would no longer be funding the 4-6-2 Pandas squad.