“It will be an early Christmas break for our players,” Vancouver Island Soccer League executive director Vince Greco said Thursday after hearing the news adult and youth sports games — indoor or outdoor — are shut down due to the pandemic. Youth sports can still practice and train on a limited basis.
“There is a lot of work to be done in making up a new schedule with new cohorts. We are starting from scratch,” added Greco. “We are hopeful of a January 8 return.”
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said the order is for the “next few weeks.” She added that sport and physical activity accounts for 10 to 15 per cent of COVID-19 transmissions in BC and that may be an underestimate.
Powell River Villa had been scheduled to host Westcastle United at Timberlane Park on December 12.
Henry announced Wednesday that all indoor adult team sports were prohibited. Further orders Thursday included outdoor sports.
Bringing people together is what sport does best and is its greatest attribute and appeal. The pandemic has, ironically, turned that into sport’s greatest detriment.
“When people come together is when this virus can spread,” said Henry, during her briefing Thursday. “A lot of adult sports are really very much social gatherings as well as sport. Those types of gatherings are leading to transmission events. We’ve seen it in a number of adult team sports. We need to step back from those.
“It’s the locker-room. It’s the before, it’s the after, and the going out for coffee or beer after a game that has been the most source of transmission. It’s difficult because much of that is built into the culture of adult team sports. So let’s focus on our children. Supervised sports for young people have not been a source of the same type of risk and transmission.”
The governor of a BC Hockey League Island Division team, who did not want to be identified, said it is highly doubtful the league will begin the season as planned December 8.
BCHL commissioner Chris Hebb could not be reached for comment.
