As the home of the UNBC Timberwolves soccer teams, the bright green fieldturf pitch at Masich Place Stadium is going to look and feel empty this year.
No goals will be scored and the bright LED lights of the brand-new scoreboard will remain dark.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced U SPORTS and the Canada West Conference to cancel its fall season and that means the university soccer will not be played at Masich this year.
“It’s heartbreaking,” said Loralyn Murdoch, UNBC’s director of athletic and recreation. “It’s never an easy thing to tell student-athletes that the season is cancelled, but the health and safety of those student-athletes and all the staff involved is first and foremost and how things stand now.
“With how things stand now with the COVID and the provincial health organization recommendations we couldn’t see a way to actually get those sports going as they’re contact (sports) and you can’t keep players two metres apart.”
Canada West also announced Monday it has cancelled its football and women’s rugby seasons and delayed the start of varsity basketball, hockey and volleyball seasons until January.
The 17 Canada West member schools voted unanimously to pull the plug on the fall seasons. Of all the contingency plans discussed in dozens of conference calls this spring involving league administrators and athletic directors, the possibility of losing an entire season was the worst-case scenario for the players, coaches and fans who flock to Canada West games.
“This is a reality for us,” said T-wolves women’s soccer head coach Neil Sedgwick. “Some people I’m sure don’t want to believe the reality and think in three months time we might be able to have them training and playing in leagues. But Canada West had to put a plan together and give people notice, especially our student athletes, as far as what direction it’s going to go.”
UNBC men’s soccer head coach Steve Simonson said it will take time for the coaches and players to digest the fact they will not be playing this year. He and Sedgwick will have to unveil alternate strategies to keep their teams intact as much as possible until they can return to the playing field in 2021.
Both coaches live during the off-season in the Victoria area and they both anticipate returning to Prince George in September when academic studies resume the fall semester begins. With university classes online this fall, some students might stay in their home cities and the two coaches will consider out-of-town visits with those players for group high-performance training sessions, depending on what the provincial health authority will allow.
“This is about supporting the student-athletes and making them feel like they’re going to get through this and they’re inspired to carry on with what they’re doing and that’s everyone’s priority right now, putting the next-best plan in place,” said Simonson.
“With our programs there’s a significant chunk of time we’re in the off-season anyway, in the wintertime. There’s a real high-performance training mentality around our teams. These players love to train, whether it’s individual, small group or full team, based on what we’re allowed to do we’re going to maximize that. When we can get them together we’ll do it. When we can play exhibition games we’ll do that.
The outbreak happened in mid-March, just as the two UNBC teams were starting their outdoor exhibition game schedules. Most of the players had planned to play in spring adult leagues of high school/youth leagues to help them prepare for training camps to begin in early-August. The pandemic put all that activity on hold, which will also put a clamp on recruiting.
“The new normal for us for a while has been there’s no soccer in the community whatsoever,” said Simonson. “Recruiting has been on a standstill for a while and all the coaches are dealing with the same thing and all the kids out of high school are dealing with the same thing. They all want to play university sports and all the recruiting tends to be done by this time of year.”
Until restrictions are lifted, neither UNBC coach will be watching live games of any kind, which limits what they can do to convince players to join the T-wolves program.
“This could last until the new year before they can actually get back on the field and have contact and play games so there’s a lot of interesting dynamics within the recruiting process,” said Sedgwick. “We’re still getting contacted, still getting video from prospective student-athletes and we’re staying in touch with them. We have a short list of people we’re looking at for 2021 but we won’t get a chance to see them for a while.”
Players won’t lose a year of eligibility with the season cancelled but to maintain scholarships each is required to take at least three courses per semester at UNBC.
Both teams have a strong core of returning players with six on the men’s team entering their fifth year of eligibility while the women’s team would have had three seniors. The women’s team is coming off its most successful season in eight years in the Canada West league and made the playoffs in 2019. The men’s team brought in 10 new players last season and despite failing to qualify for the postseason earned respect around the league for its cohesiveness and ability to test some of tougher teams in the conference.
“Hopefully, for the vast majority, this is just a pause,” said Simonson. “I’ve already had two players send messages saying, ‘I guess it’s just a long preseason.’
“The biggest impact is those who will graduate this year or are in line to graduate, and they may choose to lighten their course load now. If (fifth-year players) want to be here they will be welcomed back in 2021, should we be playing, and if they want to move on to the next chapter in their life we’ll congratulate them for being a big part of our program.”
Both coaches will now have to adjust their training plans for the players to keep them engaged and keep them practicing their skills so they don’t regress by the time soccer games are being played again.
“The biggest challenge for all of us right now is how do we keep that sense of connectedness and belonging when all these kids are spread around their different communities,” said Simonson. “We were shut down so quickly in March, unfortunately, when things escalated as they did. But if we handle this right I think it will be galvanizing for our program and our kids.”
Murdoch said the basketball schedule won’t be finalized until Oct. 8 and UNBC staff on both teams will have until then to sort out what will happen to student-athletes on the men’s and women’s T-wolves teams.
