Sometime this summer there will be soccer played in city.
Terrol Russell is bound and determined to make that happen.
It might not be the crowded sea of humanity people are accustomed to seeing on soccer Saturdays when they drive by the huge green expanse of Rotary Soccer Field, home of the Prince George Youth Soccer Association. But with Phase 1 of the province’s three-tiered ViaSport Return to Play plan about to come into effect, soccer training sessions could commence before the end of the month.
Wednesday’s announcement by the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture that the province will offer the insurance liability protection to not-for-profit amateur sports groups to insulate them from damages resulting from exposure of COVID-19 welcomed by the PGYSA and could speed up the return of the city’s soccer kids to outdoor fields.
“There’s three phases of the Return to Plan and right now we’re just entering Phase 1,” said Russell, the PGYSA’s director of club operations. “The insurance change has been a huge help and we’re very thankful for (Premier) Horgan and his team for bringing that out, that’s taken a lot of pressure off our board.
“We’re ready for Phase 1, we just need to finalize the documentation and make sure we work with the city and then we can at least provide some thing for Phase 1 programming and go from there.”
Friday is the first day Phase 1 guidelines come into effect. The plan outlines a return to restricted individualized training and no game situation or reduced-sized team interactions. The preliminary programming plan restricts training sessions to no more than 40 players per full-sized field and no more than 10 players and a coach in any one group training session. The field would be divided into quarters to maintain group separation. Hand sanitizer must be made available to players and stations will be set up to clean equipment after each session. Training sessions are limited to maximum of one hour each.
“You have the field separated into various grids with specific distancing guidelines being met and what you’re doing is more individual-based training with players,” said Russell. “To be honest, that works out well regardless because when you’ve been off three or four months you would be running as preparatory fitness and conditioning program to bring them back anyway.”
Russell submitted the Phase 1 plan to the PGYSA board on Wednesday and expects that to be approved by early next week. That will be submitted to Canada Soccer and then to the city for final approval. No contact drills or small-sided scrimmages or games will be played until Phase 2 and a return to 11-player-per-side scheduled games won’t happen until Phase 3 comes into effect. The league is explaining the different phases to its membership through email and on short videos being posted to YouTube.
“It’s possible Phase 2 is not until the fall and it’s possible Phase 3, for us in the north, won’t be until the spring of 2021,” said Russell. “It’s also possible that, all of a sudden, things change and we’re in Phase 3 by this fall to be able to provide a fall program.”
Russell said the PGYSA will adjust its plans based on new orders and guideline updates provided by the provincial health officer. He said there might be added precautions in place for players in the younger age groups where it is more difficult to enforce social distancing measures. That could mean some of the younger players might have to wait until Phase 2 or the return plan is in place and restrictions are lifted on close contact between players.
Russell is unsure how many players to expect for Phase 1 training. The PGYSA was halfway through its registration process for outdoor soccer when that came to standstill once the pandemic was declared in mid-March. Some families had registration fees refunded while some deferred and kept their kids enrolled. Not knowing the actual numbers of players makes it more difficult for the PGYSA to forecast what a fall season schedule would look like. With all the uncertainty, the league expects numbers will be significantly reduced this summer.
“If we could get somewhere near 500 I think that would be positive,” said Russell. “We have plans but those plans are based on a reduction in numbers. It’s the middle of June already and in Phase 3 we have no projections for dates and when we’re looking at preparations for timing and communication and preparation of fields you have to put a realistic model out there.”
From 2008-2018 the PGYSA’s membership plunged by 1,000 players. The numbers have stabilized since then and membership has hovered between 1,600 and 1,700 members in each of the last two years.
“This is something that’s happening across the country, and we’ve seen it in a multitude of sports,” said Russell. “We’ve managed to find a way to stem the loss in the short term and hopefully we can stay consistent going forward.
“The issue we’re finding is that 16-18-year-old bracket is struggling. Our physical literacy has jumped up immensely, our indoor (soccer) registrations have jumped up immensely and our outdoor (registration) has stayed consistent, except that 16-18 age group. That age group is disappearing fast.”
Russell says more players are taking on full-time summer jobs and he admits the league has to do a better job keeping them engaged in the game. To help bridge that gap and convince more players to stay involved in soccer as a lifetime activity the PGYSA has discussed the possibility of creating an under-21 or under-23 adult league, which would keep with their age peers.
“We have to capture that age group because if we don’t, that transition to adult sport eventually trickles down the line and we don’t want to see that,” he said.
