On Oct. 15, Ontario University Athletics (OUA) announced all OUA sports will be cancelled for the winter 2021 semester, citing public health guidelines.
The decision comes as many parts of the province enter a second wave of COVID-19 cases.
The OUA, under the direction of its Board of Directors, said in a statement that all OUA-sanctioned sport programming and championships will be put on hold until March 31, 2021.
“This difficult decision was based on provincial public health guidelines and with the health and well-being of all OUA participants at the forefront. Given recent increases in cases across the province, it has become clear that OUA-sanctioned return to competition would not be safe for the second term,” the statement reads.
Jennifer Brenning, Carleton’s assistant vice-president (recreation and athletics), said in a subsequent statement that the move was made to protect the health of all athletes and coaching staff involved in varsity sports.
“It has been a very difficult time on all of our student-athletes,” Brenning said.
“The decision made by the OUA was made with their health and safety as a top priority. We will continue to support their health, training, and development to the best of our abilities and with all the safety measures in place during these challenging times.”
All sports were cancelled by the OUA last spring for the fall term. On Oct. 10, Carleton shut down athletics facilities as Ontario regressed back to a modified version of stage two.
Emma Weller is a first-year journalism student on the Carleton women’s hockey team, which is a part of the Quebec Student Sport Federation (RESQ), not the OUA.
Although the OUA has been shut down, RESQ is still running as normal.
Weller said she believes it was the right call to cancel OUA sports in the winter term.
“I think there was no other choice, […] I think it was something that had to be done,” Weller said.
“Our league has not been shut down yet, but it is pretty likely that it will be based on a lot of the other Canadian [university sports] leagues being shut down,” she added.
Weller said she and her teammates still do not know a lot of the answers when it comes to how they will train together during the shutdown.
“Our high-performance athletic centre is closed for the next 28 days [but] our rink is yet to be shut down, so that is still up in the air,” Weller said.
After one of Weller’s teammates tested positive for COVID-19, the whole team went into quarantine, rendering them unable to practice. Weller said some of her teammates are debating on returning home to train.
“I may make the decision to go home so I have a guaranteed gym at my house to train. But our trainer here has been very good at providing us with fitness drills to train,” Weller said.
Shaun Van Allen, a former NHLer and head coach of the Carleton men’s hockey team, said he believes cancelling all OUA-sanctioned sport competitions was the best thing to do for the sake of everyone’s health.
“It’s disappointing. Our players are better students when they have hockey. They manage their time better, work harder, et cetera,” he said.
“But I’m not here to judge. It was the right call, especially in Ottawa where we are back in [a modified version of] stage two,” Van Allen said.
“It would be reckless to play right now, but hopefully, we can play some competitive games against other teams when the pandemic slows down.”
Despite the cancellation of all games and the closure of the athletics facility to the public, the team is still able to hold practices.
“Our rinks are not closed, we are allowed to have 10 people on the ice at once. We have two rinks and we use both of them,” Van Allen said.
“We are recommending that our players do whatever is best for them. We do not have our full team here, whoever is here will come to the rinks to practice,” he added, in reference to some players returning to their home towns.
In addition to practices, the team will also hold online video meetings.
“We will have Zoom meetings, just not about strategy. It’s easier to walk through strategies when everyone is here on the ice. The guys will work on their individual skills while at home,” Van Allen said.
For the senior athletes in their last year of eligibility, Van Allen said he hopes they can play some meaningful games later this year in order to have a chance at being scouted.
“Hopefully, later in the year, we will have some exhibition games for seniors, but the pandemic has to slow down first,” Van Allen said.
Featured image by Tim Austen.
