Photo Courtesy: Canada West

By Veronica Beltran

cancellations

Canada West cancels multiple conference competitions as COVID concerns remain

Oct 15, 2020 | 11:37 AM

EDMONTON—No conference regular season, playoff, or championship events will take place during the 2020-21 season for various sports, according to Canada West.

Men’s and Women’s basketball, volleyball, hockey, and wrestling, along with women’s rugby 7’s will not see playoff or championship events this 2020-21 season.

“Learnings from the relaunch of fall sports will be applied, as competitions are explored on a member-by-member basis through the remainder of the 2020-21 season, with hopes of paving a path for the full resumption of Canada West play in the fall of 2021.”— Release by Canada West

Decisions on Canada West championships in curling, track and field, and swimming are being deferred to a later date.

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The decision was made through a vote with the conference’s 17 members, following recommendations from the Canada West Board of Directors based on information provided by the Canada West COVID-19 Task Force.—The task force is made up of Canada West athletic directors, and medical professionals.

“Following an announcement on October 2 to delay a decision on second term competition, Canada West’s Board and COVID-19 Task Force continued to evaluate the evolving COVID-19 environment.”— Release by Canada West

Recommended reasons for the cancellation of events included:

• Ensuring the health and safety of student-athletes and others
• Rising case numbers across portions of Western Canada, particularly in the age group of university students
• Continued inter-provincial travel restrictions imposed by provincial health authorities
• Financial impediments to traditional conference competition due to COVID-19 mitigation protocols, including heightened travel costs

“This isn’t the outcome any of us wanted, however, it has become increasingly clear over the last few weeks that the environment wasn’t going to change sufficiently to ensure safe competition in traditional conference formats in these sports.”—Clint Hamilton, President, Canada West

Canada West’s announcement came at the same time that Ontario University Athletics (OUA), Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ), and Atlantic Univeristy Sport (AUS) made their own announcements pertaining to the status of their 2020-21 seasons.