Students, parents react to Saskatoon high schools cancelling fall sports

On Thursday, the Saskatoon Secondary Schools Athletic Directorate (SSSAD) announced the cancellation of fall school sports, including football, soccer, volleyball and cross-country.

Riece Tibbs is about to enter Grade 10 at Holy Cross. After completing his final year of Kinsmen football last season, his only option to keep playing football in the city is at the high school level.

His dreams of landing a spot on the senior football team vanished with Thursday’s announcement.

“I’m just disappointed,” Tibbs said. “That’s one of my motivations to go to school — just go play sports, have fun with friends. Now that they’ve taken that away I can’t.”

“I want to pursue a football career in the future, so this hits me hard.”

With physical education happening on a limited basis and other summer and fall sports resuming outside of school under strict provincial protocols, Tibbs assumed high school sports would follow suit.

“I have nothing to do now because there is no league for me,” Tibbs said. “Doing activities and stuff like that helps kids learn. I’m very sad.”

Tibbs’ father Jason has added concerns that go far beyond the scoreboard for his son who also plays basketball.

“Without sports, he tends to become disengaged from school. He knows that in order to play sports school is very important. If he can’t play sports will he take school as seriously as he has in the past? I don’t know that,” Jason said.

Less than a day after learning there aren’t any avenues for his son to pursue his favourite sport, Jason’s focus is shifting to his son’s mental health.

“I think he’s going to go to school and be depressed at the fact that he’s just going to school and he’s not going to be doing anything that he enjoys doing,” Jason said.

Jason has trouble understanding how provincial guidelines have had youth across the city safely return to play, while individual divisions, like the SSSAD, make their own decisions.

“His face kind of dropped, his body slugged down and you could see he was depressed or disturbed from the fact that he’s going to lose a year of eligibility of high school football,” Jason said.

The Tibbs’ only option remaining is to try and practice or help coach with his former Kinsmen football team.

Warner Meyers fondly remembers lifting a trophy over his head and celebrating with his teammates after winning the Saskatoon boys’ soccer championship last fall.

It’s not only one of his favourite memories because the team struggled with poor performances the previous two seasons, but it’s also because he was poised for a chance at back-to-back championships.

“I was pretty bummed out,” Meyers said. “It just kind of sucks that we can’t go back and do it again.”

Meyers understands that curbing the spread of COVID-19 is paramount right now, but still needs convincing that sports couldn’t resume in some way.

“It would have been nice to kind of keep it as normal as possible and go back and play sports again because it’s such an important part of high school,” Meyers said.

SHSAA cancels golf season, pushes back fall sport start dates

The Saskatchewan High Schools Athletic Association (SHSAA) announced that after discussions with the province’s Education Sector Response Planning Team, and the announcement school would now begin on Sept. 8, it has made changes to its policy.

The fall golf season has been cancelled province-wide. The golf season would normally have gone on during the spring with the provincial championship taking place in the fall. The SHSAA believed that the restrictions related to the reopening of schools would not allow for a safe and effective qualification process leading to a provincial championship event.

The SHSAA has also pushed back the start dates of cross country, soccer and football by two weeks with all three set to begin on Sept. 28.

The indoor volleyball season is set to begin on Oct. 13.

Students are also only allowed to participate in one SHSAA sanctioned activity during the 2020 fall season.

The SHSAA will meet on Sept. 13 and the status of the plan will be reviewed.