 |
| There is no interprovincial travel for minors sports teams in Saskatchewan. |
After Saskatchewan entered Phase 3 of its reopening plan on
Monday, minor sports organizations and teams waited to hear announcements for
dates of when the first and second parts of Phase 4 would occur.
The reopening plan was created to start returning
Saskatchewan to action in a world that is in the grip of the coronavirus
(COVID-19) pandemic.
In the first part of Phase 4, sports and recreational
activities for children and adults may resume including activities taking place
on soccer fields, volleyball and basketball courts, baseball diamonds, lawn
bowling greens and football fields.
The second part of Phase 4 will see indoor pools, indoor
rinks, libraries, museums, galleries, movie theatres and casinos and bingo
halls open to the public.
Full contact sports like tackle football, rugby, wrestling,
boxing, martial arts and ice, ball and field hockey with checking will not be
allowed during any part of Phase 4. Athletes can do conditioning and skills
training in those sports, but won’t be able to engage in competitions with the
way these plans unfold at the moment.
During a press conference on Thursday, the Government of
Saskatchewan said it plans to announce a date for the first part of Phase 4
early next week.
At that same press conference, deputy premier and minister
of education Gord Wyant said kids’ sports and activities will go ahead this
summer. He proceeded to add there would be no tournaments or interprovincial
travel for sports teams and no handshakes.
The big bomb there was the fact tournaments and
interprovincial travel for sports teams was nixed. It would be safe to say most
sports organizations likely weren’t expecting that to come down the pipe.
It is safe to say minor sports bodies were hoping to conduct
competitions within the province including provincial championships.
The Government of Saskatchewan did not define the length of
this tournament and interprovincial travel ban for sports teams. One has to wonder if it will extend into
September, October, November or December, when the weather turns cold and the
winter sports season usually starts up.
On Tuesday, Baseball Sask announced it was cancelling all of
its provincial championship tournaments citing it couldn’t wait any longer for
a date to be announced for the first part of Phase 4.
Softball Saskatchewan and the Saskatchewan Soccer
Association haven’t announced what the fate will be of the provincial championship
tournaments each of those bodies run.
The tournament and interprovincial travel ban will likely end the hopes of
Saskatchewan Rugby hosting provincial championships as well.
Golf Saskatchewan annually hosts a pile of provincial
championship tournaments in junior, men’s and women’s amateur, men’s and
women’s mid-amateur and men’s and women’s senior amateur play. All of those
have sizable followings, and all of those events have to be thrown into doubt.
Since golf is an individual sport, it might be able to get
around the tournament and interprovincial travel ban, because groups of players traveling
together wouldn’t be considered teams. Still, the Government of Saskatchewan
didn’t provide any clarity on this front.
On the summer hockey front, it is considered a contact sport
and there is a tournament and interprovincial travel ban, so it is likely the rinks won’t see any sort of
games this summer.
The announcement of the tournament and interprovincial travel ban was skillfully tucked in
with announcements regarding grad ceremonies and places of worship on Thursday.
Outdoor grad ceremonies can have 30 graduates for class and
150 in attendance overall.
Places of worship will be allowed to have one-third of the
seating capacity of a building or a maximum of 150 people whichever is less.
Those two announcements drew the bulk of the attention on
Thursday. Concerns about graduations or attending places of worship actually far
exceed concerns people have about returning to the world of sports.
As for the provincial sports scene, it is possible that the
Government of Saskatchewan and the medical officials could make new decisions
making a return to play more of a possibility for even contact sports.
Still, there are a tonne of questions about the tournament and interprovincial travel ban for sports teams. Hopefully, more details about the
travel ban will emerge sooner than later.
Third Saskatoon Black Lives Matter rally
draws 1,000
 |
| Protesters take a knee at Saturday’s Black Lives Matter rally in Saskatoon. |
The third such rally occurred in downtown Saskatoon on
Saturday and around 1,000 people turned out. The rally ran from noon to about 4
p.m.
The march started at Kiwanis Memorial Park, moved to the
police station, cycled down to city hall and finished up back at Kiwanis
Memorial Park. The protesters in the march filled the air with chants and a
number of people carried signs.
There were speakers who took centre stage addressing the
crowd at each stop of the march. At the police station, the protesters at the
rally took a knee for eight minutes and 46 seconds to remember George Floyd and
other minorities who lost their lives unjustly at the hands of police.
These
demonstrations were triggered due to the death of Floyd, who is
African-American, on May 25 after he was arrested by police in Minneapolis,
Minn.
Video of the arrest showed Floyd being pinned on the ground
with a police officer identified as Derek Chauvin driving his knee into the
back of Floyd’s neck.
Four officers were fired over the incident including
Chauvin, and at first, Chauvin, who is Caucasian, was charged with third-degree
murder and second-degree manslaughter over Floyd’s death. The charges against
Chauvin were increased to second-degree murder on June 3.
The three other officers - Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou
Thao – were charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder.
The crowd at the Saturday rally in Saskatoon was about 60 per cent between the ages of 18 to 24. The rest of the crowd encompassed various age backgrounds.
The crowd at the Saturday rally in Saskatoon was about 60 per cent between the ages of 18 to 24. The rest of the crowd encompassed various age backgrounds.
The rally seemed to attract a number of families too. A wide
variety of cultures were present as well.
The rally wasn’t as big as the one held in Saskatoon on June
4, which was called the “Justice for George Rally.”
It is now estimated the crowd at the June 4 rally contained
around 4,000 people. About 95 per cent of the people at that rally were age 18
to 24.
The one noticeable difference was the presence of the
Saskatoon Police Service. At the June 4 rally, members of the Saskatoon Police
Service mingled with those at the rally, which include posing for pictures.
The Saskatoon Police members did a great job of blocking off
streets to allow the June 4 march to happen without any hiccups.
Since that time, a number of other stories have come out in
the mainstream media regarding police clashes with minorities and a couple of
high profile cases in Canada involving interactions with police and people of
First Nations decent.
Some of the stories include clashes between those attending Black Lives Matter rallies in Montreal and the police service in that centre,
where protesters were tear-gassed and pepper-sprayed.
The organizers of Saturday’s rally asked for the Saskatoon
Police Service to not have a presence at that rally. The Saskatoon Police
members kept their distance and efficiently blocked off streets to allow
Saturday’s march to take place.
There were calls at the Saturday rally to defund the police
in order to transfer money into social programs to deal with issues of racism
and mental health. The “defund the police” line originated in the United States
due to the continuing racial turmoil in that country.
The people in the Saturday rally in Saskatoon made their
voices heard, and everything went off in a peaceful way.
If the rallies continue to happen in a peaceful way, it will
help those organizing the rallies to get their anti-racism message out.
New heights for COVID-19 frustration,
other thoughts
 |
| People in the COVID-19 pandemic want to get after each other like this. |
Over social media lines, it seems there are a large number
of people that want the province to start returning more to normal due to the
low number of COVID-19 cases in the province. As of Saturday, there were 23
active cases in Saskatchewan including one person in intensive care in Saskatoon
and one receiving in patient care in the northern part of the province.
Between the four western Canadian provinces in British
Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, there are a total of 67 hospitalizations as of today due to COVID-19 with nine of those cases needing intensive care.
There are a lot of people on social media lines who want restrictions
to be relaxed, and they do not want society to be held down by those low hospital
rates. These people want to be out and about and live their lives like normal.
There are still others who view the COVID-19 pandemic as a
serious crisis and believe restrictions are being relaxed too quickly and
everything should be locked down. Those people fear leaving their homes.
There are a handful of people who look at the Worldometer
statistics to try and determine how dangerous COVID-19 is. Worldometer seems to
be extremely accurate in counting deaths in real time.
At the time this post went live, Worldometer stated 432,475 deaths due to COVID-19 this year. Worldometer also stated so far this year
there have been 3,711,624 deaths by cancer, 2,259,154 deaths caused by smoking,
1,130,291 deaths caused by alcohol, 759,706 deaths by HIV/AIDS, 484,615 deaths
by suicide, 443,281 deaths by malaria, 220,187 deaths by seasonal flu and
139,684 deaths from mothers giving birth.
It should be noted that HIV/AIDS has been a pandemic for
decades.
The Worldometer also stated at the time this post went live
there was over $180,792,000,000 spent on illegal in the world so far this year.
No matter where you sit in belief on how dangerous COVID-19
actually is, it does seem people only look at the situation from their own
person perspective. There doesn’t seem to be much empathy for those who see
things differently.
If you have a job in an industry that is keeping you
financially sound at the moment, it seems some in that situation don’t care if
others slip to poverty due to the fact those others work in an industry that
could totally collapse due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is almost, “I’m glad that is not me, and tough luck to
the other person.”
It is safe to say chronic stress regarding this situation
that has no end date is affecting a lot of people.
If everyone could find a way to a touch more kind and
empathic, that would help.
- Blake Nill, who is the head coach of the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds football team, agrees with the cancellations of the fall sports seasons announced by U Sports, the Canada West Conference, Atlantic University Sport and Ontario University Athletics that were announced on Monday. Nill told J.J. Adams of Postmedia for a Tuesday article, “Ultimately, universities have to provide leadership. They have to set an example. And this is absolutely about that.” Adams’s story can be found by clicking right here.
- On Thursday, multiple media reports out of Regina stated late University of Saskatchewan Huskies football team running back Samwel Uko tried to seek help for mental health issues from a Regina hospital twice on May 21, which was the day he died. The 20-year-old died of an apparent suicide by walking into Wascana Lake. Overall, this is just a horrible thing to hear about.
- Gregg Drinnan, who was the best ever when it came to covering the WHL, posted a lengthy column on his Taking Note blog on Friday about the various difficulties the sports world is encountering with the COVID-19 pandemic. That piece can be found by clicking right here.
- A year ago today on June 13, 2019, the Toronto Raptors downed the Golden State Warriors 114-110 in Game 6 of the NBA Finals at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif. With the win, the Raptors took the best-of-seven series 4-2 to capture the first NBA title. There were huge watch parties across Canada including in downtown Saskatoon to view that win. Right now, there are likely a lot of people in the country who would want to go back to that moment.
- On the uplifting front, big congratulations go out to Muenster, Sask., product Logan Hofmann. On Thursday, the 20-year-old right-handed pitcher was selected in the fifth round and 138th overall by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the MLB Draft. Hofmann played this past season with the Northwestern State University Demons baseball team in the NCAA Division I ranks. With the Demons in a shortened season, Hofmann pitched 28 innings without allowing an earned run. He won all four of his starts striking out 38 batters earning second-team all-American honours. Hofmann will turn up from time to time to train at the Gordie Howe Sports Complex here in Saskatoon.
If you have any
comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them
to stankssports@gmail.com.
-------
If you like what you
see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like
this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the
DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for
stopping in.
