Best to hold off with late starts and season
creeps in sports
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| All happy after getting my second COVID-19 vaccine shot on Friday. |
As re-openings are in full swing from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has gripped the world, it feels like things on the winter sports scene are going to get off to later starts. Due to those later starts, those seasons are going to finish later and there will be major season creeps with seasons that start in the spring and summer of 2022.
In sports, those formulating the schedules only worry about what is happening in their own sports worlds and don’t look to how their sports world will interact with other sports worlds. That is just how things have always worked.
If you have you feet stuck in a few different sports worlds, things could get busy in a hurry.
At the moment, the CJFL’s Prairie Football Conference, which contains the venerable Saskatoon Hilltops, is set to start August 22, which is about only a week later than a normal start. The Canadian Bowl is scheduled for December 4, which is about three weeks later than normal.
The WHL regular season is pegged to start October 1 and run through to April 3, 2022. Playoffs are slated to start on April 8, 2022.
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| Out enjoying a Starbuck drink to break up a bike ride in mid-June. |
In U Sports, I’ve usually covered football and hockey on a regular basis focusing on the University of Saskatchewan Huskies. Football is slated to start September 25, which is about four weeks later than normal.
The shortened hockey seasons on both the men’s and women’s sides are set to start on October 15, which is about two weeks later than normal.
A schedule isn’t out yet from the Saskatchewan Female Under-18 AAA Hockey League, and I’ve done a lot of work on that circuit over the years.
The Saskatoon Valkyries of the WWCFL will have an abbreviated three-game series against the Regina Riot this month, but the circuit won’t embark on a full out campaign.
With all the late starts and the wonky schedules coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, I believe it is best to avoid getting going with a full head of steam too early. It appears there will be lots of opportunity for things to get busy.
I admit I have missed things. For example, I’ve gone through a number of stages where I’ve missed my buds on the major junior hockey beat.
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| I’ve missed the fun on the WHL circuit. |
Looking back, I can’t believe how fast the past month flew by.
On the work front, I focused on tasks as the communications coordinator for the Gordie Howe Sports Complex and was pretty proud of the June pieces I created for the Howe Happening blog and the pieces I am currently working on for July 9.
Away from the Complex, it seems like I haven’t been able to accomplish much, or it has taken forever to do simple things.
I got some maintenance done on my car that needed to be done. The crew at OK Tire on North Circle Drive did a tremendous as my car takes off like a shot now when I touch the gas.
I received my second Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine shot on Friday and will soon be classified as fully immunized.
Similar to when I received the first shot, my arm that took the shot hurts today, and I am dragging with fatigue. It is actually taking quite an effort to get this blog post done.
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| I won’t be at Roughriders home games in 2021 due to family commitments. |
In order to ensure I have time set aside to deal with that wedding coming up, I’ve already decided I won’t be attending any Saskatchewan Roughriders CFL home games this year as a ticket buyer. The only way I will end up at one of their games in 2021 is if it happens to be in a work capacity.
I enjoy going to those games, but with a big wedding on the horizon and this being the first CFL season coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is best to not spend time stressing over going to CFL games.
When I do come back, I am not exactly sure what I will be covering. It depends what leagues will allow media outlets to do coming out of the pandemic and if interviews will continue to be a run of conferences on Zoom.
Due to pressures in the personal life, I feel like I am going to have to make a decision at some time to focus on just covering either football or hockey.
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| A Brayden Point card. |
In order to be involved in sports, you truly have to want to be there.
You are not going to get rich financially covering sports in Canada, and you might even encounter times you have trouble paying your own bills.
Social media platforms also keep changing algorithms making it hard to see posts from independent creators. You do have to get in the habit of asking readers to like and share posts, which is common with sites that cover the sports entertainment version of professional wrestling.
Anyways, all of that will be what it will be as we transition out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Also as far as being off this blog goes, there are still other things I want to get done that I haven’t got done like getting some collectibles I have stored in the basement listed for sale online.
I do have an itch where I wouldn’t mind putting together a column on the Stanley Cup Final, which the Tampa Bay Lightning lead the Montreal Canadiens 3-0 in that best-of-seven series. Centre Brayden Point, who is an alumnus of the WHL’s Moose Jaw Warriors, has had a second straight sensational NHL playoff season with the Lightning posting 14 goals, nine assists and a plus-seven rating in 21 games in the current post-season.
Basically, Montreal had a good Cinderella run, but Tampa Bay’s overall depth was just too strong, and the Lightning know how to win after capturing the Stanley Cup for the second time in team history last year.
I don’t expect a miracle comeback by Les Canadiens.
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| Alexa Bliss has great merchandise like this T-shirt. |
It has felt so cleansing to avoid most of the toxic crap on those lines. Most of my interactions there over the past month have been more on the “rainbows” and “unicorns” positivity front.
In a weird twist, the positivity includes following Alexa Bliss’s dark character persona in WWE, which has been quite enjoyable. I’ve also smiled a tonne watching Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada’s own Chris Jericho be classic Chris Jericho in AEW.
I’ve rocked his theme song “Judas” quite a bit.
Anyways, I am out of here again for now.
But, it is inevitable.
I will be back.
Could memorials help at former residential schools?
I am not totally sure how to approach this one, so I just want to say I have an idea I want to be heard out on.
Way back when I was getting my degree in Journalism and Communications at the University of Regina, I also took a number of history courses. I actually got to the point where I was five history classes short of completing a history major at the time I graduated.
From those history studies, I haven’t been surprised at the discoveries of unmarked graves outside of residential schools that once housed Indigenous students. Residential schools were used with the intention to assimilate Indigenous students to Canada’s Caucasian culture.
Some of these schools can be traced back to the early 1800s long before Canada became a country with Confederation on July 1, 1867. Some of those schools ran to the middle of the 1990s.
Over the past six weeks, Canada as a country by discoveries of unmarked graves at former residential schools. Three big discoveries have made major news.
The first major discovery came in late May at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School at the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation in Kamloops, B.C., where ground penetrating radar found the remains of 215 children in preliminary findings.
On June 24, the Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan announced a preliminary finding of 751 unmarked graves at a cemetery near the former Marieval Indian Residential School.
On Wednesday, there were preliminary findings of 182 unmark graves close to the former St. Eugene’s Mission School near Cranbrook, B.C. The Indigenous community of ʔaq̓am conducted the investigation on that front.
Unfortunately, it appears we are only at the beginning of these discoveries.
In discussing the discoveries with a long time family friend going back to the high school days of my late father, Dan Steinke, an idea came up that could be possibly floated to the powers that be at an appropriate time to possibly help with the healing process.
We thought maybe a Memorial Gardens could be set up at each of the former residential schools, where unmarked graves were discovered.
The idea came from thinking about the Canadian National Vimy Memorial located in Givenchy-en-Gohelle, Pas de Calais, France. It is located at the site of Canada’s victory of the Battle of Vimy Ridge in the First World War.
The Memorial bears the names of the Canadian soldiers who died in France with no known grave. It is site that can be visited and reflection can occur.
At the former residential school sites where unmarked graves were discovered, Memorial Gardens could be set up where visitors, Indigenous and others, could visit. Crosses could be set up for each person who was lost or a monument could be built.
Benches could be provided at those gardens to allow people a place to sit to reflect on the healing that needs to take place.
Something similar has already occurred at the Cowessess First Nation on the night of June 26, where a vigil was held for the discovery at the former Marieval Indian Residential School. For the vigil, 751 solar lamps were placed on each of the unmarked graves.
If it was agreeable to the powers that be, maybe you could make something like those lamps a permanent memorial.
As I said, the idea of Memorial Gardens is just something I am throwing out. I also realize I am a middle aged Caucasian male, so it would be easy to discount any well intentioned idea on this subject.
I can’t comprehend the work that needs to be done regarding truth and reconciliation with Indigenous peoples in Canada.
I admit I don’t feel right saying anything on this front. I always fear the hope of a well-intended suggestion will be spun the wrong way coming from someone with my cultural background.
I am sure there are people out there that persons of my cultural background shouldn’t say anything on this subject or suggest a course of action at all. To be honest, I have no power at all to make decisions on this subject.
I just hope those in charge will eventually be able to find ways to move forward in the healing process.
If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.
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