Two Oakville sports clubs have finally resumed operations by conducting training sessions with varying methods of administration.
It’s been over a month since Halton has entered Stage 3 of the province’s re-opening plan to fight COVID-19. Gatherings of 50 people indoors and 100 people outdoors are not permitted, albeit with physical distancing measures in place. Gyms and playgrounds are permitted to re-open, again, with physical distancing and appropriate health measures in place.
It’s had a massive impact on Oakville’s sports clubs and their facilities as well.
The Oakville Crusaders rugby club has re-opened registration for this season, with all club activities taking place at Crusaders Park. All age groups are permitted to return to the club, with training sessions taking place at different times throughout the day. All rugby activities will be in-house, meaning the only competition will be a house league system set up by the club.
“Everything this year is non-contact, so it’s going to be touch rugby,” said communications director Meagan Paul. “We’re going to run from now until, hopefully, November, basically when the snow flies. We’re going to get as many weeks in as we can before the winter.”
While touch rugby does not allow for the full rugby experience, it does allow people who are either returning from injury and/or who have never played the game before to quickly immerse themselves in a rugby environment.
Certain health and safety measures have been implemented by the Crusaders as outlined by Rugby Ontario. Before every training session, a participant (or their parent/guardian) must fill out what Rugby Ontario calls an “attestation form”, which contains general health questions similar to what has been seen in other forms prior to entering other public facilities such as restaurants or dentist offices. This is to help assist contract tracing in case a participant or someone in their household tests positive. Other measures include the closure of the clubhouse except for the washrooms, meaning players must arrive in full kit. Even within their own age groups, players are restricted to train in groups of 10 to reduce the exposure between players.
The Oakville Soccer Club has also resumed operations, albeit for players under the ages of 15 in an Open Development Program. Participants are split in two groups (U7-U10 and U11-U15), with both groups hitting the pitch on Friday evenings before school resumes next month. Players are not on a team and will not be participating in matches outside of scrimmages within their assigned groups.
“Currently, the guidelines allow up to 100 people in a space, but we’re being diligent and keeping much lower numbers,” said Katryna Indewey, Director of Marketing and Communications at OSC. “We very much want to walk before we run, taking it one step at a time; we don’t feel the need to max everything out right away. Everybody feels differently about the situation. We know that it differs from family to family and player to player, so we want to transition in a way that everyone can feel comfortable coming back to program and getting used to it.”
Unlike the Crusaders, the OSC has chosen not to hold sessions at their home pitches, with the program being held at Shell Park. Although registration is now closed, spaces were always limited to properly distance all on-pitch personnel. Contact tracing and health checks with everybody at every session are both being employed, and field marshals are present at every pitch, requiring players to sign in.
While restrictions are being loosened with fewer cases being reported, things can still go drastically wrong. An employee at a GoodLife Fitness gym in Brampton tested positive for COVID-19, forcing the abrupt closure of the gym from August 15 at 2PM to at least 6AM on August 18. This comes as cases are rising in people under the age of 40, and the province’s back-to-school plan has been widely criticized by educators and parents. Elsewhere in the world, countries in the Pacific like Australia, South Korea, New Zealand, and Japan are experiencing second waves of the coronavirus.
Although two long-time Oakville institutions are settling into the new normal, cautionary tales are being displayed across the GTA, the province, and the world. It’s great that sports are making a comeback in Oakville, but too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.