ViaSport – PARADIGM Sports

How BC is returning to Sport – Phase III

Posted September 2, 2020January 27, 2022 Glen MulcahyPosted in Athlete, Coach, COVID-19, Officials, Organization Executive, Parents

Since we entered the COVID-19 Era, I have had a number of conversations with various youth sports groups regarding the confusion regarding all of the return to play protocols as various provinces go thru their various stages of returning to play.

Our home province, British Columbia, has recently announced that we are now in Phase III thanks to the amazing work that our PHO and Dr. Bonnie Henry have done since COVID-19 lead to shutting down Sports and numerous other sectors.

Although I am excited that we will see sports ramping up this fall, based on recent conversations since I have had with a few user groups I felt best to share what the phase means in terms of returning back to Sport as some are inferring that it literally is GAME ON, meaning, we are good to return back to pre-COVID era and we are still a ways from that being the case.

Below is a summary of all phases of the proposed return to sport plan as a summary for user groups to reference;

What has not changed from prior phases is;

Personal Hygiene – washing hands regularly and using disinfectant
Social Distancing required in common areas like benches, dugouts, dressing rooms, lobbies and entrances (masks in those areas is also recommended)
Maximum gatherings of 50 to include spectators
Symptom Screening before every activity
Contact/Participant tracking

What has been eased up in terms of restrictions;

Cohort groups identified by risk of sports can be anywhere from 10-100
Contact within those cohort groups is now permitted
Competition or games can now be played (adhering to revised protocols)
High Performance training with limited travel

In terms of the actual sizes of cohort groups, as this will vary across a myriad of over 70 sports in BC alone, confirm with your PSO and refer to updated return to play quidelines, a recent example included Basketball BC’s HERE

Lowest risk of Contact – i.e. Archery, Tennis, skiing, golf – Up to 100
Higher risk of contact – Baseball, Cricket, Soccer – Up to 50
Frequent/Sustained Contact Sports – Football, Rugby, Hockey – Up to 50
Combative Sports – Martial Arts, Boxing – Max 10 per cohort

NOTE: Cohort groups includes spectators which are immediate family members only to be considered part of the cohort. Coaches and officials can be counted outside the total cohort number IF they are able to maintain physical distancing at all times.

To determine where your sport falls in terms of the size of cohort groups permitted, reach out to your PSO/RSO for confirmation as it is not a one size fits all approach, each sport will have different guidelines based on their evolving return to play plan and facilities being used.

A couple of examples that I can share with you how user groups implemented to limit COVID-19 exposure and reduce risk to participants (players, coaches and others)

My niece recently flew to Montreal for her first year to play for McGill’s Women’s Varsity Hockey Team. She will be staying in dorm rooms in a converted hotel that McGill purchased and renovated for dorm housing with her own bathroom and common areas for kitchen for cohorts to use only. Similar to the NHL bubble, they will not interact with others out of their cohorts

Her season will start with skills development sessions only, and will find out this week as Quebec enters into their next phase and she shared the original plan for competitive games is for McGill to play Concordia and Ottawa’s USports teams to be within a short travel distance but no travel will be permitted to USA or other provinces until a later date.

Although she will be able to be part of the team for various activities, all of her courses, like all the other students will be done online until further notice, like most other universities at least for this fall.

The second would be easing of instructions for minor hockey associations, the first of which that re-opened its doors with strict COVID-19 protocols was Burnaby Winter Club BWC) in May which we shared Returning Back to Play – Phase II where they took the biggest risk as the first out of the gate but to date no positive COVID-19 cases have been reported months later.

Now all other minor hockey associations in the lower mainland are slowly but surely returning back to the ice with various camps, skills sessions with limited number of skaters and coaches on the ice and aspire to return back to 5 on 5 hockey this coming season.

Ironically in July I had a coach who attended many of the workshops that I ran last year for one of those associations reached out to me if I felt it would be safe for him and his son to return to play and I shared all the work that was being done to ensure that it would be safe, but it would be different at least in the immediate short term.

When ViaSport and our provincial health authority announced that we would be entering phase III, I was excited but at the same time a little weary due to the fact that I have also connected with colleagues in the US, Europe and Australia who have shared how far out they are from returning to sport.

One recent example was a conversation that I had with one of our speakers for our Summer Summit, Rosemary Morris, the first female official of men’s elite basketball in Australia and she stated that they were in full lock-down due to the explosion of COVID-19 cases in recent weeks.

This included;

Curfew where all residents had to be in their homes from 8PM to 7AM the following day
Only 1 hour of outside time for physical activity, exercises
No retail shopping except essential services (grocery, pharmacy and of course alcohol)
Full cancellation of all sports programming until further notice
Police and Militia enforcement to ensure people follow the lock-down requirements

This right around the time when the Big 10, Pac12, CFL and various other professional, collegiate, school and youth sports cancelled all fall sports programming in Canada, US and abroad to curve the spread of COVID-19.

This is not to say that I am beyond excited that kids in BC, in particular the Vancouver area where I reside, will have the opportunity to return back to playing the sports they love, being with the coaches, team mates and working up a sweat with huge smiles on their faces while they do so.

I just want to make sure that we don’t go to the other extreme as we have seen in many US states who recognized the importance of kids playing youth sports but did not do so in phases adhering to various return to play protocols.

Recently the CDC, like ViaSport has identified various groupings of sport based on risk assessments per the image below

Phase III does permit cohort groups of competition within teams in your area but does not permit tournament play requiring travel to other areas.

Masks, sanitizer, and ultimately participating outdoors are the main recommendations to flatten the curve of COVID-19

Sadly COVID-19 has forced our hand to go down the path of implementing cohorts or bubble environments to limit the interaction and potentially the spread of COVID-19 but as the NHL has shown, if bubble is maintained, it does permit sports to be played.

According to ViaSport, the term cohort is “a group of participants who primarily interact with each other within the sport environment over an extended period of time.”

Similar to the Bubble concept that has been implemented by professional sports like the NHL, NBA once kids are identified for their cohorts they are not permitted to interact with ones that are in other cohort groups and same holds true for coaches, officials if they become members of a cohort (exception being if they can maintain physical distancing then could coach other sports with other cohorts)

However, as the MLB who has not implemented a bubble model like the NHL/NBA/MLS have has shown, the chances of transmission of COVID-19 is much higher even though baseball is one of the sports identified by youth sports groups as being lower risk as by its natures participants are much farther apart then other team sports.

It also does not help when they had a couple of pitchers on one team that went partying in Chicago increasing their exposure, their team mates and potentially others teams they are playing against … but I digress.

The end result is for the foreseeable future, the cohort and or bubble model is necessary for us until such time that there is a vaccine or other treatment protocols for COVID-19 but by doing so, it will permit kids to play what they love, coaches do what they love to do and all other stakeholders return back to the fields, courts, fields and other playing surfaces so we can “Play for the love of the game”

In addition to the new Phase III guidelines, please ensure that you continue to follow health authority, organization and league safety protocols until such time that we do enter phase IV when large gatherings can take place as they had pre-Covid.

Returning Back to Play – Phase II

Posted June 4, 2020January 27, 2022 Glen MulcahyPosted in Athlete, Coach, Officials, Organization Executive, Parents

After a 2+ month quarantine period, many provinces, states and countries are starting to ease up on the physical distancing measures implemented to ensure that we flatten the curve of COVID19.

In phase I, we have seen restaurants, hair salons, non-essential retail, hotels and other services return with various safety guidelines to ensure that we continue to flatten the curve of COVID19 but slowly return to a sense of normalcy.

The sector that we are involved with is one that I am most excited in seeing work on return to play protocols, youth sports.

What I have found over the last couple of months during the hiatus, however, is the overall direction provided from national authorities and the trickle down effect from national, to provincial (or state), to municipal levels and literally every organization I have talked to saying they are waiting to see what their respective governing bodies provide in terms of guidelines so they can start the process of having their members return to play.

The first of the most anticipated documents that all sports groups in British Columbia (our home province in Canada) were waiting for was the guidelines for ViaSport, the provincial governing body under new leadership and legacy from the 2010 Winter Olympics held in Vancouver/Whistler.

The link to the guidelines has now been released, click on the image below to download a copy for reference.

The 35-page document outlines a generic return to play guidelines for all provincial sports organizations to then create their own guidelines to then in turn provide to their local organizations to the same.

Note that ViaSport is requiring that level has their own return to play guidelines, board members review/approve before are provided to their memberships.

I.e. First The National Sport Organization, then Provincial, then Regional (if applicable) and lastly local sports organizations.

The document was released June 1^st, so it will take weeks for the various levels to prepare their own set of return to play guidelines to minimize the risk of the further spread of the COVID19 virus.

Yesterday I attended a webinar that was hosted one of my colleagues in Alberta, Lea Weins a Quality Sport Consultant in Alberta, outlining the project they undertook in various communities in Alberta identifying what quality sport would look like which now will look different as a result of the various health and governing guidelines

What I found interesting was a poll of the attendees from various sports organizations highlighted what I suspected, almost all (97%) stated that their were looking for clear guidelines and timelines to return back to activity. Almost half were looking for assistance to mitigate risk as well as sanitization/cleaning support to ensure the safety of participants.

Source: Alberta Quality Sport Webinar June 2, 2020

This theme is consistent regardless of what sports organization I have talked to in recent weeks and I came across a survey that was done for Project Play By North Carolina and Utah universities of over 1000 youth sports parents in the USA

When asked how comfortable they were with their kids returning to sports 49.5% of parents are afraid of their kids getting sick if sport resumes and just shy of 46% stated they are afraid of getting sick if their child returns to sport!

When parents were asked of their comfort level for their kids returning to various types of sport, over 70% were comfortable for their kids to return to pickup sports (AKA Free Play) and only 50% for what was the pay to play model pre-covid in terms of travel/elite club league sports.

In literally every webinar, Zoom or phone call I have had for over a month the one thing that was consistent was the LACK of consistency but it is due to the fact that every sport has their own challenges how they will return to play, some are low risk (i.e. archery) vs. higher risk team contact sports (rugby) how they can modify their practice sessions initially to adhere to physically distancing requirements.

Below is a chart prepared outlining the various phases for sport activity (also prepared by ViaSport)

Phase I – State of Emergency Quarantine Period (March 13- May 18^th)

Phase II – the phase we (and others are about to enter)

Notice the bare minimum requirements regardless of the sport

Physical Distancing (6’/2m) must still be adhered to
Increased Hand Hygiene (washing hands for 20 seconds regularly)
Outdoor participation is safest … indoor facilities (gyms, pools, rinks) slowly reopening
Small Groups, no or limited spectators, focus on fundamental movement skills
NO Contact activities which will require contact sports like Rugby, Football, Hockey to revamp programming but also many others like basketball, soccer to ensure adhere to physical distancing
Minimal shared equipment and must be disinfected frequently

Phase III/IV are still a ways away so in the short term (at least until September 1^st projected for Phase III), any spring programs/summer camps will have to improvise, adapt and overcome to meet the COVID19 phase II guidelines.

Here are some of the challenges that are holding back sports organizations from shifting to phase II

Insurance Requirements and if a pandemic/contagion exclusion is needed
Updates to Player Participation/Waivers to include COVID19 disclaimer (i.e. that organizations are not to be found liable if participants test positive for COVID19)
Facility Rental – Who is going to bear the costs (product and payroll) to ensure that common areas, equipment is sanitized and if masks will be needed
Scheduling – to ensure minimize overlap of large groups for dropping off/pick up of participants
Spectators – Yes or No … if so how many?
Total Number of participants permitted (players, coaches, trainers, other)?
Will lower numbers make the business model viable?

I even had some ask about what others were doing in terms of tryouts, coach and team selection which I shared that was not even being considered, the goal was merely to get kids back out to their sports in the safest way possible, there are not going to be any competitive games in phase II from the all the sanctioned sports organizations I have talked to.

**As far as non-sanctioned sports that is another thing it itself, only time will tell if they also practice the DO NO HARM philosophy vs. ramping up games and tournaments before health authorities deem it safe for us to do so **

Why is there so much ambiguity, confusion?

Because even the experts are no longer experts when it comes to dealing with a pandemic like the novel coronavirus, which is why over and over again we are hearing the term unprecedented. Never in the course of human history has ALL sport been shut down, from professional to U-sport to high school and community sports.

The other challenge is there are many organizations leary of taking the risk of putting their toe in the water until someone else does so or they are given clear outlines from the higher-ups so to speak.

In sum, as health authorities have now deemed it safe for us to enter phase II, we shared in “What will the new Normal Be” how some organizations were returning to play starting with the infamous Mother’s Day Baseball tourney hosted in St. Louis that many felt was too much too soon.

I just checked my best friend Google to see if any other news had been shared since and to date there have been no reported cases of people that tested positive that participated in the event.

There have been a few others that have or are about to open their doors to return back to play implementing various safety measures to adhere to health authority guidelines.

Following the lead of Burnaby Winter Club who re-opened for bookings May 5^th with rigid safety protocols, now my the multi-sheet facility that I coached at for many years has re-opened after their parking lot was turned into a Hyundai new vehicle parking lot

I started to see cars being parked early part of April as I drove past the rink which I can only assume was a means to generate some revenue as the private facility did close its doors to adhere to the quarantine period.

Fast Forward to May 19^th, they also have opened up 2 of their 4 sheets of ice for skill development sessions like BWC according to Surrey Community staff member that shared during one of the many webinars I have done the last month.

Note – just in a few days the facility manager confirmed that 95% of their ice was booked!

Only 6 skaters are permitted on the ice with a skills instructor, dressing rooms and concession are closed, and there is a one way flow inside the arena

They also have been creative in terms of signage for spectators (only one per player permitted and for markings on the ice to ensure that players adhere to physical distancing, including expanding the goalie crease by 6’!

Once Soccer Canada, ViaSport reviewed BC Soccer released their return to play guidelines on June 3rd.

Click on the image for the guidelines shared with their members

They outline 3 return to play phases only so their phase I is what ViaSport is calling phase II (after the quarantine period)

The documents include guidelines for local organizations, sample sessions and timelines

The sample sessions do outline how fields can be utilized (outdoors) to ensure that number of attendees on the field at any one time does not exceed 50

Session Example of 10 players in group 1 with 2 coaches working on various soccer skills

There is no reference to competitive game play, only skill sessions which adheres to ViaSports and BC Health Authority Guidelines.

Still working on their return to play guidelines for clubs but one of their directors shared in webinar how they envision their return to play will be in three components;

#1 – Only singles play, no doubles or mixed doubles play will be permitted

This will be mandatory for U11 and U9 age groups to start which they believe will be a good thing for their overall sport so coaches can focus less on tactics and more on skill development until the players mature and players have the skills to execute tactics

This also will permit coaches to do more one on one coaching vs. group sessions where coach to player ratio was a high as 1:8

HMMMMM … where I have I shared that before???

#2 – No Spectators initially, only players and coaches will be permitted

#3 – They had already started looking at piloting but are going to roll out AIR Badminton (AKA outside badminton like kids have done in their yards for 2 months during quarantine)

This was initiated pre-COVID lockdown to provide another playing experience than indoor, similar to the Beach Volleyball concept

More examples will follow in the coming weeks as more organizations release their return to play guidelines but as the cliché goes, good always comes out of bad and as more and more sports ramp up for Phase II the challenges we faced pre-covid in terms of adult behavior in the stands/sidelines, focusing on winning at all costs will not be an issue we deal with.

Perhaps this also will be the much-needed catalyst for sports in North America to consider other youth sports development models that we have shared in past like Norway, Sweden and Iceland who don’t even have competitive games until kids acquire the skills to from 6-12 years of age and as a result have had huge success at the Olympic and International Levels as a result.

Only time will tell.

Let’s all work together to bring the game back to the kids.

Respect has to be a core value

Posted March 14, 2020January 27, 2022 Glen MulcahyPosted in Athlete, Coach, Early Sport Specialization, Organization Executive, Parents

For years I have been advocating for the importance of bringing back respect to youth sports and although I have seen a shift, and many organizations have done public service announcements, campaigns or signage when I come across various posts in social media or in print it just leaves my head spinning how much more work we have to do.

This past week we attended ViaSport’s International Women’s day event as we believe strongly in the importance of growing all levels of female participation of athletes, coaches, officials, board members, and various other leadership roles.

There were approximately 100 attendees for the event from various sports organizations in BC, which did include a small representation of he/him/his (including yours truly) and had a series of speakers reviewing the challenges to increase female and women’s (she/her/hers) participation within their various organizations.

In the afternoon, we went thru a Gender-Based Analysis Plus Workshop ran by Dr. Melanie Stewart from BC’s Provincial Gender Equity Office where she started off by highlighting some of the gender inequalities that still exist but the statistics that jumped out at me the most were gender-based Violence

In 2016/17 – 55% of sexual assault victims were females under 25 that were reported
More alarming, only 5% of sexual assaults are reported to police, and only 11% of those will lead to a conviction.

The reason these numbers jumped out at me to the extent they did was the fact that literally a year ago around the same time I attended another event sponsored by Via Sport, the BC Safe Sport Summit in response to the series of articles LY that Jamie Strashin and Lori Ward wrote for CBC that highlighted 222 coaches in Canada had been prosecuted sexually assaulting over 600 athletes from their late teens until mid ’20s.

If the 5% rule of thumb that are reported to police is, in fact, accurate, that means there could be over 10,000 athletes that were sexually assaulted the last 20 years in Canada!

As far as I am concerned, ONE is too many, we still have work to do to ensure sport is safe from all forms of harassment.

This just a week after I read an article highlighting the harassment towards a high school hockey player in Philadelphia, Alyssa Wruble, where a fan-created a sign challenging for her to declare her gender and number of the students from opposition school she was playing against chanting “she’s a dude”

In the morning address to all the attendees Mitzi Dean, the BC Parliamentary Secretary for Gender Equality shared a story about her 7-year-old daughter who played on a mixed hockey team with boys almost quit the game because the boys told her frequently that she did not belong on the team.

REALLY? Both examples were just a painful reminder that we still have so much work to do to change the culture in youth sports for the better and I believe one of the reasons is due to the lack of respect we have, yes we talk about it, but do we truly walk the walk?

The very definition of respect is:

re·spect

/rəˈspekt/

noun

#1- a feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements.

“the director had a lot of respect for Douglas as an actor”

#2 due regard for the feelings, wishes, rights, or traditions of others.

“young people’s lack of respect for their parents”

verb

admire (someone or something) deeply, as a result of their abilities, qualities, or achievements.

“she was respected by everyone she worked with”

With inclusivity being one of the hot topics and initiatives we discussed over the day as well as prior Women’s day and other events I have attended, one of the biggest issues that we still continue to face is the current culture of youth sports needs to change so youth sport is not only inclusive but the core value of respecting others so it becomes ingrained in all of our DNA’s.

Had it been a core value as part of the overall culture vs. highlighted on signage, public service announcements, or strategic initiatives still in the development phases Alyssa, Mitzi’s daughter all the other girls out there that aspire to play a game and may be forced to play with the boys as there are no programs in place for them for girls only teams would be respected and admired for their skills and abilities in lieu.

My niece is another one of those girls, who is a very skilled player and the only option was to play on boys teams who shared similar stories with me until she reached Bantam so had to move to play on and academy all-girls team (at a great expense to my in-laws for her to do so).

Fortunately, her love for the game never wavered like Hayley Wickenheiser and many other female trailblazers before her and she just received confirmation that she has been accepted to McGill and offered a spot on the Women’s Hockey Team starting next season.

Fortunately leaders in the space including Via Sport, Provincial and Federal Government, PSO NSO, and even professional sports are working towards programs to ensure we do keep moving the boulder up the mountain as the keynote speaker Charmaine Crooks (OLY, Order of Canada) used in her great keynote presentation so sport is inclusive, safe and sport can be a positive for all.

I can’t think of a better example of an initiative to ensure that respect does become part of our core values than the Hockey Declaration of Principles drafted by all the governing hockey associations worldwide in collaboration with the NHL released in Fall 2017.

We concur with the declaration of principals, not just for hockey, but sports are for everyone globally.

Sadly as each day passes while all sports are on hold to ensure the safety of all stakeholders as the world comes together to fight the spread of the Corona Virus I would be remiss not ending this post focusing on the importance of respect not acknowledging all the first responders and medical community who have come together as a global team to make the world safe again.

My utmost admiration to all of those that are doing so and let’s all work together to ensure that all those who love the game, whether it be young kids, teens or collegiate, professional athletes, and all the other stakeholders involved can return to the games they love when the medical community deems it safe to do so.