Winter Season - Return to Train Announcement

January 15, 2021

Re: Winter Season Return to Train

Dear SYSI coaches, players, and parents:

After cancellation of the remainder of the Fall Season on Nov 27, 2020 as per government health orders, our youth are looking forward to getting back to the pitch and honing their skills! We couldn’t be more relieved to have 2020 behind us but we’re not out of the pandemic woods quite yet. Current government health order restrictions are still in place preventing league play and have been extended until Jan 29. To prepare for the high possibility of extended restrictions, SYSI will be commencing the Winter Season on Sat Jan 16 with training. Most recently we were informed by Sask Soccer that government officials shared with all provincial sport governing bodies that there will be no consideration to game play for the next four weeks and that the likelihood of games returning before the end of March was bleak. 

As for now the following plan is in place for the remainder of January:

Scheduled Games from Jan 16-31, 2021 shall be Training Sessions: Game times will be utilized as training sessions by those groups who are already scheduled. For U11-U19, the home group will utilize one half and the away group will utilize the other half for the full one hour duration. All U7-U19 Zone practices will be handled in the same manner. The U7-U9 Zone games are now to be utilized as training sessions with the Home Team utilizing the full hour. The U5-U9 Community games shall now be utilized as practices and the hour has been split into two 30 minute training sessions with the first half hour designated to the Home Team and the second half hour designated to the Away Team. There will be portable field barriers in place at SSC separating the quarter field into two playing surfaces and tarps have been added to the curtain separating the fields at SKHRSC. Each group shall remain in their designated playing area and abide by the Re-Open Saskatchewan Plan - Sports and Activities Guidelines listed below. The group size of 8 shall not be exceeded and there cannot be additional players on the bench or off the field rotating or subbing onto the pitch. 

Re-Open Saskatchewan Plan - Sports and Activities Guidelines - Conditioning, Training and Individual Competition:

Athletes and performers 18 years of age and under may continue conditioning and skills training in groups of eight or fewer, abiding by the required mask use and at least three metres of physical distancing between participants at all times.

• Individual groups of eight may not share a training/rehearsal surface or space at the same time.
• Coaches /trainers are not included in the training group numbers as long as they are masked and maintain a minimum physical distance of three metres.

SYSI will be meeting with our Zones in the next week to evaluate whether further games beyond Jan 31, 2021 will be utilized for training. At present time, our number one priority is to continue offering a safe environment for our youth to once again experience the many benefits our sport brings to their social, mental, and physical well-being. SYSI and the Saskatoon Soccer Centres Inc. will continue to follow all stringent health authority COVID cleaning protocols and mandatory mask wearing in the facilities.

CLICK HERE for soccer centre procedures for training during the current government restrictions.


Sincerely,

Saskatoon Youth Soccer Inc.