MONTREAL -- Quebec's university sports team won't be playing this fall, as athletic directors cite the current COVID-19 situation as too risky.
Concordia football head coach Brad Collinson, whose team would normally be in action already, said his team had “a lot of long faces” when he informed them there would be no season on Monday.
“They've been working hard since COVID with either virtual workouts and then when we got access to the field,” he said.
Collinson said there had always been hope that the situation would allow for football games.
“We didn't know what our schedule would look like but we were still planning accordingly and thinking 'Okay, our potential start date was here,'” he said. “We had a bunch of different scenarios going.”
Stephane Boudreau of the Quebec Student Sports Federation said an outbreak of COVID-19 would have jeopardized the rugby season as well.
“If something happens with a region, if a region goes to orange or red and you can't access that region, they can't leave that region so that complicates some things,” he said.
On Tuesday, Quebec upgraded the alert level of four regions, including Montreal, to yellow, one level below orange.
McGill head football coach Ronald Hilaire said he respect the decision and is already looking forward to next season.
“We'll be getting ready and getting bigger, faster, stronger so that we can have even more of an impact next year,” he said.
Boudreau said there is still some hope of having sports this year, with the season being pushed to the spring, though that comes with its own complications.
“The football field is used for soccer, is used for different activities, so how do we manage a spring season?” he said. “When do we start a spring season and when do we finish?”
