Heavy smoke postpones TRU men’s soccer season-opener on Saturday

The plan right now is to push the Saturday games to Monday with classes still not in session. TRU and other schools are taking it one game at a time.

“We all want to find a way to get the games in, so we were a little reluctant to pull the trigger on Sunday right now, knowing teams wouldn’t have to travel yet,” noted Atkinson. “Cancelling or postponing Saturday gave us a little bit of flexibility to do that now and assess it day by day.”

The WolfPack says postponing the one game won’t have a major impact on operations. But the head coach of the women’s soccer team Kelly Shantz says the smoke has affected training and the student-athlete experience leading up to their Sept. 8 season-opener in Kamloops.

“You have a short window as a young athlete to play at a high level and go to a university and fulfill your dreams,” said Shantz. “We’ll forget about the league, we’ll forget about the smoke, we’ll about the wins and losses, we’ll forget about the competition. But these girls have, like the men’s soccer team, they’ve left jobs, they’ve left family. They’ve come here in August, given up half their summer to pursue their dreams. I almost feel they’re getting cheated by the experience.”

TRU is in the process of reaching out to officials for a potential game on Monday. Atkinson says if the smoke continues, permanent cancellation of games is a real option. The WolfPack are also looking ahead to next weekend when the men’s team plays UBC Okanagan.

“We haven’t gotten there, the following weekend yet, although it’s on all of our minds. We’re just trying to deal with this weekend now,” he said. “But the reality is, this may not go away in the Interior in the next week or so, so we are going to have to have this conversation. We’ll have it with UBCO.”

by Chad Klassen

Heavy smoke postpones TRU men’s soccer season-opener on Saturday

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