Blazers, sporting organizations sound off about latest Interior-specific sports restrictions

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However, that reality has been dashed as quickly as a Logan Stankoven end-to-end rush. No competitive games in the B.C. Interior until the end of September, and in the Western Hockey League it affects the Rockets and Blazers.

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“We’re going to do our absolute best to stay positive. We’re going to do our absolute best to get a season in,” said Blazers head coach and GM Shaun Clouston.

The Blazers are taking it, as the old sports cliche goes, “day by day.” Their first home game is Oct. 9, but there’s no word how that game will be impacted.

The good news is the new restrictions won’t affect training camp that is set to begin Sept. 9.

“Even with where we’re at in Interior Health, we believe we’re going to be able to get through training camp,” noted Clouston. “We’re going to have some fitness testing, we’re going to have some practices, we’re going to have some scrimmages. Really looking forward to that. Really looking forward to working with the guys and getting on the ice.”

The group, including some Blazers, that trains with Matt Kolle will also be impacted. No more games, although Kolle says they can still scrimmage without referees and without officially keeping score.

The recent shutdown is just the latest in a series of sporting restrictions over the past 18 months.

“The new restrictions are pretty limiting again. It really gives you a bit of a feel of where things were at last year,” said Kolle, who’s also the GM of the Kamloops Storm. “For us right now, we’re going to do our best to navigate these waters and continue to move forward. We want to be progressive towards a season.”

Other sporting organization are impact harshly as well. The Men’s Major Fastpitch League in Kamloops, with only six weeks left in the schedule, is done.

“You don’t hear about a lot of transmission of COVID through a lot of these sports leagues,” noted men’s fastpitch president Adam Donnelly. “We’ve been told this whole time that being outside is safe. It’s a good way not to spread this virus — to be outside and enjoy what we have out here. You’re seeing it with all these other sports. They’re all looking for answers.”

There’s frustration all around, as teams and sports organizations try to predict what restrictions will be next.

“What is the end game? Where are leading to with this? Are we leading to a mid-September re-opening this up, dependent on vaccines?” said Kolle. “I think there could be more information out there that would help us plan and would help us be ahead of the game.”