By Chad Klassen

Wolfpack supports new Canada West air quality policy

Aug 21, 2018 | 3:57 PM

KAMLOOPS — The smoke at Hillside Stadium has subsided, good news for the TRU men’s soccer team that is scheduled to open the season at home this weekend. 

“Right now it’s moving forward as planned that we’ll be playing Saturday against UFV, but we do have to watch it very closely,” said TRU Athletic Director Curtis Atkinson. 

The Canada West Universities Athletic Association announced a new policy on Monday for handling competition under smoky conditions. The conference approved recommendations that games should not go ahead if the air quality is a seven out of 10 or worse.

“I think the policy makes sense,” said Atkinson, who’s part of the board of directors that made the decision. “I’m not a medical expert. I’m a believer in deferring to the experts on those [decisions] and everything that I’ve heard from a medical perspective is [seven out of 10] is an appropriate number, so I certainly support that.”

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A seven out of 10 on the B.C. Air Quality Health Index is high. Environment Canada says the improved air quality in Kamloops, which sat at a moderate five out of 10 most of the day on Tuesday, will remain until Wednesday before the winds shift and potentially bring more smoke back later this week. 

In the wake of the Broncos’ junior football cancellation on Saturday, the Wolfpack is in communication with Fraser Valley and Trinity Western and will make a final decision on Friday whether to cancel games before the teams travel.

“There are four schools that are impacted – UFV, Trinity Western that are coming this weekend and playing UBCO and TRU,” said Atkinson. “We’ve been in contact with UBCO throughout and talking to their athletic director every day, and the league as well. The league obviously wants to hold off the best we can. In terms of integrity of schedule, we’d like to see it go forward if it can, but also knowing that the cutoff is [seven out of 10], we have to be cognizant of that and cognizant of the teams that are travelling.”

The Wolfpack have already been talking about alternative plans if the smoke returns to the point where it affects the weekend games. 

“We’re looking at possibly pushing it back a day to a Sunday-Monday instead of Saturday-Sunday if it looks like that will create some new opportunities,” noted Atkinson. “We originally talked about flipping games and going to the Lower Mainland, but as we’ve all seen it’s actually worse down there, so it appears to be off the table.”

Atkinson said any cancellation will compact the schedule even more and put stress on the players who would have to play more games in a shorter period of time.