Camosun College volleyball coach Charles Parkinson says the repercussions from the cancellation of the 2020-21 Pacwest sports season, announced Wednesday, will have more effects on graduating Grade 12 high school athletes than it will on current college athletes.
鈥淚鈥檓 most concerned about that. I鈥檓 worried about a lost generation,鈥� said Parkinson, who has guided the Chargers to four Pacwest men鈥檚 titles in making six consecutive conference finals.
Current Pacwest athletes will not lose a season of eligibility, creating an expected logjam for incoming freshman athletes next September.
鈥淲ith no graduating athletes across the CCAA [Canadian Colleges Athletic Association] and U Sports, it鈥檚 going to be really tough for graduating Grade 12 athletes to find a place to play next year in post-secondary,鈥� said Parkinson.
鈥淭hey are in a real pickle and I worry about that,鈥� added the former national team player and Pan Am Games bronze medallist, who has provided the volleyball colour commentary for CBC at five Olympic Games.
The cancelled Pacwest seasons will affect eight colleges across sa国际传媒, including Camosun College and Vancouver Island University teams.
The VIU Mariners men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 soccer teams are both the defending Pacwest champions from 2019. VIU, also with heralded national results in basketball and volleyball, was the Pacwest鈥檚 top school last season in terms of results across all sports.
Camosun will be impacted in its five varsity sports, including men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 volleyball, men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 basketball and men鈥檚 golf.
鈥淚t鈥檚 disappointing, of course, but safety is the No. 1 concern,鈥� said Parkinson. 鈥淲e can control our own venues. But what we can鈥檛 control is the overnight travel and hotels and restaurants. And we would have been going into the Fraser Valley, where there are higher rates of transmission.鈥�
So it will be basically a practice season.
鈥淲e鈥檙e training five days a week, and our guys are still motivated, but we鈥檝e shifted our focus from game play to skill development,鈥� said Parkinson, also slated to coach Team sa国际传媒 in boys鈥� volleyball at the 2022 sa国际传媒 Summer Games in the Niagara Region.
