The high school football season may be going ahead as planned this week despite the current labour dispute but the same may not be said for other school sports.
Dave Jones, coach of the Dr. Charles Best secondary school's soccer team and Fraser Valley Zone league contact, said on Tuesday it is unlikely there will be a season if the strike drags into the fall.
"We are on hold until the strike is over," he said. "We are hoping for a quick settlement."
On Wednesday, The Tri-City News reported that the Terry Fox Ravens senior football team has been preparing for the upcoming season and the Centennial Centaurs are scheduled to play a game this evening (Friday) against the New Westminster Hyacks.
The news came as a surprise to Coquitlam Teachers' Association president Charley King, who said Tuesday that "running teams right now is absolutely the wrong priority."
BC School Sports, the association that oversees all high school athletics, has stated that it is up to individual coaches and schools to decide whether to move forward with their programs during the labour dispute. It stipulates that teams must respect picket lines and coaches should hold practices off school grounds or after hours.
Because the high school soccer season starts later than football - some grid teams have been practising since late August - Jones said most coaches are taking a wait-and-see approach.
If a surprise settlement were to come, he believes it would not take long to get the season back on track.
"Everything is in place as far as the schedule goes," he said. "Year to year, it is virtually the same."
Indoor sports like volleyball, which is played in the fall, will also have difficulty getting seasons underway should the job action continue.
Bryan Gee, a coach at Riverside secondary in Port Coquitlam, said he could only speak for his school but said no volleyball practices are currently taking place. Should the labour dispute continue, he said he believes the season will be cancelled.
"There may still be a schedule that is adapted if the job action ends with enough time to run a season," he said in an email. "My general feeling across the district is that due to the job action, most schools will not be practising or competing until the job action is resolved."
Despite the labour dispute, some public schools are still fielding teams in a variety of sports, according to BC School Sports' executive director, Christine Bradstock. She added that some clubs are being run by community volunteers but said often, unionized teachers are still coaching their squads.
"As in any normal school year, it is up to the school and the district whether they want to field a team," she said. "It is up to our volunteers to decide whether they want to coach and assist."
According to statistics from BC School Sports, there are 37,000 student athletes participating in sports during the fall season. Approximately half of the coaches are community volunteers while the other half are unionized teachers.
