By: Simran Sarai, Sports Writer
It’s been a season full of schedule changes for the SFU football team. In August, four of their initially scheduled home games were moved to Blaine, Washington, due to COVID-19 border restrictions that prevented non-vaccinated players from travelling into Canada. On October 13, over a week after COVID-19 travel restrictions were lifted in Canada, SFU football athletes, coaches, and fans received news that two of their games would be moved back to Burnaby Mountain.
COVID-19 first began impacting international travel between Canada and the US on March 20, 2020, when non-essential travel was restricted to contain the spread of the pandemic. Non-essential travel across the Canada-US border resumed on August 9, 2021, after the Canadian government allowed fully-vaccinated Americans to cross into Canada. Prior to the removal of COVID-19 border restrictions, travellers were required to use ArriveCAN to provide proof of vaccination.
In an interview with The Peak, Theresa Hanson, Senior Director, Athletics and Recreation spoke about how the decision to move games back to Terry Fox Field was made. While the COVID-19 border restrictions were rescinded on October 1, the process to move some of SFU’s games back to Burnaby took “about a couple of weeks, [and] various contractual obligations, coordination, and collaboration with all parties was necessary.” Parties included the Lone Star Conference, and the other teams besides SFU that make up the division.
When asked how the process of communicating the various schedule changes had gone with players and coaches, Hanson answered, “Everyone was thrilled to be able to bring these games back to SFU Stadium, and enable our student-athletes to compete in front of our fans and SFU community,” including “seniors and captains who have endured so much during the global pandemic,” and will be “recognized on senior’s night here at home.”
According to Hanson, each team in the Lone Star Conference is obligated to follow their region’s COVID-19 mandates. Because testing is no longer required in BC, no testing measurements will be used at SFU’s home games. Instead, SFU is asking student athletes who “are unwell to stay home and away from others until they [feel] well.” It’s unclear whether or not additional measurements will be put into place for fans.
In spite of the homecoming, the schedule changes stemming from accommodating unvaccinated Lone Star teams has led to at least one person expressing their anger towards Commissioner Jay Poerner. This was evidenced by posters seen in SFU’s West Parkade Saturday evening.
SFU sophomore offensive lineman, Maliq Washington, shared his thoughts on the vaccination status of Lone Star Conference athletes impacting the 2022 season schedule. “The teams or players that did not want to [vaccinate] are sending us a message of disrespect, which is not taken lightly. But that sort of message just makes us hungrier to compete each game,” said Washington. He also felt the communication from administration to the team about schedule changes “could [have been] more fluent,” especially regarding “changes that impact how [they] play football.” The Peak reached out to two more athletes but did not receive a response by the publication deadline.
Head coach Mike Rigell knows there is no place like home after being on the road for the last four games. “We are very excited and happy the home games are back on campus. Burnaby Mountain is a special place to play games at,” he said.
SFU will now be back at home to play West Texas A&M on November 12, in addition to their Shrum Bowl matchup against the University of British Columbia on December 2. They lost their first rescheduled home game against Western New Mexico on Oct 22.
