WCSSAA cancels winter high school sports season

The Waterloo SJAM Highlanders play Kitchener Cameron Heights in boys' high school basketball on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011.

Not long after parents exhaled sighs of relief, learning that they’re unlikely to see their children’s classes cancelled by further teacher walkouts, a new disruption emerged.

The Waterloo County Secondary School Athletics Association announced Friday that all winter sports will see their seasons cancelled due to ongoing job action by teachers.

Affected sports include hockey, curling, boys’ basketball, girls’ volleyball and others.

Although some teachers are continuing to coach teams even as most boycott all extracurricular activities, WCCSAA president Darcy Mintz says there aren’t enough coaches breaking rank in any sport to put together a legitimate league.

“There are no WCCSAA scheduled sports moving forward at this time,” Mintz tells CTV.

Students say they’re upset with the decision, and with the loss of extracurricular activities in other areas of the school.

“A lot of my friends are on sports teams, they’ve been doing it since Grade 9 and they feel they’ve been missing out on something in school that they really liked,” says Allie Morton, a Grade 10 student at Forest Heights Collegiate in Kitchener.

Mintz says it’s too soon to make a determination on the spring WCSSAA season, which includes soccer, track and field and other sports.

“Some tough decisions are having to be made,” he says.

Most extracurricular activities, including sports, involve a cost to students at the beginning of the year. Mintz says he’s not sure whether students will be refunded for lost activities, but an announcement is expected from senior administration at some point.

Sports haven’t been played at WCSSAA schools since Dec. 4, and barring a quick resolution of the simmering tensions between teachers and the province, likely will remain dark for months to come.

Catholic students play in the District 8 Athletic Association, though the two groups team up for hockey and some other sports. D8 officials say they’re working on a plan to keep all sports going through the labour disruption.