By Jeff Gard Total Sports Media
Plans are in place to get soccer players back on the fields in Belleville this summer.
Registration is now open for the Belleville Soccer Club’s 2021 Recreational House League Program and will continue until May 16. The season is expected to start the second week of June, which is well after the current provincial stay-at-home order concludes.
“Our registration is going ahead as planned,” said the club’s head administrator Jordan McConnell. “We’re optimistic that our health district can turn things around quickly so once this lockdown is done our anticipated start date in the beginning of June hopefully should still be good to go.”
A regular season would have more than 1,000 youth soccer players. Space is more limited this year in each age group and players must be a resident within the Hastings Prince Edward Public Health district to be eligible.
Belleville Soccer Club has its extensive Return to Play plan available at www.bellevillesoccerclub.ca.
As part of their teams, players will be in groupings of 50, which may not seem a lot different for the club’s younger players.
McConnell said “50 can only be in one group and they can only play each other and the other 50 would be separate in their own group and they can only play amongst each other for the summer.”
One big change is asking that only one parent accompany their child “when normally sometimes it’s a big family event so unfortunately limiting the amount of spectators around the field,” McConnell said, adding there will be plenty of hand sanitizing and coaches will be required to keep track of player attendance and contacts of who is at the field each session.
“For the kids, they might not see a whole lot different, but administratively for the coaches and the club there’s a lot more background to everything,” she said. “I’m okay with that as long as the kids are having fun.”
Older divisions may have to play with smaller rosters in an effort to fit enough teams within the 50-player groupings.
“Otherwise you only play the same kids every week based on the bubbles or you have to take 14 days off to then play another grouping of 50,” McConnell said.
There is hope for a competitive season for rep teams, but the rosters will be based off of those formed last year. Anyone interested in rep and not currently on a team should contact the club to be introduced to the respective coach and see if an opportunity is available.
Teams play in the Southeastern Ontario Soccer Association, which covers three health unit districts and all will be required to be a green, yellow or orange zone, not red. It’s unknown at this time if Belleville would be allowed to host games due to Hastings Prince Edward Public Health regulations.
Belleville Soccer Club is also offering a development program for players who have played in the recreational program, but are considering rep.
“Any kids that are interested in potentially streaming into the development/rep program, aside from house league, they would have to pick one or the other, there is a training program we’re providing and it’s going to be run by a licensed coach and it’s two sessions a week,” McConnell said. “It includes a lot of skill development and there will be scrimmages and game-like situations. Everything we run is going to be in alignment with all the Return to Play safety protocols.
For more information please visit www.bellevillesoccerclub.ca.