Regina Minor Football forced to reschedule games due to thick smoke

While the smoke cleared out a bit for the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ game on Sunday, other football players in the province had to miss their games on the long weekend.

Regina Minor Football had to postpone all but one game scheduled for the holiday Monday, according to RMF executive director Len Antonini.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen the smoke that bad. It came in pretty thick,” Antonini said Tuesday, referring to the conditions he saw the day before.

He said RMF officials wanted to get the games in – a couple of teams had travelled in from Yorkton and hung around for a couple of hours hoping the smoke would clear out — but eventually the league just had to pull the plug.

“It stayed bad all day and we finally cancelled everything,” Antonini explained.

Environment and Climate Change Canada said the smoke over the weekend was coming from the wildfires in B.C. and the Northwest Territories. Conditions were expected to improve as a ridge of high pressure moved into the province.

RMF follows a relatively new Football Canada policy, which says that when the Air Quality Index is above a 10, the teams can’t play outside.

Antonini said some parents were frustrated Monday and thought the teams should play anyway. But he noted it’s about protecting the kids.

“We want to try to get the games in but we’ve got to be careful with following the rules as well,” he said. “I think people are a little more aware of things now, you know. I think after COVID, we’re kind of watching everything more.”

Since the pandemic, Antonini said if the league can play games, then the kids want to play. He said it was important in the first bit of the pandemic and Saskatchewan was lucky to be able to play when most of the country couldn’t.

“It gave the kids an opportunity to get out and play. We believe that it’s important for the kids to get out – especially that year, when the kids were basically locked up for three or four months,” he said.

Now, Antonini and the league will have to figure out how to reschedule the cancelled games in a two-month-long season while also following the rules around a three-day rest period between games.

“I was just picking up some more times from the city to make sure that we have enough time out at Leibel Field to play them,” he explained.