Thunder, Hilltops see season cancelled due to COVID-19

The Regina Thunder and Saskatoon Hilltops won’t be playing for a Canadian Junior Football League crown this season.

The league announced Thursday on Twitter it is cancelling the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The league stated it will focus on a return-to-play plan for 2021.

The CJFL includes the Prairie Football Conference, in which Regina and Saskatoon play.

Thunder head coach Scott MacAulay said he spoke to his team captains Wednesday night.

“I know these guys are pretty crushed right now but we as an organization need to stay optimistic and use this time off to get back with our family and friends and spend some time there,” MacAulay said. “I’m just really proud of our players and what’s happened since March when we had to shut things down.”

He said many of his players have been finding ways to work out and watch tape during all the uncertainty.

“There was a lot of ups and downs (during the off-season). There’s one week or one day where you feel like everything’s stopped and we’re going to have to shut everything down and then the next week you see the (Saskatchewan Health Authority) allowing contact sports so there’s a lot of optimism,” MacAulay said.

He said the message to his players is to get out and enjoy August with their family and friends.

MacAulay said there will be six fifth-year players who could be affected by the lost season but other players could be affected as well. He said some younger guys are finishing school and are going to start their careers, meaning they have to make a choice if they can balance football along with that.

An announcement hasn’t been made on if an additional year of eligibility will be granted.

“I know that in talking to some of the different coaches, we all want to make sure these guys have an opportunity to play out their fifth year,” MacAulay said.

“It’s important to us for these guys to have that opportunity. They’ve been around the team for the last four years and put their heart and soul into this and for some, this is going to be the last time they’re ever going to be able to play contact football and be a part of something special.”

Regina defensive lineman Jordan Tholl was to be entering his final year of junior football eligibility.

“I put a lot of time and effort into it thinking there is going to be a season and then you get it taken away from you. Hopefully our fifth-years get to keep going and play next year but that’s a long time to wait,” Tholl said.

Tholl was one of the players MacAulay met with on Wednesday.

“There’s a lot of anger behind it. We’re all 22-year-olds, we’re all young guys. Just let us play football. There doesn’t have to be fans in the crowd, just let the guys get together,” Tholl said.

Tholl said he could still play two years of U Sports football if he can’t play junior football. But he said there’s a lot of questions if a year of eligibility is added.

“If fifth-years get to play a sixth year, what does that mean for U Sports? Do you still get two years?” Tholl said.

The financial situations of leagues and teams have come to the forefront due to cancelled seasons from COVID-19.

MacAulay said the Thunder misses out on a lot of fundraising opportunities including its sports dinners, sponsorship and, if the CFL cancels its season, the amount of money the team gets from the Saskatchewan Roughriders to help run its program.

“We as an organization need to figure out how to handle that but I think we have a strong executive and they have a clear vision of what we need to do to move forward. I’m hoping that this time off and year off from the actual playing of the season is going to allow our organization to get better,” MacAulay said.

Hilltops have similar reaction

The Hilltops have been diligently working behind the scenes to organize any sort of football-related activities with government permission.

However, team president Chris Hegen-Braun admits a season cancellation was always looming.

“We’re definitely disappointed, but it’s probably something we’ve known has been coming for a while,” he said. “We’ve been trying to stave it off and figure out any way to play football this fall.

“It just came down to the fact there wasn’t going to be any interprovincial travel.”

Rylan Kleiter was hoping he would get one final kick at the can.

The fifth-year Hilltops kicker spends his winters as one of the top junior curlers in the province. Once the snow melts, he switches to football.

“Once I saw the post (Thursday) morning, it definitely sunk in and became real,” Kleiter said moments after finding out the season was cancelled.

Kleiter now joins dozens of others across the country wondering what will happen to graduating players.

Last week, U Sports reversed its decision to prohibit 25-year-old players to finish off their eligibility once football resumes in 2021. The decision came after considerable backlash.

Kleiter is hoping that pressure will sway the CJFL in his favour.

“That definitely set the groundwork for us and put the idea into everybody’s head that we want to play our possible last year of football,” Kleiter said.

For now, the focus from all teams shifts to keeping the PFC afloat until next year.

“It is definitely a worry,” Braun said from inside the team’s $3.2-million clubhouse that opened ahead of the 2018 season.

“When we look at the league as a whole, we’re actually working together with presidents across the PFC to make sure the clubs will be financially viable moving forward.”

Hegen-Braun said securing sponsors, sharing resources and additional fundraising opportunities are at the top of the agenda.

The Hilltops will put their goal for an unprecedented seventh consecutive national title on pause until 2021, when the club will celebrate its 75th season.

“We’re basically ready to go for next year. This is the end of a season and the start of a new one,” Hegen-Braun said.

— With files from 650 CKOM’s Keenan Sorokan