Loyalist Lancer volleyball player, Jayden Jones. Photo courtesy of Loyalist Lancers.
By Tyson Nayler
BELLEVILLE – During the Ontario college faculty strike, some athletes say they found a way to cope with the inconvenience through sports.
Prior to the start of the academic school year, the Ontario College Athletic Association had a plan in place that in the event of a strike they would continue all varsity sports as scheduled. While the labour disruption forced the closure of all classes and pushed many students to go home, athletes did not have this option.
Jayden Jones, a player on the men’s volleyball team, played four games during the strike. Although the strike kept him out of the classroom, he said that as an athlete he was happy the OCAA was continuing on schedule, because it gave him something to focus on during the time out of class.
Still he said he wasn’t thrilled about the situation because of the added stress.
“It was big distraction for a lot of the guys on the team. Most of them come from different cities and live on residence so they had no option to go home while the school was closed,” Jones said.
The season continuing its normal schedule wasn’t surprising to many athletes, according to Jones. Prior to the season kicking off, players were told by their coaches that if a strike were to happen it wouldn’t have any impact on the season, and it would still be mandatory for players to attend all team-related events.
“When the strike happened the coaches emailed our team and said that all practices and games will remain on schedule because the strike had no connection with the OCAA,” Jones said.
Had the season been postponed, Jones said that he believes it would have created more stress on players and could have had a negative impact on the team.
One thing that Jones said he was surprised about was the amount of people that attended the games both at home and on the road. Even with the closure of the school and many students returning home during the time off, each game still had a great crowd to support them.
“It was awesome to see people still show up to our games with everything that was going on. We weren’t sure what the turn out would be like, so I was definitely surprised,” Jones said.
Because the strike forced schools to shorten the Christmas break, students are getting an additional week off between the fall and winter semester. The OCAA however has scheduled three games for the men’s volleyball team during that time, meaning players will not get the time off.
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