Volunteer youth sports organizers don't deserve the mistreatment they've received during the pandemic

This opinion piece is by Cam Houle, a Saskatchewan dairy farmer who helps organize youth soccer in Saskatoon.

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COVID-19 has made trying to organize youth sports in Canada nearly impossible and almost unbearably stressful.

Youth sports are mostly powered by a volunteer workforce. Even pre-COVID, running a sports league was generally thankless work that ate away at a volunteer's free time and often added unneeded stress to their life.

I organize and coach youth soccer in Saskatchewan. Let me tell you, the volunteers and organizers deserve only patience, respect and gratitude, especially during the pandemic.

Instead, some parents told us, "we will have blood on our hands," and that any dead children would be our fault.

I'm not here to argue about masks or politics. I'm not trying to throw a pity party or begging for love and adoration. I just want to open some eyes to how difficult it is to make sports happen during COVID.

Without these volunteers, our children would not be able to enjoy the plethora of options available for keeping active.

Stark changes

When COVID shut down all youth sports in our area late last winter, no one knew what was going on or how things were going to work in the future, but we had a mandate to fulfil. We needed to provide soccer activities to the kids in the safest way possible.

Of course, parents had questions. Why can't they play? When will they be able to play? Why can't we even watch? When will we be able to watch? What if a kid gets sick? When will this all get back to normal? Much time was spent scrambling to come up with answers.

The burnout that I've personally witnessed on these boards, leagues, coaches and teams is astounding.- Cam Houle

As a coach, I've seen stark changes in some kids over the course of this pandemic. Some have gained weight or quit soccer altogether. Some still come to the practices, but are so unhappy with the format we can offer that they may as well not come.

Others are being held back by their parents (which is their prerogative). Others are desperate to get through the pandemic timeline and back into their regular life of sports, school and friends.

I'm no child psychologist, but I can't help but feel that the effects of the past year on youth will take many years to heal.

An organizational nightmare

Even the top decision-makers couldn't decide how to proceed. On any given day there could be new rules, recommendations, timelines and steps to follow. Trying to keep up with the latest instructions was an everyday task. Sometimes things would change multiple times a week. This went on for months.

A group of volunteers would work hard to draft a plan and get ready to implement it, then at the last minute everything could completely change and that same group would have to draft another new plan before the parents complained and/or pulled their kids out of the league.

This happened to us many times. It was an organizational nightmare.

There were times I would have been relieved if the government just shut us down again so that we could stop worrying and working and planning and re-planning the same season over and over again.

The burnout that I've personally witnessed on these boards, leagues, coaches and teams is astounding.

Being nice is free

Maybe most troubling was the vitriol we got from some community members and parents when the government decided to allow play to resume. They called us too aggressive and said that we were being reckless and dangerous even though we were following the rules passed down by governments and soccer associations to the letter.

I shudder to think of the stories minor hockey organizers could tell.

It is nigh impossible to comfortably tell a parent to send you fees for a sports season you can't guarantee will happen. Volunteers have been forced to do that time and again.

As we leave the remnants of a tattered indoor soccer season and a bleary winter behind, and look toward getting our kids active during warmer weather, remember that the people trying to make sports happen for you and your family are doing their best.

It's a difficult, frustrating job. Treat them with kindness, patience and respect. Remember that they're people, too.

Being nice to each other is free. It can mean a lot.

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