Swim Coach Advocating For Organized Sports At Orange Level

A local swim Coach is advocating for changes to protocols in New Brunswick’s orange level of the COVID-19 recovery plan.

Organized sports were forced to stop immediately during the current orange phase in Zones one and five, due to the outbreak. Club Natation Bleu et Or Head Coach Ryan Allen would like to see amendments made by the provincial government, “Maybe it can be a modified phase that could allow organized sport with proper structure in place. I am a Phys Ed teacher actually, so there are lots of reasons that I think why sport should be looked at, instead of just closing it down.”

The Moncton region is expected to return to yellow on Thursday, but Allen says it’s important the provincial government consider changes in case we have another outbreak.

“This could happen, Let’s see if we can make some changes for the future.  Let’s see how we can be prepared for the next time,” Allen says.

He is hoping the organized sports sector can collaborate, “We can have a unified message for our provincial government. There should be some call for not being able to throw a blanket over the whole situation. Whether you are a small business or a sports group like us, I think that if there are approved operational plans in place, that can be structured and that public health can oversee, then you should be able to operate at the orange level. This lobbying that we are starting now, is for if this happens again, and the province has to drop our zone another phase.”

CNBO mom, Shannon Douthwright has written to the Ministers and the Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Jennifer Russell with concerns over the time her daughter Brooklyn, who is an Olympic hopeful, and other New Brunswick swimmers have lost during COVID-19. In her letter, she says, “Our swimmers need to get back to training, without these repeated interruptions every time we move out of the yellow phase in NB.  Time is of the essence. They have sacrificed so much to pursue excellence and the only thing stopping them is access to a proper training pool.”

“We all hope this doesn’t happen again, but in the event this does, we want to have a plan prepared for our families, our kids, small business, whoever it is, so they can move forward with a little bit of certainty of this is how this will be handled. We would like to know that we would go to a modified orange phase, like Ontario did, and still be able to run organized sport in some capacity,” Allen says.

Two Moncton area swim clubs, CNBO and the Codiac Vikings Aquatic Club, have been without pool access and training time due to a COVID-19 outbreak.  Dr. Jennifer Russell has recommended to Cabinet, that Zone 1 return to the yellow level of the recovery plan on Thursday, because the number of cases is decreasing.  If approved, restrictions will be lifted.