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Announcement of Indoor Season/Events Cancellation

By Ontario Volleyball, 04/12/21, 10:15AM EDT

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After several attempts to ignite the spark for a potential modified 2021 indoor season, the OVA has made the regrettable decision to cancel the remaining modified indoor competition season as the province moves into a provincial Stay-at-Home order, effective April 8th.  

Given recent increases in cases across the province, it has become clear that OVA Return to Indoor Competition would not be safe due to the current COVID-19 landscape. This decision was made to ensure the health and safety and wellbeing of members. With the uncertainty of when provincial Stay-at-Home orders will be lifted, the Association will not be able to deliver indoor events for the foreseeable future due to provincial regulations.  

“While this announcement was not entirely unexpected, it is incredibly disappointing and difficult for Ontario athletes, coaches, staff and members of the club volleyball community to hear,” said Alishia Lidums, Director of Volleyball Operations.  “This year has been one of the hardest that we have ever faced. However, we have been overjoyed to see the positivity that members continue to share through messaging and social media posts.  We are thankful with how resilient Clubs have been in developing Ontario volleyball athletes throughout this pandemic.”

Jo-Anne Ljubicic, Executive Director is grateful on how well staff and clubs have navigated throughout the pandemic. “I want to thank the staff that continued to modify the competition structure with the hopes of delivering events when it would be safe to do so.

I want to thank all registered Clubs and coaching staff for working tirelessly this past season to do everything they possibly could to develop and engage with the athletes during the pandemic and navigate through multiple province wide lockdowns. We as an organization will continue to press forward in the best interest of the sport and will continue to advocate to the Government on a safe return to volleyball on behalf of our community.”

With the cancellation of the indoor competitive season, the OVA will be refunding anyone that purchased a competitive player role in the Membership Registration System (MRS). The OVA will automatically process refunds for the difference between a competitive indoor player role and the recreational player role that was required to train with an OVA Club. The refunds will be sent to the individual who originally paid the membership fee in the MRS.

We remain hopeful that as Spring continues its momentum with sunshine and warmer days, and the vaccination rollout across Ontario ramps up, the ability to deliver outdoor volleyball programming will be more probable.  

“Despite indoor athletes being unable to compete in a competitive season on the hard court, beach volleyball opportunities provide another avenue to replenish the passion for the game throughout the summer months,” said Suzanne Wallace, Manager of Beach Programs.

The outdoor competition staff have been busy planning multiple scenarios for the Ontario Beach Tour as well as developing resources for Clubs and the OVA to deliver grass volleyball. Details about the upcoming outdoor season will be discussed at the Virtual Town Hall on Monday, April 12 at 7:30 p.m. on Zoom. To sign up for this session, please click on the link below.

Register for the Outdoor Volleyball Town Hall Update:

https://bit.ly/3mrK8WQ

We remain positive and are looking forward to the getting back to some semblance of normalcy by fall 2021.  The indoor competition staff and the Indoor Volleyball Development Committee have been hard at work on the 2021 Tryout Window and competition modifications for the next indoor volleyball season. That information will be coming soon. If you have any questions regarding the indoor volleyball season and its cancellation, please contact Carrie Campbell, Manager of Indoor Programs and Special Events at ccampbell@ontariovolleyball.org.

The OVA will continue to monitor the developments of the pandemic and keep its members updated as it impacts volleyball in our province. Thank you, the Ontario volleyball community, for your continued support, understanding and cooperation.

 

Stay connected with the OVA

For further information on the COVID-19 pandemic, please refer to the developments on the COVID-19 Information Hub, which contains the latest updates from Ontario Volleyball, including resources for the membership to help navigate these circumstances. Please consider bookmarking or inserting a link to Information Hub on the homepage of your website.

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