The Chilliwack Giants won’t be playing league football games this fall.
Chilliwack Minor Football Association president Chris Clark made the announcement on Facebook Aug. 19, saying there’s too much uncertainty about whether the Vancouver Mainland and Valley Community football leagues will play any games at all, or whether they’ll proceed with some sort of shortened season.
“In the interest of keeping things from continuously changing, if there is a shortened VCFL or VMFL season, the Giants will not take part,” Clark wrote. “We want to put all of energy into making September and October the very best for our athletes, and that requires us to plan without looking to make constant changes.”
That doesn’t mean there won’t be any football.
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CMFA is holding camps in September, which registration open now, and Clark says the association is working out the details for a program called ‘Chilliwack Giants Presents: Run The Gauntlet.’
“While we can’t have any games, we are looking to increase the competition level and excitement with this new plan for the fall,” he wrote.
Fall football is normally tackle football, but that almost certainly won’t be the case with this program.
According to Clark, the B.C. Provincial Football Association and the City of Chilliwack have not yet allowed CMFA to move to the next phase of return to sport, which means no contact (tackle) or semi-contact (flag). Clark said CMFA has been diligently following COVID-19 guidelines at practices, and ordered extra protective gear for tackle football.
“Unfortunately, we are not able to use that gear at this time,” he noted. “But we hope it gives us a leg up when we are allowed to return to sport at a more normal level at some point in the future.”
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