Usually at this time of year the E.J. Broomfield Arena in Happy Valley-Goose Bay would be bustling with people preparing for the Senior Lab Cup this week. However, the annual soccer tournament that drew in teams from all over Labrador has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year would have been the 38th year for the tourney, which would have had the Junior Lab Cup last month, and the organizers said it was a tough decision to make.
Carlos Spearing and Janine Battcock are the co-chairs of the Senior Lab Cup and are on the executive of the Happy Valley-Goose Bay Minor Soccer Association. This would have been their first year heading the event.
“It’s sad. For 38 years it’s meant a lot to our community and several communities within Labrador,” Spearing said. “It brings everyone together.”
Battcock said all the volunteers, players and sponsors are disappointed and it’s been a financial blow for minor soccer and the town.
It’s the largest fundraiser of the year for minor soccer, which also had to cancel tournament travel due to the pandemic. The association hopes to get some local programming going later this summer, if it is allowed to.
There was discussion of rescheduling the event, but Spearing said it just wouldn’t have been the same and it’s held in June for a number of reasons.
“We didn’t want to put off a tournament just to put off a tournament, just to say there was a Lab Cup,” he said. “This means so much that we wanted to do it justice and do it to the level people would expect.”
Battcock said they will do some virtual games with prizes on their website next week when the tournament is supposed to be ongoing to try to keep people connected.
Labrador West regatta cancelled
Another seminal sporting event in Labrador that has fallen victim to the pandemic is the Labrador West Regatta, usually held on the last Friday in July.
Ashley Strang, president of the Labrador West Rowing Association, said it’s been held there since 1973 and this is the first time they’ve had to cancel the event.
“The local civic holiday is based around the regatta, so it’s arguably the biggest event here the year,” she said. “So, it wasn’t an easy decision to make.”
Strang said it isn’t possible to do physical distancing in the boats they use, so they didn’t have much of a choice. Strang has competed in the regatta for 19 years and said it’s the first year since she was a teenager that it hasn’t engulfed her entire summer.
“It’s a very different summer for everyone involved. It might be nice to not get up at 4:30 every morning,” she said with a laugh “That won’t be missed, for sure.”
Evan Careen is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter covering Labrador for SaltWire Network.
