Cancellations

This season we have had more cancellations than we would normally have, and we are often asked “will the games be made up?”. We thought that we should let you know why the answer to that question is no. Each season we need to plan our activities in May so that the gym time at the two schools where we play can be reserved. We have a wonderful relationship with the Algonquin and Lakeshore Catholic District School Board, but we are only one of the community groups looking for space in the schools every year. Our schedule is set to run between the Saturday after Labour Day, and to be finished before the March Break. The back end is decided for us through the availability of the hall where our banquet takes place. We book the hall immediately after the banquet this year, and again, even though we are regular “bookers” we are not the only groups using the facility. The date for the Christmas break is chosen to allow the schools where we play time to use and decorate their gyms for their own school events. We schedule for 38 teams in five divisions, and in operating four nights a week there is no “wiggle room” in the schedule to add games. Along with booking the gym time, our insurance covers us only for the facilities and dates specified on the policy. The reason we include that detail is because it has been suggested that we could play the make up games at another school. That is not possible. If we were to include a cancellation week into the schedule to be filled with cancelled games being replayed, we would lose that week from the total number of games played in all divisions. All of us involved as volunteers in the league want you to understand that on game nights we would much rather be in the gym, and we don’t like cancelling games any more than you as players and families like losing the opportunity to be there. We do not have any control over weather conditions, school closures or bomb scares that cancel community use of schools. We have committed that on days where the weather is causing cancellations around the city, we will make the decision to cancel as early in the day as possible so that our volunteers can contact their teams to prevent unnecessary travel. We always agonize over making that decision because we know how important the games are to all of us. Our organizational guideline is to make the call on cancellation by 2 pm, and to post the decision on our web site and through social media, and often we stretch that time in the hope that the forecast will change. We hope this helps you understand what goes in to planning the season every year. The good news is that the long range forecast for next week and the banquet is looking pretty good right now.