Canada West has now made it official, and cancelled all university sports this fall because of COVID-19.

At Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, that includes the cancellation of this year’s soccer season. TRU Wolfpack Athletic Director Curtis Atkinson says when the discussions on how to move forward were taking place, there was one thing that stood out for him.

“Any opportunity to play the sport this coming fall, any mitigating factors we put in place to manage risk would essentially render our sports unrecognizable,” he told NL Sports, calling today’s announcement, a ‘gut punch’.

“And I think that really hit me.”

U Sports has cancelled six national championships including the Vanier Cup, the Canadian university football championship. Women’s field hockey and rugby, cross-country running, men’s and women’s soccer were the other national championships that were called off.

Decisions on whether Canada West championships for men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s cross country, and men’s and women’s swimming will be made by July 15. As well, no two-term sports – hockey, volleyball, and basketball – will be begin before January 1, 2021, though a decision on that front will be made no later than October 8.

A decision on winter term competitions like men’s and women’s wrestling, men’s and women’s track and field, men’s and women’s curling, and women’s rugby 7s will also be made by the same October 8th deadline.

“We never really envisioned a time where some thing like this could happen, and that’s what a lot of people in the world are dealing with right now,” added Atkinson. “In our world, even though we could see where it was tracking, and knew it didn’t look good, you kind of hold out that hope.”

Student-athletes in sports without U SPORTS national championships this season will not lose a year of eligibility and they will remain eligible for athletic scholarships.

The TRU WolfPack has seven varsity teams – men’s and women’s basketball, volleyball and soccer, as well as swimming.