The Nipissing District Soccer Club will be back on the pitch for the first time in 2021 on Monday.
Mark Hopper, President of the Nipissing District Soccer Club, is excited that teams will be able to get together and offer training sessions to start the new season.
"It is still at the beginning stages, we still have to be diligent but we are allowed to have kids on the field training and the club is going to move forward with the same practices we instilled last year," said Hopper, noting parents will not be permitted to stay and watch from the field at the start.
Unlike the more conservative North Bay Youth Soccer Club, the Nipissing District Soccer Club offered programming last summer including some controlled scrimmages. Hopper says their club was one of the only youth soccer clubs that operated in Northeastern Ontario last summer.
"The positive thing is training is going to start next week for NDSC," said Hopper, noting teams will need to do contact tracing for each session as part of the Return-To-Play protocol.
"It is soccer and at least we have that training on the field, no scrimmages or games yet."
Hopper says once the region enters Phase 2 the club will be allowed to have inter-club modified games which he hopes could happen as soon as in the next two weeks.
"We want the kids to be safe but get on the field at the same time," he said.
The Nipissing District Club involves boys and girls teams from U4 all the way to adult.
Hopper says they will be having a staggered start for the younger groups.
"The competitive teams could possibly have travel and play so we are going to get them first and then the younger groups from U4 to U8 will hopefully in a week or so after our start-up just so we can get a positive landscape," noted Hopper.
"We need higher amounts of coaches on the field with the younger athletes because coming out of the pandemic I am sure they will be excited to see each other and we have to make sure we are monitoring that."
