In light of the news announced on Wednesday, July 14, 2021, by the Province of Manitoba tied to the ongoing global pandemic, a number of changes have been made tied to indoor and outdoor sports in Manitoba. Those include...
- INDOOR BASKETBALL INCLUDING PRACTICES, TRAINING AND DAY CAMPS: Allowance for indoor basketball to gather to a capacity of twenty-five (25) players plus coaches (to a maximum of 3 coaches) per standard-sized basketball court.
- The 25 active players can train and scrimmage with each other (no organized team games or tournaments are permitted) in close proximity to each other including sharing equipment with no social distancing.
- Players and coaches are to maintain their physical distance from each other.
- Indoor mask-wearing is to be continued by everyone.
- It is strongly recommended that training groups follow the "rule of 2" in seeing at least 2 coaches present during the sessions.
- The wording of Orders #13 and #19 are included below.
- OUTDOOR BASKETBALL INCLUDING GAMES, PRACTICES, TRAINING AND DAY CAMPS:
- Allowance for casual or organized outdoor basketball to gather to a capacity of fifty (50) players on a standard-sized basketball court.
- Coaches and officials are not counted as part of the 50 players but are limited to those who are registered to coach the teams that are present at the time or assigned to officiate the games.
- Multi-team tournaments are not permitted outdoors.
- Spectators are permitted at an outdoor sporting facility. Spectators are not to be included when calculating the number of participants in a sporting activity and must maintain a separation of at least two metres from other spectators and others on site.
- Mask use by participants is suggested but not mandated under these new orders.
- The wording of Order #18 is included below.
Additional Details...
- Basketball Manitoba stresses that coaches lead a gradual return to basketball over the coming weeks and months understanding that athletes may not have been active for a long period of time with a focus on athlete health and injury prevention being stressed during all training. More information on this topic can be found in the Canada Basketball Return Plan. (pages 5-8)
- Normal team drills involving shared equipment are now permitted within the above-defined person numbers including ones involving dribbling, passing, shooting and other offensive and defensive team drills.
- All equipment including basketballs and hands are to be properly sanitized before and after all training sessions. Sanitizer Notes:
- A liquid form of hand sanitizer with 70%+ alcohol content in a spray bottle works well-cleaning basketballs and other equipment with a clean rag and on hands at the same time.
- The cleaner dries fast and leaves no residue or smell on the basketball or hands and shows no damaging effects to a rubber or synthetic basketball.
- The liquid sanitizer and empty spray bottles can be purchased at home repair and department stores including Canadian Tire, Home Depot, Lowe's, Home Hardware, Walmart and many other locations including many online retailers.
- Social distancing (2m) is to be maintained at all times between players and coaches when not active on the court and follow all restrictions imposed by a facility when using change rooms/washrooms.
- Contact information must be kept by the head coach or program/league organizer of all participants and may be requested by the facility of Manitoba Public Health for contact tracing purposes.
- The full Basketball Manitoba Return to Play Guidelines with the above exceptions remain in place can be found HERE.
The sport of basketball in Manitoba will remain in this state until at least Saturday, August 7, 2021, or when the new health orders are updated or changed by Manitoba Public Health.
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The new Manitoba Public Health Orders that were released on July 15 tied to sports specifically state...
ORDER 13 - DAY CAMPS (INCLUDING SPORTS CAMPS)
13(1) Day camps for children may open if
(a) the maximum size of any group of campers is 25 and no joint activities between groups take place; and
(b) campers bring their own food and beverages or all food and beverages served at the camp are individually packaged.
13(2) For certainty, all overnight camping activities at camps for children are prohibited.
ORDER 18 - OUTDOOR SPORTS
18(1) Outdoor sporting and recreational facilities, including golf courses, may open, subject to the requirements of this section.
18(2) Persons may engage in any type of outdoor sporting or recreational activity but they must not engage in an activity as part of a group of more than 50 persons.
18(3) Organized practices, games and competitions may take place at an outdoor sporting facility but the operator of an outdoor sporting facility must ensure that no multi-team tournaments take place at the facility.
18(4) Spectators are permitted at an outdoor sporting facility. Spectators are not to be included when calculating the number of participants in a sporting activity. Spectators must maintain a separation of at least two metres from other spectators.
ORDER 19 - INDOOR SPORTS
19(1) Indoor sporting and recreational facilities may open if the operator of the facility complies with all requirements of this Order.
19(2) Individual play, group and individual instruction and team practices may take place at an indoor sporting facility but no organized team games or tournaments may be held at the facility.
19(3) The operator of an indoor sporting facility must
(a) ensure that any group of persons participating in a sporting activity at the facility, excluding coaches or instructors, does not exceed 25 persons;
(b) take reasonable measures to ensure that there is no interaction between different groups of participants who are engaging in a sporting activity at the facility at the same time; and
(c) limit the number of persons in dressing rooms to 50% of the usual capacity or to a number that ensures that all persons in the dressing room are able to maintain a separation of at least two metres from other persons, whichever is lesser.
19(4) The operator of an indoor sporting facility must
(a) implement measures to ensure that members of the public at the facility are reasonably able to maintain a separation of at least two metres from other members of the public at the facility, excluding participants engaged in a sporting activity; and
(b) limit occupancy to all portions of the facility other than dressing rooms and the areas where sporting activities are conducted to 25% of the usual capacity.
Source: https://manitoba.ca/asset_library/en/proactive/20212022/orders-soe-07152021.pdf
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Sport Manitoba Memo - July 15, 2021
This week, the Province of Manitoba announced that as of 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, July 17, the following changes to public health orders will be in place:
Outdoor organized sports and recreation activities group size increases to 50 people, with no tournaments allowed. Spectators are allowed and do not count towards the 50 person capacity limit. Spectators must maintain a separation of at least two metres from other spectators.
Individual play, group and individual instruction and team practices may take place at an indoor sporting facility, but no organized team games or tournaments may be held at the facility. Intrasquad scrimmages can occur.
one group of people participating in a sporting activity indoors, excluding coaches or instructors, cannot exceed 25 persons
when multiple groups engage in a sporting activity at the same time in the same facility they cannot interact
dressing rooms must be limited to 50% of the usual capacity or to a number that ensures that all persons in the dressing room are able to maintain a separation of at least two metres from other persons, whichever is lesser
all portions of the facility, other than dressing rooms and the areas where sporting activities are conducted, is limited to 25% of the usual capacity
Masks are still required at all times for indoor public places
Indoor and outdoor swimming pools must:
limit the number of members of the public in the pool to 50% of the usual capacity of the pool
implement measures to ensure that members of the public in the pool are reasonably able to maintain a separation of at least two metres from other members of the public
Day camp group sizes increase to a maximum of 25 participants per group.
If you will be running a day camp, contact tracing measures should be in place and public health recommends you provide an after-hours contact name and phone number that would be checked on evenings and weekends to participants for the purpose of a COVID-19 investigation. More details are in this letter (PDF).
All the return to play protocols you’ve established and updated, along with general covid prevention measures must continue to be followed. Thank you for your efforts in getting us all back to sport safely.
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NOTE: If there is a discrepancy between any Basketball Manitoba statement to the actual Manitoba Public Health Orders, the public health orders will always take precedence.
Basketball Manitoba will continue to monitor the current public health orders and make any updates or revisions as needed. This article will be updated as further information on these impacts are known.
More details on these changes can be found on the Province of Manitoba website.