The Cowichan Valley’s adult soccer teams are scheduled to return to action this weekend, but it seems doubtful that any of the home games will proceed as planned.
With plenty of snow still covering the fields, it will take a significant warm spell or rainfall — neither of which is completely out of the question — to make the pitches playable. As of Tuesday afternoon, the situation wasn’t promising.
“I just walked the field, lots of ice,” said Neall Rowlings, who manages several of Cowichan’s adult teams. “I am not optimistic. But one thing I will not do is predict the weather or anything in 2022.”
Three home games are still tentatively scheduled for this weekend. In the Vancouver Island Soccer League, the masters A Cowichan Steelheads are slated to play host to Vic West on Saturday at 8 p.m. and Div. 1 Cowichan LMG is supposed to play host to Powell River on Sunday at 2 p.m., with both games at the Sherman Road turf. In Div. 3 of the Lower Island Women’s Soccer Association, NIFA Pacific is scheduled to face Juan de Fuca United at the Cowichan Sportsplex on Sunday at 1 p.m.
Conditions aren’t so dire in the Victoria area, where at least one game was played in Sooke last weekend, so it seems more likely that the Cowichan teams’ road games will go ahead.
In the VISL, the masters A Cowichan 49ers are scheduled to visit UVic Alumni at UVic on Friday at 7:15 p.m., the Div. 4 Cowichan Farmstore Fury are set to visit Fernwood United at Glasgow Park in Saanich on Sunday at noon, and Div. 3 Cowichan Oak FC is set to visit JDF Kings at Royal Bay Secondary School on Sunday at 1 p.m. In LIWSA, Div. 2 Cowichan United is scheduled to visit Nanaimo at Merle Logan turf on Friday at 8 p.m.
The O30 Cowichan Cougars’ schedule is still in the works after their midseason promotion from the B division to the A division.