The Swan Valley Tigers dominated the Rural Manitoba Football League last season as they cruised to a league championship, but they won't get an opportunity to defend their title this fall.
The Dauphin Clippers won three straight league titles from 2015-2017; however, they won't get an opportunity to rise back up the standings. The Rural Manitoba Football League has made the tough decision to suspend the fall season due to the uncertainty of the novel coronavirus.
In a normal regular season, the first game would be played in just more than two weeks.
Jason Schenn is the vice president of the RMFL and he had this to say on the suspension.
"It's been a long summer of trying to figure things out," said Schenn. "We were hoping the entire time that we could salvage a season but obviously that's just not possible this fall."
A tough decision it was for the entire Board of Directors, but it's also a frustrating time for Schenn as he sees what's going on around him.
"It's extremely frustrating to see what happens around the world like people are at beaches and gathering together," he said. "But for some reason, youth sports are highly unsafe and I just don't understand it. It doesn't make sense to me and that's the part that is the most frustrating."
The Rural Manitoba Football League has said they are hoping to run a season in the spring which would allow current grade 12's one last chance to play the game that some of them have been playing for years and years.
"That's our next best opportunity to give our graduating players one more season," ended Schenn. "We're very hopeful that this can happen, but I guess we'll see."
Cam Bennet will join Darnell Duff tomorrow morning to share his thoughts on the suspension of the RMFL season. That includes how grade 12 students are dealing with the news.
