It’s wait and see on the season for NOFA
With the start of practice still over two months away and games still three months off officials of the Niagara Orleans Football Association (NOFA) are taking a wait and see approach on making any decisions about the upcoming season because of restrictions currently imposed by the Covid-19 Pandemic..
“We have time,” said NOFA Executive Baord member Geno Allport. “We are hoping for the best but right now it is too early to make any decisionns”
“We’re keeping things flexible because we just don’t know how soon things will re-open and with what conditions,” Allport added. “In the best case we could start the season on time, The next best case would be we could start later and play a shorter schedule. The worst case would be that we would have to cancel the season. But right now we don’t know. We just have to see how the phases for reopening come along. We just have to wait and see.”
In a release sent to leaders of each of NOFA’s member organizations this week, NOFA’s Executive Board stated that “Without a significant amount of directive regarding youth sports specifically, we anticipate that youth sports will be considered “recreation” and therefore part of the last phase of re-opening. We can’t put a date on when that will happen, but we can be certain that the re-opening process will be slow, with rules and timing that may affect some organizations differently than others. We are unfortunately still at the wait-and-see stage; however, we hope everyone in our NOFA community is in agreement that our number one priority right now is the safety of our players, coaches, referees, volunteers and families!”
The release added, “We will share any and all directives relevant to the upcoming season as soon as possible. Once we receive the all clear to meet, we will get a meeting scheduled right away.”
The organizations which in recent years have had football teams and cheerleading squads competing in NOFA have included Albion, Holley, Medina, Roy-Hart, Akron, Newfane, Batavia, Oakfield/Elba, Pembroke, Attica and TriTown (Alexander).
