The long wait is nearly over for everyone involved with the Prince Albert Youth Soccer Association.
After the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the cancelation of their spring season, the PAYSA has opened registration for their fall and winter indoor campaign, which is expected to get underway shortly after Thanksgiving.
“We’re all excited about getting the season going and having it almost close to normal,” PAYSA technical director Dragan Ivkovic said. “The start of the season of any sports is always good, especially for people’s mental health, and I can’t wait to see it happen.
“We’ve been making different plans over the last few months, but like everyone else right now, they were always changing. You make one plan and then things could change the following day and you have to start over again. We think we are pretty ready for the start of the season with everything that we have put in place.”
Some of the major changes for the upcoming season include a limited number of people on the field and in the stands and the fact that the PAYSA is unable to accept any players from outside of Prince Albert.
“We’ve inside our own bubble here so for now it’s just Prince Albert teams only,” Ivkovic said.
“Another difference from usual is that we will now need more time between games to make sure that we follow all the government guidelines that have been put in place.”
In addition to working on their own plans, the PAYSA has also had chats with other soccer organizations in the province.
“Everyone is going through their own experience,” Ivkovic said.
“There are some organizations that don’t have the same size of facilities that we have and then there are other places that have more players and have bigger facilities.”
Registration for the new season is currently underway on the PAYSA website, which is at pasoccer.ca
“We’re encouraging everyone to do online registration, but we are also offering in-person registration on Sept. 8 and 9 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Alfred Jenkins Fieldhouse,” Ivkovic said.
“Also, anyone that wants to register in-person and are unable to attend the registration nights can visit our office during the week from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.”
