Kalli Cowles. (University of Saskatchewan Huskies).

By Jeff D'Andrea

Graduating players in weird, tough position

USports cancellation puts graduating players like P.A.’s Cowles in tough position

Jun 12, 2020 | 3:15 PM

With USports pulling the plug on their fall sports due to the COVID-19 pandemic, that puts all the graduating players in jeopardy.

Next season would have been Kalli Cowles’ fifth and final year of eligibility with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s soccer team. So now Prince Albert’s Cowles and the rest of the fifth years in fall sports are faced with a difficult decision: call it a career, or return for a sixth season.

The decision is made even harder when you consider that USports athletes have already made the commitment to stay an extra year, as their four-year schooling programs are extended to five to spread it out and the athletics-academics balancing act a little bit easier. To stay for a sixth is a big commitment.

Even though Cowles will finish all her classes next year, she’s still leaning for returning for her sixth season and take three extra classes.

But regardless, this is a tough situation for everybody. This upcoming season will be Cowles’ first one where she won’t be playing in the fall since she was seven years old.

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“Honestly, I don’t think it’s fully set in for a lot of the girls, including myself. The more and more you think about it, the more devastating it gets,” Cowles said. “The timing is bad, too. I think if they told us this maybe in April — we were kind of expecting it in April, but they gave us hope and said we were going to have a season — I’m OK, but to wait nine months for the season and now having to wait another nine months, it’s a lot.”

Throughout this whole pandemic period, Cowles said she just misses being with the team.

“I’ve been in P.A. for the last three months. I don’t think I’ve ever gone that far without being on a team and seeing everyone. It’s definitely different. Even in August, it’s going to be so weird not being in training camp. I’ve done that for the last four years.”

Payton Izsak. (University of Saskatchewan Huskies).

For Payton Izsak, a fellow Prince Albert product on the Huskies team, said she will support whatever Cowles and the rest of the fifth-year players decide to do.

“We told them we would love to have another year with them, and we’d love to be able to play with them again. But it’s going to come down to their choice,” Izsak said, after finishing her second year. “We don’t want them to put their lives on hold just to come back and play another year. I know it’s a tough decision to make, but we’re just basically here to support them as much as we can.”

Well before the cancellations came in, Izsak already knew she wouldn’t be playing this upcoming season.

Izsak tore her ACL in March during some exhibition matches in Vancouver.

So when she saw the season would be cancelled, it didn’t actually change too much for her. But Izsak said she wanted to make sure to help out her teammates, the way they helped her when she hurt her knee.

“I already accepted the fact that my season was cancelled. I already knew that I wasn’t going to be playing. But once the announcement came out that it was officially cancelled for everyone, I think my immediate reaction was all about my teammates and how they were reacting,” Izsak said. “When I found out my season was cancelled, it took me quite a long time to process that. So I just wanted to be there for my team, and what they’re going through, they’re not going through it alone.”

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Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW