Three seasons of disruptions caused by COVID-19 are raising serious concerns about the future of sport and recreational activities and the people who keep them going.

Sport in Newfoundland and Labrador relies heavily on volunteers, whether it be management, coaching, officiating or people behind-the-scenes organizing events and activities.

Executive Director of SportNL, Troy Croft, says coaches for instance, suddenly have a lot more duties since the pandemic began.

He says coaching now includes the collection of COVID forms, monitoring players for illness, and planning out games and practices with the latest COVID restrictions in place.

Executive Director of School Sport NL, Karen Richard, says many volunteers are involved because of the love of the sport and the connection with players, but they didn’t necessarily sign-up for all the added administrative duties. She believes the down-time created by the pandemic has caused some volunteers to reassess their priorities.

“To be fair,” says Richard, “a lot coaches and. . . volunteers. . . have had a lot of free time they never had before,” as a result of shut-downs. That means organizations need to be aware of not trying to put more pressure and extra work on volunteers who are so essential to keeping organized sport going.