Nova Scotia is game on for school sport

Student athletes in Nova Scotia will be able to compete at the provincial level this year, despite pandemic restrictions.

Provincial high school baseball championships are scheduled for Friday with some modifications.

"It's pretty cool that in my Grade 12 year, when everyone thought this wasn't going to happen, our school is able to get to the championship this year," said Parker Hanrahan, a baseball player at Glace Bay High.

His team will take on Halifax's Citadel High in a match in Antigonish.

"We're not allowing tournaments this year in any of our sports, just because that brings a large group together, and that goes outside the COVID parameters," said Stephen Gallant, executive director of the Nova Scotia School Athletic Federation.

"Instead we're having playdowns ... one-on-one, school-against-school matches."

Central locations have been chosen to ensure all families can travel to the games and home again in one day.

Nova Scotia and P.E.I. are the only two provinces in the country allowing provincial championships, Gallant told CBC's Information Morning Cape Breton Thursday.

The current gathering limits of 50 people allow for most sports to practise and compete. That includes basketball, hockey, volleyball and cross-country running.

One sport that will not go ahead is football.

"The challenge for football is a football team is a roster of 55," said Gallant. "And so we really need to get to a number of over 100 without social distancing before we could have 12-on-12 football."

Cheerleading, which has the same challenge with numbers, is looking at competing virtually, by streaming or filming routines and sending them to a central set of judges.