On March 3, all LSSA end of season festival games were canceled. Winter sports consist of basketball, dance, swimming, and rugby, but dance doesn’t have an LSSA festival. A storm that passed through London called ‘the Beast from the East’ caused harsh weather conditions including freezing temperatures, snow and rain storms for several days. This made it very difficult to travel to schools hosting without the possibility of an accident. The final decision was a joint decision by the entire association to ensure the safety of the athletic teams.
LSSA festivals are end of season events that take place every sports season on the last Saturday of the season. Teams get the chance to play most LSSA involved schools like TASIS, Egham, Hillingdon, Cobham and Marymount for the final games of the season. The LSSA festivals are a chance for players and teams to show other teams the growth they’ve had throughout the season. “I was sad the LSSAs were cancelled because it was our final games and the team was looking forward to showing the skills we had worked on throughout the season.” said eighth grader Meghan Lang. Middle school sports, for the most part, focus on the developmental aspect of sports and focus on kids learning to work as a team. This could mean cheering on your team from the bench or working as a team as opposed to individuals. It is recognized throughout all sports done in the middle school and teams look forward to showing off what they have worked on throughout the season.
The LSSA checked with the various schools to make an executive decision to cancel them due to the inability to travel distances in the snow. School was canceled for most of LSSA involved schools that Friday the day before but, for ASL there was school. In addition, central London where ASL is located was hit with the least amount of snow in comparison to schools further outside of the city. This made it difficult for ASL athletic teams to travel to schools as well. Mr. Mustafa, the Middle School Athletic Director said, “It was canceled not because there was a lot of snow at ASL, but it was hard for the four other schools to get into ASL, and for the athletic teams to travel around.” Not having LSSAs was a big let down for many of the student-athletes across the different schools that take part in the LSSAs. Eighth grade basketball player Jack Cutler said, “I was a bit disappointed that the LSSAs were cancelled because we wanted a third chance to play against Cobham, since we beat them once and they beat us once.”
