It’s playoff time on campus, and as per usual the Alberta Bears and Pandas have a number of teams competing for championships.
It starts this weekend with four playoff series hosted by the University of Alberta.
Both basketball teams kick things off Thursday at the Saville Community Sports Centre.
The Bears host the Lethbridge Pronghorns and the Pandas host the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds.
The hockey teams are also in action with the Bears hosting the Calgary Dinos, and the Pandas take on the Manitoba Bisons at Clare Drake starting Friday.
While it sounds hectic, for a school with so much success, four playoff series in a weekend isn’t hard for athletics staff to handle.
“A lot of places where they maybe only have this once in a while it’s a little more difficult,” director of athletics Ian Reade said. “For us it’s not too much above normal this weekend.”
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But the weekends to come aren’t the same.
The U of A is hosting the U Sports Track and Field National Championships March 9 – 11, 2017. The Pandas volleyball team is likely to be the top seed and will host the Final Four that same weekend.
Both are huge events; the logistics are intricate. The U of A will need all of its 120 game-day staff, 150 volunteers and even staff loaned from other universities.
“MacEwan [University] has graciously offered to lend us their sports info person,” Reade said. “We have a person coming in from the University of Saskatchewan that’ll help with awards in track.”
The U of A has called in help for the following weekend, because they aren’t done after those two major events in a single weekend. The Bears will host volleyball nationals March 17-19.
“This is probably the craziest thing we’ve ever done in hosting national championships,” said Reade about hosting back-to-back national events.