Ontario beer league absolutely decimated by COVID-19

A Newmarket, Ontario men's beer league is dealing with a significant COVID-19 outbreak. In total, at least 15 players have been sick with the virus and tragically one player has died.

The Toronto Star covered the story and managed to get quotes from some of the players and well... it's clear that these men are shaken by what has transpired.

“It’s just strange,” mused Brian Dunn, of nearby Thornhill, On. “15 guys who played separate nights, different change rooms, days apart, one tragic death. We vacillate between absolutely pissed off and sad … I lost my best friend.”

The over 50 league returned to play this season after taking last season off, with the condition that all players must be double vaccinated. The 3 on 3 league returned to play on September 27th and almost immediately players reported feeling ill. A decision was made to shut things down for two weeks until people felt better. On October 8th, the region's Public Health department officially declared an outbreak with more than a dozen cases at the time.

“At least 10 of the guys were basically bedridden for most of the time,” league organizer Craig Adlam said to the Toronto Star. “It wasn't just like sniffles or anything like that.”

Garry Weston, was a lot worse off than bedridden though. The affable teammate succumbed to a severe stroke while fighting COVID-19 and died just days after testing positive. 

“People are getting a false impression, ‘I’m double-vaxxed … nothing can happen to me’ and as we can see, in our league 30 per cent got infected ... And, unfortunately, Garry took the brunt of it," Adlam said.

“Most of the guys got through their symptoms without any lingering effects, which is what you hope for with the vaccine,” said Dunn. “But with Garry, it was unbelievable. It went sideways for him very quickly.”

The men believed that by following league protocol and by being double vaccinated that the damage of the outbreak was somewhat limited. After all, there's no telling how much worse things could have been for the league if things were different. As it is, they're hitting the ice again and have resumed play as of this week but with an understanding that they aren't out of the woods yet.

“Everyone wanted to play again, but it’s still a gamble out there. This story is tragic and it’s not as safe as everyone’s saying out there, even if you’re double-vaxxed," league co-commissioner Wendall Harrison said.

“People are just trying to get back to normal, but we need to be aware. This pandemic is not over.”