Welcome to team Thunderbirds! Also known as the ‘T-Birds,’ we’ve got teams playing football, hockey, volleyball, soccer and much more. Now that you’ve joined the family, you can experience the best T-Bird traditions such as festival games and pre-game keggers.

However, due to COVID-19 restrictions, there have been some changes in the yearly traditions. All 2020 fall team sporting events were cancelled for all Canadian universities in June. Usually, Homecoming — a yearly sold-out game with a crowd of around 10,000 people — is UBC football’s first big game of the year. Unfortunately, this event’s been cancelled this year, but don’t you worry. We still have hope for our second-term team sports.

We’ve still got the annual Winter Classic hockey game at Doug Mitchell Thunderbird arena, the annual UBC–University of California, Berkeley World Cup rugby series and more. Still, there might be changes to dates or cancellations to these events depending on updates to physical distancing guidelines.

If COVID-19 does resolve in time, make sure to take part in the pre-game festivities, get a free t-shirt and face paint stick and march around campus towards Thunderbird Stadium.

Although UBC’s festival games happen throughout the year, there are plenty of other games that you can watch — after physical distancing ends, obviously. It’s a great opportunity to experience a new sport you might not have watched on your own.