The Okanagan Sun are a little more than a week away from kicking off the 2021 BCFC season

It's been nearly 22 months since the Okanagan Sun took the field in a BC Football Conference game.

Since then, the COVID-19 pandemic has wiped out one entire season, shortened the upcoming 2021 season to eight games, and changed the way the team goes about its business.

"We don't hang out. Meetings are smaller, less time," said Sun head coach Jamie Boreham during a practice this week.

"Our locker room isn't our locker room. Our locker room is a storage room. We just have to make do the best we can."

Boreham says players go into the room to change 15 at a time. When one player comes out, another goes in, similar to the scene at a Boxing Day sale.

"But, it feels right. This is the time to be playing football. We missed it. We missed it a lot.

"This is nice, seeing orange, seeing brown. The glue that football is, that makes this what it is, these guys missed it and they need it."

COVID could also play a part in the team's home opener Aug. 28 against Kamloops.

With outdoor gathering restricted to just 50 people across to Central Okanagan following a resurgence of cases, the league is working on moving the game to Kamloops, and flipping the Oct. 3 game between the two teams to the Apple Bowl.

Boreham says the team is preparing as if they are playing on the 28th and playing Kamloops.

But, he says the players are just anxious to get going, adding, "if we have to play in the parking lot, we'll play in the parking lot."

On the field, Boreham says the team is starting to take shape with most of this year's squad already in town.

"We're super proud of the guys we have, they stand for the right people, the right character."

Offensively, he says he's excited about the crop of receivers and running backs in camp while the offensive line also looks strong with veterans Liam Hamlyn and Daniel Townsend and several strong recruits set to anchor the front five.