Moose Jaw Minor Hockey is back in action, with teams across all divisions having been back on the ice for a few days now. That’s a marked improvement compared to this past weekend, when everything was shut down due to an order from Saskatchewan Health Authority closing down sports throughout the province.
There was a caveat, though, and the local organizing body was quick to take advantage of the opening.
Now, after plenty of work scheduling and working around the wide range of precautions in place, teams are back at practice, even if things look a lot different.
“We just want to keep the kids on the ice,” said Minor Hockey president Chris Flanagan. “Mental health is playing a huge role with everyone right now and we felt it was important to get these kids on the ice. We would have liked to have get them on the ice more, but we’re utilizing the time we have right now. We have great coaches and volunteers in our organization and we know they’re going to make the most of that time.”
The set-up sees each of the Tier teams receive an hour of ice time and each house league team receive an hour-and-a-half of time. Teams are only allowed to have eight players on the ice at once, and the MJMHA has left it up to the coaches to decide how to break their ice time into workable slots.
As an example, for most teams and depending on roster size, that means eight players skating for 45 minutes before switching off with the next eight or so players for the remainder of the ice time.
Coaches and players alike must also wear masks when on the ice and maintain social distancing as much as possible, in addition to a limited number of fans allowed in the building. On Saturday afternoon at Mosaic Place, that translated into a ton of ice space for an Under-7 Timbits crew and their coaches, with parents looking on from well-spaced groups.
That plan will be followed until the Dec. 17 deadline for the current shutdown, with further decisions being made after that.
Complicating scheduling after the initial three-week pause on Nov. 27 was the City of Moose Jaw taking an abundance of caution and shutting down PlaMor Palace and the two ice sheets there. That led to the MJMHA relying more on the Red Knight Arena at 15 Wing, with the military base more than happy to accommodate them.
“It was tough, but the city came through with the Kinsmen and working with Mosaic was great as well.” Flanagan said. “It took us a day or two, we wanted to get the schedule out earlier, but with the PlaMor closing we ended up needing to use more ice out at 15 Wing and they’re always great with us out there so that’s really appreciated.”
The key now will be to keep things going for the next to weeks and going from there.
“Each coach is utiliizing their time as they see fit, and every team has been assigned ice up until Dec. 17,” Flanagan said. “What it looks like after Dec. 17, time will tell.”
