The MJMHA announced Friday afternoon that plans were rapidly coming together to create some sort of practice schedule that would allow the hundreds of players currently in limbo to at least have some ice time during the Saskatchewan government’s COVID-19 three-week restriction period.
“The plan we laid out, essentially what we did was take the provincial guidelines and we’re following them 100 per cent,” said Moose Jaw Minor Hockey president Chris Flanagan. “We don’t want to sway from them at all because they’re there for a reason and our kids need to be as safe as possible in the rinks. So we’re following all the guidelines and implemented some other ones ourselves that we believe will help the kids stay even safer on the ice.”
Under the SHA guidelines, groups of eight players and two coaches will be allowed on the ice for practice sessions through Dec. 17. Face coverings will be required for everyone in the building, including everyone on ice. Three metres of distancing must be followed, including on ice. A maximum of 30 spectators will be allowed, and contact tracing will be mandatory.
The local organization was one of the first in the province to announce they were going forward under the new restrictions and have been quick to offer advice to other minor hockey groups looking to do the same.
“We wanted to get it out quick as we could just to keep the kids engaged in the game and on the ice,” Flanagan said. “Safety is the number one priority, everyone is slowing down to make sure everything is correct and we’ll see everyone else rolling out with plans in the next couple days. It just takes a bit of time to get going.
“Hockey is a huge family across the province, if another association needs help or has questions, we’re there to help them and they’re there to help us. We’re all working on this together.”
The main goal now is to finalize a schedule that accommodates every team from house to Midget AAA across the five rinks in the city and 15 Wing.
“We’re going to offer the kids as much ice as we can throughout the week while sticking within our training group of eight kids plus a coach or two,” Flanagan said. “Things will look different, it’s kind of a logistical nightmare to get all these kids on the ice, but everybody is going to sacrifice a bit of ice time so we can get everyone an opportunity to practice.”
That schedule is expected to come out at some point this weekend, Monday at the latest, if everything goes according to plan.
“We’ve been working on it for the past 24 hours and are just waiting to move forward with it… we’re just making sure everything is right moving forward and our plan is up to the standard of public health and the business response team. Once we get the green light, we’ll move forward.”
For the latest information, be sure to stay up to date by following the Moose Jaw Minor Hockey Facebook page.
