The sporting atmosphere in the province has been pretty quiet since the suspension of game play and competition was implemented last November, and it looks like a return to game play won’t happen for at least a couple more months.
During a virtual call with all provincial sport governing bodies, Ken Dueck from the provincial government’s Business Response Team (BRT) announced that there would be no consideration of return to play (games) for at least four weeks and that a return to game play is unlikely to happen before the end of March.
The Warman Minor Hockey Association (WMHA) is doing its best to keep youth active while offering the eight player skill sessions for the respective divisions and teams, but the uncertainty of the return to game play is frustrating.
“What the announcement does do is it takes a bleaker picture of when games may resume,” said WMHA president Vance Heaney.
“Whereas before, we were taking it two weeks by two weeks. Now with this announcement their alluding to potentially no games until the end of March.”
Usually by the end of March is when respective minor hockey organizations are wrapping up their seasons, but if game-play does resume after March there could be a possibility that the hockey season could be extended into April and May, which is still speculation at this point.
“There’s no confirmation of when hockey would end (if game play resumes) and obviously part of that decision will be based on certain leagues and the team’s within those leagues, and how late their arenas would stay open,” Heaney said.
This wait and see approach during the pandemic has definitely put a strain on the hockey season and even though it looks like there won’t be a return to game play anytime soon, Heaney still wants the government to consider the option of allowing players to practice as a full team while wearing masks.
“We don’t see any reason why that couldn’t happen. Since the masks on the ice by players and coaches rule was implemented at the end of November, we haven’t heard of (COVID-19) transmissions in hockey,” he said.
Right now, the only thing WMHA can do for its players is offer those eight-player training sessions. The youth are buying into that opportunity because that is the only way they can get hockey activity in an organized format.
“They rapidly complied with that initiative because of their desire to be with their friends, their desire to be playing the game they love and their desire to get some physical activity,” said Heaney.
The players are limited to certain drills they can work on during the eight-player training session because of the three-metre distancing rule, and Heaney has noticed that they really want to get back that physical style of hockey.
“They’re cooperating with what we are allowed to do in terms of the skills groups, but you can just tell they can not wait for the chance to be able to start to battle and compete and be together as a team,” he said.
Again, the likelihood of return to game play before the end of March is looking bleak, but Heaney believes there is a glimmer of hope that the number of daily cases in the province could go down.
“We are hoping the numbers will show that by wearing masks on the ice that hockey is not a source of transmission. And the willingness to comply with the protocols would hopefully result in a reduction of cases in the province, forcing the province to re-look at that announcement and be open to allow the kids to start playing games sooner,” said Heaney.