NEWS PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN
Medicine Hat Hounds Black forward Colby Motz fires a shot past Okotoks Oilers goaltender Brooke Davis for one of his three goals in Sunday's South Central Alberta Hockey League peewee game at the Moose Recreation Centre.
rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken
Medicine Hat Minor Hockey Association may not know exactly when the city’s youth will be able to return to the ice, but operations manager Chad Baron says they’re putting together a picture of what that day might look like.
Baron says the association is doing everything it can to get players back into arenas across the city, both safely and on schedule, but Phase 2 of the provincial government’s relaunch strategy presents a number of obstacles to overcome in the meantime.
“Medicine Hat Minor Hockey is looking at ways to get kids on the ice at the regular time of the year,” said Baron. “We’re trying to abide by what Alberta Health Services is saying is best for society to get back to normal.”
MHMHA released a series of posts on its Facebook page over the past week detailing the new rules and regulations currently proposed by Hockey Alberta, Hockey Canada and AHS – while also stressing they could change at a moment’s notice.
The proposed regulations include limiting parents and guardians inside dressing rooms to one per family, ensuring social distancing inside and directly outside arenas and restricting athletes to one ‘sport cohort’ at a time.
That last one means any athlete wishing to transition between sports – or even attend camps within the same sport – will need to complete a 14-day non-participation period before returning to their MHMHA cohort. Baron added this guideline will not be enforced by AHS, but Hockey Canada and Hockey Alberta will be upholding the policy and therefore MHMHA will follow suit.
“As an association we are bound by what Hockey Canada and Hockey Alberta dictate,” said Baron. “We are going to follow their lead and we’re going to enforce that in our own organization. Come hockey season, if we do have some sort of normal hockey season, you’ll be expected to be in that one sport cohort and not play any other sport.”
Baron added the association’s governing bodies allow for athletes to participate in a sport cohort within their minor hockey association, as well as a school cohort, but not multiple sport cohorts. Private groups, like hockey camps, aren’t necessarily subject to the 14-day non-participation period.
Baron added he anticipates the Central Alberta Hockey League and South Central Alberta Hockey League will see a delay into November before officially getting started under the current conditions, while programs like Timbits hockey could begin on time in October.
“The leagues that play in the city anyways aren’t going to be really affected,” he said. “I think you could say for some of the travel teams and the rep leagues, it’s probably going to be a month delay in the start time, at least, unless something happens.”
That being said, it won’t be a typical year on the ice for anyone. Baron says MHMHA is planning for a development season under Phase 2 regulations, which would consist of competition between teams inside the city, however travel to other cities could be included later in the season depending on provincial guidelines.
“As of right now non-essential travel and all that is still not recommended so that’s the plan to start with,” said Baron, adding local competitive teams could play games against each other early in the season in anticipation of their league starting later in the year. “Then those teams could just transition right into that league.”
Baron added communication will be the key to success in MHMHA’s return-to-play strategy, as guidelines and recommendations can change daily, and parents will need to stay up-to-date on all the pertinent information in order to ensure a safe hockey season for everyone.
“There’s going to be updates, it’s going to be a dynamic, fluid kind of thing that we’re going to have to be continuously up-to-date on and we’re going to try to share that information as quick as possible with everyone to try and avoid confusion,” he said, adding members will be updated through TeamSnap. “We appreciate the patience of our members and we just want them to know we’re updating them as fast as we can.”
More information on MHMHA’s return-to-play strategy – including guidelines currently in place for athletes and parents at the Family Leisure Centre’s Cenovus Arena – can be found on the association’s Facebook page.
