Sask. Hockey Association GM reflects on difficult season

The Saskatchewan Hockey Association is dealing with the bleak news its season may have come to an end.

In a memo last week, the association alerted parents that the government had said a return to play before the end of March was unlikely to happen. Some teams are able to continue practising but with a maximum of eight players on the ice at a time.

“It was pretty disheartening because we were trying to be optimistic that we could get back to practising as full teams by the middle of January and then hopefully playing games by the end of January, so it wasn’t a good message and not one that you want to send,” SHA general manager Kelly McClintock told the Green Zone on Tuesday.

“Right now, our hands our tied just because of the public health order and the limit of eight kids. (At) the end of November when all the sports were asked to come up with more restrictions, we sat down (with the government) and came up with some other restrictions in terms of mask-wearing in dressing rooms and limiting when spectators can come in.

“We weren’t ever made aware from anybody that a positive case of COVID was traced back to being a spectator in an arena.”

There is currently a petition online that has nearly 10,000 signatures asking for the province to allow hockey to return.

“It’s difficult for people to see people going to bars and restaurants and you can have 30 kids in a classroom but you can only have eight kids on the ice,” McClintock said.

McClintock said there has been some confusion from parents when it comes to who shut down hockey, saying some people think it was a decision made by the hockey association.

“I get a few nasty emails that we’re not doing anything (or) we’re not advocating for hockey, which is false. A lot of people think it’s Saskatchewan Hockey that shut down games and it’s not. My response is always, ‘Why would we want to shut down games? We’re the hockey association, we love hockey and we want to see kids playing,’ ” McClintock said.

McClintock said for the most part, a lot of parents and kids want to get out and play.

“If you’re from a bigger urban setting where there has been more (COVID) cases, more people have chosen to stay home,” he said. “But if you’re from a smaller rural community, which really (hockey) is all that you’ve got for kids to play, a lot of those associations have kept playing (and) they’re still practising. There might be some kids dwindling off but there was always that hope.

“That’s what I always said from the beginning of the year: We’re living on hope — a hope to be able to play (and) the hope to get back to some normalcy.”

He said the biggest thing he learned from the months hockey was able to run was that it was important parents did the proper pre-screening.

“If your son or daughter isn’t feeling well or you aren’t as a coach, stay home. I think at time, there were people who were bringing people to the rink who weren’t feeling well. I know there are people who took their kids to the rink after they or their kids were tested instead of quarantining,” McClintock said. “If people just followed the guidelines that were in place, we would have been fine.”

McClintock does say some small towns are definitely feeling a bit of an economic crunch due to having to run their rinks but not being allowed to hosts tournaments and events. He said there are about 350 rinks in Saskatchewan.

“What I’ve been advocating through the Business Response Team and the provincial government since October and November is to have the energy and power bills to arenas cut at least in half. I think that would go a long way in helping communities with the cost of keeping rinks alive,” he said.

“It wasn’t their fault we can’t play games (and) it wasn’t the government’s fault we can’t play games. It was due to COVID.”