We have been monitoring the ever-changing news surrounding the COVID-19 virus. Our primary concern is with the health and safety of all our players and families. At this time our governing body the AAU has suspended all sport related activity. Below you will find some information of what we know so far.
· Is our hockey season over? Well… as Lloyd once said to Mary “so you’re telling me there’s a chance”, we’re saying to you it is not technically over. It certainly has the odds against it, but we’re still planning for the season to resume. Three separate events need to happen in a specific timeframe to make this work:
1. The ORHL needs to find an alternate location for the Championship event. Unfortunately, the CAA Centre in Brampton is booked through April on weekends. We had a Board call yesterday and the league is actively trying to book a location(s) for the April 10th-12th weekend.
2. The AAU needs to resume licensed activity. Currently the 3-week suspension of licensed activities runs to April 3rd. If the AAU decides at that time to resume athletic play, we’re able to have our ORHL sanction and insurance again.
3. The cities we operate in need to reopen recreation facilities. Even if we wanted to skate our kids with independent insurance, as of right now, all city-run ice facilities in Burlington, Oakville and Milton are closed until April 4th.
· How does this impact next year and/or tryouts? Currently, we are continuing “as is” with our planned tryouts starting for most ages on April 15th. We hope to have tryouts wrapped by April 26th as there is a series of “dominos” that need to fall in sequence to ensure we have a smooth fall start to our hockey clubs (jersey fittings, gear fittings, orders, etc). Obviously, the status of COVID-19 will determine if we can continue to follow the plan, but as of now – we’re still aiming for April 15th and hoping for the best. We will be extending the early bird pricing so that more families have the opportunity to sign up at the lower rate (which – being honest - only was there to try and drive early registrations so we can have a better idea on jersey quantities to order).
Lastly, and the most important part of this message, this current situation is bigger than hockey. Whether you agree or disagree with the measures taken, it won’t change the fact that the actions taken by our communities, businesses and governments will undoubtedly have an impact on the local economy. Some businesses will suffer more than others for sure. We’ve seen our teams come together this year for numerous charity events and acts of goodwill – we’re now asking for one more please. If you or your family run a local business OR you have team sponsors who are local businesses – can you please email us the names of those companies? Our next group message will be an ask for all our Chill Hockey and Rage Hockey families to support this list of businesses during these difficult times. These businesses are part of our hockey family and we’d like to try and do our part to help out in times of need. After all, #hockeyisfamily
A sincere thank you to everyone for making #CHILLHockey and #RAGEHockey an incredible success this year.
Hoping to see everyone at the rink in April.