After a hiatus, the Shawville Minor Hockey Association is back and is in full swing, but the arenas might look a little different as COVID restrictions still apply on the ice and off.
After the long weekend in September the league . . .
was up and running with full capacity. Currently, most teams are averaged out around 15 members. President of the league Kerry Reasbeck said they are sitting at about the same number of registrations with around 130 and 140 from ages 4 to 18.
The current restrictions state that anyone 13 and over has to be double vaccinated, which also includes the coaches. Masks on and off the bench are still mandatory, with the exception of the kids on the ice who can pull it down as long as they are not close to one another.
As part of the Hockey Quebec six-phase plan that was released on June 2, the league is safely in the last phase. “We’re allowed to go to Ontario for tournaments. Like we’re pretty much back to normal,” said Reasbeck. But that wasn’t the case earlier in the year, as they had to adjust depending on the state of COVID-19, but she said with relief, “thank God. It’s a change in the right direction and not backwards.”
After a year of not organizing any sporting events or playing, Reasbeck pointed out that it took everyone a bit of time to get back into it but said since they have been back and playing for almost a month now, she said it has been great.
“We were one of the first arenas in our association to decide to be double vaxxed,” she said and added that it made people feel better and arenas check as you go in.
Fortunately for her league, Reasbeck said she didn’t lose many players; however, they did notice that they gained more lower-level players and some of the higher levels left, but registration has been steady.
“I think a lot of people just miss being in the arena around people. Just the love of hockey that so many of us have. We’re slowly getting back into tournaments and stuff like that. So the kids are starting to travel again and getting back to that normalcy I think for everybody was a good thing,” said Reasbeck.
written by Zainab Al-Mehdar
Shawville Nov 24, 2021
