High school hockey inching forward

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This article was published 17/09/2020 (2123 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Restarting hockey in Manitoba has not been a simple matter during the pandemic. Getting clarity on the status of the high school game requires another level of understanding and patience.

The Winnipeg High School Hockey League, which is normally home to 37 varsity boys teams playing in three divisions, has seven teams officially committed to playing games when Hockey Manitoba allows Phase 3 of its return-to-play program to go ahead.

Approval is not guaranteed.

“We’re hoping to have enough teams by the end of September that have been cleared to play by their school division,” WHSHL commissioner Dana Gordon said Thursday. “Essentially, what’s happening is the school divisions in the province — many of them including most of those in the city of Winnipeg and the metro area — have put a hold on all extracurricular activities, including high school hockey for the month of September.”

Practices and tryouts have been greenlit at Garden City, West Kildonan, Sturgeon Heights, Westwood, John Taylor, Lord Selkirk and Steinbach Regional. Perennial powerhouse St. Paul’s is expected to join that group soon.

Gordon wants to be patient, allowing as many schools to opt in as possible while also providing a full schedule of games. In a normal year, each team would play 24 regular-season games followed by best-of-three quarter-finals, semifinal and city finals.

“At this point we have some teams that have started this week, some will start next week,” she said. “They’ll be doing that through Phase 2. It’s up in the air as to when Phase 3 will actually begin. We’re hoping by Sept. 30 divisions will have made decisions and we’re going to reassess that later and go from there.”

Meanwhile, Manitoba’s lone varsity girls league has tentatively booked a Nov. 1 start.

“We are giving the teams until Sept. 30 to submit their roster — just because they’re waiting for school division approval,” said Winnipeg Women’s High School Hockey League president Lynne Syrenne-Habeck. “I have some schools that already said yes and are signed up and others who are just waiting for approval.”

While Sturgeon Heights and Garden City are the lone confirmed varsity girls teams, Syrenne-Habeck expects fewer than all 28 teams to play in 2020-21.

The landscape does not look as promising in rural areas, with the seven-team Zone 4 varsity boys league in a holding pattern.

Superintendents from the league’s member schools, with the exception of Garden Valley School Division, have placed a ban on high school sports indefinitely. Officials will revisit the decision later this month.

Uncertainty about whether high school hockey will be played and the restart of an under-18 program in Winkler has put extra pressure on the supply of players. Tammy MacDonald, principal of Northlands Parkway Collegiate in Winkler, said her school may not have the numbers to ice a team even if Phase 3 is approved.

“The logical thing to do would be to move everyone in to a (under-18) program and forego it for a year, have everyone play (under-18) and everyone will have a place to play,” said MacDonald, who also serves as commissioner of Zone 4. “But it’s in the superintendents’ hands right now.”

Pandemic-related health guidelines can be extra challenging for schools travelling to games.

“When you look at transportation, we transport our kids by bus, so there’s a huge cost factor there if you have to take two buses to each (game) because you have to physically distance on a bus,” said MacDonald. “We can barely fit our team on one bus with all their equipment.”

Westman High School Hockey League co-president Corey Forbes has similar issues with his varsity boys loop, which includes 20 teams spread over four divisions. Minnedosa, Rivers, Gladstone-Sandy Bay and Pine Creek have already decided to opt out of 2020-21.

“We’re in hold mode here but if and when the province approves the games, then we’ll go with whatever we have,” said Forbes, who also coaches a combined team representing Glenboro, Carberry and Baldur. “If we lose four (teams), we still have 16.”

Forbes believes a 24-game regular season is doable.

“We’re in no rush here,” he said. “We can play league games and play playoffs and do whatever we want to do until the end of March.”

 

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14