Minor hockey organizations in Chatham-Kent are trying to adapt to an uncertain start to the 2020 season.
In mid-March, all hockey activity was suspended by the Ontario Minor Hockey Association due to the ongoing pandemic.
Carl Herder, president of Kent Minor Hockey Association, described the last several months as being a waiting game.
According to Herder, the last week of April is when the organization would have begun tryouts for the travel program, which has since been put on hold.
"We are certainly way behind in our normal schedule for normal hockey programming," he said. "The last couple of months we, along with every other association, has been trying to keep up with the planning for if hockey returns. Unfortunately, the most difficult part for us is the uncertainty."
Jack Brown, president and ice manager for the Chatham-Kent Cyclones, said he recently received notice from the municipality that council approved a recommendation to keep all arenas closed until September 1, regardless of what's allowed under the provincial phases.
Brown said he had seen some positive signs recently that play might soon be able to return, including a decision by Hockey Canada to allow provincial governing bodies to determine when a safe time to return to hockey is. Brown added that the Ontario Hockey Federation also recently rolled out its return to play expectation in June.
For Brown, this was hope that a return to play could be on the horizon.
"I've been working with our governing body, the Minor Hockey Alliance of Ontario, to understand how that's going to look for organizations at the grassroots level," said Brown. "We were investigating what we could do to begin programming but obviously with the municipality taking the stance that they have, that makes that more difficult. Normally through August, we would have our teams picked by now we would then have some early pre-season practices."
Herder said it wasn't a total shock to him that arenas would remain closed in Chatham-Kent for the summer.
"We've had a pretty good idea that nothing would start before early September. We haven't been planning for any programming to start prior to that. We haven't even opened registration," he said. "Usually, we open registration prior to the travel tryouts. "
According to Herder, all the uncertainty has left the organization hesitant to open up regression, over fears that it will create confusion overpricing.
"Our thought was, what if we can't offer full programming? We don't want to collect any registration fees until we're sure what we can offer," he explained. "Will we be able to offer anything? That's going to be the big question."
Brown said that although keeping the arenas closed might not be the most popular decision, he recognizes that it's being done to consider the health and safety of the community. However, he said he did feel some disappointment to see other municipalities working to open up their arenas and collaborating with local hockey user groups to make it happen.
"I just wish the municipality would have reached out to us and talked to us about what that could have looked like," said Brown. "Maybe there could have been an opportunity to open in July or August to give the kids in Chatham-Kent a chance to skate locally. "
Brown added that his fear is that after months of limited extra circular activities, parents will begin to send their children elsewhere to enjoy some time on the ice.
"You have a lot of people who want to get their kids on the ice, they've been off for such a long time now that they're going to start to look at going to arenas outside of our municipality... unfortunately that just creates more risk for the municipality," he said.
Both Herder and Brown said it all comes down to bringing back some normally in people's lives in a year that's been anything but normal.
"We're starting to feel sorry for the kids that they have nothing to do," said Herder. "We're really hoping to be able to bring some type of sport back to the youth."