Moose Jaw Minor Hockey clarifies plans to keep kids on ice training in December

Moose Jaw Minor Hockey says it has a plan to keep kids on the ice in the coming month, while following the province's new restrictions.

New measures announced earlier this week, which came into effect Friday, include suspending all team and group sports for a period of at least three weeks. Athletes under the age of 18 can still practise, though, provided they are able to distance and keep group sizes to a maximum of eight.

A tweet by the association Thursday night saying hockey was still on received backlash on social media, with some believing the tweet meant the association still planned on playing games.

"Maybe it was a poorly worded tweet. I do apologize for that," said Moose Jaw Minor Hockey president Chris Flanagan, adding a tweet has been sent clarifying the plan.

"We are not playing games. We are just training in our groups of eight. We're following every single restriction and guideline that the province has set out this week." 

The new schedule until the end of the year will see teams get one to two hours of ice time each week to practise, with a maximum of eight players on the ice at a time and everyone wearing masks.

Coaches can split their ice time in half, so two groups of eight players can get on the ice on the same day, or they can have eight players on for the entire time slot, and then have another group of eight on for the next practice.

Flanagan said other regulations include not using player benches and requiring everyone to come to the arena dressed to practise. No hockey bags are allowed, and safety captains are to attend and take attendance for COVID tracing.

Parents are not allowed to watch the practices, and can only come in to tie the skates of their children.

Flanagan said they are also adding more restrictions beyond the province's requirements, such as trying to keep kids together who attend the same school.

"[We'll] try to keep them all together so we're not mixing bubbles from the school system."

In a letter to parents, the association said there will be zero tolerance for teams that break any of the restrictions.

Those that do will be have their practice times put on pause until further notice.

"We're going to give it a shot here for the next couple of weeks," Flanagan said. "If it doesn't work, if teams aren't showing up or players don't want to participate, we'll re-look at our plan here and make a decision.

"We believe the mental health of physical activity is a very important thing for these kids. And right now we believe we can achieve that while being safe and following the guidelines."