The Saskatchewan Male AAA Hockey League announced Thursday that due to the ongoing pandemic and health restrictions, both the male and female U18 AAA leagues in the province would postpone their seasons indefinitely, effectively bringing the 2020-21 campaign to an end.
The two leagues included a list of options the teams might take for their players, but the Warriors had been proactive on that front, sending their crew home this past Sunday.
“We knew it was coming,” said Warriors head coach Trevor Weisgerber. “Once we heard there were going to be no more games, it was to the point with all the billets and everything it just made sense to send the guys home now. That was the biggest thing.”
Like all minor hockey teams, the Warriors have been in practice-only mode since December, following the eight-players-and-two-coaches plan put in place in order to give players at least some ice time. But the timing of the Saskatchewan government’s most recent extension of the restrictions on Jan. 12 helped force the SMAAAHL’s hand.
“It was fine that way, we could have kept doing that, but just with the schooling it made sense to (shut down) now,” Weisgerber said. “And just with the billetts, it makes it tough that there’s not a lot we can do with the guys to keep them busy. On weekends we were sending them home and then they were coming back, it was just safer doing it this way.
“Now the guys can go home, they can come back and skate if it works out for them but the schooling and the billet things were the biggest.”
With a new school semester having just started, players should have an easier time of transferring classes back home. Vanier Collegiate academic counsellor Leanne Meili and Holy Trinity Catholic School Division technology coach Carter Davis -- also an assistant coach with the AAAs -- will help that process along, working with each player’s school to get things switched over as quickly as possible.
“School is a big part of the program,” Weisgerber said. “Where they’re trying to get to, if they’re playing in the Western League and they get schooling through there or they go and play Junior A and possibly get a scholarship in the United States, you still need good marks. It’s a big part of it and that was one of the things that went into it.”
One good thing to come out of the shutdown is the Warriors were able to make good use of their unique time on the ice, especially with one-to-one instruction.
“We were just doing lots of skill stuff and small area stuff so it was good,” Weisgerber said. “As far as the on-ice stuff it was fine, we got through a lot of with that. But with just no end in sight it was tough, at the end of the day it’s still nice to get full practices in with the team and having games in sight, but that wasn’t the case.”
If things do suddenly change on the COVID front and a sudden re-opening occurs in the near future, there’s nothing stopping the SMAAAHL from picking back up with an altered schedule. But that isn’t something that’s in the cards at the moment.
“If something was to change and they did give us a date, we’d bring guys back and get ‘er going for sure,” Weisgerber said. “But from what I understand it’s mid to late March for games at the earliest. We’re just hoping in September we can get things back to normal in the hockey world and hopefully be able to start on time and get some normalcy in general.”
