{"id":20913,"date":"2020-11-14T14:53:48","date_gmt":"2020-11-14T19:53:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=20913"},"modified":"2020-11-17T16:32:14","modified_gmt":"2020-11-17T21:32:14","slug":"safe-return-to-play-novice-hockey-during-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/safe-return-to-play-novice-hockey-during-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Safe return to play: Novice hockey during COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"

How novice hockey is happening in\u00a0Campbell River<\/a>, Vancouver Island<\/p>\n

By Odette Auger<\/em><\/p>\n

In the parking lot at\u00a0Strathcona Gardens Recreation Complex<\/a>,\u00a0COVID-19 Ambassadors<\/a> take in screening checklists, supervise hand sanitizing, as the novice hockey kids arrive at the arena.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Novice<\/a>

During COVID-19, the dressing room is either the parking lot or the forest. Seen here: Harvest Elliott, Novice CRMHA. Photo by Odette Auger.<\/p><\/div>\n

COVID-19 Ambassadors<\/h2>\n

The ambassadors are basically replacing the parents \u2014 without dressing rooms, the kids show up in all their gear, walking through the parking lot with skate guards. They ensure kids hand sanitize before putting on their gloves, and the masked ambassadors take the guards off and space them out six feet apart along the hallway in the arena.<\/p>\n

Campbell River Minor Hockey Association<\/a> (CRMHA) sends out regular emails outlining COVID-19 protocols. They include updates to how this translates to the arena, assessing how measures were working and making adjustments to troubleshoot.<\/p>\n

Jeanine Sumner and Jodi Check Broer are two of the COVID-19 ambassadors trained to support the novice age group. They share their thoughts and explain how things are different this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cUpon the kids returning to play,\u201d says Sumner,\u00a0 \u201cParent volunteers, such as ourselves, also known as COVID-19 ambassadors were identified and trained and that included new entry and exit points, no use of the change rooms. The kids were not allowed inside the building due to the capacity COVID-19 restrictions. So wearing masks, hand, sanitization health check screening for all the kids, ambassadors and coaches minimal contact with any inside the facility and arena, thorough disinfection protocols, tracking number of players, coaches, and volunteers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that it\u2019s a big pill for the parents to swallow,\u201d says Broer, \u201cThat they can\u2019t see their kids play, but at the end of the day, we\u2019re all just held happy that our kids are on the ice and playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Opening the doors \u2026\u2019<\/h2>\n

Opening the doors to the arena would normally mean entering a fully packed hallway \u2014 it would mean dodging exiting players from practice before, parents shepherding young players to dressing rooms, conversations. The benches would be covered in parents, grandparents sitting with coffee, younger siblings running around, playing with toy cars on the stairs, babies keeping warm under blankets.<\/p>\n

This year, there is no one. There\u2019s a table with extra screening forms, sanitizers, cleaning supplies. COVID-19 Ambassadors \u2014 originally up to five to assist with physically keeping kids separate \u2014 now only have two due to overall number limits in arena. The limit of \u201c50\u201d includes operations staff, coaches, COVID-19 support ambassadors and the players.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest changes that having cohorts is\u00a0 we\u2019re missing that community, seeing everybody all the different age groups, being able to watch the other teams. So that\u2019s a little bit sad, but hey, we\u2019re out here on the ice we\u2019re playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

To facilitate these changes, ambassadors and coaches had additional training and the arena itself is different.<\/p>\n

Only Rod Brind\u2019Amour area is functioning<\/h2>\n

Only Rod Brind\u2019Amour arena is functioning \u2014 Rink 2 doesn\u2019t have ice in, and it\u2019s filled with spaced out exercise equipment to use as exercise\/gym pods.<\/p>\n

The kids walk in and, instead of seeing their usual space, Rink 2, they walk down the halls to the Rod Brind\u2019Amour arena. The hallways later serve to direct travel, surfaces are sanitized after the kids walk through, and they don\u2019t return the same way. This ensures the spaces are prepped for the next group. There are markers on walls and rubber mats covering the floors.<\/p>\n

Limited capacity is probably the hardest thing, say parents. There is a fair bit of financial investment involved, and their time, energy to get kids to practices\u2026. parents want to watch their kids develop and grow.<\/p>\n

These ambassadors are volunteers, and they are also parents of kids playing.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeeping kids in sport, keeping them active is very important,\u201d says Sumner, \u201cAnd we\u2019re just so happy that they\u2019re able to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coaches<\/h2>\n

Coaches have also adjusted to the new measures, and these are subject to change as the COVID-19 situation changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d like to give a special shout out to all the dads and coaches,\u201d adds Broer, \u201cThat are taking their mornings and evenings two or three times a week to coach our little guys, especially lucky to have NHL player Carson Germyn for our age group. So thank you, Carson. Thank you. All the other dads and coaches, we are very blessed to have you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carson Germyn is one of the coaches working with the novice age group, and he discusses what has changed and what has not.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kids are excited to be out on the ice and they\u2019re having fun with their friends,\u201d says Germyn, \u201cThe ambassadors are doing a great job to keep everybody organized.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always in my back of my mind to stay away,\u201d he adds in regards to physical distancing. \u201cI mentioned it to them about keeping our distance and, and they\u2019re aware of it. It\u2019s just for us coaches and just to keep on them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor coaches or any kind of leader, you show that you\u2019re doing it, they will follow. So that\u2019s our biggest thing that I\u2019ve been telling the coaches to stay away.\u201d<\/p>\n

There have been some changes to how drills are done during practice, but Germyn describes what\u2019s most challenging.<\/p>\n

Keeping the kids away from each other<\/h2>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s also hard to keep the kids away from each other because they\u2019re excited to be out there\u2026 we\u2019re trying to do our best to keep them out of each other\u2019s faces.\u201d<\/p>\n

They have under five minutes between the end of practice and all players completely out of the building, again that\u2019s to ensure no cross-contamination of co-horts and to stay under 50 persons in the arena at one time.<\/p>\n

After the COVID-19 ambassadors help the players get their skate guards on, they are brought to the side door and parents are called. The parents don\u2019t approach close, just wave their kids over, as they appear at the door -one at a time, in quick succession.<\/p>\n

The Minor Hockey Association is constantly assessing and updating measures as required, but without the parent volunteers \u2014 COVID-19 ambassadors, and coaches, there wouldn\u2019t be any hockey this year for kids. So we\u2019ll end on a thank you to the volunteers at Campbell River Minor Hockey and Strathcona Gardens for the extra work, time and energy they are giving this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How novice hockey is happening in\u00a0Campbell River, Vancouver Island By Odette Auger In the parking lot at\u00a0Strathcona Gardens Recreation Complex,\u00a0COVID-19 Ambassadors take in screening checklists, supervise hand sanitizing, as the novice hockey kids arrive at the arena.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":20921,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,204],"tags":[3165,284,3164,3163],"radio":[252],"origine":[280,266,231],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20913"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20913"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=20913"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=20913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}