First
off, I want to personally thank our parents and players who have been doing
their part to keep Apsley Minor Hockey operational by following the Public
Health, Provincial and Municipal guidelines, as well as Hockey Canada, OHF, and
OMHA Return to Hockey Protocols, during this time. It’s not always easy to
follow these steps, but doing so allows the AMHA programming to keep going.
I also want to thank those of you who are unable to wear a mask for respectfully abiding by the social distancing guidelines. If you are unable to wear a mask, you are expected to do so in a respectful manner and stay socially distanced from others while at the NKCC.
Likewise, if you are able to wear a mask, we also ask that you do so in a respectful manner and stay socially distanced from others while at the NKCC.
Due to an extremely high number of people in the 7:15pm Skills & Scrimmage Session (U11 & U13) not following all of the guidelines, we have received numerous concerns and complaints from other parents and arena staff. The AMHA’s ability to run programming for this age group is in jeopardy. We do not want to be shut down if things do not change.
To this end, the AMHA is forced to reduce the number of people allowed to attend a session from two family members per player, to only one. This means only one family member will be allowed to bring their child to hockey for the 7:15pm session. Some people were already abusing the two person limit by bringing in additional family members. This simply was not fair to the people who were trying to do the right thing by only bringing one or two family members. Some exceptions may apply. For instance, parents with children in more than one session may have to stay through with their younger child for the next session. Or one parent may be working or a single parent has young children they are unable to leave at home. We understand that some of these situations are unavoidable.
Also, as mentioned a few weeks ago, parents and players must wear their masks while in the dressing rooms. Players and parents must also adhere to the 8 player limit per dressing room. If there are already 8 players in a dressing room, please utilize one of the chairs outside the rooms.
Please keep this in mind, that after our two week break at the start of November, the AMHA is set to resume with team practices and potentially games with other centres. In some centres no parents are allowed in the building. In other centres, no parents are allowed in the dressing rooms. In some, there are other very strict rules. We have it quite easy here in Apsley at the NKCC. The guidelines could be much more restrictive, but thankfully, they are not. Let’s not ruin the good thing we have by blatantly disregarding the guidelines that are in place or by taking any of this for granted.
Let’s keep hockey available for the kids. The success of how the AMHA activities run is also a test run for other programming at the NKCC. If we fail to make this work, others kids, not just hockey players, could miss out on programming, too.
Please remember, we are doing this for our kids and for the love of the game. I wish things could be normal and that we didn’t have to do all of this. I would love for our kids to be able to play hockey without all of the restrictions. I would love to see the stands full of parents, grandparents and siblings. I would love to have a normal season with tournaments and all of the great aspects of hockey we have come to know and love. Unfortunately, at this time, we can not so we must make the most of what we have and that centres around following the rules and guidelines put into place.
Thank you for your cooperation,
Josh Perks
President
Apsley Minor Hockey Association