BONNYVILLE – Fans of the Bonnyville Sr. AA Pontiacs won’t be able to sit in the stands and cheer on the team this year.
The North Central Hockey League (NCHL) decided to cancel the 2020/21 season due to COVID-19.
Head coach Corey Wandler told Lakeland This Week a meeting was held that didn’t give them any other options but to not go ahead this year.
“The league didn’t have anything written out as far as what we’d be looking at,” he recalled. “They just kind of, in my mind, talked about the negatives, the case counts, cohorts, what’s going on there and the restrictions, but they didn’t talk about or have anything for us to discuss as far as what our return to play would look like.”
Based off of the provincial restrictions in place, Wandler noted the season would have been "extremely tough" for the league.
“If we want to play, there’s the cohort thing (where) you can play one team and once you’re finished with that team, whether it’s one game or two, you have to wait 14 full days before you can play another team,” he said. “If that was the case, then we’d have to wait and you’d only be playing hockey every third weekend.”
This could have a major impact on the Pontiacs, who have been struggling with commitment from their players for the past couple of years.
“That’s tough to juggle just because you’ve got guys with families who are working and are they going to want to come to the rink and practice and then wait a couple of weekends to play a couple of games? Commitment levels on senior hockey are always come and go,” Wandler detailed. “Guys can’t always get on the ice and they can’t always practice.”
Wandler stated the restrictions of some facilities were another concern, along with only being able to have 23 players on a team's roster throughout the entire season.
“Teams obviously weren’t happy about that because senior hockey players aren’t always going to be available on the weekend and we always have different guys coming and going so that was going to be tough for guys to scrape up a roster,” he explained. “You can’t have affiliate players to get you through a weekend with a couple of extra players from Jr. B or whatever.”
After each team was able to speak, the Morinville Kings put a motion on the floor to cancel the season outright. According to Wandler, the Pontiacs were the only team to vote against it.
“I thought we still had time, at least the league did, to draw something up and allow us to execute that return to play,” he noted. “Obviously, it was going to be a lot different from what we were used to but I didn’t think we needed to cancel. I just thought with the way the world is going right now, being able to get back into the rink with friends and teammates and being able to do that kind of life again, and just the longevity of the league and health of the players, getting out of their houses and to the rink to get exercise and to be part of a group again, I think that would have gone a long way.”
Although Wandler is disappointed with the season not going ahead, he stressed the decision was made for “the safety of the fans, players, everyone at the rink and everyone in these communities.”
“Obviously, we don’t want someone to get sick and take the chance of dying. We understand that, we just wish our fans and players stay safe through this pandemic, that we get through it, and we hope to get back in action next year and build a hockey team and start playing a year from now and by then everything is safe for everyone to go back to what we’re used to doing.”
