Attention CMHA members ! For those who missed the AGM, I wanted to brief you on some discussion around Return to Hockey for the kids....
After receiving the HC, OHF, OMHA Return to Play framework and also that for the Town of Collingwood, the CMHA has developed a draft for Return to Play that is currently in the draft stage and awaiting approval. Once we have the official word, we can obtain our appropriate Certificates to get Kids and Coaches back on ice.
Although we can't guarantee a date for this to happen, I am personally hopeful it will be in early September for some form of development skating. At this point Game play is not approved in Collingwood and is contingent upon an OMHA Development stage and the Town of Collingwood approval.
What will it at the Rink?... For the most part, what you are getting used to already in the community... distancing and masking. Upon arrival a Health Screening questionnaire and Contact tracing sheet. Designated change spots and dedicated entry and exit.
What will Hockey look like?... So OMHA has declared no Rep hockey for this season, so our centre like others, will operate in a House format. We will be following the new HC guidelines for U18 age cohorts and below. What we do know is that we have to follow "league bubbles" of 50 kids and "team bubbles" of 10 kids. This will allow us to potentially form 2 skill tiers within each cohort to keep kids at the best level playing field for all. Teams will ultimately be drafted to create balance and they would play each other within the same bubble.
Once Game play is approved by OMHA and TOC, then you will see 3v3 and 4v4 and eventually 5v5 format. The CMHA will be trying to optimize our ice (being only Central Park rink at this time) so that our smaller team sizes may be best half ice, and yet free up slots to play games full ice.
What is the most important thing here? REGISTRATION !!!!! We need everyone to register ASAP so that we can start disecting our numbers per cohort. So please stay committed to Hockey so that we can keep our kids developing at the best level and having fun doing it.
Please see the next article because Registration is now active on the website !!!!
Any questions, feel free to contact me at
[email protected] or 705-441-4964.