ShareSMHA Update - January 19, 2021
2021-01-20
January 19, 2021 Update Message from SMHAThe SMHA Board of Directors met last night to make some decisions on Saskatoon minor hockey moving forward.
It has been a strange year in so many ways. One positive is that our children have been able to get out and skate consistently for the entire season. Kids in Manitoba and Alberta have been off the ice completely since October in Manitoba and November 13th in Alberta. With the restrictions from games, it has not been ideal but we have been blessed in that our kids are able to mark a team practice on the fridge calendar and get out and have a skate and some fun and exercise with their hockey friends. This is also important for the mental well being of our children.
SMHA will be moving forward with the following plan:
The current provincial health orders are in effect until January 29, 2021. Therefore, we should see our next update from the province in the January 25 – 27 range. All teams will have ice times assigned to them through January 31, 2021.
U7 through U11 Age Groups:
The various provincial health orders we have had to work under this season have had the biggest impact on our U7, U9 and U11 age divisions.
SMHA has had to schedule our U7 - U11 teams on full ice for most of the season to meet the health order restrictions. This has a huge effect on the team budgets that are in place for the teams in these age divisions. In U7, practices typically have three teams on the ice and games have two teams. In U9 and U11, all ice times – games and practices – have two teams sharing the ice surface. When we require full ice for each U7 – U11 team, the costs are doubled to schedule our younger teams. Program budgets are based on shared ice times.
The U7 - U11 teams have been scheduled through January 31, 2021 and each team in these age groups will receive a minimum of four full-ice times in February.
The team budgets of all teams have been compared to the actual real costs of the ice times that have been assigned. SMHA has factored in all costs - practice ice, game ice, referees’ costs and provincials’ costs (U13 age groups and older where applicable).
The U7, U9 and U11 age groups will all come in over budget with SMHA subsidizing the additional cost in order to provide each of these teams with a minimum of four full-ice ice times through the month of February.
SMHA would like to be able to provide more but there are so many teams in the U7 – U11 age groups that it would not be a prudent decision. With 142 combined SMHA teams in these age divisions, it really adds up. As an example, if SMHA was to provide just one more full ice 60-minute practice for each team in U7 – U11, the total cost would be $30,000.
SMHA has been saying since the start of the season that we would endeavor to provide our teams the equivalent value of their program budget and we are doing as much as we can to achieve this.
U13 - U18 Age Groups:
In terms of ice times, the U13 - U18 age groups have not been affected as much as the younger age groups. The current practice format has required longer ice sessions to be assigned in order to provide more time for the split team format. However, all of the leagues in U13 – U18 have enough hours of ice still required that they will be able to carry into March.
The U13 and U15 age groups will be assigned an average of three ice times every two weeks as we move through February 2021.
The U18 age division will be assigned less ice times than other age groups moving forward through February.
SMHA is tracking all of our teams’ ice allocations closely. At season’s end (whenever that ends up being), SMHA will provide refunds to our zones for teams whose allocation dollars have not been fulfilled. Zones would then make the decision to offer refunds or credits to individual players as required.
Thank you to all players, coaches, volunteers and parents for their collective desire to keep our children participating in the game they love.
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