South Stormont Minor Hockey Association

Dear Players, Parents and Volunteers:

In light of the announcement by the Province concerning the lifting of the Emergency Order for our area and being placed in the Orange section, the executive of SSMHA met on Saturday night to discuss whether or not to proceed with a winter session.

We had a very healthy discussion concerning this including:

• the movement in the number of cases within Eastern Ontario and especially South Stormont and Cornwall;
• third phase and variants of the virus;
• the upcoming reassessment in two weeks by the health unit;
• the health and safety of our players and volunteers;
• additional safety measures to be considered; and, the responsibilities of parents.

We have decided to have a winter session commencing on Feb 28, 2021. This allows us to coordinate our volunteers, pods, schedules, equipment, jerseys as well as providing an additional 2 weeks to assess the health unit updates.

We will be meeting this week and next to finalize the details of the winter session, including the number of ice times, number of weeks, refund calculations, scheduling, coaches, trainers, firmer self assessment screening protocols,etc.

We are very hopeful to provide a meaningful winter session, however, we also recognize that our plans may have to change depending on the future.

We thank you again for your patience and please note that we working very hard to provide hockey activities while also ensuring to the best of our ability to minimize the risk.

Yours in Hockey,

Robert Walker
President
SSMHA

Dear Players and Parents:

As noted in my last posting, the executive was to meet Feb 8 to assess any new information. This meeting did take place and we reviewed the extension of the Province of the Emergency Order to Feb 16, the current agreement with the arena facilities and our options at this time.

It was decided to put any final decisions on hold until Feb 16 and that we would meet again on that evening. At that point, we will assess the status of the Provincial measures, the Eastern Ontario Health Unit position, the arena facilities requirements and our association’s requirements for volunteers and assessing the overall health and safety concerns of all of our participants.

We will update and advise after our meeting on Feb 16.

Thank you for your patience.

Yours in Hockey,
Robert Walker
President
SSMHA

Hi Players & Parents

This is an update to the status of the winter session being worked on by SSMHA. The executive met last night and decided on the following items – please keep in mind that there are a lot of variables at play here and we are trying to fit within a lot of knowns and unknowns.

The emergency measures have been extended to the arena facilities till at least Feb 10, 2021 and thus cannot open until Feb 11, 2021. This date will be reviewed by the government and the health unit closer to that date and may be extended or lifted depending on cases and other criteria.

Due to this, we will not be starting on Jan 24, 2021 and have pushed back the possible restart. SSMHA does require time in order to arrange coaches, trainers and volunteers for our programs and thus we are looking at a possible Feb 28, 2021 restart. A Feb 28, 2021 restart will only happen if the arena is available, our area is deemed by the health unit to be a zone in which a sufficient number of players are allowed on the ice surface and that the overall safety of our players, parents, coaches & trainers is acceptable to the executive of SSMHA.

If we are able to restart on Feb 28, 2021, we will be offering a reduced session of 9 weeks instead of 12. We will refund the 25% difference to the parents. The session will end on May 1, 2021. If we are unable to restart on Feb 28, 2021 then we will be considering cancelling the winter session completely and we will refund 100% of the registration fees collected for the winter session.

Please note that all of this is tentative at best and we are simply trying to provide information as to a scenario that makes sense with everything we currently know.

We will be meeting again on Feb 8, 2021 to determine what options are available at that time and we hope to have a clearer picture of the situation. Until then, we appreciate your patience through all of this and hope that everyone is taking care and staying safe.

Yours in Hockey,

Robert Walker
President, SSMHA