Sask. Hockey Association awaiting provincial sport review; third team has COVID outbreak

Hockey is beginning to feel the pinch of COVID-19.

Just over a week after the shutdown of the Martensville Minor Hockey Association, Saskatchewan has its third team listed on the COVID-19 exposure list from the Saskatchewan Health Authority.

The Balcarres Broncs senior team has at least two cases of COVID-19, following the protocols of the health authority.

On Nov. 13, outbreaks were declared in Prince Albert in the U19 P.A. Bruins hockey team and in the Global Sport Academy.

“(COVID outbreaks are issued when) in non-household settings, an outbreak is confirmed when two or more people test positive for COVID-19,” the health authority’s website reads.

Kelly McClintock, the general manager of the Saskatchewan Hockey Association, said Monday he only knew of one case involving the Broncs senior team.

“I haven’t heard that it’s been more than one player. They follow guidelines from 811, and players from both teams and officials were in isolation and watching themselves. I haven’t heard anything more than that,” he told 650 CKOM.

The Broncs declined to comment Monday.

On top of the Broncs outbreak, the SJHL also has postponed games involving the Melfort Mustangs due to a close contact exposure within the club, McClintock explained.

“It’s just like anywhere else. When somebody that’s involved with the team … and there’s been close contact, teams have been shutting down,” he said. “We (saw) it in many, many areas of the province … I think the key part in all of this is everyone in hockey is taking a cautious approach to things.”

The SJHL released a thread on Twitter about the situation, outlining that Saturday’s Mustangs game against La Ronge was being postponed due to the close contact.

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The Saturday November 21st game between Melfort and La Ronge was also postponed due to the same COVID-19 exposure.

The Melfort Mustangs can resume hockey activities on Sunday, November 29th.

Due to the privacy of this matter, there will be no further comments.

— SJHL (@theSJHL) November 23, 2020

“The player in question has been isolated and the organization is following all direct protocols from the health authorities,” the tweet from the league explains.

Last Monday, Saskatoon Minor Hockey Association executive director Kelly Boes said all indoor sports, hockey included, were going through reviews done by the Saskatchewan Health Authority.

McClintock opened up more about the reviews and hinted that more could be coming from the provincial government by week’s end.

“Whatever the provincial government does … that’s affecting all sport, not just hockey,” McClintock explained, before saying that all sports in the province were asked to try to tighten COVID restrictions as much as possible.

“Their indication at that time is they don’t want to shut down sport. But they wanted to have every sport look at what their return-to-sport guidelines are (and) how can they strengthen them even more … I suspect we might be hearing something by the end of the week from the Ministry of Health regarding some further tightening of sport.”

McClintock said the reviews wrapped up Friday.

The president also mentioned that with some associations or teams shutting down for a week or two due to close contacts, it’s two different outlooks when zoning in on both minor hockey as a whole and senior hockey.

“In senior hockey, what we’ve found is that if the kids go play some non-sanctioned hockey whether its rec hockey or somewhere, we’ve found that there’s been some exposure to COVID cases, or certainly, a lot more exposure from their work than what you have in minor hockey,” he said, before explaining that parents in family functions or social functions are driving some COVID exposure from minor hockey.

“One of the things in senior hockey we’d want to emphasize is that (the players) stick to their own team, and not go outside of that.”

McClintock said senior hockey has basically just started its year.

“We had meetings with all of our league presidents and they’re all pretty happy in terms of the games that took place … The key part is maybe just tightening down how much time is spent in a dressing room. Look at using two dressing rooms instead of one, that type of thing,” McClintock said.

McClintock also mentioned one aspect of COVID’s movement across Saskatchewan, claiming that rinks may not be the issue.

“The key is there are very, very few cases that have been traced back to a hockey event,” he said.