Vegreville Minor Hockey Cancels Remainder of the Season

Vegreville Minor Hockey Cancels Remainder of the Season

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Michelle Pinon - News Advertiser

The Province’s recent decision not to allow team sports to be played has caused resounding anger and bitter disappointment from players and parents.

As far as the sport of hockey that means around 150 kids from Vegreville and surrounding area will no longer be able to play the game they love. It’s a hard pill to swallow and one that will have side effects now and in the future.

Sixteen-year-old Colby Warawa, who played on the U-18 team, was discouraged to hear the news and reacted by stating, ‘’ I wish I would have known that our season would not go ahead but I feel like we waited and waited and now private training can happen but we still wait.

VMHA President Tina Warawa

I know my friends and I would have followed any safety regulations just to be able to play. Teenagers complain about things like masks but we did it just to get to play. One of our favorite things is talking to each other in the dressing rooms but we were originally told we only had 20 minutes in the room so we did that, we just came in and changed and left. We followed all regulations and it is like that meant nothing to anyone.’’

Drayden van der Torre, who spent many years with Vegreville Minor Hockey, tried out for the Fort Saskatchewan AAA U-16 team this season and was selected to play there. He said, ‘’I think that it is maddening and this will be an entire year of lost development and will impact many people’s skill levels. I think it will impact future years because it will take a while to get everyone back in shape, (especially with the inability to access training) and bring the pace of the game back to the normal level. This will hopefully not have a lasting impact on my future years in hockey and I’m hoping that this will all go under the rug and the world can unpause.’’

Tina Warawa, who serves as the President of the Vegreville Minor Hockey Association, said the decision to cancel the rest of the season on January 31 was very difficult because many families were holding our hope they’d still be able to play.

“I understand that the province has hard choices to make and their top priority has to be safety, but I believe we could have provided a safe program also. In our schools we see kids from many communities

Read the full story in the February 10, 2021 edition of the News Advertiser - now online!

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