COVID-19 guidelines signs on the Art Hauser Centre doors. (Jeff D'Andrea/paNOW Staff)

By Jeff D'Andrea

Mandatory Masks

Masks ‘a small price to pay’ to watch hockey

Oct 21, 2020 | 4:31 PM

If you’re going to want to watch a hockey game in Prince Albert, or anywhere in the province, you’re going to have to wear a mask.

P.A. Minor Hockey technical director James Mays said that’s ‘a small price to pay’ to have hockey back, and the community has been understanding thus far. Mays has been at the Kinsmen Arena for the last 10 days to oversee tryouts and practices for teams in the area and said there were very few issues.

“I’ve been there every night and I think we’ve had to turn away or remind about half a dozen people, and we’re talking about players and parents, we’re talking about 250, maybe 300 people every night. Very few of them have not put on a mask, and nobody’s really made a big stink. It’s been ‘oh ok, no problem. It’s in my car, I forgot it.’ I think it’s a small price to pay, I think most people are saying, to get to watch hockey.”

Mays said that each team will enforce the rules themselves. Each team will appoint a “COVID-19 contact person” to connect with the Prince Albert Minor Hockey Association head office and the Saskatchewan Hockey Association to report those who aren’t wearing masks or to report a COVID-19 case. And if P.A. minor hockey or Sask. Hockey have protocol changes or other updates to send to players and parents, they will go through the team’s contact.

“We’re not going to have COVID police set up,” Mays said. “Each team will be told to have a COVID-19 contact person and what we’re going to be telling them is ‘just keep tabs on your group.’”

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Mays said they don’t want the team contact to necessarily confront a person not wearing their masks, but to report them afterward. Mays said if a person will not eventually comply with the rules, their child could be removed from the team.

“These are the rules. What you’re risking is the shutting down of A) your team B) this facility or C) our entire association if we don’t follow these rules,” Mays said. “If you don’t comply, we’ll just remove your child [from the team], plain and simple.”

Mays estimated concession stands would be selling food once regular-season games get going at the start of November. Although masks are mandatory, some commonsense exceptions will be made for those to enjoy their favourite rink treats.

What might be the biggest task for Mays and P.A. Minor Hockey is to design protocols for each rink, as no two rinks are built the same and present their own challenges.

“That’s where the difficulty in this whole process is, because every rink is so different. The Kinsmen is different than the Steuart, and the Steuart with their tiny lobby and dressing room is going to pose all kinds of issues,” Mays said. “Then you get to the community clubs, where a couple of the rinks don’t have any bleachers. They have the walkway over the benches… so the city is going to have to sit down and go through all their guidelines for those rinks.”

Mays said once all the teams are put together, protocols for each rink will be delivered to each parent.

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Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW