(Aaron Schulze/northeastNOW Staff)

By Mat Barrett

AAA Hockey Postponed

Mixed emotions for Trojans following U18 AAA hockey postponement

Jan 21, 2021 | 5:24 PM

There’s a little bit more clarity for U18 AAA hockey teams in Saskatchewan.

The Saskatchewan Male U18 AAA Hockey League (SMAAAHL) and the Saskatchewan Female U18 AAA Hockey League (SFMAAHL) made a joint announcement on Thursday, Jan. 21 as to what would happen with their season. The result being an indefinite postponement of their schedules, with the opportunity for a return to play in the near future.

“I think they’re deciding that it’s just best to suspend hockey,” said Tisdale Trojans Head Coach Dennis Kubat. “And then I guess in a month, two months’ time they might see how those numbers are and might change their opinion and maybe we can have a season later on.”

He said the AAA leagues in Saskatchewan have a lot more moving parts than some other leagues including schooling and billeting for their players.

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Kubat said communication from the league hasn’t been great since the shutdown in November, and while the announcement is disappointing, they at least have some answers now.

“It almost kind of gave us a little clarity for once,” he said. “Not just maybe this maybe that, just kind of telling the boys every couple of weeks, ‘this is what’s going on now, we’ve got to wait another two weeks, another two weeks.'”

If there is a return to play, the memo from the two leagues stated that there would be the option for teams to opt in or opt out of that return to play, something that Kubat says he doesn’t agree with.

“It doesn’t make much sense to me to have some teams in the league, and some not,” he said. “We’re supposed to be a unified league, we should all support each other one way or another, I don’t think it’s right if four or five teams are in and five or six teams aren’t, it’s just kind of stupid in my opinion.”

The Trojans had been practicing under Sask. health guidelines since the shutdown and players have continued to go to school in Tisdale, but Kubat said now with this announcement, they will be sending players back home once this semester concludes at the end of January. He added that now their players can continue training and go to school in their hometowns as they wait for more answers.

Kubat said there’s lots to take into account as well if there is a return to play including whether Tisdale would have ice in their rink come March or when play could resume. He added players would need to transfer their schooling once again to get back to playing. Kubat said the Trojans will wait and re-evaluate when there’s more clarity, but for now he hopes the players use this time to get better and stay positive.

“There could be a lot of worse things out there than not playing hockey for a year,” he said. “So we’re just trying to take the positives.”

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mat.barrett@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @matbarrett6