qathet Regional District directors have voted not to support an initiative to allow 19- and 20-year-old junior hockey players to participate in on-ice activities
At the December 10 committee of the whole meeting, Powell River Kings general manager Chad van Diemen appeared online as a delegation with a request for the regional board to lobby the provincial public health officer to allow older players to participate.
Speaking to the committee, van Diemen said the Kings are doing what they can to salvage the season.
“That’s obviously pretty difficult with the restrictions put forward by the public health office,” said van Diemen. “With the latest restrictions put into place, our 19- and 20-year-olds have been deemed adults who are not allowed to participate in group sports.”
van Diemen said 48 per cent of the players in the league are 19 or 20, and for the Kings, it’s 50 per cent.
“As of right now, we have told our players they have the option to go home for the Christmas break and we’d like to reconvene on December 28,” said van Diemen. “It’s hard right now with the 19- and 20-year-olds, putting a day on them to come back, when they are deemed adults and not allowed on the ice.
“That’s obviously an important part of our team and we are looking for help from everywhere we can. What we are asking from the board is to help us lobby the public health officer with the goal of getting our 19- and 20-year-olds’ restrictions lifted, or an exemption of some sort to get them back on the ice, participating with their teammates.”
van Diemen said in the last three years, the Kings have had 18 former players who are playing university hockey in Canada or the United States, or professionally. He said 17 of them were in the league as 19- or 20-year-olds.
City director CaroleAnn Leishman made a motion that the committee recommend the board advocate via correspondence to the provincial health officer and to the minister of health requesting they increase the restricted age limit from 18-years-old to 20-years-old for junior hockey players in the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL), to allow these scholars/athletes to scrimmage and play with their teammates in order to allow them scholarship and recruitment opportunities, and further engage with the BCHL commissioner regarding any future restrictive measures to be ordered that are more fairly and equitably assessed. It was seconded by Electoral Area E director Andrew Fall.
Electoral Area A director and board chair Patrick Brabazon said the regional district is engaged in discussions with the ministry of health, specifically Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH), with regard to information they release in this community, and that’s as far as he’s willing to go.
“I am not willing to lobby the provincial health officer to change her orders, her directives, or otherwise modify her decisions based on her professional knowledge,” said Brabazon. “This is a serious mistake and I will be voting no.”
City director George Doubt said it was difficult for him to speak to the motion because he is a hockey fan and is missing the Kings’ games. He said the regional district has been supporting provincial health officer decisions. He added that it has been lobbying VCH to provide more information.
“I’m not in favour of actually lobbying the provincial health officer to change the orders, particularly if we do one, we will soon be getting applications from curling clubs and other organizations that want to modify the rules,” said Doubt. “In these times I think the provincial health officer needs our support. I won’t be voting in favour.”
Chief administrative officer Al Radke said 40-plus years ago, he made his way from the prairies to Kamloops to ply his trade, and he was fortunate enough to obtain a hockey scholarship to Michigan Tech. He said he understands what these 19- and 20-year-olds are going through because they are youth and it’s their last hurrah at trying to obtain a scholarship to go to a university.
“This is not only to extend their hockey career but to obtain an education at the same time,” said Radke. “Thankfully, that’s what I was able to do. I was able to extend my pro career by going to Europe, but after that, I had to fall back on my education and I’ve been using it ever since.”
Electoral Area C director Clay Brander said he has a lot of sympathy for businesses and sports teams trying to get through the pandemic. However, he has a hard time voting in favour on anything that will encourage more travel.
“The best thing we can do is stay home,” said Brander. “That is what the public health officer is recommending to us. Putting a community at risk by having people travel outside the community and come back on a regular basis, I don’t think I can support it.”
van Diemen said the team is not asking to travel or play games with other teams. He said the Kings just want to get the 19-and 20-year-olds practicing with the team again. He said the team would be able to play intrasquad games in that scenario.
Leishman said the inability for those older players to practice with their younger teammates “pretty much destroys the team and pretty much destroys some of those 19- and 20-year-olds’ futures for college scholarship,” so she was supporting the motion.
Electoral Area B director Mark Gisborne said there are heightened restrictions and BC residents are not to be engaging in social activities. He said this is a province-wide issue so he couldn’t support the resolution.
The committee defeated the motion to lobby for the 19- and 20-year-olds to be allowed to practice.
