[ad_1]
Article content
The Leamington Flyers and LaSalle Vipers saw the writing on the wall long before Monday’s announcement.
After months of trying to get a season up and running, the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League officially cancelled the 2020-21 season due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“That was pretty obvious that the season was done,” Vipers’ head coach and general manager John Nelson said. “It was just a matter of when they would officially announce it.”
Brent Garbutt, who was recently hired as the GOJHL’s new commissioner, made the announcement on Monday in a release.
“At this time, we will focus on planning for a successful return for the 2020-21 season, knowing full well that we are not yet out of this pandemic and there will be more obstacles to overcome in the future,” Garbutt said.
The latest provincial restrictions put at end to even the most optimistic observer’s hopes for a season considering the Sutherland Cup playoffs would normally be in semifinal play at this stage of the season.
Article content
“It’s unfortunate, but I think everyone knew it was inevitable,” Flyers’ general manager Justin Solcz said. “At the end of the day, we just have to stay safe, follow the guidelines and hopefully get going in September. That’s where our efforts are right now.”
Solcz started moving forward more than a month ago when the Flyers allowed seven players set to graduate from junior hockey move on to other teams in the hope of getting in some hockey this season.
“That was, at the time, the right thing to do,” Solcz said. “Just to give them a chance to play some meaningful games.”
Now, the club is moving forward with a Tuesday open house for potential players for the 2021-22 season.
“It’s virtual a Zoom meeting for potential prospects because who knows when we’ll be able to have a camp,” Solcz said. “Technically, we can June 1st, but at this point it’s still up in the air. We just want to get in front of prospective players and parents and tell them about our program.”
Nelson has also turned his focus to 2021-22 and has already signed prospects Nick Graniero, Noah Morneau and Owen Findlay in the past two months.
“As an organization and league, we put a massive effort to get the season off the ground, but it didn’t happen,” Nelson said. “We’ve been reasonably busy starting to sign players and committing to players for next year. You can only wait so long and if keep waiting, it’s going to be too late.”
Nelson said he feels for veterans like captain Jack Bowler, Evan Ferguson and Abdul Abouzeeni, who had the 2019-20 season cut short by the pandemic and were denied a final year of junior before aging out.
“They’re players that have put an enormous amount of time into our organization and all I can think of is how said it is,” Nelson said.
But while the plan is to move forward, there’s still plenty of uncertainty of when that will happen and how the junior hockey world will look.
“Typically, by April or May we get going with prospects camp and then kids come through to main camp in August,” Nelson said. “Right now, we’re in (limbo) because you can’t predict when we’ll have those camps.”
jpparker@postmedia.com
[ad_2]
Source link
