McMeeken delay having major effect on local hockey

With the recent news that the opening of the W.J. McMeeken Centre would be delayed until at least the week of Oct. 10, some local hockey leagues have been forced to juggle ice time in order to get games and practices in.

One of those league’s is the Sault Female Hockey Association.

Much of the association has been affected by the delayed opening of the facility, which serves as somewhat of a home base for the group.

“I figure that teams in four of our five house league divisions will be impacted; as will four of six Wildcat rep teams; and two of three development teams. After Thanksgiving, even more teams will be impacted,” said SFHA President Elissa Plastino. “We started our season earlier this year than in previous years because of a new partnership with the Soo Pee Wee Hockey League which has our house league teams playing against their house league teams in several divisions. Due to lack of available ice in September when all of the leagues are getting started, many of our teams have now started playing games without having adequate time to practice beforehand. This first week of October was for many teams, going to be focused on practice – skills development and having the players get used to each other as a team. In most of our divisions we have players who are completely new to the game so the practice time early in the season is important.”

Plastino also said that the association has had little luck in rebooking ice time that would have been used at the McMeeken.

“I've been told that while there isn't additional ice time at other facilities currently available to accommodate our needs, the City is working with other user groups to see if they have any hours that they can give up to organizations impacted by the McMeeken delay,” Plastino said. “I'm not entirely optimistic, though we have a very good relationship with the city and I am confident they will do what they can to help us.”

Plastino spoke of the need for the SFHA to get creative in how they would handle practice time at other facilities, which included potentially converting practices at other facilities from full ice to half ice to accommodate teams.

She added that some of the Sault Wildcat teams have explored the idea of renting ice in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. though the additional rental costs wouldn’t be ideal.

“We’ll be looking at our options this week as we get more feed back from the city on the McMeeken’s status,” Plastino said. “Fingers crossed that this is only a short-term issue.”

In a release on Sept. 29, the city said “the exceptionally warm weather experienced this fall prevented the staff from installing the ice according to schedule. In addition, the conditions contributed to mould formation in the dressing rooms.”

Plastino would say that the goal of the association remains “to get these players on the ice making new friends, developing skills and, most of all, having fun.”