U.S. pandemic conditions could jeopardize entire Sault College hockey season

Sault College Athletics announced today that this season's hockey programs will be postponed until November due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The college stated in a news release that should pandemic conditions in the United States fail to improve, the entire 2020/21 season could be cancelled. The situation will be reassessed in October.

Full text of a news release issued by Sault College follows:

After a thorough assessment of the current COVID-19 pandemic, Sault College Athletics has decided to suspend its 2020/21 Men’s and Women’s American Collegiate Hockey Association hockey operations until November 2020. There will be a reassessment in October to determine if play could resume in January 2021. Unfortunately, our hockey programs face challenges similar to other leagues competing against teams from the United States. We are hopeful that today’s announcement is only a postponement of our season but should conditions not improve in the United States it may result in the cancellation of the full season.

“We made this decision after reviewing the cost/benefit analysis of playing hockey and ensuring the safety of our student athletes and ultimately our greater community. We all want to get back to sport, but until we can do so with the confidence that we are not placing our student athletes or others in our community at risk of infection, we must err on the side of caution even if that means postponing or if necessary cancelling our season.” – Paul Orazietti, manager of athletics, Sault College.