Young hockey players are back at it, chipping away at the ice at the Strathmore Family Centre in preparation for hockey season.

Every season, hundreds of kids from across southern Alberta pass through the doors for Strathmore’s arena, whether they are members of the home team or visitors.

Right now kids who play under Strathmore Minor Hockey Association (SMHA) are preparing for hockey season by attending skills camps and soon they will be attending tryouts and tier placements. Tristan Periard, vice president of Strathmore Minor Hockey Association says they are trying to make the process as normal as they can for local kids.

“With some of the changes, kids aren’t going to necessarily be playing in a league to start, and moving forward with that competition play we’re still going to try to make it as normal as we can, have a really fun year, so the kids are still developing and still have the opportunity to have some competition play,” said Periard.

“We’re not sure exactly how that looks, but we want to normalize it as much as we can for the kids,” she added.

Periard says they are running summer camps as they do each year, but there are a couple of minor changes requested by Hockey Alberta. For example, people are required to sign in when they visit and they need to verify that they haven’t been out of the country and have no symptoms of COVID-19.

“Otherwise everything else is running fairly normally for ice times,” she said.

Earlier in the summer, the Town of Strathmore unveiled a new setup in the lobby of the Strathmore Family Centre, for rink users as they access the ice.

“They are coming to the rink with their main gear on and then getting their skates on and then having to move,” said Periard.

It is unclear how the system is going to function in the winter months with cold, or rainy weather.

“We have requested the town to come up with additional plans because even when we move into our tiering and tryouts, when you’re pushing 400 kids through an arena what they have set up is not going to be cohesive and something we can do,” she explained.

She revealed that there are a few changes with how many parents will be allowed access in the building during tryouts, this can become a little tricky with younger hockey players that need parental supervision.

“It kind of depends on the organization and how they feel best to do it. Strathmore Minor Hockey is looking at one parent, our kids are younger, so it’s hard to just send them in there,” she said.

In terms of going to a game and cheering on local teams, Periard explained that spectators are allowed, but that the arena has a maximum of 50 spectators on the blue ice and gold ice each. There is also a maximum of 50 players on each side.

“So up to 100 on each side of the rink is allowed. But moving forward it really depends on the rink. Every rink is set up different and has different rules and restrictions,” she said.

For more information about local hockey camps and clinics visit the Strathmore Minor Hockey Association website HERE.