STF president calls to suspend hockey as COVID-19 continues to spread

Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation president Patrick Maze is asking for hockey and other recreational activities to cease operations as an added measure to keep COVID-19 cases out of schools across the province.

Maze said the province’s emphasis on keeping the economy and schools open for as long as possible means the province and parents should rethink priorities this winter.

“If that’s the game that we’re playing, then we need to figure, and some of these recreational opportunities need to be sacrificed, in order to keep schools open in order to keep the economy open,” he said.

Maze, a former Western Hockey League (WHL) referee, had teachers from five communities — Milestone, Martensville, Saskatoon, Weyburn and Yorkton — reach out to him to express concerns about classrooms turning up empty because students were ordered to be in isolation after attending a hockey practice or game.

“We go to all those great lengths to keep students safe only to find out there was a hockey practice last night and that’s where one kid had COVID-19, and now all of a sudden 20 or 30 kids are having to isolate because of it,” Maze said. “We think all the work that we’ve gone to is a waste of time and isn’t helpful if kids are going to go out and get it in the evening anyway.”

The Saskatchewan Hockey Association is preparing for a two-week shutdown from Dec. 17 to Dec. 31 over the Christmas break to try and curb the spread of COVID-19.

SHA general manager Kelly McClintock said his conversations with health officials can’t prove that hockey is the source of the spread.

“There’s certainly a lot of players and parents and coaches that have tested positive but they have been traced back to family events, school events, other church events and other activities,” McClintock said.

Through Sask. Sport, the province called all sporting organizations to look at ways they can tighten up restrictions this week.

Parents like Kim Beattie are being pulled in multiple directions trying to make a decision about how to proceed. Beattie is from Dinsmore and has three children — a 12-year-old and 17-year-old twins — playing minor hockey.

Since the community is too small to form teams of its own, players come from multiple communities in the area, including Outlook, where the high school closed its doors Friday to begin transitioning to online learning for two weeks because of multiple cases.

“On one hand I want my kids to be kids,” she said. “A huge part of me wants them to be able to do it all and live their lives as kids. I’m not sure where to draw that line. I don’t want to have to take everything away from them.”

One of her sons had a set of games cancelled this weekend as discussions continue among parents of her other sons’ teams. She simply has no idea what to do with the danger of spreading COVID-19 to multiple communities in the area looming.

It’s the first time in her life she hasn’t been able to look her children in the eyes and offer an answer.

“I seem to be saying, ‘I don’t know,’ a lot but it’s just the way I’m feeling right now,” Beattie said. “It’s just as frustrating for my kids as it is for me.”

The Martensville Minor Hockey Association temporarily suspended operations as the city northeast of Saskatoon grapples with sudden community transmission.

No matter where COVID-19 is finding its way into classrooms or hockey dressing rooms, Maze feels having more and more opportunities for kids to interact in close spaces isn’t going to improve Saskatchewan’s scenario.

“We need to not just increase measures, at some point we have to recognize that some activities have to cease,” he said. “We have to say it’s just not worth it if it ends up spreading at the hockey rink and then going and infecting our schools, then our parents are going to have to stay at home — that’s going to devastate our economy.

“We need to make some really tough decisions.”