Hockey camps could be offered in August
CHE is proposing half-day sessions with 10 people on the ice training, if city’s arenas reopen in time
Canadian Hockey Enterprises remains hopeful of being able to offer summer camps in August.
The Peterborough company operates hockey tournaments and camps across North America.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced CHE to cancel 30 tournaments in the spring and its annual Just For Girls summer camp in Traverse City, Mich.
Their boys and girls camps in Kelowna, B.C., are going to go ahead with reduced sizes and social distancing measures, said Chad Cavanagh.
CHE has cancelled its July camps, which in Peterborough were set to begin July 13 at the Evinrude Centre. Cavanagh said they have not given up on August provided the province moves to stage three of its reopening plan and the city opens its arenas.
“We’ve made a model we have proposed to the city,” Cavanagh said, “not necessarily camps but we’re hoping to run, whatever the projected gathering sizes are, development skates. We are changing the camp model from a full day to a half-day style camp.
“We will be following all the protocols of how people will be entering and leaving the rink. The city has been really good to work with us. Hopefully, we will hit stage three here and it should be a good August for us, we hope.”
The city has not indicated when it will open local arenas.
“The city has been great to keep us in the loop but they are waiting, like everybody else, to see when stage three is announced,” Cavanagh said.
“I have talked to a lot of arena guys across North America and Ontario, privatized and non-privatized, and the hope is for municipalities to be slowly opening in August.
“What that will look like, we are not sure. We are planning on running four weeks of some skates and dryland training.”
Current ratios would allow for 10 people on the ice with one instructor per nine skaters. It is well below the 38 people CHE would normally have on the ice. They would also have 10 people doing a dryland session. The two groups would switch spots mid-morning. They would depart during the lunch hour with two new groups of 10 attending in the afternoon, Cavanagh said.
“The support we have been getting is amazing. We are going to be full for sure, which is awesome. It is just a matter of what full is going to look like. Everybody wants to skate. There are kids who are travelling to Burlington to get an hour’s worth of ice,” Cavanagh said.
They have proposed some of the protocols they have seen in private arenas to the city.
“We are going to work together on all of it. They welcome ideas,” he said. “Obviously, we want to protect our kids, but I think it is very vital our kids get back into sports, in a safe and organized manner, for their mental health.”
The pandemic has definitely impacted the company. CHE normally has seven full-time and two part-time employees. It also employs up to 70 counsellors through the summer. Cavanagh said two full-time employees have been laid off and CHE will hire only a fraction of the usual summer counsellors this year.
“We have hung in there. We have been proactive to create new programs, new tournaments, new U.S. locations in 2021,” Cavanagh said.
“It is definitely something you would never imagine, but we are working through it. We have great leadership with the group we have and (owner) Paul (Crowley) has been great to us,” he added.
“We are pretty fortunate for the years we have had and there is stability there to keep things moving in the right direction.”
The CHE tournament season starts up again in August and, so far, Cavanagh said, it has not cancelled any of its 2020-21 tournaments.
Check chehockey.com for updates.