Hi, this is Fred Wallace with ” Off the Wire “.
There was good news on the hockey front last week with the Collingwood Blues commencing a 6 game exhibition set with the Lindsay Muskies in the Ontario Junior Hockey League.
Furthermore, looking ahead there’s more positive steps for the hockey season with the Ontario Junior Super League set to open this weekend at their hub location in Shelburne.
( Note…Off the Wire was written before information from Shelburne Council last night came to light. Please see Nov 10/20 Bayshore Broadcasting Sports )
But, the horizon for hockey, as it pertains to the Ontario Hockey League, isn’t all clear.
I say this actually in light of the announcement last week by the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations.
The OFSAA Executive Council determined that the reopening process for Ontario will not allow them to conduct their Winter Season of Championships & Festivals.
As a result the Ontario High School Championships in 9 activities have been cancelled for 2021.
The 9 sports impacted are Girls Volleyball, Boys Basketball, Snowboard, Alpine & Nordic Skiing, Curling, Swimming, Wrestling &…. Hockey.
Now understand while the OFSAA decision was announced formally last week, the decision by the Executive Council has been months in the making, or maybe more correctly months in the waiting.
And the longer OFSAA waited and watched, the more they saw COVID-19 numbers climbing which led to their final decision.
True, the Winter Championships are generally conducted in March, but the season for most of those 9 activities normally commence in about 2 weeks time.
Why do I equate OFSAA with the OHL more so than the two hockey start ups ?
The Super League is technically in a bubble, or an ” In & Out Bubble ” if you will.
The Collingwood-Lindsay series has just two teams where everything can be centralized in 2 locations.
OFSAA by comparison is a huge territory that includes Grey-Bruce where numbers are low but also includes coronavirus hotspots like Peel, York, T.O. and Ottawa.
As a result, I see the OFSAA decision as more of a harbinger for the OHL than the Junior Hockey startups in Shelburne, Collingwood & Lindsay.
I’m Fred Wallace