The Covid-19 virus outbreak has caused a number of local teams to be forced to end their seasons earlier while also causing Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre to close down for the foreseeable future.
The Cochrane Chaos semi-final series with the Calgary Titans and the Cochrane Generals and Okotoks Bisons third-round Heritage Junior Hockey League (HJHL) series that were both scheduled to take place Friday (Mar. 13) have been cancelled. Hockey Canada advised that all Hockey Canada sanctioned-events would be cancelled until further notice.
The 20th annual Yelnats Cup U18 hockey tournament has also been cancelled for the same reason. The organizing committee had this to say in a statement.
"Unfortunately this means that our Yelnats tournament is cancelled. Our committee will be meeting very soon to sort out the details. We will be continuing to post our grad bios on this page and any additional information. Thanks to everyone for your support and understanding."
The Yelnats tournament was set to take place at the end of the month at Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre (SLSFSC), which is closed effective immediately due to ongoing developments related to COVID 19. Chief executive officer Brian Felesky released this statement on Facebook.
"This difficult, but important decision comes following a series of announcements Sunday afternoon/evening including (but not limited to) the closure of K-12 and daycare by the Province of Alberta, the state of emergency declared last night by the City of Calgary closing all city pools and fitness facilities and other Town of Cochrane service closures not limited to the Cochrane Public Library and Visitor Information Centre."
"Our primary agenda, particularly in this case, is to remain proactive for the safety of our community. We are committed to and in alignment with the directives of the provincial health authorities to ensure we are essentially doing our part to help flatten a curve of contamination that may assist our local health care network provide sufficient resources for health coverage without nearing capacity. With everyone’s proactive response, perhaps we may see positive results in weeks as opposed to many months…only time will tell. As the virus continues to spread in communities across Canada, and with Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer raising the public risk to “serious”, we are seeing the need for increasingly bold action.
All monthly member payments are being suspended as of Monday, March 16 and any paid-in-full Memberships will be put on pause until further notice and expiry dates will be extended accordingly. We look forward to reopening our doors as soon as possible and welcoming everyone back. We will continue communication as we sort through many things that come with this type of unprecedented challenge. In the meantime, stay healthy and safe."
The Rocky View Roller Derby Association is postponing a number of future practices and games until further notice. All practices for the remainder of March are cancelled as well as their game on April 4.
Resorts of the Canadian Rockies has temporarily shut four of its ski hills, which includes the Nakiska Ski Area in Kananaskis Provincial Park, along with Canada Olympic Park in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. They are scheduled to be closed down for at least a week.
"Here at RCR our number one priority is the safety, health and well-being of our guests, team members, and the communities which we live, work and play in," said RCR's president and chief resorts officer - western resorts John Shea. "As tough a decision as this has been, we feel it is the right thing to do under the current circumstance. We sincerely apologize to you, our guests for this inconvenience.
"As always, we truly appreciate the support which we receive from you and thank you for that. We will evaluate a possible re-opening date for our resorts later in the week, and will look forward to welcoming you back to our resorts as things permit."
If the week-long suspension ends as scheduled, the resorts would resume operations on March 23.
More updates to follow.
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https://www.cochranetoday.ca/coronavirus-covid-19-information
