Good evening Whalers families
First, I want to take this opportunity to say thank you for some valuable feedback. We have listened to your concerns andwould like to apologize if some parents have not been part of the communication process. The board is having a team managers / coaches / safety rep meeting on Tuesday, and I will ensure that all further information solicited in respect to any further team decision making. We are all in this crazy storm together (as our safety manager said, "we are all in the same storm, just not all in the same boat" J). I am confident that the DWMHA has some of the top safety protocols in place and we are following the direction of Public Health and our governing body, Hockey Nova Scotia.
I would like to clarify the following points.
1. Masks are to be always worn in the building and in the change room…Masks are to be taken off ONLY when immediately putting your helmet on and immediately leaving the dressing room to get onto the ice surface.
2. Any coach who is roster on more than one team MUST always wear a mask, no exceptions.
3. If a coach must interact with a child within 6 feet, they should “mask up” and then have the interaction.
4. No player can enter the building until the two deep persons have arrived. Coaches and or safety rep / manager will arrive 20 minutes before the ice time.
5. Players are to arrive no sooner then 15 minutes before ice time. Please have your child refrain from waiting outside with other players. If they must wait outside, they must be with their GROUP ONLY.
6. Players are to come as dressed as possible. For U11 and up at a minimum bottom gear, for U9 and U7 should be full gear including skates. As a point of clarity, there will be no skate tying by coaches.
7. No spectators whatsoever.
8. Safety rep and/or team manager are to send out the listed groupings (2 groups of 8 players and 2 coaches per team (If there are a full 17 players attending then one coach may have to be omitted. The player to coach ratio will be decided by the head coach)
9. These groupings cannot change during the next ten days.
10. Safety rep and/or team manager must be present at each session and direct players to their dressing rooms. Thesafety rep and/or team manager is permitted to stay in the rink to ensure safety protocols and available should they need to help a sick or injured player.
11. Bathroom breaks: please make sure parents get their children to use the washroom at the very last minute before leaving and getting dressed as possible.
12. Coaches will help goalies get gear on if need be...it would be much appreciated if they can come as fully dressed as much as possible.
13. DWMHA players cannot intermix groups for DWMHA ice times.
Private ice times are not under the purview of the DWMHA, but if rented cannot be under DWMHA or the team name.
14. For recreational teams (normally where two full teams are sharing the ice 1.5 hour practice times). The ice time will be split into TWO 40-minute sessions, 1 session for 1 team and the other session for the other team.
15. Any positive covid cases on a DWMHA rostered team, the team Safety Representative or manager must be notified immediately, who then notifies the DWMHA Safety Representative (Melissa Ruginski).
16. Any cancellation of ice due to COVID-19 must be requested through our ice scheduler, Deanette Williamson.
17. If looking for coaching assistance, our Technical Director, Bill Short, can be contacted.
In closing, thank you again for your continued support. We want to get back to normal, and are doing our absolute best to provide a safe practice environment until Public Health states we can get back to normal programming.
NOTE - If you are looking for contact information or general information, just click this link to be brought to our website - https://whalers.org
Thank you
Phil
Phil Power
President
DWMHA Board of Directors
president@whalers.org
GrayJay Sports
