GREATER SPRINGFIELD – After a two-week shutdown, youth hockey players will be able to resume playing in indoor rinks.

Vice President Sherri Conway of the Greater Springfield Jr. Yellow Jackets said, “We were happy and quite surprised, to be honest, that the governor is allowing us to resume playing hockey.”

As a result of an increase in COVID-19 cases directly tied to hockey across Massachusetts, the state put a temporary halt on all ice activities except for college and professional hockey from Oct. 23 to Nov. 7.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) reported at least 30 clusters of COVID-19 associated with organized ice hockey activities that involved residents from more than 60 municipalities in the state.

“As an organization, we were obviously disappointed,” Conway explained, “But our main focus is the well-being of all the kids so I understood. This is our inaugural season as a new re-branded organization and because of that it took a lot of lead work to get us started adding the pandemic to it added many hours into starting us off right.”

She continued, “There were many challenges we had to face because of the pandemic, so it was a tough year to start off. New re-branded organization itself and then because we were also fighting a pandemic it just added a lot of hours. When we were shut down the second week, it was discouraging and disheartening for all the kids. We have fielded lots of questions from the parents this season since schools are not in session right now for most towns. It’s a good outlet for the kids, but again we understood because our main priority is the health and well-being of the children.”  

Based on demographic, the Springfield Capitals merged with the Wilbraham Twin Meadows Association last year into the Greater Springfield Jr. Yellow Jackets.

They have spent money ordering new game jerseys, practice jerseys and game socks for all the players. They also hired a referee, brought pucks and ordered all the equipment the team needed to run the organization.

They came up with strict guidelines with their home rink, Cyr Arena in Forest Park, such as new entrance and exits and hand sanitizers all over the rink. The organization is not allowing more than one spectator in the rink per player. In the locker rooms, they put X’s with tape for the children to sit six feet apart.

Typically, in a regular season, the organization would assign one locker room per team. Now, they’re assigning two per team. Usually there is anywhere from 10 to 14 kids a team. Instead of having that many players in one locker room, they’re splitting it so there’s anywhere from 5 to 7 players in the locker rooms to get changed. Players have to come dressed except for their helmet and skates. They also provided Jr. yellow jacket masks and gaiters to all the coaches, players and players’ families.

With the reopening of indoor ice and skating rinks, Gov. Charlie Baker implemented new restrictions that includes players,     coaches and officials must wear masks at all times.

“The new guidelines they set forth are understandable and actually somewhat worked in favor of the families,” Conway replied. “However, there was one new rule that is preventing players and coaches from Connecticut to participate now. Any non-Mass. resident is not allowed to play in Massachusetts. We have about six families that live in Connecticut.”

She went on to state, “The organization and the rink have put new processes in place to help keep everyone safe and follow the new guidelines. We are ready to play.”