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Date: 11/4/2020
EASTHAMPTON – Gov. Charlie Baker has temporarily paused all indoor ice rinks and ice skating facilities effective Oct. 23 to Nov. 7.
A written statement from the governor that due to the rising cases of COVID-19 connected to indoor ice hockey, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health issued the facilities be closed. It does not include college and professional hockey programs.
Lossone Rink at Williston Northampton School has been closed to the public since March. Youth programs like the Nonotuck Valley Knights have used the rink in the past but with the rink being shut down to the public, they have been using Fitzgerald Rink in Holyoke.
The midget team’s coach, Jesse Belcher-Timme said his season was almost done but the rest of the teams’ seasons are just beginning. He said the kids were disappointed but not surprised when the coaches told them.
This closure now impacts the boys and girls varsity hockey teams.
“In a typical year, our rink is one of the busiest places on campus because it is used by many local teams and groups outside of the Williston community. As soon as the virus hit last spring, though, we shut down all public activities at the rink, and at this time, we plan to keep it closed until virus conditions improve,” said Director of Communications Ann Hallock.
The varsity hockey teams and their coaches have been the only people to use it for practices and scrimmages between their own players.
“For Williston, as for most prep schools, hockey is traditionally a winter sport. We have an extremely competitive program, and most of our hockey players compete year round. Typically, most of our ice hockey players would play on an outside ice hockey travel team on the weekends in preparation for the winter prep school season,” Athletic Director Mark Conroy said.
He added that because of the safety restrictions, their players are unable to come and go every weekend so the school put their ice down early to provide more opportunities for varsity-level players to have access to ice and coaching.
The junior varsity (JV) teams were scheduled to begin playing once the schools winter sports program begins.
Hallock said there have been no positive cases at the rink and no positive cases among the students at all.
“Williston has instituted extremely strict safety measures for our players in September, just as we have in all areas at our school, like our dining hall, dorms, theater, classrooms, athletic fields, and so on,” Hallock said.
Some rink-specific precautions include an additional layer of protection while skating, during practices the teams wear both masks and face shields and are tested every week along with the rest of the school community.
According to Conroy, the team has discussed having a few scrimmages with other teams who have similar testing and safety protocols starting Nov. 14. He told Reminder Publishing that they will work that out with other schools once it is clearer on whether the state mandate will lift on Nov. 7 or be extended.
“It certainly was disappointing news to our players. They are passionate about playing hockey and many of them go on to play at the college level, but obviously, safety has to come first at the school” Conroy said.
Although their ice time has been put to a pause, the hockey teams are still meeting to have non-ice activities like strength and skills training. Conroy said some of their varsity players participate in fall sports like soccer or field hockey and have been practicing with their other team.