DIDSURY – The 2020-21 Heritage Junior Hockey League season gets underway on Oct. 30, officials said today (Oct. 19).
Each of the 14 teams in the league, including the Didsbury-based Mountain View Colts, will play 20 games this season under modified COVID-19 pandemic protocols.
Gilbert Renaud is the league’s president.
“We have a north and a south division so basically what we are going to do is put sister teams together as suggested by Alberta Health,” said Renaud.
“You’ll have the two teams play each other four times in 10 days, then teams will sit for 14 days before picking another sister team. We will do that five times. We are happy we are going to get to play.”
League teams have been conducting exhibition games under the same format, with the Colts winning all four games against the Rocky Rams.
Hockey Alberta rules allow for 25 carded players on each team. If all 25 players are on the roster, the coaching staff and team officials will need to be masked.
“If some teams don’t carry all 25, then they can have coaches that can be part of the cohort and don’t need to mask,” he said.
The 2020-2021 schedule will be released within the next seven days, including which team the Colts will face first and when, he said.
The new season will see the return of a team from Three Hills, with the High River Flyers taking a leave of absence for the season, he said.
