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Hornets season delayed until at least December

August 28, 2020   ·   0 Comments

Junior C fans won’t be filing into the New Tecumseth Recreation Centre to see the popular Alliston Hornets any time soon.

The regular season usually gets underway in mid September and that’s after exhibition games and the annual Alliston Hornets Junior C tournament.

Hockey Canada isn’t saying much about the start of hockey this year. There is very little information about what’s going to happen this season around the province from the governing body at this time.

Alliston Hornets head coach Travis Chapman, confirmed that the Provincial Junior Hockey League is looking for a start to the season in December.

“We’re planning for a December 1 start,” Chapman said. “Hopefully that means they will allow some fans to be in the arena.”

Current restrictions allow for gatherings of 50 people due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Once you get two teams, coaches, and trainers in the building, that number will be met very quickly.

“The hope is that pushing it back to December will allow for school openings,” Chapman said. “We will see what happens then and hopefully they will lift restrictions.”

The current plan is for the season to wrap up on March 2, then start the playoffs.

Hockey Canada has not allowed teams to have tryouts yet this season. Even if the go-ahead for tryouts was given, there’s no ice in the arenas.

Despite the fact that the Hornets have not been on the ice, and not allowed to have tryouts, Chapman said they will be ready to play.

“We already have a team signed. We pretty much have the whole team from last year back again except for the over age players. We have a couple of players who were AP’s last season that have signed with us. We did our scouting last year. If the puck dropped tomorrow, we would have a team ready to play.”

Several other leagues around the province have announced that they will also be starting play in December.

By Brian Lockhart

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