| CMLA Return-to-Play Updates |
| As everyone has heard, the BC Provincial Health Officer has provided new guidance for Sport which will allow us to move into CMLA's Phase 2 of our Return-to-Play plan that we communicated on April 15th. While this is extremely exciting, it means there will be a bunch of work behind the scenes to prepare our Club to start participating in games both outdoors and indoors. We will need to get our Ref's through certification, Coaches through certification and start to work with our Local Commissions on season schedules. Our plan, which our Division Coordinators are now implementing, will be as follows: Effective Immediately Teams can now implement body checking and body contact during practices or scrimmages. Social distancing must still be maintained while not in drills or competition or while off the floor. Teams are now permitted to schedule scrimmages with other teams within our own Club in Outdoor Boxes only. These scrimmages can include Ref's if desired and Coaches have been instructed to ensure safety of the players as they haven't seen full game scenarios in some time and we don't want injuries if we can avoid them. Coaches will work with their Division Coordinators on June 5-6 to determine final team selections in each tier within their Division. At this point, players will be assigned to either A1, A2, B or C teams. In our Female Divisions, there won't be tiering this season so each Division will need to have balanced teams. Starting June 7th, teams will then practice in their new tiered teams to prepare for the start of out-of-club competition on June 15th. June 15th onward The PHO has approved the start of regular scheduled indoor games as long as certain criteria within the Province are achieved with regards to Covid rates, Hospital rates and Vaccination Rates. If those criteria are achieved, we will start playing games with teams within our Health Region (Fraser and Coastal Health). What must be emphasized is that Indoor facility regulations have not changed and we will be subject to arena limitations depending on where we are playing. This will mean no spectators, possible limit of players/bench staff or other criteria that we will communicate once we get it. BCLA Season Timeline The BCLA is still working through this latest announcement but from what we are getting so far, it looks like the BCLA Regular season will run until July 25th. There is also a possibility of a Lower Mainland Championship Tournament in Langley the second week of August. This isn't confirmed yet but is a possibility. While this is extremely positive news for a season, we need to still be safe, follow PHO guidelines and if your child is displaying symptoms, please call 811 and follow all recommendations including removing your child from play. Please be patient with your Coaches and Coordinators. They would love nothing more than to have parents in arenas watching their kids but we have to follow these guidelines or our City or neighboring City’s will stop competition. Thank you for your continued support and fingers crossed we are on our way back to some normalcy. CMLA Executive |