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Frozen out of luck and it sucks

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It’s technically the truth when I say that I am undefeated in tournament play this year. But it’s hardly a satisfying result.

Friday the 13th of March was especially unkind to the hockey community, not just here but across the entire country, with regularly scheduled programming grinding to a halt. With nothing to do comes the inevitable realization that there is nothing to talk about, so I guess that it’s time to wrap things up.

The Yk Robins women's hockey team took top spot at the Moosehide Mammas tournament in Fort Simpson on Feb. 16. They are, front row from left, Maureen Hans, Alexandra Hennig, Jennifer Ryden, Summer Desjarlais, Traci Mercer-Sproule and Melanie Parker; back row from left, Patricia Oldfield, Keri-Ann Loutit, Lacey Taylor-Payne, Liz King, Kyra Powder, Heather Cane, Marika Cyr, Contessa Stead, Donna Bee and Karen Brown. photo courtesy of Jenn Ryden
The Yk Robins women's hockey team took top spot at the Moosehide Mammas tournament in Fort Simpson back in February. They are, front row from left, Maureen Hans, Alexandra Hennig, Jennifer Ryden, Summer Desjarlais, Traci Mercer-Sproule and Melanie Parker; back row from left, Patricia Oldfield, Keri-Ann Loutit, Lacey Taylor-Payne, Liz King, Kyra Powder, Heather Cane, Marika Cyr, Contessa Stead, Donna Bee and Karen Brown. There was a sure-fire guarantee that many of these ladies would have played in the Canadian North Balsillie Cup had it not been cancelled.
photo courtesy of Jenn Ryden

There are too many people to thank by name, and you all most certainly know who you are, so my thanks go out to the folks who made my time at the rinks time well spent.

The brain trust of the Over-45 League, the Bud’s North roster of the Oldtimer’s League, and the tireless WIMPS brass … you all went above and beyond.

Away from the rink, my thanks, as usual, go to this paper and its sports editor, James McCarthy, who may be hard pressed to find things to write about now. I can’t think of a more daunting task than filling column space documenting events that don’t happen.

James has been bringing you the stories that you want to read for many years, so may I suggest that the collective readership do him a big solid by returning the favour. Stories that deserve to be told can be found in this very section. Needed are the people to tell these stories.

During these times of self-isolation, you are advised to not venture outside to find a storyteller. But look no further than your own four walls and ask yourself, “Self, do I have what it takes to tell these readers about my favourite sport or activity?”

You won’t know until you actually give it a try, and I can tell you from many years of doing this that it requires no special skills other than being able to type and having an enthusiasm for doing what you do. Logically, you wouldn’t be doing what you do if you didn’t derive some internal satisfaction from it. So you can’t call yourself unqualified.

Give it a try, you will have an editor more than happy to help you with your first baby steps, or words, as the case may be.

My thanks go out to all of you for the great memories that we shared at the rinks during 2019-2020. Until life returns to normal, and it most assuredly will at some point, hang in there.

Hockey will come back, and when it does, it will be better than ever.