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Lloydminster Bobcats not returning to play in AJHL season restart
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The Lloydminster Bobcats will not be joining the rest of the AJHL as they gear up for their return to the season.
Due to public health restrictions, the Government of Saskatchewan has denied the team from participating in the Return to Play. The AJHL’s plan was approved by Alberta Health Services with training camps starting in March and games scheduled until May.
Bobcats General Manager and Head Coach Nigel Dube received word back about the team being sidelined before noon on February 25th. In a release, he says the organization exhausted every options in order to try and meet Saskatchewan’s requirements to no avail.
When hockey players make a major junior or an elite U18 hockey team and have to move away from home to play, they need a place to stay.
That’s where billet families come into play. A billet family will take in the player and treat him or her just like they were their own child. They give them a place to stay, sleep, eat, but also a place to grow and develop as a player and a person. And many times in the process, that ‘second family’ slowly becomes just another part of the family.
“It forms lifelong relationships with everybody involved,” said Dean Friedt, billet coordinator for the Prince Albert Raiders, and a longtime billet father himself. “Once they become part of your family, it’s hard to see them go when they move on after their stay in Prince Albert.”
Hockey players on Saskatchewan and Manitoba Western Hockey League teams will soon travel to Regina to join the league s hub format. The East Divisions intended start date of Mar. 12 will mark 366 days since the Regina Pats have played competitive hockey.
Ice will remain in Melfort’s Northern Lights Palace for the time being.
Originally, council was set to vote on Monday, Feb. 1 at their regular meeting whether to remove the ice beginning on Feb. 15. However, there was a delegation from the Melfort Mustangs as they were asking for council to hold off on voting to remove the ice.
The team is hoping to bring back some players to begin practicing in hopes of a Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League season.
As a result, council did not vote on keeping the ice in or removing it at Monday’s meeting and Facilities Manager Leonard Whitney told