(Tiffany Goodwein/CHATNewsToday)

By Tiffany Goodwein

Bow Island Minor Hockey Association pleading with province to lift restrictions on kids sports

Jan 23, 2021 | 7:47 PM

Bow Island, AB– 14-year-old Keely Timmons struggles to hold back tears while talking about what she loves most about playing hockey.

“I think just seeing your friends a lot. Getting out there and actually getting physical activity, rather than sitting inside all the time,” she said.

For Timmons, this is her eleventh year playing for the Bow Island Minor Hockey Association, and she said the shutdown has been hard on her and her teammates, many of whom she considers close friends

“It’s been really tough since we haven’t been able to see most of our friends,” she said

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Like many in the small community of just under 2,000, hockey is one of the few activities available for kids.

“ Hockey is life, that’s what we do in the winter. Small towns we don’t have the indoor recreation facilities, that the bigger centers do, we have school gymnasiums and things like that and any school sports are shut down other than P.E right now, so hockey is our go-to winter sport here and even though we are small, we are mighty,”mother Chantal Timmons said.

Timmons is the current president of the Bow Island Minor Hockey Association, and she said the shutdown has had a substantial impact on their players.

“ The overall impact we are hearing from our membership is the mental health of the kids just the fact that there is no physical activity. We got started late in the season, and most teams got maybe a maximum of two games in, prior to the shutdown and we got a few practices” Timmons said.

“But having two months of no hockey, when hockey is your life in a small town it takes a toll,”she said.

For the kids, life without hockey has been boring, to say the least.

“I don’t think a lot of people are getting out of the house anymore because lots of people used to watch the games and play and skate around and stuff,” said 12-year-old player Jackson Veilleux.

The shutdowns are also having an impact on the town’s budget, according to Bow Island Mayor Gordon Reynolds.

“In the last couple of months we probably lost close to $10,000 in income and you know for a small operation like ours that is quite significant,” Bow Island Mayor Gordon Reynolds said.

Currently, The County of Forty Mile, where Bow Island is situated has one active case of COVID-19. There are 114 recoveries and two deaths attributed to the pandemic.

The impact of the shutdowns on the small community has the Bow Island Minor Hockey Association issuing a petition, calling on the province to lift restrictions on kids sports. The petition so far has garnered around 200 signatures and has been shared with other rural hockey associations in the South Zone.

“Everybody has the same feelings if the kids can go to school together, and they can do P.E together, why can’t we put those same kids on the ice together and play the sport they love,” Timmons said.

She is also hoping the province considers a more regional approach when it comes to reopening.

“ We’ve done our part to reduce our cases, and lower our percent so we should be rewarded for that and our kids should be allowed to go back to the game,” she said.