I have received a question regarding the impact of Hockey's Calgary review and subsequent proposal on the realignment of hockey associations within Calgary. While the boundaries of GHC are not impacted by the proposal as our athletes are drawn from all communities within Hockey Calgary, there are however questions on how it will impact the availability of ice for GHC and how will it impact those hockey associations who have hosted our novice or atom teams in the past.
As associations have grown over the last five years our ability to secure host associations has been increasingly difficult and as an outcome of this proposal more associations will grow including Crowchild, McKnight, Westwood and Lake Bonavista who have all been great host associations in the past for GHC. Will these associations be willing to continue to sponsor female teams is not clear as they themselves are not totally clear on their enrollments for 2009-2010. This is not uncommon as we normally don’t receive commitment from Host Associations until late in the summer when enrollment numbers have firmed up.
Before we get overly concerned, it is important to understand that the guiding principle of the boundary review is to ensure equitable ice for all players including the female stream therefore any change will ensure GHC has access to ice. I have attended all the boundary review meetings and I can assure you the members of committee support Girls Hockey. The GHC board members are working diligently to ensure we have access to ice for GHC for next year and years to come. We are currently talking to both Crowchild Hockey Association and East Calgary Twin Arenas to identity opportunities to secure additional ice for GHC in those parts of the city. We are also talking to Hockey Calgary regarding access to ice for all our teams and Hockey Calgary is committed to the female game and will ensure we have the ice necessary ice to support both our community and elite programs.
Over the next number of weeks, we will continue to work with both Hockey Associations and arena facility operators to firm up our plans for next year and communicate the information to our membership at our Annual General Meeting.
