Letter from the President

June 10, 2020

Greetings WAHC Predator Families!

We hope all is well with you and yours, especially with everything that has been going on the past couple of months, we are sure many of you are wondering what is the status of hockey for this season?  The end of last season was the beginning of the COVID 19 impact.  We had teams preparing for the youth State Tournaments and the day play was to begin the decision was made to cancel.  It was sudden and surprising, but a sign of more to come.  As everyone has been impacted by change lately, the WAHC Board wanted to reach out to offer some good news as planning is underway for the 2020-21 Hockey Season.  We received some guidance from Minnesota Hockey (our governing body), in regards to the upcoming season.  Here is the key paragraph from their communication to the state hockey associations this week. 

As things stand right now, Minnesota Hockey is preparing for a full regular season of youth hockey as close as possible to seasons past. Minnesota Hockey advises all associations to prepare for the regular season as they normally would.

As we look forward to welcome everyone back for another season of hockey in the Woodbury Area Hockey Club (WAHC), we are also preparing and reviewing current and new guidance from the city of Woodbury and the state.  As you have noticed since we began the COVID 19 situation things are and can be fluid.  We learn and adjust on the fly to what is required and what is necessary.  You can be confident that your child’s safety is paramount to anything and everything we do and is always in the forefront of our decision- making process.  We will be as transparent as we can to share with you the latest and greatest information and our plan for how we will handle the safety of your child when they are attending WAHC sanctioned events.  We have formed a COVID 19 committee that will meet regularly to review our policies and procedures to address this concern now and going forward.  Please reach out to us with any questions, suggestions or concerns you might have on this new reality we all need to manage going forward.

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We will begin registration in July as we have in the past.  It is a critical time to help us establish our numbers for final budgeting, number of teams, jerseys, etc.  We will provide more details about hockey specific items prior to registration, but generally we will be building on the past season’s direction and priorities. We have a diverse board with several years of service on the board and some new faces who bring good questions as to why things are done the way they are.  It is a good process that helps to focus us on the mission of our club, “To provide a gratifying and rewarding youth hockey experience in a positive, developmental environment.”  More info to come on all fronts, we just wanted to reach out to our members to give you an update on where things are at and with fingers crossed WAHC will start as normal.

Bill Kulesa
president@woodburyhockey.com