The North Island Bantam Eagles dreams of earning a third banner in West Vancouver this season have been crushed.
Hockey Canada has cancelled all Hockey Canada-sanctioned activities, including its national championships and all BC Hockey provincials and playoffs, until further notice.
North Island Bantam Eagles head coach Glenn Moore said it felt like a kick in the teeth when the news came out that his team wouldn’t be getting to play. “There is a moment of anger, a moment of frustration, but then you realize that the decision was made to protect the players and all that would be attending the championships and other events that were also cancelled,” he said, adding they received the news around 5-5:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 12, “which gave all involved with our team time to try and digest and make sense of it at home, and being Thursday, it was then time to go to the rink and be with our hockey family which has become so close this season.”
Moore said that when walking into the ‘barn’ for the last practice of the season, he didn’t know what the mood would be like. “I talked to a few of them in the lobby, then we met in the room and the reaction was ‘this really sucks, but we get it,’ they are such a classy group of young men.”
With that, Moore let the team shave his head and beard (he was originally going to let them do this after provincials) and then they went out and had one last fun practice on home ice.
“I still say they are the best bantam Tier 3 team in the province, and no one can prove me wrong,” he added.
@NIGazette
editor@northislandgazette.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter