More than 50 hockey players were happy to return to the ice this week for the annual hockey camps at the South Cariboo Rec Centre.
To comply with COVID-19 restrictions, players were split up into groups of 15 by age and did their best to physical distance off the ice. Despite this, however, the players were having a great time shaking the rust off their skates in preparation for the 2020-2021 season.
One of the instructors was Jaxson Nohr, who has been playing hockey pretty much his whole life and has been helping his father Sheldon with these camps for the past seven years. The two travel down to 100 Mile House from Williams Lake each year to run the camps and he said they love doing it.
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“It’s been going good so far, obviously we can’t do off-ice stuff and things like that, we can only focus on doing the on-ice stuff,” Nohr said. “But the changes we’ve made, making the ice time a little longer, has seemed to be good so far and the kids like it.”
They did their best to keep the players divided up by age groups, including Bantam and Midget, and have players of similar age practicing together. Nohr said he felt the players were enjoying the chance to exercise and get out of their houses for the first time in a while.
Nohr said he recognizes many of the players from previous camps and said it’s great to watch them grow and improve as players. As a result, they’re trying to do more than just basic drills and have been throwing in some team practice elements that will help them in their upcoming hockey season. He’s hopeful that B.C. Hockey will be able to come up with a plan to get players on the ice this year, as he feels it would be detrimental to their progress.
“100 Mile is our favourite place to come back to, they treat us really well here and we like all the kids here,” Nohr said.
