KIJHL season

By Earl Seitz

KIJHL season

KIJHL announces plans for the 2020-21 season

Sep 3, 2020 | 6:30 PM

KAMLOOPS — The Kootenay International Junior Hockey League has announced the size, shape, and format for the 2020-21 season.

There will be 17 teams. Hopefully, with the way 2020 has gone, this is not an omen — the season will start on Friday the 13th, November 13, with a 30-game regular season schedule.

Games, at least at the start of the season, will be played without fans in the arena.

And the teams will play in cohorts.

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“I think first and foremost we’re happy that there is a season.” says Kamloops Storm General Manager Matt Kolle. “I’m sure the players are excited. I know the coaches are.”

The 17 teams will be down from the 20 that played last season, with three teams taking a one year leave of absence.

For Spokane the border closure is the issue. The other teams opting out are the 100 Mile House Wranglers and Beaver Valley Nitehawks.

“That’s really 75 players that don’t get to play this year,” says Kolle. “I won’t say necessarily those 75, but that’s 75 less positions in our league.”

In order to cut down on costs and travel expenses, the 17 teams will play in cohorts, interchangeable over three phases in the season.

“Three cohorts of three teams throughout the Okanagan, Thompson and Shuswap.” says KIJHL Commissioner Jeff Dubois. “There will be a couple of breaks during the year for the composition of those cohorts to change, so that nobody is facing the same team 50 times in a season. It takes us out of our traditional divisional play, but that’s just what we need to deal with in a pretty unique situation.”

With no fans, no revenue at the gate, teams have had to increase the players’ pay-to-play fees. In the case of the Storm that will come in at just under $10,000 a player.

Even though the season won’t start for another two months, and then with few games, Kolle says the experience for the players will still be a full six months bang for the bucks.

“As much as the season has been pushed back as far as meaningful games, we’re still choosing to start September 8. We’re choosing to run a full program. We’re going to get a little creative. We have some ideas in our back pocket,” says Kolle. “Our program is actually going to be enhanced this year and the players are going to get that much more development. Have higher tempo practices and have scrimmages locally. I think there are some folks around our community that are still in town that can really bring up the tempo of what we’re offering and really push the level of the Storm players.”