Can't argue with Mother Nature
Bad weather moves Plate to this week, Powerful Peewees to March
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
RANKIN INLET
Mother Nature couldn't have picked a worse day to be in a bad mood last Thursday, Feb. 16, in Rankin Inlet.
Recreation co-ordinator David Clark had to postpone the Polar Bear Plate juvenile/junior 'C' hockey tournament for a week after bad weather cancelled the travel plans of visiting teams to Rankin Inlet this past Thursday, Feb. 16. - NNSL file photo |
Thursday was travel day for all the teams outside of Rankin to fly into the community for the annual Polar Bear Plate juvenile/junior 'C' hockey championship.
Nine teams were scheduled to compete in two divisions this past weekend, and recreation co-ordinator David Clark worked the phones trying to find a solution with the airline right up to mid-afternoon on the 16th before postponing the event for a week.
The Plate now gets underway tomorrow, Feb. 23, and runs through until Sunday, Feb. 26, in Rankin.
Clark said Rankin was overdue for some more bad weather and it just happened to come on a really bad day.
He said having all the players in and starting the games on Thursday makes for better, and safer, hockey for the players, as well as a good schedule for the fans.
"We were looking at adding the three games we lost on Thursday to Friday and Saturday's lineup, but that meant starting earlier, finishing later and really congesting the schedule, and that just isn't the way we want to go with the Polar Bear Plate," said Clark.
"You have to take player safety into consideration above everything else, and I didn't want to see any team have to play three full-contact games in one day.
"Yes, we wanted to host the Plate this past week, but you want to ensure you have a good schedule because that's the key to having the best possible hockey played at the tournament.
"The Polar Bear Plate brings out a lot of emotion among the players and coaches, and even the officials, because it's high intensity with the players going flat out, so it's just not fair to have to ask any one team to play three games in one day."
The Powerful Peewees tournament was originally scheduled for this coming weekend, and had to be moved back to March 17 to accommodate the Plate.
Clark said the Plate has to be given preference in this case because it's used for players to be assessed and selected to play for Team Kivalliq in the Challenge Cup junior 'C' championship.
He said the Cup also has to be moved back a week or two in Iqaluit to accommodate the schedule change.
"Moving the Powerful Peewees to March 17 should give our community and the teams across the region coming here for it, lots of time to adjust their plans.
"Now we just have to hope none of the tournaments are affected by bad weather going forward because the number of available weekends here is getting pretty low.
"We're lucky in Rankin to have our old ice plant still functioning, but, when you get into March you're worried about the weather warming up and ice and snow falling from the arena roof down onto the ice and fans.
"It's getting a little scary with so many events still to go, but all we can do is watch the weather and hope for the best."
