PICTOU
Who says you can’t fight city hall?
After parents of Midget-aged played put up a battle against Hockey Nova Scotia (HNS) to allow Pictou County to ice two Midget A teams this season, the sport’s governing body in this province has blinked.
“They are permitting two Midget A teams,” said Troy Kelly, president of the Pictou County Minor Hockey Association.
The two teams have already been selected and will play against Midget A squads from Colchester, Cumberland and Antigonish counties, although Kelly did say that if one or both of them are too strong, they could get bumped up to AA.
“The kids are where they should be,” he said.
“I think it was a good decision. It cuts down on travel costs and it keeps the competitive (balance). The skill level of the players warrants two A teams.”
Opposed to travel costs by overnight weekends at least once a month to Cape Breton, most parents had balked at the idea of their sons playing the season in a Midget AA hockey league, against a team from Antigonish and three others from Cape Breton. One parent told The News that travel costs to Cape Breton last season added up to almost $4,000.
HNS originally told the parents their kids would have to either play Midget AA, or drop down to Midget C, which is non-contact recreation hockey.
Kelly said Midget-aged players often reach the point where they have part-time jobs and other interests, and might not be as willing to spend weekends away from home.
But ”they still want to play competitively, and the rec league isn’t for a lot of these kids,” he added.
