Game on: Kids' sports return to northern Ontario as COVID-19 restrictions ease, but some teams still waiting

Young athletes across northern Ontario are back in action this week with the easing of the latest COVID restrictions.

At the Haileybury Figure Skating Club, treasurer Maria Zafiris-Overton says the young skaters were bubbling over with excitement to be back in the arena.

She says a few were practicing on outside rinks in the past few weeks and sending photos and videos to their coaches.

"They're little troopers out there, so it's nice to see them all bundled up, working on their edges," says Zafiris-Overton, whose seven-year-old daughter is just starting figure skating.

"You may have seen some figure skaters in hockey jerseys and equipment just to keep warm."

The Powassan Voodoos junior hockey team had to cancel a few of their outdoor practices in recent weeks because it was too cold out.

Not allowed inside their arena, general manager Chris Dawson says they practiced on a cleared-off rink on Trout Lake in North Bay.

"Kinda funny that the first day we get back on normal ice would have been the nicest day over the last three, four weeks to practice outdoors," said Dawson of the team's first indoor practice this week.

"We're indoors finally, which we're not going to complain about."

In Wawa, 80 young hockey players are back on the ice for the first time in weeks.

Minor hockey association president Zachary White says last winter they were only allowed to hold practices.

He says they usually play games against teams from the nearby town of Chapleau, but that didn't fit pandemic rules because the two towns are in different health units.

White says this season started normally in fall, but then was shut down in December when the Omicron variant hit and new restrictions came in.

"So last year was tough on them and this year they were given a little taste of what it was like before this all happened at the start of the year and then the shutdown was disappointing for them again," White said.

"So these kids, they've missed a lot over the last two years."

White says his own kids are still missing out on the return of hockey in Wawa.

All three have tested positive for COVID-19 and are in quarantine along with him, but he hopes negative tests on Friday could put them back in the rink this weekend. 

"Disappointed that's for sure. Especially my oldest, she's a die-hard," said White.

"She loves to play hockey. She lives for hockey. For her it's been devastating."

But it's a slower return for school sports teams.

The Ontario Ministry of Education is not yet allowing games or practices for "high contact" sports like basketball and hockey.

Meanwhile, Sudbury's first high school cross-country ski race of the season was held Thursday.

But Lo-Ellen Park Secondary coach Colin Ward says community ski clubs have been holding races for weeks. 

"It's probably frustrating for all high school coaches watching clubs proceed almost full tilt, where your high school kids are not getting the same opportunity," said Ward.

"It's just another layer of bureaucracy to get through with the schools."

The closed school gyms have also meant that some club teams are still waiting for the starting whistle.

The 90 kids in Timmins Selects basketball have only been on the court a handful of times over the past two years.

President Jamie Lamothe says with schools keeping their gyms closed to the community there's nowhere to play in Timmins. 

"Nonexistent would be the word I would use. I feel terrible for these young kids who haven't had the opportunity to play sports," he said. 

"We just want to get back to that. Even if it's just training or fooling around in a gym."