The Atlantic District began its “Let Hockey Play” initiative more than three weeks ago. The goal of this lobbying effort was to convince lawmakers (and particularly the governors of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware) to raise the number of participants allowed to be in indoor hockey arenas from 25 to 50 at a time, so that two full teams, a crew of officials, coaches, and time-and-score-keepers can participate in official hockey games.
During the intervening period, Pennsylvania has been forced to open up for official hockey games because a Federal Judge ruled some of Governor Wolf’s executive orders are unconstitutional. But New Jersey has apparently held firm on the restriction of 25 participants and no physical contact. This makes full hockey games for any age group above 8-and-under (8U, also known as “Mites”) virtually impossible.
The question is: Why is New Jersey maintaining its restrictions?
We know from previous reporting on RinkAtlas that a COVID-19 outbreak involving 13 hockey players occurred at Middletown Sports Complex beginning September 3.
All of us would prefer if there were no new COVID-19 cases associated in any way with hockey. But, let’s face it, the number of cases traced to Middletown Sports Complex is not more than the small outbreak we reported about in Nashua, NH in August, or the small outbreak associated with The War at the Well Tournament in Cromwell, Northford, and Hamden, CT in July. Neither of these situations resulted in the states increasing restrictions on hockey.
As a result of further research, we conclude that New Jersey may be holding off on expansion of number of participants not only because of this outbreak, but also because contact-tracing compliance may not be considered acceptable by New Jersey health authorities.
Last week Lisa Rozner of CBS New York reported that more than half of the people who contracted COVID-19 in Middletown Township are not cooperating with contact tracers. The source for this statement was Middletown Township Administrator Tony Mercantante.
The impression left by Rozner’s report is that the management of Middletown Sports Center is working with the Health Department, but the individuals who contracted COVID-19, at least to some extent, are not.
Rozner interviewed New Jersey State Senator Declan O’Scanlon (R – Holmdel) who said he was aware of the situation, his daughter plays hockey at Middletown Sports Complex, and went on to say, “I’m not panicking, and none of us should panic. It’s going to happen here and there. It doesn’t mean it’s going to lead to a massive increase.”
This is a reasonable position to take for a state senator who is himself part of the hockey community.
Our position is that we totally support immediate return to play for hockey in New Jersey. This means full youth hockey games with no spectators. We call upon Governor Murphy to make it clear that hockey can play, at least body-contact games1, so that the New Jersey Youth Hockey League and The Atlantic Youth Hockey League can start their seasons immediately.
However, The New Jersey Hockey Community needs to ask itself, are we doing all we can to minimize the risks of outbreaks? And also, are we working as closely as possible with the government in situations– like the COVID-19 outbreak that occurred in Middletown– where contact tracing unfortunately becomes necessary?
If we can’t say “yes” to both questions, it shouldn’t surprise us that New Jersey is saying “no” to us.
How Other Publications Cover This Issue
In its article, Middletown contact tracing: ‘Less than 50 percent of our calls are responded to positively’ on September 24, The Asbury Park Press reported that Middletown Township Administrator Anthony Mercantante said, “The only thing that’s been a bit of a hindrance are people aren’t all that cooperative when we’re trying to trace contacts. It’s the same old problem that’s talked about regularly at the governor’s press conferences. People aren’t all that cooperative…. What people should keep in mind is, no one’s looking for any personal information, they just want to give {other} people a heads-up that they’ve been exposed.”
Footnotes
1 By body-contact, we mean the limited form of contact permitted under USA Hockey rules in co-ed 8U, 10U, and 12U, women’s hockey, and adult non-check hockey.