SJU hockey family,
It has been a pretty crazy year and an especially crazy few months since the start of the school year. The guys reported to campus the last week of August and a lot has happened since they returned.
Hockey was allowed to start small-group practices on October 1st, but the week prior to starting practice, we had a couple guys come down with COVID. This caused us to pause practice for a week and I required all of the guys to get tested before we started. These tests came up positive for a few more of the guys, but we were able to start with all the guys that tested negative on October 12. Things were going along well until we had another group of guys test positive at the end of October. This caused us to shut down one of our small groups and took us down to about 15 guys practicing. Finally, on November 5th, we officially put a pause on practices through Thanksgiving break. This pause was recently extended until mid-January by the university due to students leaving campus and returning to campus after visiting with family and friends for the holidays. The Governor’s mandate didn’t help things for hockey and other sports, either.
I should mention that my family was not immune to COVID either and everyone in my house went through having COVID. This took me away from the office and the guys for 14 days. With that said, the symptoms were mild for my wife and I and very little for my kids. I am thankful that it did not hit us too hard. I am also thankful that my kids will now have immunity and should be safe from getting it again. I have also learned how thankful I am for all teachers! I have become a preschool, 3rd grade and 5th grade teacher lately at home and I have no idea how they do it with 20+ kids in a classroom!
So, it has been a roller coaster of a school year so far. I can’t tell you how sad I feel for the guys on the team and especially the seniors. Everyone keeps saying that the seniors can get another year of eligibility, but hockey is different in a lot of ways and that additional year doesn’t appeal to many guys. Most of my guys played 2-3 years of junior hockey after high school, so most of the seniors have been out of high school for 6-7 years already. A few of my seniors are also 25 years old. They really don’t want to or can’t take another year off from getting on with the real world. It is sad for everyone involved.
Now for the big question…Are we going to have a season? The simple and only answer for that right now is, I don’t know! My emotions change daily on this possibility, but at this moment, I am not feeling very positive that we will have a season. There is so much that goes into that decision. The two major keys are: 1. The cost of testing and how often we will be required to test. 2. Will we have anyone to play? We already lost St. Olaf and I have heard that several other schools are leaning toward canceling their seasons. If any more conferences in Division III hockey drop out of this season, hockey will fall below the 30% needed to have a NCAA championship tournament. That would leave conferences with only their conference championships to play for. I do know that if we are allowed to play, it won’t happen until February and it will not include much more than 7-10 games. Again, I go back to how sad this is for the guys.
Well, I hope you appreciate the update. We should know more about our season after December 14th when the MIAC presidents meet. All we can do till then is present them with as much information about how we can have a season safely and why it is so important for the mental health of the athletes.
Thank you very much for your support of Johnnie Hockey and I hope you have a great Thanksgiving!
Doug Schueller
Head Hockey Coach
Saint John’s University
320-363-2242 office
320-250-5344 cell
