UNITY — Unity Minor Hockey will be led by president Dan Feser and he is serving in that position for one more year. Feser says he wanted to see what they started get finished as well as go through one non-pandemic year and go out on that note.
In his usual jovial fashion, Feser quips, “The executive also had to agree to step in on any conflicts of interest involving the parks and recreation director and the fact I am a quick-to-anger referees.” Feser’s wife, Lisa, is Unity’s new parks and recreation director.
“The pandemic was certainly a challenge to us and Hockey Sask and Sask. health navigated through. We had to add a COVID rep (Chad Walz) to our executive and put in so many safety and sanitation measures. The rink staff did an incredible job. We also broke up the registrations into three installments in case the season got shut down, which it did in 2020. Parents and the players did such a fantastic job of adapting to everything.”
Feser acknowledges that the pandemic practises are part of everyday life now. Everyone is more conscious of sanitation, and he affirms that the old “skate-it-out” mentality of playing through illness has been retired.
One of the changes initiated by UMH has been the move of registration to the summer. Feser notes that for logistical reasons, season planning and spreading out the financial demands for parents this move made sense. It also gives UMH time to find coaches and plan the season so that September isn’t so demanding. With UMH numbers remaining soli,d the early registration in summer of 2022 looks similar and it is the most the organization has ever seen in August.
Another change initiated by UMH is appointing a coaching committee to select coaches.
“We are in the enviable position of having more coaches than positions the last couple of years and we want to make it fair and give everyone a chance at coaching. We are also adding one designated person for scheduling all our events,” says Feser
UMH, for the long term, want to continue to make hockey as affordable as possible so everyone can experience the thrill of hockey participation. They will create a season program for all teams to use, similar to what Unity Minor Ball currently does.
As far as volunteer time given by executive members, Feser acknowledges that treasurer, Katherina McCrea, essentially has a full-time job for a couple of months as well as countless hours of work done for the organization throughout the season. Most of the co-ordinators have several hours of work per week until the season gets rolling and then transition into a work-as-called position. Referee co-ordinator, Scott Gilbert, also puts in several hours a week lining up officials for the season. Feser chuckles that the president’s job is the easiest.
“I’m not sure the average person realizes how much work goes into coaching between practise planning, game prep, physical practises and game management on the bench. Its at least 20 hours a week not including the lost sleep,” exclaims Feser.
Feser himself is a long time community sports volunteer with both minor ball and minor hockey programs.
“We are the envy of most communities with our young officials and Scott has done a wonderful job of mentoring and ensuring they are ready when their time comes. We are blessed to have Scott, Ashton Hewson and Linden Wells as local adult referees and Francis Kiefer showed incredible growth and then moved away on us. We have some high school kids who are outstanding young officials.”
Unity Minor Hockey executive, in addition to Feser, includes vice-president Curtis McLean, treasurer Kat McCrea, secretary Michelle Brown-Mclean, 18U co-ordinator Kim Berger, 15U co-ordinator Aaron Rewerts, 13U co-ordinator Graeme Gieni, 11U co-ordinator Jocelyn Clark, 9U co-ordinator Blaire Fowler and 7U co-ordinator Katy Kondratowicz. The AA representative is Shaun O’Brien. Dave Weber serves as coaching co-ordinator while Kent Headrick serves as female hockey co-ordinator. Chad Walz serves as UMH COVID-19 representative and member at large.
A new constitution and bylaws were approved at the May 16 annual general meeting, and the link is available on the UMH Facebook page.
Registration for fall 3-on-3 hockey opens Sept. 1 with the action beginning Sept. 27. Online registration opened July 4 and closes Sept. 5. UMH has a Facebook page that provides all the latest news and updates for members.
As summer slowly leaves us, the excitement of the action back in the arena is starting to build. The town of Unity website and social media pages will also keep residents up to date on what’s upcoming at the rink.
