The Beardy’s and Okemasis Cree Nation will no longer be home to the Beardy’s Blackhawks midget AA and AAA hockey teams after the 2019-20 season.
Earlier this week, the Saskatchewan Hockey Association (SHA) made the decision not to approve their programs for the 2020-21 season.
Soon after the decision, a petition to save the midget AAA team started circulating — as of late Friday afternoon it has more than 2,300 signatures.
“Beardy’s gave me an opportunity to play the game I love when others didn’t, some of the best years of my life was wearing the Beardy’s logo,” one comment on the petition reads.
Blackhawks Minor Hockey Association (BMHA) president Jason Seesequasis said in an email Wednesday its member clubs are “profoundly saddened” by the SHA’s “short-sighted decision.”
“Our AAA Blackhawks are the only AAA midget team in all of Canada to be located on, and operated by, a First Nation. The only one. In this era of reconciliation, this team should be a point of pride, and a flagship franchise for a sport’s governing body like the SHA,” Seesequasis added.
The Notre Dame Argos also lost its AAA team while Estevan and Warman are gaining teams.
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In a memo sent to its membership Tuesday, the SHA indicated for the last three years its board of directors had been reviewing “both female midget and bantam hockey in the province along with the male midget AAA/AA hockey structure.”
Minor hockey associations had until Oct. 1 to submit an application to be reviewed by a task force created by the SHA.
“There was criteria that every application was evaluated against and the 12 chosen were the best that fit the criteria,” SHA general manager Kelly McClintock told Global News in an email.
According to the memo, some of those criteria included having an established hockey program, local coaching resources and billeting options.
The SHA did not specify exactly which criteria the Beardy’s team failed to meet.
The First Nation noted its midget AA and AAA programs have been around for more than 25 years.
“SHA gave no weight whatsoever to what these teams mean to Indigenous youth in Saskatchewan,” BMHA spokesperson Rick Gamble said in an email.
“People are sad and angry. However, this is not the end of the story.”
The BMHA indicated it plans on consulting with its clubs, other stakeholders and legal counsel to determine its next step.
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