WEST CARLETON – Warm weather has put a delay on the West Carleton Outdoor Hockey League (WCOHL) (WCOHL), but organizers hope upcoming cold weather will help them kick off this Saturday (Jan. 18).

“We are cancelling tomorrow’s games in efforts to preserve the ice conditions,” WCOHL organizers said last Friday (Jan. 10).

Practices were also cancelled tonight as ice crews work furiously to get the outdoor rinks in tip-top shape.

“The ice crew has just informed us that unfortunately the flag will need to stay red tonight, so practices have to be cancelled,” the WCOHL said earlier this afternoon (Jan. 13). “They had to strip to the base to get all the sleet off. As a result, they had to use a lot of water to flood and it is not freezing quickly enough to be ready for tonight.”

But the goal is to kick off the season this weekend and the WCOHL is doing things a little different this season. The WCOHL hopes to showcase communities all season long and gamedays will be hosted in one participating community each Saturday with all age groups and teams playing on one outdoor rink each week.

“We are trying something new this year based on input from last year,” WCOHL organizers said. “We are going to highlight one community each week. We are going to try this year have one community hosting all the games each Saturday. The host community will rotate each week. We are hoping this might put a little less stress on parents trying to get kids to games on the same date but different communities, and hopefully avoid people not being able to attend.”

WCOHL executives also hope communities will organize winter carnivals around the outdoor hockey schedule.

“This will also allow, as you will see later in the year communities to coincide their winter activity days with hockey also being in the community, perhaps encouraging others to come out and celebrate this great season,” the WCOHL said. “As always at the end of the year we will look back to see how this worked. Feedback is always appreciated.”