While there’s a lot of time between now and the scheduled start of the Winter 2021 season on January 10, 2021, we are moving forward with opening registration in the hopes that we will be able to bring adult hockey back in a safe and responsible way by then.

If all goes to planned, we will be able to offer a 10 game season of 5-on-5 hockey, played in a jamboree-style format. This means coed, mixed skill teams and no playoffs or championship.

All information related to registration for the Winter 2021 season is located on the “Register for JAHA” page in the navigation menu or at this address. Please read the entire page before registering:

http://www.juneauhockey.org/organizations/1728/pages/76468

Please contact us at info@juneauhockey.org if you have any issues with the new registration system, questions about our COVID-19 mitigation measures, or any other questions/concerns you may have before registering.

After much thought, discussion, and observation, the JAHA Board of Directors has made the difficult decision to cancel the Fall 2020 season. When the Board unanimously voted in favor of postponing the season to September 27th, that was made with the caveat that if the COVID-19 situation in Juneau got worse, we would not proceed with the delayed/shortened Fall season for a number of reasons, chiefly public health and logistical concerns. Given that Juneau was in Level 2 alert status at the time this discussion was held in August and is currently in Level 3, the situation is objectively worse and thus we followed through on the cancellation.

Refunds for those players who registered will begin being processed immediately. The refund will go back to the card we have on file for you.

Be aware that this simply means that JAHA itself will not be organizing hockey. As long as Treadwell Arena remains open, there are private rental hours available to the public that can be used for playing hockey at your discretion and in compliance with COVID-19 mitigation protocols in place at the rink. Please visit Treadwell Arena’s website for more information: https://juneau.org/parks-recreation/treadwell-arena

Finally, on a personal note, while I’m saddened by the public health situation in Juneau and hope we can pull out of it quickly, I’m also incredibly proud of all the work put in by your board of volunteers who gathered on short notice and took time out of their lives to thoughtfully and respectfully represent their positions throughout all of these challenging conversations. I hope you will join me in sending them positive vibes and gratitude for their efforts. In the coming months, we will be shifting our focus to the Winter 2021 season and communicating progress to that end as we look to what we hope is a more normal time for all of us.

On behalf of the board, I would also like to extend a huge thank you to you—our membership—as we navigate this hopefully once-in-our-lifetime territory. None of us started 2020 knowing what was in store and we are dealing with something new almost every day. JAHA will be back before you know it.

Stay healthy and we hope to see you on the ice as soon as safely possible,

Jason Soza
President
Juneau Adult Hockey Association

JAHA Players,

First and foremost, on behalf of the JAHA Board of Directors, we hope this message finds you and yours safe and in good health. These are trying times for all and it’s hard to imagine that this time last month we were still playing hockey and hanging out in the locker room with our teams. We are looking forward to a return to those days.

Over the short amount of time from postponing the Winter ‘20 season until now, so much has changed. The temporary postponement of JAHA became permanent when Treadwell Arena closed for the season and statewide “hunker down” mandates precluded any sort of traditional banquet. This is all for the good of our community and we will all cope just fine missing a few games and not seeing each other at the Red Dog this month. However, all this does create some logistical issues to handle and we’ve been working to get our pucks in a row to ensure you, our membership, is taken care of and that JAHA is ready to roll when the Fall ’20 season starts.

To that end, I wanted to let you know what has been discussed by the JAHA board and what you can expect and look for over the next few weeks:

• REFUNDS: As of March 14th, when the Winter ‘20 season was postponed, each team had 1-2 regular season games and 2 playoff games left, for a total of 3-4 games. The prorated refund amounts are $51.43-$68.57, respectively. To offer you flexibility, you will have THREE OPTIONS for how you’d like JAHA to handle your refund: 1) refund back to the card on file (this is the default if no response), 2) credit your account, or 3) leave the amount with JAHA to donate to a local charity to help with COVID-19 impacts to the community. We will be distributing a survey in the coming weeks that will include information on elections AND refunds. Please be on the lookout for this!

• ELECTIONS: JAHA Board of Director elections are typically held at our annual membership meeting, i.e. spring banquet. Since we cannot do that this year, we will be conducting this year’s elections electronically. There are several benefits to this, primarily higher participation! Board positions up for election this year are Vice President, Treasurer, Registrar, Member-at-Large B, and all Tier Representative positions. Think about what position(s) you might want to run for — you can check out a description of each position in JAHA’s bylaws — and keep an eye out for the refund survey mentioned above, this will be your opportunity to throw your name in the hat!

• JERSEYS: The plan for Fall ‘20 is to mirror the Winter ’20 teams as closely as possible—for example, if you were on Driscoll’s Dugout in Tier B this season and sign up for Tier B this coming Fall, you will be put back on Driscoll’s Dugout. This will allow you to simply keep your current jersey over the summer and minimize the effort needed to swap jerseys between players. Even though you’re hanging on to them, please launder any JAHA jersey(s) or sponsored jersey(s) in your possession! We realize not everyone can or will sign up for the Fall season and some of you may leave town for one reason or another. If this applies to you, please let us know at info@juneauhockey.org and we’ll work with you to see what makes sense to get the jerseys back to JAHA before the start of next season. (If you are in the US Coast Guard and will be transferring out of Juneau this year, please contact Christopher Coutu.)

• PRE-SEASON KICKOFF PARTY: To leave you with some good news, we are still planning to party JAHA-style! Rather than an end-of-year spring banquet, we will look to arrange something towards the end of August to kick off the Fall ’20 season right. Stay tuned.

Thank you all for being a part of JAHA and look for more information soon.

Stay safe, stay healthy, and wash your hands ya filthy beauts.

— Commissioner Soza

Good evening JAHA players,

The talk and news of COVID-19 (aka “coronavirus”) has been inescapable lately. With unprecedented cancellations and postponements of major events both nationwide and regional, even Juneau staples like the Gold Medal basketball tournament and Folk Fest, the JAHA Board of Directors called meetings today to evaluate JAHA’s role and ultimate response to this threat in our community.

After talking it through, the decision was made to postpone the remainder of the Winter 2020 season until at least the end of March. This is effective immediately, meaning games scheduled for Sunday, March 15th and later will not happen until further notice. This was a very difficult conversation to have, but in support of the health and safety of our members as well as considering CDC’s social distancing recommendations, we felt it was JAHA’s civic duty to remove itself as a possible source of spread within Juneau.

We will actively monitor the situation and issue an update on the season, banquet, and board elections no later than Friday, March 27th. There are a number of possible options for the season that may be pursued depending on timing and other developments:

• Resume the delayed season in whole, including remaining regular season games and playoffs.
• Go right into playoffs, either double- or single-elimination or some other accelerated format.
• Cancel the remaining regular season games and playoffs.

In the case that any regular season games are canceled, prorated refunds will be issued automatically. At this time, we will wait on issuing refunds until a decision has been made about the postponed games.

We appreciate your patience and understanding as this all unfolds and hope to resume the season as quickly as we can.

If you have questions:

• About JAHA’s decision and how it impacts you as a player, contact info@juneauhockey.org.
• About Treadwell Arena’s operations, contact lauren.anderson@juneau.org

Please be safe and stay healthy. We will see you on the ice again soon!

Jason Soza
President

The Rainforest Classic is coming up fast, February 21-23, 2020!

This year, registration is open to those 21 and over. There will be two tiers of play, equivalent to JAHA Tier A and a combined Tier B/C.

You can register as a team for $1,000 or as an individual for $100. With registration you are guaranteed 3 games with potential for a fourth game if you advance to the championship and you will also be invited to attend the Rainforest Classic Banquet on February 22nd.

Register now and be sure to follow the Rainforest Classic Facebook page for tournament updates.

Please help us spread the word about this awesome Juneau hockey tradition! There will be a beer garden at the rink during the tournament for spectators. For those who want to play, simply go to www.RainforestClassic.com to register!