The Western States Hockey League announced on Wednesday that it has canceled the upcoming 2020-21 season, and has begun preparing for the 2021-22 season.
“Based on the forecasted medical problems that could be ahead of us, the Board of Governors of the Western States Hockey League have voted to go dormant for the 2020-2021 season,” the league said in a statement. “The WSHL will immediately start preparing for a return in 2021-2022 season. This is the most burdensome and painful decision ever made at the WSHL Board of Governors level, however, we strongly feel that continuing operations in the current climate is not safe or conducive to the success of our member players, nor teams.
“On the grounds that, currently, there is no known vaccine, accompanied by extremely negative medical conditions, economic pitfalls, and the forecast of a resurgence of COVID-19, which could again be cause to terminate the season, the WSHL, with an abundance of caution, must make an extremely difficult decision.”
The WSHL is an AAU-sanctioned junior league, which falls outside of the purview of USA Hockey. The league has teams in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Washington, New Mexico and California as well as Alberta. The league was founded in 1993.
