Warriors Take Measure to Avoid Illness

The mumps have been the talk of the hockey world over the past couple weeks with the number of NHL players being knocked out by the disease increasing each day.

It hit its high point when Pittsburgh Penguins' captain Sidney Crosby was sidelined over the weekend with the viral disease that has now infected 15 players on five different teams.

A hockey team is a pretty easy place for an illness, like the flu or mumps, to spread due to the close proximity of a locker room and players sharing water bottles during practices and games.

That has put teams across North America on high alert for the disease with the infections mounting.

Here in Moose Jaw, the Warriors are constantly working to keep their players healthy throughout the season.

“We're constantly cleaning the guys bottles, having the guys have their own water bottles. Same with the visitors that come in, we try to clean their bottles after every use,” said Brooke Koslofski, Warriors' athletic therapist. “We also give the guys daily vitamins, just to keep the immune system up and keep them healthy throughout the grind of the season.”

Playing 72 games over the course of seven months, or a seven-game in two-week road trip like the Warriors will go on in February can wear the teenage players down, which makes it key to keep the players feeling well.

“There's times when guys will get wore down, so we do stress getting to bed on time, lots of fluids and proper eating habits as well is really important,” said Koslofski. “As much as we can, we'll try to instill that in the guys and hope that they follow suit.”

Junior hockey players, even more so than NHL players, can be susceptible to illnesses being passed throughout the team as they spent almost every waking moment together and travel long distances on a bus.

Koslofski said that whether they're at home or on the road, they keep their precautions the same.

“Guys still take vitamins, we obviously eat very healthy on the road and the guys know that they need to get their rest with three-in-threes and games like that,” he said.

If a player is feeling under the weather, the Warriors will try to give him the time away needed to get back healthy before rejoining the team to avoid a spread.

“Tim (Hunter) is pretty good with that. Usually if the guys aren't feeling well, I'll tell Tim right away and he'll tell the guy to stay away for the day,” said Koslofski. “The quickest way to get it transmitted through the team is one guy comes in not feeling good and before you know it we've got four or five guys going to the doc.”

The team hasn't been asked to take any extra precautions at the moment, but Koslofski did add that he has spoken to Sask Health, who were inquiring about their process for keeping the spread of illness to a minimum.

Warriors captain Brayden Point received the mumps vaccine this week as he's in Toronto at the World Junior selection camp and Hockey Canada administered it to the players as a preventative measure with the tournament only a week away.