A proud Blumenort mom says she followed her hockey-playing son across Canada even though it meant two weeks of quarantine upon her return.

Cindy Penner says her son, Spencer, has dreamed about joining a high calibre of hockey since he was young and was grateful to recently be drafted onto the Seattle Thunderbirds, a team in the Western Hockey League.

While competitive hockey leagues all across Manitoba have been cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, this opportunity in the WHL offers Spencer the chance to play. 

In a normal year, Penner says her son would have headed off to training camp in August and if he succeeded at making it onto the team he would have stayed out there, travelling around the western provinces and states playing hockey. But nothing happened as expected. COVID-19 delays bumped back the start date to September then October then again to December. Penner describes it as a constant state of uncertainty in which her son had to be up-to-date and ready to go at a moment's notice.

Finally, About three weeks ago, Spencer was finally contacted about this year’s season and his quarantine period began a short time later. To celebrate the long-awaited milestone, Penner joined her son as he flew west to Abbotsford.

‘I didn't want him going out there alone because he has to stay overnight in Abbotsford, and he just turned 17,' she details.‘Plus, if we had flown straight into the US, we would have had to stay in a hotel and wait for a negative test. So we thought the best thing was flying into Abbotsford and meet up with a player from Saskatchewan who will be his billet brother.’ From there, the two teammates plan to drive across the border, making the 2.5 hour trip to Seattle.

Cindy knows there is still lots of work ahead for Spencer, ‘it will be hard and he will be one of the younger players there, but he actually did make the team, so that's reassuring that he's not having to go out there to try out and then come back. We're relieved about that.'

It has been a long season for local hockey parents and the Penner family is aware of the fortunate position Spencer is in. 'All of these kids want to play hockey and Spencer knows that he's very lucky and blessed to be able to have this chance. We feel for our hockey community that can't play right now, can't even be practicing. So he knows it's an honour and hopefully he will do Blumenort proud'.

Cindy is familiar with the sacrifices that are made for sports and she does not regret the two weeks of mandatory quarantine she will be facing upon entry back into the province. 'I think it will be worth it,' she says.'This is something that he's worked for and we've supported him so that's just what you do.’

Spencer will be playing his very first game with the Seattle Thunderbirds on March 17.