LEWISTON — The Lewiston Area Youth Hockey League and its travel program, the Gladiators, will continue to operate despite the recent news that the Portland Junior Pirates have purchased all available ice time at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.

The LAYHL’s and Gladiators’ boards met Wednesday in an emergency session to talk about Tuesday’s joint announcement by the Pirates, Maine Hockey Group and Firland Management, owner of the Colisee.

“We’re moving forward with both programs,” LAYHL President Andy Guerin said. “The LAYHL and Gladiators are still intact, and we’re looking at other options that are viable for the program for ice time in different locations. There are a lot of possibilities.”

Many parents and LAYHL and Gladiators board members were surprised by Tuesday’s announcement.

“A lot of people weren’t happy with how it all happened,” Guerin said. “And the thing we want to make clear is, we’re not necessarily against what happened overall. They have a good program. But it’s how it happened. There was no two- or three-year plan discussed behind the scenes or anything. It was more or less just forced upon us. We’ve been around for 40-plus years and then all of a sudden told we have to go elsewhere.”

Guerin said since Tuesday’s announcement, he and other board members have fielded phone calls from and had conversations with other youth hockey organizations and arenas.

“We could get more of a commitment from Bates, we could get some extra time at Auburn,” Guerin said. “We’ve gotten a lot of feedback from area rinks and businesses that want to help us out, all the way to the Casco Bay area.”

While it’s clearly too early for the organizations to have a signed document guaranteeing a place to play, Guerin was optimistic that there would be a solution in place between now and the beginning of next season.

“It would probably be a combination of rinks in the area, but it will all depend on how many kids we have, and how many teams we need ice time for,” Guerin said.

As part of their announcement Tuesday, the Junior Pirates announced they would offer programs at both the house and travel levels out of the Colisee, for all age levels.

There are currently more than 550 youth hockey players who skate either for LAYHL or the Gladiators. The Gladiators, according to Guerin, currently have six teams, two each at the squirt, peewee and bantam levels.