Midget female hockey players in Northern Manitoba have a new goal to shoot for now as the Norman Regional Minor Hockey Association's elite female team is set to compete in the Manitoba Female Midget Hockey League this season.
Tryouts for the squad were held Sept. 12-13 at C.A. Nesbitt Arena in Thompson, where the 48 female players who showed up for a shot outnumbered the boys hoping to represent the Norman region on their own midget AA squad.
"We had one girl from Lac Brochet come out," said Maxine Larway, the director and manager of the team and until this summer the director of Thompson's female hockey program. "We were really pleased to see that."
Twenty of the players from tryouts were named to the team, which has eight players from Thompson, five from The Pas, three from Gillam, two from Cross Lake and one each from Wanless and Split Lake.
"This was a natural progression for the program," said NRMHA female director Mike Kohli, who first held tryouts for a regional midget AA female team two years ago, then had a team last season that played a limited exhibition schedule. "It's come a long way in a relatively short period of time."
The team was started in hopes of giving female players from Norman somewhere to pursue their sport at a high level, without moving away, as players departing for programs at Balmoral Hall or Notre Dame, Sask. depleted the talent level left in the North.
"It's going to be a really exciting year for female hockey in the North," said Kohli, who said the reaction of the girls who made the team let him know that this team is something that's needed. "I made the calls last Wednesday night and you could just hear the excitement in their voices when they found out they'd made the team."
Now comes the hard part.
The team will be facing the best female players from everywhere in Manitoba apart from Winnipeg, a group that includes the winners of the national female midget championship held last year.
"It's going to be an intense year," said Larway.
Half the team's 20 games will be played in the south of the province, while their 10 home games will be split between Thompson and The Pas.
"Thompson will be hosting two weekends as part of the regular game schedule," said Larway, the first Nov. 13-15 versus Central Plains and the second Jan. 15-17 versus Pembina Valley, the same weekend as the Thompson Tigers female hockey tournament. "This will be the first of its kind for Thompson."
The team will also take part in Esso Fun Days, for registered and prospective female minor hockey players, in The Pas this coming weekend and Thompson on the first weekend of October.
"We're using them as ambassadors of the game in The Pas and Thompson," said Kohli, while also giving them opportunities to practise together under head coach Jaymie Leary, something that won't happen as often as it does for southern teams, with Norman players living four to eight hours away from each other.
"It's going to be tough for them," said Kohli, who expects the team's successes won't be measured in wins or losses, based on last year's performances in exhibition, when they were outplayed in their first games against other region's female teams, but closed the gap by the time they played in the Christmas Classic tournament in Winnipeg.
"The way they fared was so much better," he said. "I think the team will be different at the end of the year."
Not only are they playing hockey for their home region, the players on this year's team are also paving the way for future players.
"They're really opening some doors," said Kohli. "The ones in the atom and peewee ages right now will get the big benefit."
Eventually, Kohli anticipates that the team will become like the Norman Northstars, with players billeted in one location to afford them the opportunity to practise together three or four times per week and give the coaching staff some control over their conditioning, something the players will have to take care of themselves right now.
"They've got their work cut out for them," said Kohli.
Still, he believes one day the team will be competitive with the squads from the south.
"I believe we have that kind of talent up here," he said. "It's just in the rough right now. How hard these girls work never ceases to amaze me."
Norman Female Midget AA Roster
Chanelle Arthurson, Gillam
Cassidy Bertholete, The Pas
Francis Blacksmith, Cross Lake
Danielle Campbell, Thompson
Lyndsey Chornoby, Split Lake
Brianne Hanson, Thompson
Dayna Hayes, The Pas
Cassandra Hickes, Thompson
Kimberly Kobar, The Pas
Ryley Larway, Thompson
Chelsea Lowe, Thompson
Brooke Lychuk, Thompson
Alexandra McKinnon, Wanless
Ranelle McKinnon, The Pas
Kadija McLellan, Thompson
Pamela McLeod, Gillam
Jamie Neepin, Gillam
Laurel Nychyporuk, Thompson
Jenelle Quiring, The Pas
Erin Sinclair, Cross Lake
