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Terrace players 'couldn't have done it without our coaches'

Terrace players, centre Sage Desjardins, defenseman Deborah Wraight, and goalie Meghan Pritchett talk about their U16 win
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Here’s team North following their historic Female U16 BC Cup win.

“We could make history...”

This is the thought that entered into the players of the North Female U16 team’s minds before the championship game at the U16 Female BC Cup – essentially the all star tournament of the female provincial minor hockey league, with six teams made up from 120 of the top female U16 players in B.C. – in Duncan on April 7.

But in fact, they’d already made history, as no North team had ever won more than one game, let alone all four of their games to make it into the final championship match.

Terrace players, centre Sage Desjardins, defenseman Deborah Wraight, and goalie Meghan Pritchett, teamed up with players from all over the north, as well as a handful of members of their provincial team – the Kermodes that had just weeks earlier taken gold at the provincial championships.

The North went into the tournament as an underdog, with the two Lower Mainland teams favoured to win and the Terrace players had mixed feelings about their prospects.

“We went to Winter Games last year and we got our butts kicked pretty bad,” said Desjardins.

“It was my first time playing on the U16 team,” said Pritchett. “I’d never actually played at that level before so it was a new experience for me.”

So, although feeling confident after their provincial win, the team didn’t go in with many expectations.

But at the first hour-long practise the team focussed and listened to their coaches, learning the system BC Hockey wanted them to run throughout the tournament.

“These girls played the system every shift, every game exactly how BC Hockey wanted it done,” said coach Mario Desjardins, noting that while the North team might not have been the most talented, it was the most coachable team of the tournament.

Part of the team’s focus was on blocking shots, with a goal of keeping their opponents shots on goal at less than 25 – and the girls have the bruises to prove how well they executed this task.

But aside from listening to their coaches and BC Hockey, the team quickly realized they could trust their teammates, and that there was an inherent intuitiveness amongst the players, many playing together for the first time.

“Our team fell into place right away,” said Wraight. “You made that pass and they were already there, they knew to be there. It wasn’t like you were throwing it praying to God that somebody was skating over there, they were just there.”

And so they worked their way through the tournament – scoring more goals during their first game against Kootenay than during last year’s Winter Games, beating Island in the second game, Kootenay for the second time in the third, and finally beating Lower Mainland Blue in the semi-finals, in a shootout, no less.

“That game was the one,” said Wraight.

Then, they took on the other Lower Mainland team, Green, in the final, beating them in a no-nonsense 2-1 match and sweeping the tournament.

The win was different from their provincial win because of the immediacy of it all – this weekend was it, and this team had just come together days earlier.

The win was “indescribable,” the girls all say in unison.

“It felt really different [from the provincial win] because we’d been with the provincial team all season, and then we just came together with this team from all over,” said Desjardins.

“With our provincial team we were together all season, and this one ... you’ve just gotta make it work,” said Wraight. “There’s no next game, there’s no way you can slide your way into a final, you’ve gotta do it right now.”

Coach Desjardins agrees that the tournament was a whole new level of excitement – but it’s also the result of years of hard work in the northwest to foster the female hockey program, and hopefully only the beginning of a trend.

Six years ago, when the Terrace Minor Hockey Association (TMHA) started female hockey in Terrace enrollment was 22 girls, he said. Now it’s grown to 70 and is still growing.

“Who would have known when these girls were nine-years-old when we first started that six years later they would have won a Silver medal, a Gold medal for provincials and a BC Hockey Championship,” he said.

Opportunities for female players are growing, with major scholarship opportunities available and junior leagues popping up all over the country.

“At the BC Cup ex-Olympians Gina Kingsbury and Rebecca Russell, whom are very involved with Canadian Female Hockey, said in the not too distant future female players will have a professional league where players will be getting paid to play, not NHL salaries of course, but at least getting paid what they love to do,” he said, noting female players are already getting paid in Russia.

“We are hoping that with this kind of success coming from the north in the last two years we will continue to see growth in enrollment in TMHA from female players as they see the fun and rewards that this game can have with a little hard work and commitment.”

And they’ll also get to experience solid coaching.

“We couldn’t have done with without everyone’s support,” said Wraight. “But we really couldn’t have done it without our coaches.”