PORT HAWKESBURY: Close to 100 female hockey players under the age of 13 from across the Atlantic Provinces will lay it all on the line at the Port Hawkesbury Civic Centre during a 12-game tournament, as they vie for the title of U13 AAA Atlantic Hockey Champions.
The Quad County Whitecaps were selected as Atlantic Championship hosts in November and after a 10-5-0-4 record, the squad of 17 girls have their eyes turned to this upcoming weekend.
“We’re so excited to host Atlantics. This is actually the first ever U13 AAA Atlantics and we’re looking forward to showing all the teams coming, a great event,” Head Coach Brittany Morell told The Reporter. “It is so huge for the area and I know the hospitality will be top of the line.”
She advised the group worked very well together as a team this season and showed a lot of character on and off the ice.
“I’m so lucky to have this group of talented, hardworking ladies,” Morell said. “We didn’t get the results at provincials we hoped for but the team played their hearts out. All the games were so close with an overtime loss and a loss with three seconds left in regulation; heart breakers.”
Wearing the black, white, and teal for the Strait area are: Carly Landry; Ali Chisholm; Joanna Cleary; Gracie Kenny; Isabella Sponagle; Olivia Morell; Krista Beaton; Maddison MacEachern; Kathryn MacKinnon; Lucy Morrow; Carrie Dorian; Fyfe Francis-MacDonald; Shawnn Richards; Flora Murphy; Ruby Brophy; Julia MacLellan; and Tessa MacKinnon.
Representing Newfoundland and Labrador as the provincial champions with a 16-0-0 regular season record are the Sportscraft Eastern Ice Breakers, after a 14-2-0-4 record the Metro West Force Warriors are the Nova Scotia provincial champions, SEFHA Fury are representatives from New Brunswick after a 20-1-3 season, while the Central Storm (Black) finished the season, with a 17-7-5 record, took home the provincial banner from Prince Edward Island.
Angie MacEachern, one of the organizers from the Whitecaps association, suggested this weekend, which is all about the girls, comes after four months of planning, preparing and executing what it takes to host a tournament of this caliber.
“It’s great. It’s very exciting,” MacEachern told The Reporter. “There’s been lots of planning, lots of coordination across the last couple of months but there’s been great community support from business sponsors to folks wanting to donate to hospitality rooms.”
Highlighting Port Hawkesbury as being a central location in the Strait area, she also explained it’s probably the only location that has the appropriate infrastructure to host all four travelling teams.
To be able to host the tournament in the first place speaks volumes to the Whitecaps organization, as they know Port Hawkesbury sometimes gets overlooked, in regards to tournaments of this size.
“When you host one of these tournaments, 100 per cent of the funds come from your host association, which means 100 per cent of our funds come from the local corporate and business sponsorships, for the full tournament, which is a huge thing,” MacEachern said. “Everything from ice times, to referee costs. We have to have a banquet for all the teams, hospitality for the weekend; all the funds come from all of those fundraising efforts.”
The opening ceremonies will take place at 7:15 p.m. on March 30, with the Whitecaps taking on the Storm immediately following, with the bronze medal and gold medal games scheduled for 9 a.m. and 12 p.m. respectively.
“Our whole parent group have been awesome and will be awesome heading into the tournament,” MacEachern said. “It takes a lot, and not only from our own team, but from our Quad County family of teams, that are really stepping up and wanting to help out.”
She indicated she’s extremely happy to see the increase in interest, exposure and offerings with women hockey throughout the region.
“All the female hockey in recent years, it has really grown, and we’ve seen that ourselves in our small area,” MacEachern said. “It’s crazy really how far it’s grown and how far it’s come. The Quad Counties are representing very well.”
The Whitecaps head coach advised the Strait area hockey association has come so far in a short period of time, noting there is already incredible talent throughout their zone across all levels.
“We had 11 Whitecaps teams make it to provincials and six of them made it to the championship game,” Morell said. “Four teams brought home championship banners. I think that shows how much we need our own U18AAA team here out of our zone.”
