Ponytails were flying and sticks were gliding along the ice at Cowichan Lake Sports Arena on Saturday, Jan. 5.
It was all about girls, and they played and skated as hard as their male counterparts in a Girls’ Hockey Jamboree hosted by Lake Cowichan District Minor Hockey Association..
It was a great opportunity for the all-girl teams to test out their skills on ice. LCDMH vice-president and coach Greg Clayton says the feedback at the end of the day was very encouraging.
“I was able to talk to a lot of the coaches and the parents and the players,” Clayton told the Gazette. “One thing that everybody said was let’s do it again next year. So I expect bigger and better things for next year.”
It was the first time the league had hosted such event, and the league’s new Female Development Coordinator, Sheryl Major, organized the one-day event. An exhausted, but happy, Major said she thought the girls had a lot of fun.
Major recently took over from Clayton, who was the former Female Development Coordinator, but the two of them have been working hand in hand with that area of hockey development this year.
Beginning at 8:30 a.m., six games of one hour and a quarter each were played by teams that were divided into two divisions for the occasion. Division One comprised the younger players: Initiation, Atom, and Novice, while Division Two was formed by PeeWee, Bantam and Midget players. Playing against the Lake Cowichan Lakers were the Cowichan Valley Capitals, as well as teams from the Alberni Valley, Victoria, Saanich and the Peninsula.
—editor@lakecowichangazette.com
