Six Cowichan Valley athletes are representing B.C. at the U16 Boys and Girls Field Hockey National Championships in Calgary this week.
B.C. has three U15 teams in the girls competition, and each one includes at least one player from the Valley.
Birkley Anderson, Chloe Langkammer and Ashlyn Toljander are suiting up for Team BC Blue, Anya Hermant is taking the field for Team BC White, and Jenna Goodman and Nicola Leech are playing for Team BC Yellow.
All six are new to the Field Hockey BC provincial program after making it through a lengthy selection process that began with training in the fall, and went on to the Regional Festival in April and selection camp in May.
Three of the players have older sisters who have played for Team BC in the past. Langkammer’s sister Stefanie played several years for Team BC and is now part of the UVic Vikes team, Toljander’s sister Kyla is currently part of the U18 Team BC Yellow team, and Goodman’s sister Sara moved from the provincial program to the national program, playing for the Canadian junior team at the 2016 Junior Pan Am Championships in Trinidad and Tobago earlier this year.
It’s not just a family connection, either, as Anderson and Hermant also list Sara Goodman as an inspiration in their bios on the Field Hockey BC website.
The U16 national championships run until Sunday.
