Houston’s Bantam girls hockey team swept all four games at an Omineca league tournament in Burns Lake on the Oct. 29 weekend.
“The toughest competition is Burns Lake, and we beat them 4-0,” said head coach Devin Solotwinski. “They’re just hungry to play hockey, hungry to score goals.”
In just two years, the Bantam girls team have doubled their ice time at home and started to take more games on the road.
“It was just good timing. We called on Burns Lake—there’s some keeners there,” he said. Fraser Lake and Vanderhoof formed Bantam girls teams soon after.
Girls at the Bantam level are 13 to 15 years old, with a few older players to keep the rosters full.
Solotwinski said the Houston team is full of sharp skaters who dominates the league.
“It’s a group of girls who have been playing together for years, for the most part, first in ringette and now hockey,” he said.
Bantam is the highest level of girls hockey in Houston right now, but Solotwinski is hoping to chip away at getting higher-level hockey going.
Already, he has put together a traveling rep team to play a few tournaments outside the northwest, where the competition tends to be a lot tougher.
“There are teams and players on these female teams that make our boys look weak,” he said. “It’s an eye-opener.”
The Houston girls do play against boys teams as well, something Solotwinski said has given the team an edge.
Other towns have had a harder time landing ice time to get girls’ teams going, he said, but the Bantam girls are moving at a good clip in Houston.
“We’re fortunate here,” he said. “The girls are having a blast.”
