Central Alberta was one of the host communities for the first annual Female Hockey Day held across Alberta on Saturday, January 21.
Natasha Laturnus, Sylvan Lake Minor Hockey Director of Female Hockey, was pleased to provide many events for female hockey players in conjunction with the bantam and midget Wildcat teams that call central Alberta home.
“Today in conjunction with Hockey Alberta – we are hosting the first annual Female Hockey Day across Alberta,” she said. “There are events happening all over the place with the main one being in Grande Prairie. We picked up a satellite event.”
The female hockey players of Central Alberta were treated to multiple seminars at C.P. Blakely School in Sylvan Lake including an hour of yoga from Studio Upstairs Yoga, an hour of Pound Fitness out of Lacombe and a half hour stretching seminar from Snap Fitness out of Sylvan Lake. The girls then had an hour long skate with current members of the midget and bantam Wildcats teams at the NexSource Centre - provided by Sylvan Lake Minor Hockey.
Laturnus was pleased to see the support of both the players and the community.
“We’re really lucky with the Wildcats program,” she said. “We have grown successfully in the last few years and we have a good number of people from all of the communities involved, which encompasses Spruce View, Bentley, Eckville, Sylvan Lake, Rocky Mountain House and Caroline. We have a large group of volunteers that work together to put on events like this one for all the girls.”
The female hockey players of Central Alberta were happy to have the time to be together - with many of them usually on opposite teams.
“The girls have been talking about it for a really long time,” Laturnus said. “We only have a bantam and midget team, so a lot of the girls are playing on co-ed teams for the younger ages. A lot of the novice and atom aged girls came in with big smiles because they get to do things with just girls.”
Laturnus believes that the strong showing is indicative of the growth of female hockey in Alberta.
“For our Wildcats, we’d like to do something like this every single year,” she said. “Female hockey in Central Alberta is definitely growing and has continually for many years. We are seeing more girls interested in the sport and they are coming out and doing more events like this.”
If you would like more information about Wildcats hockey, you can log on to rockyminorhockey.ca
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