Three Cochrane-area players are suiting up for Team Alberta’s U18 girls hockey team this year.
Cochrane Minor Hockey product Samantha Sutherland, Edge School’s Channia Alexander and former Edge School player Hannah Olenyk are all skating for Team Alberta.
Sutherland, 17, is currently attending the Warner Hockey School outside Lethbridge and Olenyk, 16, is now with the Notre Dame hockey program in Wilcox, Sask.
Olenyk and Sutherland are returning with increasing expectations being placed on them to lead. It’s Sutherland’s third season with the squad and Olenyk’s second.
Alexander, 15, was chosen for the first time and is one of just two 15-year-olds on the team.
Of the 88 players who tried out for Team Alberta in May, all three were still standing when the final team was chosen in September.
“Narrowing down to just 20 players is difficult, but we believe we’ve put together a team that can play well in every facet of the game,” Team Alberta female coordinator, Mike Kraichy, relates.
“It’s surreal, still,” says Sutherland of being chosen to play for Team Alberta U18 the third time. “Every year that I get called saying I made the team is probably one of the greatest feelings because representing your province is amazing. Getting to play against people from Quebec, Ontario, the Maritimes; not a lot of people get to do that.
“That experience alone is amazing.”
But the versatile forward who can play centre or wing can’t stay amazed because she now has a team to lead rather than follow.
“It’s way different. Because my first year there, I was just letting everyone else do their thing and not really speaking up at all. This year I find out I have a lot of responsibility on the team,” Sutherland offers. “In the end, it’s a positive for the team and myself. It’s a good learning experience. You learn a lot from people when you are a leader.”
Olenyk will also be asked to take a leadership role.
“I’m definitely vocal,” the playmaking forward admits. “Sometimes too much.”
But the leadership is welcome at this level.
“For a lot of us, it’s going to be a shock. It’s a lot better hockey than our club teams. It’s the best of the best. I feel, this year, Ontario’s going to be hard to beat. But we can do it because our team’s going to be very good this year.
“We have a shot at winning it all.”
Alexander will just be trying to soak up as much as she can. The Edge School defenceman is very much in awe of the U18 experience.
“It’s really exciting. It’s something I’ve always dreamed of. Making it as an under-age is also a bonus. It’s definitely something; I thought I achieved one of my goals.”
As a stay-at-home defenceman good at making that first pass to streaking forwards, she’ll be busy in her role with the U18 team.
The U18 side has been playing bantam boys teams in Calgary and Airdrie to sharpen up for the 2012 National Women’s Under-18 Championship, which goes November 7-11 in Dawson Creek, B.C.
“It helps us become a team before we go,” Alexander says of the U18 games against the bantams, “to be able to play together and understand what we’re doing on the ice and what we’re supposed to do with our systems.”
