They’ve changed their coach. They’ve changed their name.
But they haven’t changed their game.
The Rocky Mountain (formerly Highwood) Raiders are at the Mac’s Major Midget AAA Hockey Tournament, bringing five Cochrane skaters with them. The Okotoks-based team (which plays home Alberta Major Midget AAA Female Hockey League games in Okotoks and Dewinton) finished in the semifinals at last year’s Mac’s tournament and wants to go deep again this year.
After three games in Mac’s Pool 8 female division play, the Raiders were 2-1.
Cochrane skaters include Brette Mattheson, Rylie Dobson, Nicolette Seper, Kara Kondrat and Jenna Wasylik.
All are contributing to Raiders’ success this season. New head coach Paul Pozzi, who took over after Cochrane’s Jason Seper stepped down in the offseason, relies on his Cochrane contingent.
Pozzi was effusive when asked to describe his Cochrane quintet.
“Big reach. Excellent skater,” the coach said of assistant-captain Nicolette Seper. “For a Grade 11, she brings really good leadership.”
As for first-year player Wasylik: “She has something you can’t teach. It’s that aggression. She’s just aggressive and she can play.”
Fourteen-year-old Kondrat is the only under-age player on the team.
“We brought her in because she’s a very good player. She’s going to be a force. She skates well,” Pozzi says of Kondrat.
Returning forward Dobson is “really hard-nosed. Strong. Shoots well. She’s tough as nails. I don’t think you want to be in a corner with her. She’s tough.”
Mattheson shares that trait.
“She’s just very tenacious,” Pozzi says of Mattheson. “And she just knows how to be around the puck. She got a nice goal today. She got a nice tip-in. They’re all great kids.”
