SAHA U18 Female team head into playoffs after first full regular season

By JAMES TUBB on March 11, 2022.

jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb

It was a season of firsts for South Alberta Hockey Academy’s U18 female prep team.

This season marked their first year playing actual games since the program moved to Medicine Hat. With a young team that had to come together quickly it meant a lot of getting familiar with each other on and off the ice.

Head coach Evan Vossen said the early season involved a lot of focusing on progressing and getting the players to trust the process.

“Just getting them to trust the process that’s in place and show that it’s going to find a way to work here once everybody gets on the same page with each other,” Vossen said. “Then at that point of time, whether that’s early on in the year maybe that first half leading up to the Christmas break, trying to find ways to get them together a little bit more outside of rink settings.”

The SAHA female team finished the season with a record of 12-13-1-1 as they gear up for their first playoff matchup tonight against the Shawnigan prep team in B.C.

Vossed said they made sure the teamhad a chance to get to know one another away from the rink either with the public or in school.

“Different weekend things that we utilized, whether that was volleyball, dodgeball, we did some equine suff out in Irvine, the girls were real active in minor hockey,” Vossen said. “Whether it’s team building or just being in different settings outside of the regular 8-12 in the morning… That’s just a growing piece for everybody to get comfortable and get to know each other.”

It worked for the SAHA girls, as once they started to get comfortable and the season progressed, results followed. Rookie forward Téa Pearce led the team in scoring with eight goals and 16 assists for 24 points in 27 games.

Vossen credited their three graduating players, Sakura Ito, Janaya Laqua and Alyssa McCasey for helping lead the team on and off the ice throughout the season.

“Just real strong work ethics. Everything that we wanted from everybody here, they’ve shown it in the last two years,” Vossen said. “Which as a new program is all you can ask for for the girls that are coming through. They left their mark on a lot of younger girls and first year girls as good role models and leaders.”

Heading into their playoff matches this weekend, Vossen said the focus against strong Shawnigan and St. Mary’s teams is to play their game and turn some heads while doing it.

“Last Friday I thought we played one of our more complete games so we’re talking about peaking at the right time and I think our game is there,” Vossen said. “…I think we are going there and we are going to be able to turn some heads and that’s what we want to do – find success and make sure all the hard work we put in leading up until now is worthwhile.”

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