NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
The Medicine Hat College Rattlers women's hockey team celebrates their first goal in program history at Big Marble Go Centre.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
Medicine Hat College Rattler fans can add women’s hockey to their viewing schedules this fall.
The college announced Wednesday it had received an expansion women’s hockey team in the Alberta College Athletic Conference, officially adding the sport to its athletic program. The new team, to debut in the fall, represents the first time the college has offered a women’s hockey program and the first time a hockey team of any gender has competed for MHC at the collegiate level since the 1986-87 season.
In a press release Wednesday, Terry Ballard, manager of athletics and recreation at MHC and the interim women’s coach, shared his excited about the opportunity this announcement creates for regional female athletes.
“The intention of this hockey program is to provide young female hockey players with a local opportunity to aspire to, and for our student-athletes to be role models for those players. There are some very talented young women hockey players in southeast Alberta and we look forward to having them represent the region, the City of Medicine Hat and the college.”
Last academic year, the Rattlers participated in an exhibition season playing against teams in the ACAC as well as other clubs in southern Alberta. The college joins Lakeland College as the most recent team to join the provincial league, which includes NAIT, SAIT, Olds and Red Deer.
The next steps for the Rattlers women’s team includes hiring a head coach and continuing to recruit players. The schedule for next season will be released in the upcoming weeks with training camp to start in late August. All Rattlers home games will be played out of the Moose Recreation Centre.
Anyone interested in learning more about women’s hockey at MHC, is asked to contact Ballard at tballard@mhc.ab.ca.
