NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
The Medicine Hat College Rattlers' women's hockey team practiced Wednesday morning at the Big Marble Go Centre ahead of their exhibition season opener Friday.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat College Rattlers women’s hockey team is getting closer to beginning its historic season.
The first-time hockey program has been practising in the month of September as the players gear up for their first exhibition contests of the 2023-24 Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference season.
The Rattlers kick off the preseason this weekend with a two-game set Friday and Saturday at Vermillion against the Lakeland College Rustlers. Head coach Chad Baron says it’s a big step for the group and the school.
“Just to make it official we’re actually in the league, we know we’ve been accepted but just to have that first game is huge,” Baron said. “We’re all so excited to get it going, it’ll just be good to move through that.”
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 decision came May 31 and represents the first time the college has offered a women’s hockey program and the first time a hockey team of any kind has competed for MHC at the collegiate level since the 1986-87 season.
Baron says the exhibition contests provide an opportunity to see who fits with who and how they can build out a lineup ahead of the regular season. They have more defenders than forwards he says, so they will be rotating them up and seeing who can play where.
“We’re excited to see them gel, and practice has been going well, so it’s going to be about getting that first one out of the way, getting the nerves out, even for the coaching staff,” Baron said. “It’s going to be exciting to get up there, just to see where we’re at and what we need to improve on.
“This weekend we’re not worried about wins and losses yet, we’re just focused on a lot of progress and getting everybody figured out and in the right spots.”
Goaltender Kinlee Fahset was on the Rattlers’ exhibition team last season and is one of two netminders in the lineup this year. She’s excited for another year of playing for the college and making that ACAC debut.
“The team we have this year is awesome, the girls are getting along really well and there’s a lot of skill on the team,” Fahset said. “So getting to play that first game this weekend is going to be great.
“Getting to play more games this year, compared to last year and to get to actually play in the ACAC is super exciting.”
After this weekend’s exhibition contests, the Rattlers’ have some time to practice before they make their regular season debut. Their first ACAC game is also their home opener, they’ll host the NAIT Ooks on Oct. 7 at the Moose Rec. centre for a 7:45 p.m. contest. The Rattlers will also host the SAIT Trojans the next day for a 4:15 p.m. game.
Baili Isley, a first-year Rattler from Sherwood Park, says the returning group has been welcoming to new players like herself and has made it a great experience already.
“I’m used to being like a third year for so long now, so (I’m) coming in as a rookie and our vets are really awesome,” Isley said. “I feel really at home, it’s a very welcoming group.”
The young centre is billeting with Fahset, rating her new roommate a 7.9 on the roommate scale. She tabs her new friend and teammate as one of the strengths of the Rattlers ahead of their debut.
“We have really solid goaltending, so I think we’re going to do pretty good,” Isley said. “Our forwards are working hard, our D are defending, so I think we’ll be pretty up there.”
Not looking past this weekend’s exhibition contests or the work to be done before then, Baron can’t wait for the home opener and to see a lot of hard work pay off.
“We appreciate the support from the community that we’ve had already and we’ve had some good sponsors, so we just want to thank everybody for that support already and hopefully we get that continued support,” Baron said. “We’re excited to get people out to get involved in the community, too.”
