PHOTO COURTESY JENN GRANT-HARDER
Medicine Hat hockey players Keira Grant and Taya Christie will don the Alberta blue at the nationals women's U18 hockey championship starting Sunday at Dawson Creek, B.C.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
Keira Grant and Taya Christie grew up playing hockey together in Medicine Hat and will team up once again to represent Alberta.
The two Medicine Hat hockey players will don the Alberta blue while representing the province at the 2023 national women’s U18 championship held in Dawson Creek, B.C. The tournament gets underway Sunday with Alberta facing off against Quebec in a 4 p.m. game.
It’s the first time either of them have represented Alberta but both are looking forward to the opportunity.
“I’m definitely super excited,” Christie said. “It will be a really cool experience to get to go and play with the top girls.”
“I’m very excited to represent the province … it’s been my goal for a while,” Grant said.
They’ll also be joined by South Alberta Hockey Academy assistant coach Jane Kish who is serving as a goalie coach on Team Alberta. It’s also the first time either have visited Dawson Creek, giving them an opportunity to see new landscapes and styles of hockey.
“I’ve heard Dawson Creek is a small little town but I think it will be cool getting to see all of the other provinces and all other teams will be pretty cool,” Christie said. “B.C. always has a strong team. They’ll be a pretty tough team to face if we get to play against them.”
Grant and Christie played on the same team growing up before moving to different teams in the last couple of seasons. Grant is in her second year as a forward for SAHA and Christie is in her first season between the pipes for the U18AAA Red Deer Chiefs of the Alberta Female Hockey League.
Grant has enjoyed her time with SAHA so far, putting up a goal and five points in eight games this season. She credits those around her for making it the positive experience it is.
“I have really good coaching at SAHA and really supportive teammates,” Grant said. “We all are happy for each other when something happens and I really enjoy that.”
Christie works in a tandem with Red Deer, picking up three wins in four starts this season. She’s been touted by the Hockey News’ Ian Kennedy as the top goaltender in the AFHL and he highlighted her as a player to watch in the tournament.
Christie is focused on just playing her game and isn’t allowing herself to get too concerned with the spotlight.
“I’m really excited, I just need to focus on my game and not get too distracted,” Christie said. “Just play game by game. It’s kind of a big deal so I just want to keep it simple kind of thing.”
Both have family members coming to the tournament and are looking forward to playing at that stage with familiar faces in the stands.
“I’m happy I get to share it with them,” Grant said.
After Alberta’s game Sunday against Quebec, they’ll face Team Atlantic on Monday (10 a.m.) and Team Saskatchewan on Tuesday (4 p.m.) to wrap up their preliminaries.
