Many of the top women’s hockey players to come out of Richmond in recent years were back in action in their hometown with no ice to be found.
The B.C. Selects featured plenty of local talent on their way to winning bronze at the Canadian Ball Hockey National Championships at Minoru Arenas. The result marked the first time a B.C. team has reached the podium in nine years and coach Matt Halverson hopes it turns into somewhat of a tradition.
Halverson stepped away from coaching on the men’s side a couple of years ago to get involved in the women’s program after observing a B.C. game at nationals.
“I think we were playing in the seventh/eighth place game and the caliber of play just wasn’t very good,” recalled Halverson. “I just thought there was a lot of talent in B.C. and the potential was there to do much better.”
Halverson began coaching in the Vancouver Women’s Hockey League and put together an impressive line-up with the False Creek Kraken. The team had a successful season and Halverson didn’t have to look far to put together a roster when he was appointed to the B.C. Selects coaching staff, along with Gwen Ranquist-Lemieux.
The Selects featured a number of players with collegiate or university experience, along with 10 currently playing in the South Coast Female Amateur Hockey League, the top ice circuit in the province. Among them were four Richmond Devils.
The youngest member of the team was 16-year-old defenceman Courtney Vorster, but the hometown standout was unavailable for Nationals after being named to (ice) Hockey Canada’s U18 roster for a three-game series against the United States in Calgary that wrapped up on Saturday.
For Halverson, the talent assembled was a big step in the right direction for sport that has a low key profile but offers tremendous supplementary training for hockey players and beyond.
“The opportunity to get more girls into ball hockey is definitely there and now they can see that many, who are essentially their role models, are playing,” said Halverson.
“As far as a crossover sport, I don’t think there is one that is better. “For hockey players, they have the great hands and the challenge is to keep up with the soccer players, with their feet (instead of skates) because they typically have better endurance. “And for the soccer players, they don’t have the same hand skills so they are having to use their speed to stay with the play.”
Halverson knows a thing are to about conditioning.
Not only is he a former player at the provincial and national level, he is a registered therapist with the B.C. Lions and Vancouver Whitecaps. When Halverson isn’t coaching locally, he is also overseeing the Cayman Islands national ball hockey team, a position that was offered to him when the country reached out to the Canadian Ball Hockey Association, looking to step up its program.
The B.C. Selects roster included: Melanie Jue, Natasha Steblin, Silvia Traversa, Sarah Francis, Chelsea Wilson, Marie Vondracek, Katelin Korman, Belinda Hatch, Lindsay DiPietro, Shay Bywater, Gabby Napoleone, Delinah Erbenich, Natalie Korenic, Marianne Cottingham, Jennifer Fong, Rachel Budden, Chantal DeSpiegelaere, Jennelle Stam, Renee Lemieux, Cassidy Hendricks and Shannon Sutherland and Madison Sands. Student Therapists- Chris Goertz and Eric Roberts.
The Canadian Championships at Minoru also featured the Men’s “A’ and Masters Divisions. The overall winners were: Montreal Red Lite (Men’s “A”), Calgary United (Women’s “A”) and Alberta Havoc (Masters). Next year’s nationals will take place in New Brunswick.
