Over 100 enthusiastic hockey players ranging from five to eight years of age took to the ice this past weekend in Lorette for the Perimeter Female Hockey Alliance’s Championship Tournament.

The six teams who played in the PFHA’s inaugural season were the Lorette Comets, Ile des Chenes Elks, Stonewall Blues, the Macdonald Thunder, Macdonald Dynamite and Macdonald Falcons.

The program got its start in March of 2017 when a group of female representatives from rural communities decided they needed to find a place for their girls to play hockey.

Hockey Winnipeg won’t accommodate female players until they’re playing Atom.

“At novice they really don’t have any options,” said Tammy Reimer who is the Assistant Director of the PFHA. “A group of use banded together and created a program for them to be able to play, have fun and develop as hockey players.”

The Perimeter Female Hockey Alliance includes associations from Lorette, Ile des Chenes, Macdonald, Stonewall and Springfield.

“In order to grow hockey it has to be from the grassroots level and it has to be from the youngest ages up and they need a place to be able to play,” Reimer explained. “To start at Atom is a bit self-defeating so we needed to able to start the youngest girls and give them a place to play. Not just work hard at scheduling exhibition games but have a structured format so they knew every weekend there would be a game.”

 



Reimer says their first season has been everything they hoped for.

“It’s super exciting to see how the players have developed and how much fun they’ve had this year. All the coaches said it’s just been incredible. The girls have had a blast playing with each other and have really grown as hockey players and have had a lot of fun doing it.”

“In the dressing room area you can hear the screeching. It’s pretty loud so kudo’s to the coaches, especially the male coaches for getting right in there and having a blast with their girls. They’ve been great role models for them and have taken these girls and run with this program and have done just a stellar job.”

Reimer and the rest of the PFHA board are looking forward to year two and watching the program flourish.

“There are so many girls who want to play hockey but if it’s not an option they end up switching to ringette. If they’re wanting to play hockey, we want to give them a place to do that and you can’t do that unless you consistently have a program where every year this is going to be there. So to say, ‘Well come try hockey but we don’t know if next year we’re going to have anything,’ doesn’t really work.”

“This has been such a success,” Reimer added. “We know that our girls have so much fun that this is just going to keep going year after year, and it’s just going to keep growing. We’re excited to see what happens.”

Ile des Chenes edged Stonewall 3-2 in triple overtime in the gold medal game Sunday afternoon.