The South Saskatchewan Female Midget AA Hockey League picked up a strong new team this year.
The Southeast Goldwings will take to the ice this season as a combined team from the Weyburn and Estevan areas, playing most of their home games out of the Midale arena. The team has members of last year’s team from Weyburn, as well as the league finalist Power Tech Bear Cats.
Allan Ohrt is the head coach for the team this year, with Estevan’s Kevin Kuntz and Kipling’s Mike Curris as assistants. Practices have gone well so far despite the two teams coming from traditional rivals.
“I think the girls are there for the right reason and I haven’t had any complaints of problems that way,” said Ohrt. “It’s awesome.”
Once the rink opens with ice Oct. 4, they will have their practices in the Midale rink.
The skill of the top players on the two teams is there.
“Can you imagine, you take two teams and you take the best five or six girls off each team,” Ohrt said. “You’ll have that top end, and I believe we do. We have four Grade 12 girls from the Weyburn area and one Grade 11 from Weyburn.”
The Goldwings’ Estevan products are Karleigh Mackenzie, Brynn Kuntz, Marci Leblanc and Bailey Farr.
Last season’s champion Regina Rebels are always along the top teams but Ohrt isn’t sure how the rest of the league will shake out.
“We’ve played Notre Dame, we’ve played Parkland and we play in Regina (Wednesday). The only team we haven’t seen would have been Swift Current and every team seems OK,” said Ohrt.
“I’m not going to say we’re the best, I’m not going to say where we are.”
The Goldwings are playing an exhibition game Sunday at 1 p.m. at Affinity Place against the Parkland Fire. They open their regular season Oct. 13 at Swift Current and play their first regular season home game in Midale Oct. 20 against Parkland.
