By Kristi Patton /
The Western Women’s Hockey League is expanding its horizons across the Pacific Ocean.
As part of an initiative by the Calgary Oval X-Treme, the top six players on China's national team have become members of the WWHL.
The X-Treme, the Edmonton Chimos and Strathmore Rockies each have signed two players to their rosters. The whole of Team China will also be playing exhibition matches from October to December against teams from the WWHL.
“They are hosting the World Championships (Harbin, China in April of 2008) so it was of keen interest to them to get better and there are a number of ways to do that,” said Dee Bateman president and owner of the WWHL's Edmonton Chimos.
Since Team China usually only gets to play 12 to 15 games each year, they decided to come to play against some of the highest calibre players in the world in the WWHL and train at the Olympic Oval in Calgary.
“It should be very interesting, I think they are ranked sixth in the world so they should jump up and I wouldn’t be surprised if they cracked into the top three,” said Bateman.
The opportunity also opens up for more international players to join the WWHL – an idea which Bateman is completely for.
“We want to see the league group the best players wherever they are from. This is going to bring international growth to women’s hockey by improving other teams’ abilities which bodes well for the Olympic level,” said Bateman.
The Chimos owner also noted it could open travel opportunity for the Canadian players who want to share their hockey experience play abroad with other teams.
Playing for the Chimos are forward Rui Sun and defenceman Bai Wei Yue.
“They are just awesome and they want to learn. They work very hard, ask good questions and because they understand English reasonably well it has made the transition a lot easier. They are both very nice girls and right away had good chemistry with the team so they fit in well," said Chimos head coach Barry Medori of the two Team China players on his roster.
“This is a great idea hopefully it helps them be that much better and maybe in the future other countries will come out too.” |