By / Kristi Patton
It will be a crude reminder to the championship shot they missed out on last year for the SAIT Trojans women’s hockey team, but they are ready to erase that memory.
The Trojans kick off their season against the champion Grant MacEwan College Griffins, a team they didn’t even get a chance to compete against in the playoffs last year, as they missed the Alberta Colleges Athletic Association finals for the first time in four seasons.
“Something the girls have been talking about in the dressing room is what went wrong. One thing they know is that their fitness wasn’t there and it has become a key priority this year,” said Trojan head coach Terry Larson.
Larson joined the Trojans this year as a rookie bench boss in the ACAC, although, his background runs deep having coached in five Alberta Winter Games, his work with the Alberta U-18 team and most recent experience coaching the Midget AAA Okotoks in the Alberta Major Midget Female Hockey League. Helping him with coaching duties is Tim Fast, 2007 coach of the year with the Calgary Chaos in the AMMFHL. Tricia Fast along with former Trojans Natalie Gerstmar and Sarah Daniel also round out the bench.
Besides fitness, the Trojans hope to come out of the gate as a defensive powerhouse.
“We bring back a lot of experience on defence and we are really hoping for our defence to be our stronghold with all the veteran power,” said Larson.
Veteran goaltender Lindsay Coghlan (Okotoks) rounded out the top-five goaltenders in the ACAC last season and will be taking care of the net duties with rookie Kendra Chisolm (St. Albert).
Backing the blueline will be a roster of five veteran defenders with a couple of rookies in Amanda Williams (Souris, Manitoba) and Danielle Dekort (Chestermere).
“Williams is a really hard working player that can move the puck well and probably will be one of our top rookies along with Dekort,” said Larson.
Up-front the Trojans expect to be fast and strong on the puck with the re-tooled system that brings in a host of adjustments from the playbooks of Larson and Fast.
“One of the main things we brought across is we expect hard work and being prepared. Having such a mix of players we have really brought this group together using fitness as their team builder. They are on the ice and then working out several times a week together and this has brought them all together a lot more quickly then I thought,” said Larson.
Veteran forward Tonya Faasse (Kelowna, B.C.) has been elected captain this season and the coaches expect her to be a major offensive threat along with returning goal-scorer Emily Burton (Claresholm).
Last year Burton led the team in points with 15 goals and four assists and Larson expects the pair to be explosive with their strong work ethic and leadership.
With the level and amount of talent continuing to join the ACAC teams, Larson said he expects big things from all six teams in the league.
“NAIT has a fantastic goalie in Alycia Monahan who will be a big factor for them, U of C has a very good team with a lot of returning talent, Mount Royal seems pretty steady, Red Deer looks strong and Grant MacEwan come in as the returning champions. It should be a very close league and might come down to goaltending and who believes in the system their coach brings in,” said Larson. |