Abby Webster, a forward with the Olds College women's hockey team, is getting ready to face off in the Canada Winter Games as a member of the Northwest Territories team.
Their first game is Feb. 24 versus P.E.I. The next day, they face Newfoundland and on Feb. 26 they'll tangle with Yukon.
This marks the second time the 18-year-old Hay River, N.W.T. resident has played in the Canada Winter Games.
"I went to the Canada Games in 2015 in Prince George. So it's pretty cool that I get to do this again and represent my territory again in the sport of hockey because it's my favourite sport," she says.
Webster is hoping things go better for her team this time around.
"(In 2015) we finished 11th," she says. "We ended up beating the Yukon and we played P.E.I. in our second- last game to qualify, to move up in the standings. But we lost 2-0 to them so we didn't move forward."
"We had a pretty skilled team last time. I was one of the younger players last time so I maybe saw the older girls as really, really talented. Now that I'm one of the older girls, I think that there's not as much talent, but I think that there's a lot of good potential with the younger girls coming in," Webster says.
"We just have a really young team, so I think that if they keep playing hockey and developing, then they'll do well later on as well."
Now that she's a few years older, Webster also sees this year's tournament as a chance to pass on her knowledge and experience to younger girls on the team.
"I'm really excited. I think having that perspective of being an older person on the team this time — I don't know how to word it — I'll be able to be, like a mentor, somebody that the girls can look up to," Webster says.
"That's really special for me in that way, because I looked up to the girls who were older when I played in 2015. They were my idols and I loved them, and they were so nice and supportive, and I want to be that same person."
Normally Webster is a forward. But she played defence with the Broncos for the first half of the season because one of the team's defencemen got injured. She also played defence for a while as a midget player.
Webster figures her height is an advantage in the game.
"I'm a bigger player. I'm 5 foot 10, so I'm good at getting good body position on people and I'm able to use my size to drive lanes and really get that step ahead of other people," she says. "I have a pretty good, hard shot, because I get some of my weight behind it.
"I do lack in speed a little bit because I'm a bigger person, but I feel like I'm a really good playmaker. I can see lanes and I can see passing options and I think that's one of my strengths as well. But I need to work on quicker feet and really doing that better."
It's a busy time for Webster, involving a lot of travel.
On Sunday she was in Yellowknife for a N.W.T. team camp. Then she flew back for school in Olds.
The Broncos begin a home-and-home series with Grant MacEwan University at the Sportsplex on Thursday night. The second game in that series takes place this Saturday in Edmonton.
After that, Webster plans to drive down to Red Deer to join up with her team in time for their first game.
