Over the past decade, the Olds Minor Hockey Association female hockey program has seen more than 15 of its players graduate to play hockey at post-secondary schools.However, building a program that would become a pipeline for high-level play required a foundation of young players to progress through the system. That wasn't always there.Mary Wilson served as the Olds female hockey coordinator for seven years. When she first moved to Olds in 2000, the OMHA had peewee, bantam and midget girls teams. Those tiers are meant for players middle-school-aged and up.At the time, options were slim for girls too young for peewee. Those who were tyke, novice or atom-aged could play with older girls at a higher tier, find a team elsewhere, or play on a boys team, Wilson said.She said the OMHA had four novice boys teams in 2004, each with two girls on them.“So we thought, if we could take all the girls and put them on one team, then we could start building the program,” she said.The Olds Novice I Bulldogs became the first girls team in that tier. It had 12 players and played in a boys league.They lost a lot of games but got better.“And then when they actually went into a girls tournament … they won. They were good,” Wilson said.Soon, more girls wanted in.“Once we made this girl's team, what we found was, we had girls who never played before decide to join because they wanted to play with girls,” Wilson continued. “They didn't want to play with boys. Even though you're playing against boys, as long as you're around a team of girls, then they came and played.”Today, the female hockey program has most of the levels filled, from atom to midget. Wilson attributes its success to supportive parents and ambitious kids.“I think we had a really good group of parents and kids,” she said. “They were very motivated. They had aspirations for playing beyond minor hockey. Or they wanted to play AAA hockey.”Paige Grenier was one of them. After playing hockey recreationally since age six, she made the switch to minor hockey four years ago and credits the program for her development.“To make that jump, Olds Minor Hockey really helped me take that first step towards where I'm looking to go,” she said.Wilson says what makes the female hockey program special is that it exists and provides young girls a team to play with each year. That keeps the players in the system, she [email protected]
