Vermilion Peewee Girls team celebrates Female Hockey Day at home tournament

Image credits: Vermilion “Rock Solid” Peewee Female B Provincials Facebook Page. 

Vermilion was one of the communities across the province celebrating Female Hockey Day on Jan. 25.

The Vermilion “Rock Solid” Peewee Girls Tigers squad hosted their annual tournament over the weekend as part of the celebration.

The Lakeland Peewee Jaguars also attended the tournament.

Tigers assistant coach Sheila Cadman said it was a coincidence having the tournament fall on that weekend, but once the coaching staff and parents realized, they decided to reach out to Hockey Alberta.

“It just kind of landed at the same time and we thought, if we can make use of an extra ice slot and we’re all home and we’re celebrating hockey in our home tournament, we thought let’s just get the ice time and Hockey Alberta was good to sponsor. They had 10 spots the sponsor communities for the Girls Hockey Day,” she said.

“One of our moms got in contact with them and got a grant so that we could put it on. It was kind of nice to tie it all with the weekend of hockey with the girls.”

Image credits: Vermilion “Rock Solid” Peewee Female B Provincials Facebook Page.

Along with covering the ice time, the grant paid for some prizes, food, and other cool items like Tigers tattoos.

For some, it was a day of learning the game.

“At the start we did a few little fun drills for the girls. Some of the new girls that haven’t really even held the hockey stick or moved the puck around, they got to try a few little fun drills at the start.

“We made sure we had our Peewee girls, as well as some of our Midget Girls, come out with their jerseys on to be leaders for the younger ones. And then they had some free time and then finished off with some fun games and of course, in all-girls style, we did a freeze dance out on the ice.”

The Peewee team is hosting Provincials this year from March 26-28.

“We’re super excited because the girls, they’ve been working really hard. They actually have been to Provincials, the last two years actually, one of which they brought home the gold two years ago. But it’s a big undertaking and there wasn’t a whole lot of towns willing or wanting to take on the task because it’s a big undertaking, and we didn’t want our girls to miss out on even having the opportunity for provincials at all. So we stepped up and now we’re putting in the work in the time and we’re pretty excited about it.”