Hockey Alberta’s only under-16 female tournament, the Alberta Challenge is officially underway in Red Deer.
The six-team round-robin tournament began on Thursday and will run through to Sunday until the championship final at 2:30 p.m.
Out of the hundreds involved in the Alberta Challenge, seven of the players are from central Alberta including Red Deer’s Bailey Rogers.
Her squad, South Black kicked off the tournament Thursday morning against North Yellow but lost 4-1 at the Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre.
In her second year playing in the Alberta Challenge, the 15-year-old forward said it’s exciting to take part in the event.
“It’s nervous excitement… going out with a bunch of new people but it’s super fun,” she said.
“It’s super cool and awesome to learn new things from all the Alberta staff and just to be with all the top athletes in Alberta for our age division. It’s just cool to play with all these good athletes.”
Rogers followed in her sister’s footsteps and started playing hockey at a young age. After seeing her play she wanted to be just like her big sister and hasn’t stopped playing since.
Last season Rogers finished with five points during the regular season for the U15 AA Red Deer Sutter Fund Chiefs in the Alberta Female Hockey League. She added three more points in the provincial championships that were held in Red Deer where she and the rest of her teammates won the bronze medal on home soil.
Next season she’ll move up a level in female hockey and hopes to play for the U18 AAA Red Deer Sutter Fund Chiefs.
“I want to get to the Division I level when I’m older but for now my goal is to make the top 40 for this tournament and then hopefully U18 later on,” she said.
“[Winning bronze] was super cool. That was my second time being to provincials in all of my hockey life so far and it was a great experience.”
Manager of Female Hockey at Hockey Alberta Kendall Newell said the Alberta Challenge is the foundation of the entry point for their Team Alberta programs. This weekend 120 athletes plus 42 staff members take place in the event.
“The athletes get to play best on best, they get to learn our expectations, foundation, and habits. That will eventually lead into our U18 provincial-level programming,” she said.
“At this point, we have a pretty good level of competition between all 120 athletes. The biggest part I talked about is the off-ice expectation and getting that experience of coming together in a short period of time and understanding what it means to be successful in a short-term competition.”