SC Online Article
October 2, 2020
Written by: David Zammit

Still no concrete league schedule for the Swift Current U18 Female AAA Wildcats, but that hasn’t seemed to faze them.

“These are kids that are driven, kids that want to play at the highest level,” Wildcats Head Coach Terry Pavely said. “The change in hockey the last few years is a skill driven game, so they’re used to doing a lot of practices on their own or with a skills coach. I don’t think it’s really a big ask for them to come motivated and come ready to practice.”

While the team hasn’t been able to get any game reps in, Pavely said they’ve been able to focus on other things with their first four weeks of practicing as a team.

“We are starting to implement somethings that are going to use our speed,” he said. “And off-ice we’ve really been pushing the fitness. We’ve been doing things every Monday and every Friday, so maybe that’s the beauty of no games in September is we’ve been able to add a little it more fitness stuff that I think will help us.”

This will be Baylee Kirwan’s four-year with the Wildcats and she agreed with her coach on the potential strength of this year’s team – speed.

“I remember coming home and saying holy that was the fastest first practice I’ve been at,” she said.

Which is a bit of a statement given just how good the Wildcats were last year posting a record of 21-7-1-1, good enough for second in the Saskatchewan Female U18 AAA Hockey League.

“I think we’re going to be pretty strong,” she said. “I was kind of nervous, we lost nine players last year as they graduated. I knew we only had three 03s so that’s a pretty small veteran group, but we picked up another 03 and picked up some really good rookies.”

The Saskatchewan Hockey Association has yet to release a return-to-play, but Pavely believes the Saskatchewan Female U18 AAA Hockey League might release an update within the next week including a game schedule.