The Williams Lake Spice Girls — an all-girls atom house team — recently received some Olympic inspiration at a tournament in Penticton.
While taking third place in the all-girls tournament, which ran from Feb. 5-6, the real thrill, said coach Troy Weil, came when players were given the opportunity to meet, chat and have their pictures taken with Canadian Women’s 2006 and 2010 Olympic hockey gold medalist Gina Kinsbury.
“They all got autographs, they all got their picture taken with her,” Weil said. “Gina brought out her two gold medals. She spoke to the girls and really told them about how with girls’ hockey now you should not be limited and you should dream big because more and more doors are opening for female hockey players.”
En route to the third-place finish the Spice Girls tied Kamloops 2-2, defeated Penticton 6-3, then lost twice to Merritt, 5-3 and 3-1.
“The girls were unreal,” Weil said. “They played their little hearts out. They played very, very well, everyone did — there were a lot of smiles on the team.”
Weil said the tournament was extremely well organized and was probably one of the best tournaments he’s ever attended.
“The kids played so hard, the parents of the kids were great — they all helped out and with Gina being there and a skills competition, the tournament was organized very well,” he said.
“Our girls, playing up against some of the bigger centres like Kamloops and Penticton did very, very well and showed we can hold our own. The parents and the kids represented Williams Lake well on and off the ice.”
Coming up this weekend in the lakecity will be the year-end hockey jamboree for all local house teams at the Cariboo Memorial Complex. Games got underway at the beginning of the week, and will continue Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
For the Spice Girls, they will head off to 100 Mile House on March 11 for another all-girls tournament.