Members of the Williams Lake Bantam Female Timberwolves rep squad know they’ll be in for a test this Saturday when they play their first ever game as members of the Okanagan Mainline Amateur Hockey Association.
The Timberwolves will join Kelowna, Penticton, Kamloops, Vernon, Castlegar and Prince George in the OMAHA with the T-wolves kicking off its season this Saturday at 4 p.m. against Penticton at the Cariboo Memorial Recreation Complex.
Head coach Troy Weil, who’s been with the girls for the past three years, said he’s looking forward to showing off the progress his players have made.
“It’s nice to see the results after three years of hard work,” Weil said. “We’ve got three solid lines, all three can score and they’re all friends off the ice. It’s just a great group of girls.”
The T-wolves are coming off a weekend exhibition split against Prince George — a 3-1 win Saturday and a 2-0 loss Sunday — in Williams Lake, and showed promising results at a tournament in Chilliwack facing some of their OMAHA competition earlier in the month.
Netminder Tamara William, Weil said, was stellar in Saturday’s win over Prince George.
“That’s a ‘AAA’ seven-team league and it’s high-calibre girls hockey,” Weil said.
“I think the previous two years we had trouble getting wins and it’s nice to see the third year we’re competing against the province’s best teams and winning.”
At the tournament in Chilliwack Weil said the T-wolves picked up wins over Kelowna and Kamloops but lost to Vernon in the tournament semifinal.
Players Kassidy Herrick and Hallie Fisher, both 13, said they’re excited to get the season underway.
“It will be a good test to see how our level compares to the other teams,” Herrick said.
“It’s going to be better,” added Fisher. “Better competition and more games.”
So far this season the T-wolves are scheduled to travel to five out-of-town tournaments.
On top of that the girls will play 24 league games in the OMAHA.