Those who complain that today’s young people don’t know the meaning of hard work should spend a little time with Indra Wood and Mackenzie McIntyre.
Wood, 16, and Mcintyre, 15, both Hapnot Collegiate students, recently wrapped up an intense first season with the Norman Wild AAA Midget hockey team.
The Norman Wild players compete in the Manitoba Female Midget Hockey League (MFMHL), an eight-team league that Wild head coach Lee Cummings calls fast-paced and very competitive.
The girls on the Norman Wild team are spread out across a huge geographical area, with players joining from Thompson, Cross Lake, Split Lake, The Pas and Flin Flon.
Unlike the boys Midget AAA team, the Norman Northstars, in which all the players live in Thompson during hockey season, the players on the Wild remain in their home towns during the week then travel to games and practices.
“It’s a bit of a struggle compared to the rest of the teams in the league, who are practicing all week long,” said Cummings, who is based in Thompson.
With mid-week team practices being logistically impossible, each player has to take responsibility for her own fitness and wellness, scheduling daily workouts, healthy meals, and adequate rest around schoolwork, chores, and part-time jobs.
Wood says the challenge of juggling priorities, and finding a healthy balance, has helped her mature over the course of the year.
“Keeping up with school is crazy,” said McIntyre, who is in Grade 10 this year.
“You leave Friday morning for hockey so you only have four days of school to keep your marks up.”
Throughout much of the school year, the girls face a punishing travel schedule: from August to February, the team is on the road almost every weekend. On a typical weekend, the team might play a Friday game in Portage la Prairie, a Saturday game in Winnipeg, and a Sunday game in St. Anne.
“Our home games are in The Pas or Thompson, so that’s still four hours or an hour on the road,” noted McIntyre. Since the team’s players come from different locales, they all travel independently, meaning that parents have a big job to do as well, shuttling players around the province every weekend.
While joining the team certainly comes with its sacrifices in social life and free time, both Wood and McIntyre say it’s worth it.
McIntyre said she loves the rush of competitive hockey, the “butterflies” she feels on game day, and the close bonds among the players.
“It really is a great experience,” said Wood.
“You’re not just playing hockey, you’re making lifelong friends.”
Cummings and his assistant coaches have worked hard to cultivate a sense of unity for the Norman Wild players, with team-bonding activities like scavenger hunts, regular team breakfasts, and even a Christmas caroling outing in Thompson with a competing team.
Cummings says the two Flin Flon girls, although they are both rookies on the team, have demonstrated leadership skills already, and showed their willingness to put in the hard work required to advance in a fast-paced league.
While both Wood and McIntyre have been playing on girls and boys’ hockey teams locally for much of their lives, the MFMHL marked a major step up in terms of the level of competition and the commitment required from each player.
“They both needed conditioning right at the beginning, as a lot of our girls did,” he said. “It’s a big adjustment coming from Bantam, and both have adapted really well.”
Over the season, the girls have shown growth in their positional play, he said.
“Indra has been versatile for us. She started the season as defense, then we started using her in a forward position in the wing. We really like her there.
“Our plans for her next season will be for her to play the right wing. She had a very good first season and ended it with one goal, one assist for two points and 14 penalty minutes.”
Cummings said McIntyre also adapted to a number of positions throughout the season, playing centre, left-wing and defense.
“Mackenzie was our most versatile player,” he said. “She filled these different roles due to injuries or illness to other players and she stepped into each role very well. We are hoping for next season, we can keep her on the left-wing. She also had a very good first season and ended it with one goal, three assists for four points and 16 minutes in penalties.”
That adaptability should serve the girls well as they consider their plans for the future.
“Playing hockey in university would be pretty cool,” said Wood, “and one day I’d like to become a coach for girls hockey….I just want to continue playing hockey for as long as possible.”
While McIntyre has two more years of high school ahead of her, she said she hopes to keep playing throughout high school and possibly play the sport at the university level as well.
As the girls look forward to the future, they’ll have a bit of a break now: The Norman Wild team wrapped up the hockey season at the end of February, after losing three games to Pembina Valley team PV Hawks in the first round of playoffs.
“Unfortunately we did not get as many wins as we would have liked to, but we did improve in many areas of the game,” the coach explained.
“With such a young team this year and the majority of the girls returning next season, we should be ahead of where we started this year.”
Cummings said while some players are happy to finish out their hockey career at the Midget level, there are plenty of opportunities for those who continue to advance during their years in Midget. Those opportunities can include university scholarships, or playing on Team Manitoba and Team Canada.
“There are three girls from our league that made the under-18 Team Canada in 2015-2016,” he said.
No matter where they go next, Wood and McIntyre said they have both grown personally, and as athletes, during an intense, but rewarding, rookie year.
