This past weekend, Stonewall hosted Fierce Female Hockey’s one-of-a kind hockey program.
Over 120 girls aged four to eleven years old from all over Manitoba filled Veteran’s Memorial Sports Complex for two days of on-ice and off-ice instruction focused on fostering the grassroots game in enjoyable and innovative ways.
Under the guidance of Fierce Female Hockey owner/operator Amy Doerksen, the program was able to kick off its 2024 series of camps with a bang.
“Members of the community have been attending our camp in Brandon for the last two years and convinced us it was time to bring the program to them to help numbers grow throughout the region,” said Doerksen.
“Fierce Female Hockey provides safe and engaging experiences for females to learn and grow in the sport of hockey both on and off the ice, as players and leaders, while leveraging the power of role modeling and mentorship to build confidence and show the benefits of physical activity.”
Stonewall’s edition of the camp featured local leaders and volunteers such as Megan Humeniuk who aimed to provide a safe and engaging space for girls to learn and thrive in hockey.
Humeniuk, who grew up playing for the Stonewall Blues, said her favourite part of the camp was arriving the morning of the first day to an arena full of young hockey players excited to hit the ice.
“Seeing so many girls already at the rink, busting with excitement, just waiting to get on the ice,” said Humeniuk. “Even though some of them had to wait a couple of hours before their ice time. Many parents were telling us how impatient the girls were to get on the ice, that they had to be at the rink as soon as they could. I was overjoyed to see how much passion these young ladies have for the game.”
The girls who were broken up into four groups each had an hour on the ice and off the ice both days.
For girls just skating for the first time they got to learn the fundamentals of skating including stopping, starting, and even a few games of tag whereas the more experienced girls had the chance to build on their current skillsets with some agility training with some fun and games mixed in.
Kelly Maxwell who had two of her daughters participating in camp said she was impressed by their involvement.
“It was such an awesome, fun and empowering event put on for these little hockey players,” said Maxwell. “It was so well done, and the girls were so inspired. They loved every minute of it.”
Stonewall Blues U-11 Female coach, Lance Marohn, had the idea of bringing Fierce Female Hockey to Stonewall.
After both his daugthers participated in their Brandon camp, he contacted Doerksen to bring the camp out east to Stonewall.
“When she mentioned that she’d be travelling I really pushed hard for her to consider Stonewall,” said Marohn. “I helped coordinate with her to get things booked, volunteers, and making it happen. She did all the work this weekend, I did all the work prepping for the weekend.”
Marohn hopes to organize something more local with a group of volunteers he’s assembling.
Tribune Photos by Lana Meier
By Kieran Reimer with files from Lana Meier
