Friday 14^th October 2011 sees the England Women and 16’s Girls leave Heathrow at around 9am and head off to Windsor Canada to take part in the 4^th Annual Hocktoberfest Female Ice Hockey Tournament one of the biggest such events in Canada, this will be the fourth visit to this tournament for the teams, it’s a great experience for the players and an incredible learning curve gone are the days of playing against one and bit lines or three lines where a team has one good line and two ok lines – both the Women and Girls will be facing teams that have three first lines so there is no let up in any game you have give 100% from the first drop of the puck – and if they think they have time to think about what they are doing with the puck WRONG its gone from the end of your stick and off down the ice somewhere.

 

While away the players train every day with Challenge games on Saturday –Sunday – Monday and Wednesday for certain with a possible game Tuesday – Thursday they train followed by a VIP trip to see the Windsor Spitfires always a special event – Friday – Saturday Sunday sees both teams take part in the tournament playing at least 4 games more if they are successful before returning home on the Monday, for certain the players will be the centre of attraction where ever they go and where ever they play – they will not only be female hockey players but ambassadors for the EIHA and ice hockey here in England there is no doubt that a number of players will attract attention of scouts and collages. TV, Newspaper and Radio interviews will be requested almost on a daily basis.

 

A considerable number of the girls will also be part of the GB U18’s Women team that will be travelling to Italy to take part in the U18’s Women’s World Championship qualifying round at the end of November where they have to finish in the top two to progress so hopefully this trip away will see the players have the very best preparation prior to Italy.

 

Please follow the short writes ups we will be posting on the Women’s pages of the EIHA website while we are away.

 

For my part would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to the players, parents and team staff for making this trip possible it is a trip of a life time for the players and would also like to thank the player, parents and staff that have not only been training for Canada but have also been trialling and training for the GB 18’s as I know it has taken a huge commitment from you all and we all know this is not finished yet I thank you all for the total support you have given both programmes and helping develop women’s hockey in the UK.

 

Thank you all

 

Geoff Hemmerman

EIHA / IHUK Director