Karissa Kirkup named U18 female POE coach

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This article was published 04/05/2024 (532 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brandon Wheat Kings U15 AAA head coach Karissa Kirkup has been named one of four coaches for Team Manitoba’s U18 female Program of Excellence (POE) team.

Kirkup, who led her U15 AAA to back-to-back Manitoba Female Hockey League titles following the 2023-24 season, was named an assistant coach.

Kirkup will be on the bench with Winnipeg’s Christine Bumstead, who was recently an assistant coach for U18 Team Manitoba during the 2023 national women’s U18 championship held in Dawson Creek, B.C.

This will be Bumstead’s second year as a coach within the female U18 POE program. She has spent the last three seasons as an U Sports assistant coach with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies.

Bumstead also worked as a performance coach for the Western Hockey League’s Saskatoon Blades during this past season, making her the first woman to ever be a part of the Blades coaching staff.

She was previously a head coach and an assistant coach with the Pembina Valley U15 AAA Female Hawks where she spent three seasons behind the bench with the team.

Bumstead comes from a background of more than 15 years of skills coaching with Northwestern Hockey Sports Camp and Jets Hockey Development.

Bumstead’s assistants are Brandon’s Kirkup and Portage la Prairie’s Autumn Garnham. This will be Kirkup’s second year as a coach within the female U18 POE program as she was an assistant coach for U18 Team Manitoba during the 2023 Canada Winter Games in Prince Edward Island.

Kirkup played two seasons of college hockey with the University of Maine and University of Minnesota-Duluth followed by three seasons with the University of Manitoba Bisons women’s hockey team.

Her coaching experience includes coaching the Director’s Cup for three years, and serving as an assistant coach of the U16 Junior Bison team.

This past season, Kirkup’s Wheat Kings finished in third in the U15 AAA MFHL with an 18-12-5 record, and after advancing to the best-of-five championship series, surprising the powerhouse first-place Eastman Selects in the final.

This will be Garnham’s first year as a coach within the female U18 program. She was recently a coach for Hockey Manitoba’s female U16 POE.

She has spent the last two years as a co-coach for the U15 AAA Central Plains Capitals in the Manitoba Female Hockey League.

During her playing career, Garnham played two years with the Balmoral Hall Blazers prep team, followed by a season with the female U18 AAA Central Plains Capitals. She then went on to play three seasons for the University of Toronto.

Garnham has spent time coaching in both the Female Prospects and Directors Cup Prospects programs.

The goaltending coach for this team will be Riley Sveistrup from Portage la Prairie. This will be Sveistrup’s second year as U18 Team Manitoba’s goaltending coach.

Sveistrup has been coaching netminders for the U18 AAA female Central Plains Capitals for the last five years.

The female U18 POE process will begin in early June with the top-68 camp which will be held June 7 and 8 at the Hockey For All Centre in Winnipeg.

Following the top-68 camp, approximately 40 players will be invited to the POE top-40 camp which will be held from July 5 to 7 at the same venue in Winnipeg.

The third stage of the female U18 POE process will see Team Manitoba compete in an exhibition series against the University of Bisons women’s hockey team in late September and early October.

The final stage of the 2024 female U18 POE will see Team Manitoba compete at the 2024 national women’s U18 championship which is scheduled to take place in early November, with location yet to be announced.

The female U18 POE is designed to provide high performance female players with the opportunity to develop advanced skills as well as an introduction to the concepts needed to play at an elite level.

Players from the POE go on to play at the U Sports, NCAA and international level.

» The Brandon Sun