McDonald ready for new challenge

Mya McDonald certainly isn’t afraid of a challenge.

The 17-year-old blue-liner, who grew up on a farm near Strathclair, has committed to join the Dakota College at Bottineau Lumberjacks women’s hockey and softball teams next fall. But after a busy high school athletic career, she’s not worried the load will be too heavy as she pursues an associate of Arts degree.

“I’m excited for the challenge,” McDonald said. “I think it will still be fun. I’ve managed all these sports in high school, how hard could it be in another one?

“It’s a little nerve-wracking, but I feel confident that with the supports in Bottineau and just the support of my family and friends that I can do it.”

She attends Strathclair Community School, where the Grade 12 student participates in curling, softball, basketball, volleyball, badminton, track and field and cross country. On the softball diamond in the summer, the catcher and outfielder played in Hamiota and also for the AA Westman Heat.

She’s a firm believer the many sports she’s active in can build off each other.

“I think just the physical aspect and the mental aspect of every game will help other games,” McDonald said. “For example, my basketball season right now, not only is the endurance of hockey helping me running up and down the court, but also the mental aspect of keeping me in the game and giving that second effort when I’m tired and helping support my teammates when they’re down and keeping all the spirits up.”

On the ice, the five-foot-six, left-handed shot began to skate around age three at the Strathclair Arena and playing hockey a year later. She bounced between playing centre and defence several times but ultimately ended back on the blue-line.

McDonald said that variety has benefited her all-around game and made her a better defender and more able to read the play.

“I like to be offensive but also defensive,” McDonald said. “I only make an offensive rush if it’s a smart move. If I’m risking giving up a (breakaway), I definitely won’t do it.”

Like all farm kids, she’s utterly dependent on getting rides to the rink, and that’s where her father Travis and mother Briana have stepped up. She said it’s impossible to imagine being where she is now without them.

“They’ve really been my support system all along,” said McDonald, whose family also includes brother Lane. “They drive me to all places and funded me the year I played AAA, and that’s extra. It’s just getting me to all the places and taking me to all the tournaments and encouraging me to do better and congratulating me on good games and helping me out.

“My mom has always been a coach for me too and always helped me to be a better player and a better teammate and a better person.”

She spent the 2022-23 season with the under-15 AAA Chiefs but is now skating in the Rural Manitoba Female Hockey League with the U18 A Hamiota Huskies.

The Huskies (13-2-0) sit in first place in the 10-team league with a league-high 63 goals for and just 22 goals against.

“We’ve done very well actually,” McDonald said. “We were undefeated for quite a while and fell off a little bit in 2026, but we’ve only lost two games. It’s good for us to lose. We’ve been doing really well.”

In 15 games, McDonald has six goals and 11 assists and has scored two game winners. She also serves as team captain, which has meant taking on a leadership role.

“It means a lot to me that the girls voted for me to be captain,” McDonald said. “I want to try my best to be a good leader for them, and to try and be a good role model and help everybody out, to have fun and work hard.”

She began to think about potentially playing at the university level when she was in U15 and in Grade 9. It actually began at a job fair in Brandon when she realized there were options out there for her.

“It always felt like I wanted to play hockey forever, but I realized, ‘Wait, I can play after school at a school?’” McDonald said. “There was a job thing in Brandon, and Bottineau was there and said there’s a hockey team and softball team. I was like ‘Oh, I can go play somewhere.’”

That put the school on her mind for the first time, but there is a family connection. Her father’s first cousin Sheldon Rapley also played in Bottineau.

She visited campus in September with Brooke Facey, a Hamiota product and teammate who is also committed to the school next fall, as is another teammate, Alyshia McKinnon.

“I liked how friendly everybody was,” McDonald said. “It’s small and it felt like a nice little community.”

She was thinking about one other school but ultimately didn’t reach out to them.

Meanwhile, as she weighed her options, she was comparing notes with Facey and McKinnon, and when they committed first, they actively encouraged McDonald to join them.

“It’s going to be very nice to have people I know down there with me going through the same thing as me,” McDonald said. “It will be nice. It will bring a little bit of home down there, a reminder that there is always a home that I can go back to.”

McDonald said it’s nice to have her decision made because it took a lot of stress off her mind.

Dakota College at Bottineau’s head scout, Neil Franklin of Brandon — via Deloraine and Melita — is happy she’s joining the program. He said a few things stand out about the teenager, including her ability at both ends of the ice.

“She’s a very mobile defenceman,” Franklin said. “She can move the puck up ice by a good first pass or she can rush it the length of the ice if the situation presents itself. She sees the ice very well and leads by example.”

While McDonald has some things to take care of before she heads down next summer — graduating high school is certainly at the top of the list — she can’t help but think ahead of the adventure that awaits when she arrives in Bottineau.

“I’m so excited,” McDonald said. “I can’t wait to see where it takes me and where my life is going to go with it.”

pbergson@brandonsun.com