Hockey Brandon unveils U15 AAA team

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This article was published 03/05/2021 (1834 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brandon’s first-ever under-15 AAA female hockey team is set to take to the ice in the fall.

The team, which will play in the Manitoba U15 AAA Female League, will include an all-female hockey staff, with Karissa Kirkup serving as head coach and Amanda Coey as assistant coach. In addition, Amy Doerksen will serve as program support.

All three women played at the post-secondary level.

“The number of girls who are at this age is really high,” Doerksen said. “They’ve been able to keep a really solid group of female athletes at this age, and the numbers behind them are also really strong so that’s an indication that we’re headed in the right direction. 

“It’s a really good time to put your money where your mouth is and create a team that is at the highest possible level that we can. I think it’s really exciting on top of that that it’s going to be female led as well.

“We have the talent, we have the players, and now we have the coaching talent here and it’s all female based.”

Presently, girls play with the boys until they reach the U11 division, which used to be called atom. Hockey Brandon has had enough players to compete in the Rural Manitoba Female Hockey League (RMFHL) in the younger age groups, but as the girls get older, the numbers begin to decline.

Jarrod Franklin, who serves as the female program director with Hockey Brandon, said the creation of a U15 AAA team has been in the works for years but stalled on that single issue. 

“We’ve never had the numbers in Brandon to support our own U15 programs until now,” Franklin said. “It doesn’t necessarily mean our registration numbers are up —  they are, we’ve had fantastic registrations for some time — it’s keeping them engaged as they get older.

“You get into that U15, and there are a lot of other things for all the athletes to do, and certainly girls are no different.”

This year there are about 40 players in the age group, with a previous high closer to 20. That doesn’t mean all 40 will try to make the AAA team but it does provide a larger pool to draw from when assembling a roster.

Hockey Brandon hopes enough players will remain to put a second team in the RMFHL.

There are currently two U15 AAA programs in Westman. The Yellowhead Chiefs, who play out of Shoal Lake and Minnedosa, are a single-rostered team, which means that’s the only club the young ladies play on.

Meanwhile, the Westman Wildcats, who skate out of Wawanesa, are a double-rostered team. They play with their local house league teams and then also practise once a week and skate with the Wildcats.

The Brandon program will also be a single-rostered team.

Until the formation of this program, Brandon has been open territory, which means players could head wherever they wanted.

While the U15 program has taken shape in Brandon, Franklin doubts a local U18 program is in the cards.

“It’s tough,” Franklin said. “That’s a tricky age group. We’ve never been close and I don’t think we’ll be close in my time to have our own U18 program. We have a great partnership with Southwest … and I hope they’re still able to form a U15 program. 

“I don’t see us having our own U18 program out of Brandon. It takes so many kids. You want to be competitive as well and it takes a lot.”

He added the unintended consequence of forming a U18 program in Brandon could be ending the U18 Wildcats program, something he would hate to see.

“All we’ve done then is transplant it from one facility to another,” Franklin said. 

It certainly didn’t hurt that Jared Jacobson and J&G announced the construction of a new arena in the southwest corner of the city that is set to open in the fall. With three rinks at the Keystone Centre and one at the Sportsplex, demand has long outstripped supply in Brandon.

“We’re lean on ice and we’ve been lean on ice for a long time,” Franklin said. “These particular programs, AAA programs, require a lot of ice so the announcement of that additional ice surface is certainly helping our cause. It’s not what dictated moving forward but it certainly helped.”

To get a first look at her future players, Kirkup has organized a spring identification camp that will take place from May 14 to 16 at the Flynn Arena in the Keystone Centre.

She said her motivation in coaching the new team is simple.

“My whole goal and what I’m the most proud of is just to be a small part of growing the female hockey game in the Brandon area,” Kirkup said. “Basically to turn around and try to give as great of an experience as I had growing up to girls and to be able to support them the way I was supported growing up.”

Doerksen, who also serves as Hockey Brandon’s U7 program director was the person who identified Kirkup as a potential head coach.

One of Doerksen’s former teammates is Kirkup’s aunt, so she followed Kirkup’s career on social media as it progressed. When Kirkup landed a teaching job in Carberry, Doerksen approached her about helping with her U7 team.

After seeing her in action, Doerksen knew she would make a terrific head coach.

“She’s just an incredible young woman,” Doerksen said. “She is a natural-born leader on the ice and wonderful with the players she worked with, which takes talent. The U7 level is like herding cats and it takes a lot of skill.”

While there is certainly nothing inherently wrong with male coaches in the female game — many have made indelible impressions on young players and the sport in Westman — it will be nice for the girls to have female coaches. Doerksen said it could make a big difference.

“I was really motivated to get involved in the board because we lack female leadership,” Doerksen said. “We need more women on the ice in leadership roles, coaching and we need more women around board tables and a part of these associations. We’re just not there and I think it makes a difference. 

“Female athletes get something from having female mentors and role models and seeing themselves in what they can achieve.”

Kirkup’s goal is to continue to lead female hockey forward. She thinks the Brandon U15 AAA team can have an impact, and she hopes she can too. 

“I think it will be a huge part of growing the game in the area,” Kirkup said. “I’ve had a variety of coaches growing up, and whether it is male or female, it has to be the right people, and I was fortunate enough to have great coaches growing up and I want to continue with that. I just want to be a good coach to them and provide the opportunities that they deserve.”

Doerksen noted that players get better by playing with and against more talented people, and thinks the AAA program may encourage more youngsters to stay in the game longer. 

She is also hoping the U15 team can provide the same kind of inspiration to young girls as the Western Hockey League’s Brandon Wheat Kings give to young boys.

“Young boys have the Wheat Kings here in town that they can look up to and aspire to,” Doerksen said. “We have a great program with the Wheat Kings where all of our Timbits U7 get to play during one of the intermissions and they love it. It’s great. It’s showing what they could potentially do. 

“I think programs like this show players where they have the potential of eventually playing.”

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