Norfolk HERicanes on the rise in OWHL

Stoney Creek edged the Norfolk HERicanes U9 girls   3-1 Sunday at Talbot Gardens in Simcoe. 

Chris Abbott

Editor

Bernie Gillis is a man of many hats.

Coach of three Norfolk HERicanes hockey teams, Gillis is also president of the Norfolk HERicanes Girls Hockey Association.

“Some of the teams have started playoffs,” said Gillis Sunday afternoon (Feb. 8) at Talbot Gardens. “The U15s started playdowns yesterday afternoon in Flamborough, and played another game today. Our playoffs start next Saturday.

“U18 Bs start their playoffs Wednesday night (Feb. 11) in Flamborough and the Seniors start their playoffs next weekend against Brantford, who they are playing today for their last regular season game.”

The Seniors were first in their OWHL Southwest division, said Gillis, the U18 BBs sixth in the South division, and the U18 Bs clinched fourth place setting up a playoff against Cazenovia (New York State). The U15s finished third in their division – they have a series locked in against Owen Sound coming up, first in Norfolk, then in Owen Sound for two games. The U13s, with two to play, we’re seventh, and battling in the consolation playoffs. The U11 Bs are in first in their division with a 17-0-2 record.

The HERicanes also have two U9 house league teams and a U18 HL team in the GHGHL (Greater Hamilton).

HERICANES ON THE RISE

“We’ve grown since last year,” said Gillis. “We added a U11 team this year, we added a U9 team this year. We’re trying to build our grassroots programs. We’ve been doing HERicanes for a Day the last couple of years and it’s helped out immensely. We’ve got a good group of coaches at those age – they really helped grow it.

“The PWHL is definitely helping. This year, the 15s and 18s, they’re right into both the men’s and women’s Olympic hockey. The U11s and U9s have gone as a team to see PWHL games or (Brantford) Bulldogs, and stuff like that.

Gillis, who has been on the HERicanes executive about 10 years, recalls the association having about 70-75 players when he took on the president position. Today they have 132 players.

“It’s been on the upward trend, which is nice to see,” he nodded. “It’s growing, it’s getting better.”

“In five years, it’s grown immensely. The grassroots program has been key, trying to get that up and running, because originally we just started at U13. Now we’ve added two other streams with our U9 and U11 programs and as long as we can continue to build the U9 program, we have flow going into the other leagues.”