Norfolk Hericanes’ U15B goalie Paige Montague reaches out to make a glove save during a 1-0 victory over Oakville on Nov. 23.
By Chris Abbott
Norfolk Hericanes U15B girls hockey team (6-2-3) is rolling in the OWHL Southern Conference, second place in the South Division.
“I’ve been very fortunate this year,” said U15B Hericanes coach Bernie Gillis. “We made promises to each other at the beginning of the season during our dryland and team bonding events – we promised that we would all compete to the best of our ability every time we were on the ice. Win, lose or draw, we put everything out.
“We practice the way we play and it’s starting to show in the standings.”
Buffalo Bisons (9-1-1) from New York State, lead the 12-team division, but the Hericanes are pushing them hard with playoffs still a couple months out, undefeated in their last four games (3-0-1) including a 1-0 win home ice win in Port Dover over the Oakville Hornets on Nov. 23. Chelsea Spriet scored the lone goal against Oakville and goalie Paige Montague got the shutout.
“Normally the Bisons play out of Fort Erie and Port Colborne,” noted U15B Hericanes coach Bernie Gillis. “We’ve only had to go to Amherst once, and that was only because they were struggling to get ice.”
The U15 Hericanes, who have lost in an Orillia tournament quarter-finals (eight player shootout), have a young team with only five second-year players. They will gain experience at the Walter Gretzky Tournament in Brantford in February and a Guelph Invitational early in December.
“It’s tough with a small community,” said Gillis. “Our whole organization is maybe 88 players strong, across all divisions. So we’re a small-knit community – we try to keep our girls local… that’s our main goal.”
A new grassroots U9 Hericanes program started this season – and they are young, too.
“We probably have a handful of true U9s, 7-8 year olds, and we added six-year-olds to make it a more viable, competitive team. I think they have 16 players – that was our focus this year to get that program up and running, to introduce local young ladies to the game of hockey, and to bring them over from the OMHA to the OWHA.”
For the 15-17 year olds, the Hericanes have three teams – BB, B and house league.
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