CALGARY – Hockey Canada’s National Women’s Team head coach/general manager Melody Davidson, along with National Women’s Program head scout Wally Kozak, announced Friday that 66 of the country’s top 18-and-under women’s players will converge on Calgary from May 11th to 13th for a strength and conditioning/skating camp.
“We are very excited to add this camp to our National Women’s Program schedule,” says Julie Healy, Director of Female Hockey for Hockey Canada. “Our branches have been working hard to grow the female game and the skill level of this group of athletes is a testament to the great work that has already been all across Canada. This camp will focus on teaching these young hockey players about what they will need to do to become elite athletes. Canada is a country full of talented hockey players so we are looking to see how many of them have what it takes to become exceptional athletes.”
The players, at least one from each Canadian province and territory, excluding Nunavut, will be put through fitness testing, and skating drills over the course of the three-day camp. There is no opportunity to observe the players during the off-ice sessions – on-ice times are 5:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 12th and 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, May 13th, all at Norma Bush Arena in Calgary. The focus for these sessions will be on skating techniques, and there will be no pucks on the ice.
Hockey Canada will also use the camp as an opportunity to get to know the players, and give them off-ice training techniques, as well as proper nutritional guidance. Using the 2006-07 on-ice evaluation, performance at this camp and, for the goaltenders, performance at the June goalie camp, Hockey Canada officials will make their selections to a July Under-19 camp, which will lead to selections for the National Women’s Under-18 and National Women’s Under-22 teams for the 2007-08 season.