All but one player from the bantam Red Deer Sutter Fund Chiefs, who won the Pacific Coast Female Rep Hockey Classic in Richmond, BC to start the season, will be trying out this weekend for the 2020 Alberta Winter Games in Airdrie. (Supplied)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

looking to represent

Sutter Fund Chiefs players vying for Winter Games spots

Nov 28, 2019 | 4:55 PM

U15 female hockey tryouts are taking place this weekend ahead of the 2020 Alberta Winter Games in Airdrie.

Tryouts, which include skill testing and scrimmages, run Friday through Sunday in Innisfail and Wetaskiwin.

With hopes of making their regional squad, the entire bantam Red Deer Sutter Fund Chiefs team will be at the Innisfail tryout.

Coach Shane Nafziger says excitement is high among the 2005 and 2006-born players.

“The last two practices we’ve had, you can see the nerves are settling in, but it’s full of good chatter and they’re goofing around a lot,” he says. “I’m kind of liking that because they’re still having fun with it, but it’s been a bit hard to keep focus.”

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Second year players Alyssa Shaw, Hailey Jackson, and captain Ryann Holbein, who all played in the 2019 Challenge Cup, have led the team to an early 5-1-0 record ahead of their audition this weekend.

“We’ve been excellent the last few games. We’ve had a couple shutouts, and the team’s coming together and that’s thanks to the leadership of those second years,” Nafziger adds. “We’re starting to put the pucks in the net, but it’s all around, we’re not depending on one person.”

The team also began the season by repeating as champs at the Pacific Coast Female Rep Hockey Classic. The team they beat — Calgary Fire Red Elite — is also the only team to beat them in regular season play thus far.

Should players be selected by Hockey Alberta to play at the 2020 Games, they’d likely be representing Zone 4 or Zone 7.