Playing with the big girls Part two

Carly Johnston, a 16 year old Level ll student at King Academy in Harbour Breton, will have some great opportunities to sharpen up her hockey skills in March as she will be competing in two major sporting events in Newfoundland.

Ms. Johnston, who has been playing hockey since grade four, is now a member of the Central Newfoundland Triple A IcePak Midget team that will participate in an Atlantic tournament and in the Newfoundland and Labrador Winter games later this month.

2010 Atlantic Midget Female Hockey Champions-hip

Ms. Johnston will compete in the 2010 Atlantic Midget Female Hockey Championship that will begin in Gander on March 18.

This tournament will feature two Newfoundland teams - Central and Western, and teams from Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

"I'm really looking forward to this tournament," Ms. Johnston said. "We'll be playing against the best young girls' teams in Atlantic Canada, so each game will be very challenging.

"All the teams that will compete in this event are very good, so we're going to have to be at our best to win. I'm looking forward to the action."

2010 Newfoundland and Labrador Winter Games

Whatever the outcome of the Atlantic tournament, Ms. Johnston will have little time for rest as she will skate right into the 2010 Newfoundland and Labrador Winter Games.

She will be a player on one of the eight teams participating in the female hockey championship in the hockey portion of the games that runs from March 24 to March 27 at the Joe Byrne Stadium in Grand Falls-Windsor.

However, Ms. Johnston will have some new teammates for this event as most of the Triple A IcePak teams had to be divided up for the Winter Games.

As Grand Falls-Windsor is hosting the games, the girls from that community will form the host team. In addition, the girls from Glovertown are part of the eastern district, according to the Winter Games boundaries.

What it all means is that Ms. Johnston, who is used to playing with teammates from Grand falls-Windsor and Glovertown, will have quite a few new buddies going into tournament action. However, even though it's a new Central team, their coach, Robert Bouzane, has some big goals for his girls.

"We definitely are shooting for a medal," Mr. Bouzane said. "We have some really good forwards and really good defensemen. Overall, we have a mixture of very strong and average players in every position.

"We have a lot of players that can score goals at this level, so we shouldn't have any problems with this aspect of the game. We have to work our defensive zone coverage and concentrate on our forwards being responsible defensively."

Ms. Johnston's team, Central, will be in Division A along with St. John's North, St. John's South and the host team. The Western Team, which will be the team to beat in the tournament as they were not divided or split up. The Western girls will play in Division B along with Avalon, Eastern and Labrador.

"Mr. Bouzane said, "Western will be the competition to beat. We want to finish first in our division so we won't have to meet them in the crossover. Our goal is to finish first, so the only time we'll have to face them will be in the championship game."

Ms. Johnston said, too, the Western girls will be the ones to beat in the Winter Games.

She said, "All the other teams had to be divided due to the boundaries of the various regions. The Western team, which is a really strong team anyway, was the only one not split up for the event, so, yes, they'll be a tough team to beat.

"In addition, some of the other teams won't have a lot of opportunities to play together before the Winter Games. However, you never know - anything can happen in a tournament like this, and we're going to play our best and shoot for a medal."

Ms. Johnston said that she is also looking forward to the fun aspect of the event as well as the hockey action itself.

"I know many of the players from previous tournaments, and a lot of us are staying at the same school. So, it's going to a fun time for all of us. There also will be social activities that will give the boys and girls opportunities to meet each other and socialize, so that's going to be fun too."