Coaches Say Female U18A League Highly Competitive So Far This Season
Story By Robert Thomas
“It’s a pretty tight league actually,” Shane Kaufmann head coach of the Milestone U18 Female Flyers said about this year’s edition of the Southern Division of the Saskatchewan U18 A Female hockey League.
The Flyers, after Friday evening, now have a record of 2 - 1 - 1 after skating to a 1 - 1 tie versus the Balcaarres Barracudas.
“There ain’t going to be any easy games,” Kaufmann said.
The season opening 4 - 1 victory in Gull Lake versus the Southwest Cyclones may have a box score showing Milestone having a massive edge but Kaufmann said that is not the case but rather it was a highly competitive affair.
A game which could have gone either way, co-coach Darrel Perras said.
“Everybody wants to win and the league is highly competitive this year. Anybody can win on any given night,” Kaufmann said.
Asked to speculate what teams are to watch for both Kaufmann and Perras said you can’t.
“I think it is going to be whoever has the heart and tries at the end are going to win,” Kaufmann said.
“Whoever brings the effort is going to win. It can be any team in the league,” Perras said.
It is a sentiment Balcarres head coach of the Balcarres Baracudas Mark Hartman agrees with. The league is highly competitive this year and any team can win.
The standings cannot be relied upon to predict who will win games as the teams are closely matched, Hartman said, adding it is good thing for the league.
“We’ve played four games and we have had a challenge in each game we played so far and it seems to be pretty even the way it is working out. And yes it has been challenging in games so far,” he said.
“We haven’t played a lot of teams yet. We have only played three teams so far and four games total but you know that the three teams we have played have all been challenging,” Hartman said.
“So it should be a wide open league and anyone can beat anyone I am sure.”
He said the tight games, where either team can win, are best for the league.
“It’s definitely good to have two teams that are competitive that are you know fairly equal. You know it’s a lot better than having a 10 - 3 game or 11 - 1 game. No it is good for the league to see competitive teams that match up pretty good,” Hartman said.
The Barracudas get “a lot of good support back home. Definitely they come out and support girls hockey and it is great to see.”