A Kamsack youth is among the top 20 female hockey players under 16 years of age.
Brooke Hausermann, 15, was recently selected as a member of the Team Saskatchewan’s U-16 Female Team.
This is the second year of the U-16 program, which identifies players to work on their development, said Joel Houseman, co-ordinator of hockey development for the Saskatchewan Hockey Association (SHA).
Creating the U-16 team is one of the first steps in the SHA program of excellence, Houseman said, explaining that all members of the team are being encouraged to try out for the U-18 team next year which will be competing at the U-18 national competition.
“Brooke is a good player,” he said. “She has a great skill set and is a big forward who moves well.
“If she keeps developing she has a bright future,” he said.
Hausermann, the daughter of Rudy and Kerri of Kamsack, was a centre with the Parkland Lions female hockey team of the Bantam A division of the South Saskatchewan Female Hockey League. The captain of the team, she was the team’s second-leading scorer.
This year Hausermann, who has been playing hockey since the age of four, has moved to Saskatoon where she is taking her Grade 10 education and is a forward with the Saskatoon Stars AAA Midget Female Hockey Team, which was to play its first game of the season against the Prairie Fire team in Melville on Saturday.
Excited and honoured to have been named to the U-16 Team Saskatchewan, Hausermann had registered with the SHA last October after having been invited to attend one of the two Sask First female camps, which was the first step towards the formation of the team.
At camps held in February, the players were “evaluated and depth charted by evaluators and all of the coaching staff” and from that information four teams were formed from the south of the province, and four for the north. From those teams, the final 20 members of the U-16 Team Saskatchewan were selected.
Hausermann and the 19 other selected players took to the ice in Swift Current September 11 to 13, when the team defeated the Yellowhead Chiefs 2-0, out-shooting their opponents 35 to 15.
The second game for Team Sask was against the Westman Wildcats and the U16 girls beat the Wildcats 3-0 and out-shot them 45-14.
The final game was agisnt Edmonton and Team Sask was once again victorious, winning 5-0 and out-shooting Edmonton 62-12.
On the team with Hausermann are: Jordan Ivanco, Kieran McKercher, Hannah Koroll, Jaise Skinner, Jordyn Gerlitz, Jordyn Holmes and Shirley Grace of Saskatoon; Jordan Ashe and Jayda Sachs of Warman; Allison Hayhurst of Wapella; Taylor Kirwan of Gull Lake; Willow Slobodzian, Joelle Fiala and MacKenna Parker of Clavet; Heather Fiske of Esterhazy; Miranda Hatt and Jenna Merk of Regina; Jenna Maclean of Wilcox, and Abbey Nimegeers of White City.
“This experience on the U16 team will get Brooke ready so that she knows what will be expected of her next year when she tries out for the U-18 team,” her mother said.
During the summer, Hausermann and a friend, Olivia Gordon of Yorkton, were two members of a group of 24 Canadian and American youths who, as members of the Free the Children program, travelled to Ecuador to spend two weeks helping to construct two classrooms in the community of San Miguel.
