Sixteen-year-old hockey player Sydney Hill of Redvers describes the moment she learned she had been selected to play defence for U18 Team Saskatchewan at the upcoming Canada Winter Games in Prince George, B.C., as “just happiness.”
Hill, the daughter of Drs. Christine Ewert Hill and Clarke Hill of Head For The Hills Veterinary, is a second-year boarder at the Warner Hockey School in Warner, Alberta. The Redvers resident says of her selection to Team Sask: “You're competing against the best players in Saskatchewan for those spots. There are returning girls who have made the team before and know the ropes. There are lots of new girls, too, so there's lots of competition.”
Hill says the road to Team Saskatchewan is a year-long process, with no guarantees. “Tryouts are at the very beginning of the year. From January to March 2014, there were open tryouts for all of the girls in Saskatchewan, in Regina and Saskatoon. From those tryouts, the top 80 players are picked and two teams each from the south and the north play in the Sask First Tournament. The top 42 players from those teams go on to Notre Dame in Wilcox, where you're looked at by the coaches at a summer camp, and then finally, the last step is being chosen for the Mandi Schwartz Challenge in September.”
“You're basicially watched for the whole year. They're not just looking at how well you play hockey, your also being judged on how hard you work and your attitude. On the first day you show up, there's fitness testing, and you can tell really quickly who's been prepping for the team. They're also looking at a player's attitude-both on and off the ice.”
“It's definitely a journey. I never really understood how much, until I went through the process myself.”
Hill's hockey career began in Redvers, where she, her parents, and her two brothers, Zach and Spencer, live on a nearby farm.
“I started playing in Redvers,” says Hill. “All of my friends were playing hockey, so I thought, 'I can skate, I can try it.'”
“I played 8 and under and I was a below-average 8 and under, too. I was really bad at it. I was bad on the ice, and my dad was a pretty good goalie, so the coach put me in goal. They soon discovered that I was worse there than I was on the ice,” she laughs. “There were a lot of kids blaming me for a losing streak, which they should have!”
“I started skating backwards a lot more. I'd always loved it, so I did it as much as I could. So they threw me on defense and I loved it.”
“At the beginning, I was so bad, but my mom told me not to quit. My parents said that things get more fun if you keep working at them and keep getting better.”
“It's really good advice, and it helped me a lot when I played on teams with boys,” adds Hill. “You have to be just as good or better than them, so it's great to be able to hold your own.”
Hill's hockey career began to take off in Redvers when she joined the town's Bantam girls' team. “They called me and Cassidy Pirlot up. We were younger and Redvers had a really strong girls' team and I learned a lot.”
“In grade 9, I played Triple A in Weyburn. Me and my parents started thinking about university, CIS (Canadian Interuniversity Sport) and NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association). We went to Warner (Alberta), with no intention of me going (to the Warner Hockey School) there. We were just looking around. It's just a tiny little town and we didn't know much about it.”
“Then Mikko Makela (former NHL player, head coach, and school director) came up to me and my parents and said, 'You need to arrange a meeting.'”
“At the meeting my dad asked if I should be there in the next couple of years and Mikko said, 'No, next year.'”
“So we did it. I moved there when I was 14 and I just turned 16 in December, so this is my second year in Warner. I moved from Redvers to Weyburn to play for the Weyburn GoldWings when I was 13. I was homesick almost all the time, but I was by myself in my billet and just bored a lot of the time.”
“In Warner, there is a whole bunch of activities and I'm living with the rest of the team. I'm meeting all new people and there's no time to get homesick. There are 19 girls on the team and the residence rooms are in a converted church, which is pretty cool.”
“It's a pretty small town, so we walk to school. This year, our team has had a pretty good year, and with hockey, school, and all of the other activities, there isn't really a chance to get too homesick.”
During the school year, Hill plays with the Warner Warriors. However, her hockey career doesn't stop when the school year ends.
“I play spring hockey with the South Sask Prairie Ice from Regina and since I was 12, I've also played in the summer with the Anaheim Lady Ducks. With Anaheim, it's usually one big tournament, like the Beantown Classic in Boston.”
“This year, with Team Saskatchewan, summer's really booked,” says Hill. “But it feels really good. It's exciting and nerve-wracking to be playing alongside the best players in Canada. It all comes back to actually working really hard and not giving up,” says Hill.
“I want to continue to play hockey at the CIS or NCAA levels, and I kind of want to use hockey to get that great education. I'm intrigued by a lot of things, but I'm starting to think of English or law or medicine.”
As for the immediate future however, Hill is looking forward to representing her home province at the Canada Winter Games in Prince George, with her proud family looking on.
“We're definitely very proud,” says Hill's mother, Christine. “It's a big event and it really puts the spotlight on girls in sport. We miss her, but we also want to encourage her drive and determination.
“It's been hard at times,” says Hill. “But the success afterwards is worth it.”
