McCallum soaring with Raiders

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

Hailey McCallum has really found a niche as a rookie with the Rocky Mountain Raiders midget triple-A female team and hopes to continue to develop and produce offensively.
“I feel that we’ve been getting better gradually but we’ve had a couple upsets. We haven’t finished games off as planned, a lot of ties and shootouts,” said McCallum. The Strathmore native has 18 points (7 goals, 11 assists) in 24 games with the Raiders and is trying to make the most of her opportunities.
“We don’t have one main goal scorer and I think I’m playing better as a rookie. I’m one point from (the) top scorer right now and just learning at a (higher) level with new people,” said McCallum.
“We have a lot of rookies this year and only have six veterans.”
She believes that the Raiders should use their speed more as the team will be more effective that way in games.
“We have a lot of speed, our coach always talks about on how we need to use our speed because we’ve got good pace. We’re starting to gel and hopefully be better for playoffs,” said McCallum.
She has only played hockey for four years – she had previously played ringette – but has had some highlights in her young career.
“Last year I finally made finally made bantam triple A and won the provincials which was awesome and hopefully we can do good in playoffs this year,” said McCallum.
She got to experience a high-pressured situation at the Mac’s tournament this year and cherished every minute of it.
“It was overwhelming at first but I adjusted to it. I think I played pretty good and showcased myself well,” said McCallum.
The Raiders had the mindset of being on top of their pool in the tournament and as a result over-analyzed their opponents.
“We thought that we would be able to come out on top but that didn’t happen. It’s a short tournament, you got to take it one game at a time and we got a bit a head of ourselves,” said McCallum.
She added that the difference from bantam to midget in one season was playing with bigger girls and being more aware of who is on the ice.