All-female tournament takes over county

Posted on: Staff Writer

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Wheatland Wranglers hosted an all-female hockey tournament from Jan. 2–4. The three-day event featured the seven local Wranglers teams competing across multiple age divisions, including U9A, U9B, U11A, U11B, U13A, U 13 B, and U18. Games were played at the Strathmore Family Centre, along with the arenas in Standard and Gleichen.

Joe Lepage Photo

The Wheatland Wranglers debuted their new all-female hockey tournament throughout the county over the course of the weekend.

U9 through U18 teams from across Alberta, as well as some from British Columbia – 33 in all, came out to compete. Kristie Stoodley, tournament coordinator, said there were approximately 570 athletes in attendance.

The tournament took over the ice of both rinks in Strathmore at the Family Center Arena, as well as in Standard and Gleichen.

“We had to stay on a strict time schedule at each rink. Everything was kind of timed to a T, with the floods and the game timing – everything had to run lickety-split so we didn’t get behind schedule,” said Stoodley. “It (was) a big job, it’s been a lot. This is Krista (Thurston) and I’s first year as well running and organizing a tournament. It’s been a learning curve for us, but I feel like we are just trucking along as we go, doing our best.”

The idea to host a tournament of this scale stemmed from a desire to host the entire Wranglers organization in one event over a single weekend.

Participating teams ran through a round-robin format, playing four games before the top contenders went on to the playoff rounds. The U9 division held only the round robin games. 

The Wranglers U7 team played an exhibition game as a showcase in order to also have them included.

“We’ve got some sponsors that have sponsored our MVP prize … we have got a lot of cash sponsors and local sponsors in the communities that have been really great to help us with raffle donations and with cash to help the tournament function,” added Stoodley. “It’s (also) brought a lot of revenue into the town for sure. Our hotels have worked with us and given us some room blocks to hand out to some teams. We also have teams in hotels on the east side of Calgary. With this many people, it’s hard to fit everybody in our town.”

Going forward, the Wranglers organization is not opposed to hosting events of a similar scale in future years.