3 Timberwolves selected for Winter Games

Left-right are Tanis Desjarlais, Shelby Pratt, Kirsten Noskey and coach Lindsay Pratt of the 2008 Team Alberta North Junior Female team. They will be heading to the Arctic Winter Games in Yellowknife March 9-15.

Mac Olsen
South Peace News

They made the final cut and they’re ready to do battle with other hockey teams of their calibre. Tanis Desjarlais, Kirsten Noskey and Shelby Pratt of the High Prairie Tolko Timberwolves midget girl’s team will play on the Team Alberta North Junior Female squad at the 2008 Arctic Winter Games. They participated in the tryouts in High Prairie on the Dec. 7-9, 2007 weekend. The girls say the tryouts were hard because a lot of talented players attended. They were surprised to make the team. “It helped me step up my game,” says Desjarlais. She will keep in shape and work hard in practises to prepare for the Games. She has played left- and right-wing for the Timberwolves for three years. Pratt, who plays centre, is a veteran of the 2006 Arctic Winter Games in Kenai Peninsula, Alaska. “It was a great experience,” says Pratt. She won’t feel nervous going into the next Games. Pratt says she will keep her focus on fun, but won’t hold anything back either. Kirsten Noskey will be one of the youngest players on the team. She is excited going to the Games for the first time. Noskey, who plays forward on the same line with Desjarlais and Pratt for the Timberwolves, encourages other girls to try out for the Junior Female Team. “Try hard, be confident in yourself, and never give up,” says Noskey. Also playing on the team will be Madison Rose. She formerly played in High Prairie, but now plays for a Grande Prairie midget team. Coach Lindsay Pratt held a practise in Grande Prairie on the Jan. 25-27 weekend and had only a short time to make 17 girls into a cohesive unit. “Under Alberta Hockey rules, we have only four hours of ice time to put a group of talented players together and make them into a team,” says coach Pratt. He focused on on-ice systems, line combinations and off-ice team building. Pratt says the competition will be strong. With the success Team Alberta has had at the Games, all the other teams will be gunning for them. He adds there are no star players on the Junior Female Team, so it will rise or fall with all of its members. The Arctic Winter Games, to be held in Yellowknife March 9-15, draw competitors from the Northwest Territories, Yukon, Nunavut, Alaska, Greenland, Northern Alberta, Northern Quebec, the Sami people of Scandinavia, and the Russian provinces of Yamal and Magadan. The first biannual Arctic Winter Games were held in Yellowknife in 1970, with about 500 athletes, coaches and officials participating in 10 sports. The number of athletes and events has grown over the years, and includes other sports such as basketball and volleyball.

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