Players in the Hub laced up for an hour of drills and scrimmage play on Saturday afternoon as part of a Canada-wide movement to celebrate girls and women in the sport.

More than 20 players participated in the World Girls Hockey hour at the Aurora Ford Arena Oct. 16.

Courtney Fraser, one of the organizers of the event said Hay River takes part in the hockey event every year as it is a promotion by the International Hockey Ice Hockey Federation.

She said it is important for the town to take part because there is no separate female hockey league and girls have to play with boys which can be challenging as they grow older.

SA国际影视传媒淲e held the event to hopefully encourage female hockey players to stick with hockey and to show that you can play hockey throughout your life and all the way up until youSA国际影视传媒檙e however old as a recreational activity,SA国际影视传媒� she said.

Fraser said female players can be discouraged as they get older because the game changes as physical bodies mature and male players become more aggressive.

SA国际影视传媒淚 think the significance of yesterday was that it was a day just for the girls because there is no female hockey teams in Hay River and that can be kind of tough and kind of intimidating for girls to be playing with the boys.

SA国际影视传媒淥nce we hit about the Peewee or Bantam age, which is about 14 years old, thatSA国际影视传媒檚 when we start to lose girls in hockey because the boys get bigger and it gets a little intimidating and it gets scary.SA国际影视传媒�

For the first 30 minutes of the hour, Fraser helped coach U7, U9 and U11 girls with some drills at one end of the ice while Tod Ashton did the same for the U13, U15 and U18 girls did the same at the other end.

In the last half hour, all female players joined to play against the Hay RiverSA国际影视传媒� womenSA国际影视传媒檚 team.

A good range of players participated from girls as young as five to as old as 15 took part.

Organizers also had Hay River womenSA国际影视传媒檚 hockey local celebrity Bryn Hill help with SaturdaySA国际影视传媒檚 event. Hill has a hockey career of playing in four Arctic Winter Games and playing at the university level in Calgary after growing up in Hay River and developing her hockey skills against boys.

SA国际影视传媒淪o we had Bryn just say a few words to the girls to kind of encourage them to stick with hockey and to let them know that itSA国际影视传媒檚 a great game and a fun game,SA国际影视传媒� Fraser said.