Today's annual B.C. AAA Provincial Field Hockey Championships on the North Shore promises to be a real nail biter as many of the competing teams are neck in neck when it comes to talent, skill and drive to snag the top title.
The top 16 AAA high school girl teams in the province (from Vancouver Island, Vancouver-Richmond, Fraser Valley, Okanagan and three local high schools, Argyle, Handsworth and West Vancouver) will converge on fields across North and West Vancouver.
Jane Kozniuk is not only the Argyle girls field hockey team coach but the tournament's chairwoman, and she says the people organizing the tournament from Nov. 12 to 14 have been working on it around the clock for the last nine months.
"It's the first time all three (North Shore) schools have come together," she said. "(We) joined together back in January and took on the lead of hosting this event."
Argyle's team is currently ranked eighth going into the event, and Kozniuk said the goal is to either maintain that ranking or improve upon it.
"We finished second in league play," she added. "It is a group of athletes who have continually improved all season.
"For many of them it will be their first time at a high school provincial field hockey tournament and they're really excited and looking forward to it."
In the lead up to the championships, team members have been focusing on fine-tuning their skills with a focus on specialty plays, according to Kozniuk. Argyle is comprised of a diverse array of players from Grade 9 through 12.
"Everyone just wants the opportunity to compete at that one step higher than playing on the North
Shore," she added. "We have tried to provide as many opportunities as possible, year-round."
Graham Walker, Handsworth secondary's head coach of the girls field hockey team, agrees. He said all the North Shore teams are strong competitors.
"Field hockey has grown in popularity over the last 10 years and there's a lot of interest in it," he said. "You're offered year-round (play) to allow these athletes to develop these skills as well, so there's a lot of good players in a lot of different regions, which just makes for a lot of good field hockey."
Handsworth is not only coming in as winner of the provincial title three years in a row - and are looking to make it four this week - but also from a 4-0 win against
West Vancouver secondary in a recent match, according to Walker.
"It was quite hotly contested for sure. There were some very good teams last year," he said about his team's third consecutive win at last year's competition.
"Any of the top four could have won it but we were fortunate enough to win it.
"This year again the top four, five or six teams are quite evenly matched."
Walker said the team is evenly balanced too with many of its Grade 12 players who have returned, mixed with many new, younger players who bring, "a lot of spirit and enthusiasm to the team, and a different dynamic to the team."
"But I think most important is the fact that we have a good leadership group. .. and we really do play well as a team together," he noted. "We don't have really an individual game and that's the same for many of the teams, which makes it so close. All the teams really have star players."
With stark competition heading this way, Walker said his team is preparing to take it "one game at a time."
"It's business as usual," he said about recent practices. "Each of the teams in this tournament have played the other teams a lot, they all know each other quite well including the teams from the North Shore - they all know a lot of the players. .. because they train together on provincial teams. They know the skill sets and weaknesses of each particular team. They know how to play them."
For more information about the tournament, visit adanacs.ca.
