By Andru McCracken

Three of Valemount’s highest calibre hockey players attended the BC Cup this year in Salmon Arm.

The BC Cup helps determine who will make the provincial team. From all across the province 120 girls under the age of 17 are chosen to play in the jamboree style tournament.

Taisha Mitchell played with the Flyers, who placed 6th. Kimberley Duncan played on the Canucks, who placed 5th, and Tessa Simard played for the Okanagan Stars, and her team placed first in the tournament. Tessa, who moved to Vanderhoof last year, said that of the 120 players who took part in the BC Cup, 40 players will move on to an August camp. She said that from there, 22 players would make it on to the BC team.

“It was lots of fun,” said Duncan. “It was a real learning experience.”

“I’ve never done anything like it before. It was faster, harder.” As the youngest player there, Tessa said she had to work hard to get noticed.

Former manager for the Valemount Hornets, Daniel Simard drove 8.5 hours from Vanderhoof to see his daughter and former players perform.

“It was really good hockey,” said Simard. “All 120 girls were the top players in BC.”

Simard said that the format was quite unique, because rather than just playing on a regional team, all of the girls who attended the tournament were rated from 1 to 20 and then mixed into completely new teams.

He said that they were trying to get away from having stacked teams. “The whole week there was no team that really got their butt kicked,” he said.

His daughter Tessa played on the Okanagan Stars who won the tournament, and he said he like the coach’s method.

“I was impressed with the coach from the Okanagan. He was in touch with all the girls on the team before everything started. All the girls met using MSN.”

“It was really good hockey,” said Daniel. “I was impressed with the calibre and how fast it was.”