Thunder Bay Bantam A Queens: An update from Presley Brohm

We have really started to get into our games and practices. So far we have had six games and a lot of practices. We played the Peewee Queens team twice and won both times by a score of 2-0, and we have played the Midget Fury C team and lost to them 2-1. We also played the Midget Fury B team and lost 4-0. We have also played two games against some Peewee AA boys teams. We lost against the KC Sabres 2-3, and in our last game we played Westfort Rangers and it was a 1-1 tie. We play against the AA boys because there are no other girls “A” teams close enough to play. It isn’t technically a league—we just do exhibition games.

The practices are a lot harder than when I was playing hockey in Sioux Lookout. We do a lot of skating and we have a goalie coach out with us sometimes, which is really nice. It’s awesome to have a goalie coach with us because we are learning more as goalies and we don’t have to do all the skating that improves players, we do drills that improve goalies.

I’m used to being the only goalie on my teams, even on my summer AAA team. There are now two of us on the team. The other goalie and I get along really great. We go to the gym together for motivation and we keep each other accountable to do our best. It’s a lot different having another goalie, but it’s fun having another person on the team that understands goalie things that I can talk to about saves and positioning.

I have been living in Thunder Bay for almost one month and it’s really fun. I’ve been making a ton of new friends at school and at hockey. Some of the girls on my team and I went to the movies last weekend and the other goalie and I went to a Lakehead University Thunderwolves game together. I am still connected to all my friends back at home—I text my best friend every day and FaceTime a lot.

Living without my parents and my brother has been tough because I miss them a lot. I’ll see my parents at Thanksgiving as they are coming to Thunder Bay. I won’t see my brother until Christmas. He has to work over Thanksgiving weekend, which sucks.

That’s it for this month. I am hoping I can write more about games and practices and improvements of our team in the following months. I’m really looking forward to seeing what happens with my hockey season.