Girls' hockey camp aims to build up love of the game helped by Olympian Jayna Hefford

Girls from across Newfoundland and Labrador put on their skates, grabbed their sticks and took to the ice Friday to hone their skills at the Delaney Hockey Female development program.

The hockey training program is being hosted through the weekend at the Conception Bay South Arena and is for girls ageseven through 15.

More girls than ever hit the ice this year, thanks in part to one of the coaches four-time Olympic goldmedallist and Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Jayna Hefford.

Hefford said girls have a place in the game, adding if they put their minds to it, "anything's possible."

"If they care about it,if they're passionate, they want to work hard, you know, there's no limits to what they can achieve," said Hefford.

She said she's also been looking forward to offering the camp in Newfoundland and Labrador.

"I've heard the demand here for this girls camp has been incredible. And [I'm]just really excited to see how the game's growing across the country," Hefford said.

Hockey is part of the Canadian identity,Heffordsaid, so it's encouraging to see the work that's being done toexpose more girls to hockey.

"It's part of who we are. And so to see young girls be able to start to play the game at four, five, six years old and potentially have a career in it, is something that's really exciting."

Skills on and off the ice

Coaching for the young hockey players took place on and off the ice, with players learning to field-train safely and work on their mental performance.

Beth Norman of Bay Robertssays she's looking forward to the upcoming hockey season and believes the camp will help prepare her for that.

"I like the off-ice training. And it's fun because you get to do a lot of, like, running around and stuff. And I just feel free doing all that," she said.

When it came to organizing a hockey trainingcamp for girls, says Delaney Hockey Program owner Ryan Delaney, it was important for the coaches to also be female, even though he admitted it's been hard to not step onto the ice himself.

"We want to try to keep it as authentic as possible, because we found that growing up playing hockey, all the camps yougo to is all kind of male-dominated," he said.

Girls can get discouraged and intimated by that setting, said Delaney.

"We wanted to create an atmosphere and environment where everybody can come here as a female hockey player, feel comfortable and just try to promote the female game the best we can."

Building the game for girls is also personal for Delaney, who has an 18-month-old daughterwho he hopes will also take to hockey.

Last year, there were 28 participants in the Delaney Hockey Female development program. This year that number has exploded to 135 players, said Delaney.

"It's been [an]overwhelming success. And players from all over the province so it's been great."

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