Nine-year-old Ciara Ferguson, a defenceman for the Buckley House Bears, has waited all hockey season to collect her first goal.
And when she did find the net Friday morning at the 18th annual Prince George Aboriginal Youth hockey tournament at Kin 2, her Bears teammates let her know what a big deal it was.
They were already well on their way to a 29-0 triumph over the Burns Lake atoms and the goal didn't make any difference in the outcome, but as the only female player on a team of 10 boys, the guys made it known to Ciara they appreciated her contribution.
"I got one goal and lots of assists," said Ciara. "We're a good team because we pass all the time."
Based in Buckley House, a tiny settlement north of Takla Lake, 400 kilometres northwest of Prince George, the Bears are a regional all-star team made up of eight B.C. players from Fort St. James, Houston, Vanderhoof, Smithers and Prince George, and three from Alberta. Ferguson, her brother Dallas, and her cousin Ethan Ferguson are all from Horse Lake, Alta., 60 km northwest of Grande Prairie.
"Our team has some Tier 1 atom players and we have one underage novice girl [Ciara] so it's a big mix for sure," said head coach Sean Peters. "They're a good group of kids and they include her and she feels like she's part of the team. It's gone really well."
The interprovincial connection was formed when Bears goalie Charlie Geernaert played for the Horse Lake team at the Alberta provincial tournament last year when he was living in that province. Geernaert and Bears teammates Tye Peters, Reid Stumph, and Brody Johnston played this season for the Omineca Selects development team and their tournament experience showed on the ice Friday.
"We were trying to hold the kids back in that game and in the same sense we were trying to not let bad habits develop and the kids did a good job of moving the puck around to include everybody, so that made it fun," said Bears head coach Sean Peters.
The aboriginal tournament offers players from neighbouring communities a rare opportunity to play on the same team. The kids on the Bears have had this weekend circled on their calendars for a long time.
"A lot of them are buddies but they play on different teams," said Bill Geernaert, the Bears assistant coach and manager. "They play on outdoor rinks and they're really into outdoor sports. They rodeo in the summer or ride motocross -- there aren't a lot of video games in the houses. They like to get outside and be kids and live healthy lifestyles and it's showing. They're wound up like eight-day clocks."
There was no aboriginal youth hockey tournament when Bill Geernaert was growing up as a kid in Fort St. James. Now it's an annual affair for kids from the region and he's convinced it will work wonders in developing positive character traits they will carry into their adult lives. Thirty-four teams, from tykes to midget, are entered in the three-day tournament.
"I think it gives them a doorway to look ahead and see what the rest of the world looks like because a lot of aboriginal youth are stuck out in those tiny communities out north," he said. "They don't get to come to town and experience this kind of calibre of hockey and they can see that there's better things than hanging out with the drugs and alcohol. It's good for the little guys to look up to the older ones they see here."
Tye Peters, 9, netted seven goals in the Bears' first game, the first seven-goal game of his young career. He knows it won't be so easy scoring this weekend against the stronger teams, like the Prince George Warriors.
"Its funner when it's a tighter game, it's more challenging," said Tye. "I think we have some pretty good kids on this team. The players we have from Alberta are pretty fast."
The other Bears players are Randy Collier, Nico Myatiovic, Michael Webb, and Jackson McDiarmid,
Each team in the eight-team atom division is guaranteed three games. The Bears are in action again today at 1 p.m. at Kin 1 against the Prince George Cougars. Finals in all six age divisions start Sunday at noon.
In a midget battle early Friday evening, Brogan O'Brien, who plays in the BCHL for the Prince George Spruce Kings, scored his third goal of the game late in the third period to break a deadlock and the Falcons defeated Williams Lake 4-3. George Morin had the other goal, while Braedan Boyd, Cory Loring and Ian Jarvis scored for Williams Lake.
