A significant piece of Fraser Valley hockey history occurred on Thursday (May 2) afternoon at the Sardis Sports Complex.
For the first time ever, two all-girls high school hockey teams from the eastern Fraser Valley faced off when the Robert Bateman Timberwolves took on the Sardis Falcons.
The Timberwolves picked up the 4-2 win in the game. Bateman got two goals from Tess McFadyen, with Isabelle Dixon and Cypress Desomeraux also adding goals. Alyssa Flores earned the win in goal.
Bateman’s Clarke Wismer, one of the coaches involved with the school’s hockey program, said that Sardis Hockey Academy director Jeff Grenier reached out to him to talk about the possibility of a girls game and the pair helped make that a reality.
The Sardis Hockey Academy has now been around for 12 years and players typically hit the ice three times a week.
RELATED: Successful season for Sardis Hockey Academy in Chilliwack
The RBSS Hockey Program has also been around for more than a decade and they celebrated a B.C. high school hockey league championship for boys hockey in 2022.
Wismer said he’d like to see the local girls hockey scene continue to get bigger.
“We hope to see this grow in the next few years, with more games and possibly even a girls division in the newly-formed Fraser Valley High School Hockey League,” he said.
Women’s hockey has seen an upward trend in the past few years, with the Professional Women’s Hockey League drawing large crowds in Montreal and Toronto.
The FVHSHL features teams from Abbotsford schools Bateman, Yale and MEI.
RELATED: Abbotsford’s Robert Bateman wins B.C. High School Hockey League championship