Eight Estevan broomball players have been selected to represent Saskatchewan at the 2011 Juvenile Canadian Broomball Championship Nationals in Portage la Prairie, Man.
This marks the first time Estevan will send girls as members of the Odessa Flames, one of the two Saskatchewan women's teams that will compete at the tournament for players under 20 years old. All three girls, sisters Katherine and Kristina Chamney, and Mary Renard, play for the Estevan Raiderettes juvenile team. A fourth was unable to attend.
Four boys will play for Odessa and one will play with the Bruno Roadrunners in the tournament that gets underway today.
Kevin Schlamp, who coaches the boys, said the girls have benefited from their years of experience and have developed well, but noted not all of them have years of experience behind them.
"Mary Renard is a brand new player, and she's a go-getter," he said. "She just digs in and just gets in there. Kristina and Katherine have been playing for a few years, and they're just getting better all the time."
Playing on a national stage is a little different from what they've been playing throughout the year however.
"It's not a whole lot different than the rest. The biggest thing is to concentrate on passing and keeping your shifts short."
The competition is stiffer, but Schlamp said the players just need to play the same way they have all year. A big difference is that there aren't any "weak links" on any of the teams.
"You've got to stay on your opponent, that's the biggest thing. If they have the ball you stay man-on-man until we have possession again. That's a big thing at that level because they can cycle the ball so well you don't want to leave anyone in the open."
He says the competition is like taking the top line of a strong team and having everyone on the teams play at that level.
"Not a lot of weak links out there. Everybody is equally competitive. They're all fast and they all know the game."
Schlamp will be on the bench for the Odessa boys, and Mitchell Schlamp will be helping coach the Odessa girls.
For Mitchell, this is his third year coaching. He coached the juvenile girls the last two years but is with the boys this year. For the last couple of months the team has had a pretty steady practice schedule, getting together about three or four times a week.
"I think we're prepared as we're going to be," said Mitchell. "We think we're going to do very well. We have quite a strong team, so hopefully we can do what we do in practice."
The tournament starts today and the championship games will be played on Saturday.
