Bashaw native Jessyka Holt has reached another milestone in her budding hockey career.
Holt is among the 27 players short-listed for the provincial under-18 girls’ team, Hockey Alberta announced Friday.
The Alberta finalists were chosen from a list of 46 players who participated in mid-July’s evaluation camp at Camrose, after a spring camp that involved 88 players.
“The summer camp gave us a chance to really evaluate the athletes’ skills in practices, fitness testing and in-game situations,” said Mike Kraichy, the manager of hockey development with Hockey Alberta.
“These decisions are never easy to make, and we’ll continue to keep a close eye on the short-listed players in order to select a competitive team to represent Alberta at the national championship.”
The Canadian under-18 women’s championship is set for Nov. 7-11 in Dawson Creek, B.C.
Team Alberta plans to make seven more cuts before naming its 20-player roster.
Before then, the shortlisted players will compete in a tournament with the University of Alberta Pandas and two bantam AAA male teams Sept. 7-9 in Edmonton. The prospects will also be scouted with their club teams early this season.
Holt is going into her senior year at Warner Hockey School, with which she scored 20 goals and 39 points in 62 games last season.
She was a member of the provincial team that finished seventh at the national under-18 championship last November in Saguenay, Que.
The national tournament brings together the top under-18 female players from across Canada, as part of provincial or regional teams. Along with Alberta, the participating clubs are British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, two teams each from Ontario and Quebec, along with Team Atlantic (New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador).