Shawnigan Lake’s Brooklyn Paisley and Duncan’s Will Gurski took the ice at Shawnigan Lake School along with dozens of other hopefuls as BC Hockey held selection camps for the U18 female and U16 male provincial teams last week.
At the U18 female camp, Paisley, who played last season for the provincial champion midget A South Island Royals, was trying to become the second member of her family to represent B.C. at nationals, following in the footsteps of her older sister, Cierra, who played in the 2015 tournament, and now plays Div. I NCAA hockey at Lindenwood University in Missouri.
Paisley suited up for Team Navy at the four-day camp, alongside two other forwards from Shawnigan Lake School: Sarah Rourke of Smithers and Marissa Ryalls of Brentwood Bay, having been picked out of the initial ID camp in Lake Cowichan in May. Ladysmith’s Hailey Martens, who played for Richmond’s Pacific Steelers last year, was one of two goalies for Team White.
The teams played three games during the camp. Rourke scored twice as Navy won the opener 5-1, then Martens was near-perfect in the second game as White prevailed 3-1. White shut out Navy 5-0 in the third game.
The final team will be picked out of the 42 players who attended the camp last week, and will attend a prep camp at UBC on Sept. 27-Oct. 1, followed by the national championships in Quebec City on Nov. 1-5. Team BC took bronze at nationals last year, their best result in more than 10 years.
Meanwhile at the U16 male camp, Gurski joined his Shawnigan Lake School creasemate, Nanaimo’s Arnold Campbell, as one of six goalies in contention. Gurski went between the pipes for Team Green, while Campbell joined Shawnigan defenceman John Little of Parksville on Team Blue.
The three teams at the U16 male camp played 11 scrimmages. Gurski and Arnold squared off in one 30-minute match on Saturday, which Gurski’s Team Green won 3-2 over Team Blue.
Team BC will be picked out of the 60 players at last week’s camp for the Western U16 Challenge Cup in Calgary this October.