By Brady Lang

SFMAAAHL moving to seven teams for 2019-20 season

Nov 14, 2018 | 1:37 PM

The Saskatchewan Hockey Association announced a newly developed model for female hockey across the province.

For the past three years, SHA’s board of Directors took an initiative to grow Female Hockey in the province. Their findings over the time resulted in a new development model, which were finalized this past weekend.

The Saskatchewan Female AAA Hockey League will be moving to seven teams, as the Melville Prairie Fire AAA program will be moving to Midget AA for the 2019-20 season. The model changed in terms of moving to 11 teams in Female Midget AA and seven teams to Female Bantam AA.

As per @sask_hockey, a new development model for Sask female hockey was announced this morning. The #BattlefordsSharks will have one less team to play next year. Melville will be dropping from the @SaskFemaleAAA league to AA.

— brady lang (@BradyLangCJNB) November 13, 2018

Although there was criticism following the announcement, SHA’s General Manager Kelly McClintock said it wasn’t a matter of bias between any of the teams that applied for the Midget AAA spots, rather than a statistical standpoint.

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“All we looked at was the criteria, and future registration numbers,” he said. “And where girls were going to be.”

McClintock explained some of the reasoning behind the numbers, and in comparison, Melville Minor Hockey had less players register in both male and female than Weyburn did between their IP, Novice and Atom female programs.

A number of years ago, the SFMAAAHL stopped allowing 13-year-old girls to be affiliated with midget hockey, and in their statistical findings, SHA reported that last year 143 girls registered in the league. This meant that 17 spots went unfilled for the season. Moving to a smaller league ensures that the high quality of midget hockey continues in the province.

The application process for the female midget AAA league included nine applications for seven spots for the upcoming season. Based on the statistical findings by SHA, the northwest and north central part of the province had a considerable amount of registered female players, ensuring that North Battleford’s application was accepted.

McClintock mentioned they could have shrunk the SFMAAAHL down to six teams, based on their numbers.

Moving into next year, a big question would be where would the girls play in Melville. McClintock had a simple response.

“They have a choice,” he said. “Next year for Midget AAA you can play anywhere in the province, so wherever they want to go.”

McClintock added programs are flourishing in the province in many areas. This decision came down to statistics and the number of players registered, as well as potential players in the future that could potentially play in the elite leagues.

 “When you start projecting, there’s going to be a big group of players,” he said. “We didn’t look at teams records, anything like that. We looked at future registration numbers when it comes down to making decisions in the communities.”

brady.lang@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @BradyLangCJNB