WEYBURN – The Regina Rebels were crowned the U18 national champions on Saturday night at the Esso Cup tournament in Vernon, B.C., the first time the team has won the title.
Weyburn players Addison Greve and Ella Schenher were part of the squad, along with former Weyburn player Rayna Hennie, as they beat the North York Storm 2-1 to claim the gold medal.
Greve and Hennie both assisted on the first goal, and scorer Stryker Zablocki scored the other goal on an end-to-end rush, and that was enough to claim the victory.
For Greve, the reality had still not settled in that she was part of a national championship team, in an interview on Monday evening.
Going into the gold medal game against the team that beat them in the preliminary round, Greve said they had to put that game behind them and put everything into this game.
“We had lost to them in a preliminary game, and that was hanging over our heads. As soon as we had the two-goal lead, it felt different because in the game earlier, we had given up that lead,” said Greve.
Leading up to that final game, the girls had to take it one game at a time, and it came down to the last game for the teams to even know who was in the top four of the tournament.
The whole week flew by for her, and she said she’s still trying to let the reality of being national champions sink in.
“It flew by really quickly. You do so much to train and prepare for the games, and now all of a sudden it’s over,” she said. “All you can do is rely on your teammates. It still doesn’t feel real.”
Part of the shock was that she was included in a list of the top 10 players of the tournament by the Hockey News, ranking her at No. 8, along with some of her teammates.
“I was honestly shocked by that. I had no idea I would be on that list, and there were some incredible hockey players at the tournament,” she said.
Greve hopes she can play hockey at a higher level after high school, and has sent out letters to a number of schools without any offers as yet. She’s hoping that being a part of the national championship squad will bring some interest in her joining their school team.
She said her team faced a lot of adversity this year, but she feels those hard times helped form them to become the team that ended up winning the national title.
Greve also learned that she and teammate Rayna Hennie, plus a couple other teammates from the Rebels, were named to the top 30 list of U18 female players by Hockey Saskatchewan, along with couple other area players.
