A Summerland hockey player will be on the British Columbia team at the upcoming Canada Winter Games in Red Deer, Alta. next month.
Lyndsy Acheson, 16, has been selected to play on the provincial team and will face the top provincial teams from across Canada.
She has been playing hockey since she was four years old and has developed a lifelong love of the sport.
“At this age is when it really starts to get exciting,” she said of the game.
“Nothing has the speed or intensity of hockey. It makes me feel good when I play.”
She began playing hockey on a mixed team in Penticton, but joined a girls’ hockey team when she was in Grade 2.
Soon afterward, she switched to a boys’ hockey team. She said the boys’ team played a faster, more aggressive game than the girls’ teams she had played on in the past.
In Grade 9, she joined a girls’ team again, playing in the midget level.
She has also played with the Okanagan Hockey Academy.
Today, she plays defence with the Pacific Steelers, a Vancouver-area team.
The Steelers play in a league with teams from eastern Canada and the eastern United States, which means Acheson plays in Boston, Washington and Buffalo.
“I really love the travel aspect,” she said.
Acheson is looking forward to some of the stronger provincial teams at the Canada Winter Games.
She said the Ontario team is usually one of the best in the country and she expects some strong competition from them.
After the Canada Winter Games are over, Acheson will continue to pursue her hockey dreams.
“I have the goal of playing for the national team in the Olympics,” she said, adding that she is also hoping to play at the college level in the future.