The future of ice hockey in the district looks bright, with a number of youngsters making representative teams this season.

Local club Alexandra Flames (based at IceInline) has 158 members across all ages. 

Eighteen of those are youngsters who will be representing the region at various tournaments in Alexandra, Queenstown, Dunedin and Australia.

Club spokesperson Michelle Wallis said the club was growing.

“There are eight teams playing in our Saturday night competition and four kids teams playing weekly in the junior competition. In the adult competition youngsters over 13 years old are dispersed across the teams… [enabling] them to play alongside adults in competitive hockey.

“Parents have been very supportive of taking these kids to special development camps held in Queenstown and Dunedin annually, and this year the Southern Ice Hockey League also held two very successful development camps in Gore and Tekapo.”

A special fundraising group is being set up by the club to help families experiencing financial hardship.

“The cost for ice hockey falls directly on to the parents, outside of the tournament fees there is also hours of early morning or weekend travelling to other ice rinks for training, its hoped that by setting up a fund within the club, all club members, now and in the future, will have the opportunity to trial for representative teams and not fear making the team.”

Michelle said plans were underway for an annual fundraiser and a retro “It’s in the Bag” night was to be in Alexandra this year, and she hoped to raise $30K to support representative players.

The Southern Knights (U14, U16 and U18) teams are playing a one off tournament in Alexandra and Queenstown including players from Gore, Alexandra and Tekapo. 

The junior Stampede teams (U14, U16 and U18) are made up of the best players in Queenstown and other Southern clubs.

Together with the Dunedin Thunder, the Stampede teams play in early July against other regional representative teams.

A group of under 16 year olds from the Flames are travelling to Newcastle to play in the 13th International One Hockey Tournament (October 20 -25).

The list of players and the representative teams are as follows:

• Isla Lawrence in the Wakatipu Wild team
• Travis Roberts in the Dunedin Thunder U18 team
• Tayla Potter in U16 Stampede, U16 Southern Knights and Wakatipu Wild development team 
• Kubik Lapcik in U18 Stampede
• Lockie Sinclair in U14 Thunder, U14 Southern Knights
• Jay Clarke in U16 Stampede, U16 Southern Knights, International One Hockey Tournament team to Australia
• Luke Ferland in U16 Stampede, U16 Southern Knights, International One Hockey Tournament team to Australia
• William Wallis in U16 Stampede, U16 Southern Knights, International One Hockey Tournament team to Australia
• Cole Hilton in U16 Stampede, U16 Southern Knights, International One Hockey Tournament team to Australia
• Liam Sangster in U16 Stampede, U16 Southern Knights, U18 Stampede development squad. International One Hockey Tournament team to Australia
• Bella Wallis in U16 Southern Knights
• Felix Hildyard in U16 Stampede, U16 Southern Knights
• Jules Thomson in U14 Stampede, U14 Southern Knights
• Josh Ferland in U14 Stampede, U14 Southern Knights, U16 Stampede Development Squad, International One Hockey Tournament team to Australia
• Oiva Kiuru in U14 Stampede, U14 Southern Knights 
• James Laird in U14 Stampede development squad, U14 Southern Knights
• Emma Corson in U14 Southern Knights
• Levi Cowley in U14 Southern Knights

Players in the 'Battle of the Gorge' between Cromwell and Alexandra in late May. Alexandra took the win 9 goals to 4. PHOTO: Alexandra Flames Ice Hockey Club Facebook/Mark Glover

For information about the Flames club see their listing.

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