Tryouts ahead for Palmer girls’ comp hockey

PALMER — Six weeks ago, the Palmer Lady Pioneers Tier II U14 girls’ comp team played well into triple overtime of the championship game at the 2015 Pacific District Championships before, at four minutes, the opposing team netted the winning goal.

Now, the Pioneer Amateur Hockey Association is looking forward, launching tryouts in a couple of weeks for girls’ comp teams they hope will return to next year’s Pacific District matchup and bring home the top championship honor.

“We have a great program planned for this coming season,” said girls’ comp team coach Tim Popowski, “including multiple trips to tournaments outside of Alaska, tournaments in Alaska, and a private preseason clinic put on by Steve Macdonald, who is St. Cloud State’s Division 1 women’s hockey coach.”

PAHA President Kirk Payne said the nonprofit organization plans to offer opportunities for U12, U14 and U16 girls to compete.

“Starting this month, we will begin to assemble girls at the older levels who wish to compete in tournaments around the country,” he said.

Popowski says opportunities are available for girls at the state, district and national levels and that PAHA is focusing on building individual hockey skills and creating team chemistry. This was the third year PAHA has had a girls’ team participate at the district level, he said.

Combined tryouts for PAHA girls’ U14 and U16 Tier II competitive hockey teams are scheduled for 6:30 p.m., May 4, 5, and 7, at Brett Memorial Ice Arena, with warmup ice scheduled for April 28 and 30, 6:30 p.m., at the Brett. The fee for tryouts will be $30.

Popowski, Ty Senden, Mark Engan, Brian Fish, Brian Swanson and Scott Johnson are among the coaches expected to participate with the comp girls’ program.

Opportunities will also be available at PAHA for girls of varying ages who would prefer to play recreational/house hockey, Payne said. Evaluations for recreational girls’ teams are tentatively scheduled for early September.

Ashley Engan, 11, played as the goalie for the U14 girls’ team for the past two seasons.

“Most of my friends were on there,” she said. “I loved playing with the girls on that team, the ones that I knew. I knew we were going to be traveling a little bit and I wanted to know what it was like traveling with a comp team. Before playing with that team, the farthest I’d traveled was Fairbanks.”

The team journeyed to tournaments in Michigan and California.

“We went to Michigan first,” Ashley said. “I didn’t go on the plane with my team because we went a few days earlier but I was real excited on the plane and couldn’t stop talking about wanting to go, playing the games with the girls.”

Ashley says she wants to try out for the U14 and U16 teams, where, she said, “most of the girls are trying out.”

“I’m going to continue being a goalie,” she said. “I hope next season’s going to be the same as this season, but maybe even better if the girls [selected for the team] work as hard or even harder to get to where we were this year.”

What’s the best part of playing in girls’ hockey?

“How we’re so close and how we all trust each other and bond,” Ashley said, “We all work together and when there’s something going on, we can handle it together.

Anyone wanting more information may contact Tim Popowski at (907) 350-7288, Cheeksandpopow2@gmail.com.