Rattlers women's hockey to join ACAC for 23/24 season
Medicine Hat College (MHC) and Rattlers Athletics will officially add women's hockey to its roster this fall, following approval from the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) earlier this month. This historic win represents the first time the college has offered a women's hockey program, and the first time a hockey team of any gender has competed for MHC at the collegiate level since the 1986-87 season.Terry Ballard, manager of athletics & recreation at MHC, is excited about the opportunity this announcement creates for regional female athletes.
"The intention of this hockey program is to provide young female hockey players with a local opportunity to aspire to and for our student-athletes to be role models for those players. There are some very talented young women hockey players in Southeast Alberta and we look forward to having them represent the region, the city of Medicine Hat and the college."
Over the past academic year, MHC participated in an exhibition season playing against teams in the ACAC, as well as other clubs in Southern Alberta. MHC joins Lakeland College as the most recent team to join the provincial league, which already includes NAIT, SAIT, Olds, and Red Deer.
Next steps for the team include hiring a head coach and continuing to recruit for Fall 2023. The schedule for next season will be released in the upcoming weeks with training camp to start in late August. All Rattlers home games will be played out of the Moose Recreation Centre.
For those interested in learning more about women's hockey at MHC, please contact Terry Ballard at tballard@mhc.ab.ca.
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