ICYMI...

With Boxing Day having passed us by, we are now less than one month from one of the biggest tournaments for university-bound women in this country as the 2023 Female World Sport School Challenge will take place at the Hockey For All Centre in Winnipeg from January 26-29, 2023. Some editions of this annual tournament have had eight teams, some have featured a full 16-team field, and last year's tournament had 12 teams, but it sounds like we'll be back to 16 teams this year as some of the best teams from across the continent meet in Winnipeg forFemale World Sport School Challengehe opportunity to call themselves "the best"! We'll know who is coming as we get closer to the dates of the tournament in 2023, but past editions of the Female World Sport School Challenge has featured some of women's hockey's stars of the future!

I've been posting teasers on Twitter about some of the great players we've witnessed on the ice at the tournament over the years, but I figured I should put these in one place just in case you've missed them or aren't on Twitter. Names such as Krzyzaniak, Potomak, and Iginla have all suited up at the tournament en route to representing Canada at the U18 Women's World Championship and beyond, but there have been some other players who have stood out at various levels of women's hockey who skated in Winnipeg as well. Let's take a look at some of these players.

The first player I had posted on Twitter is currently playing as part of the PWHPA's tour after she graduated from Northeastern where she was the NCAA's 2021 Patty Kazmeier Award winner. She's suited up for Team USA at the Women's World Championship, and she was a member of the famed Shattuck-St. Mary's program in 2016 when she helped Shattuck win the FWSSC championship banner! Frankel's going to be on the women's hockey scene for as long as she wants to be there based on how well she's played at every level, and we got to see her show her stuff back in 2016 at the tournament!

Another player who is making an impact at the international level is Jule Schiefer. Schiefer plays for her home country of Germany, and has represented her country at both the Women's World Championship and during Olympic qualifying games. We first saw Jule playing for the Banff Academy Bears back in 2018 when they were at the tournament, and she's taken the skills she learned there to the international stage! While Banff Hockey Academy is now the South Alberta Hockey Academy, we're still proud to have seen Jule skating for Banff at the 2018 tournament where she was a key part of the Bears team!

While she hails from Cross Lake, Manitoba, Kennesha Miswaggon has been a part of a number of winning teams in her career! The former Balmoral Hall Blazers defender won a JWHL title in 2018 while also earning a gold medal as part of Team Manitoba's entry at the National Aboriginal Hockey Championship that same year! She was recruited by the UBC Thunderbirds where she helped them earn the Canada West banner last season, and we were lucky enough to see her earn a bronze medal at the 2018 Female World School Championship with the Blazers! With UBC leading Canada West at this point in the season, might we see back-to-back banners for the T-Birds and Miswaggon?

She certainly stood out at the tournament when she played, but Lauren Warkentin's impact at the AAA level and the university level can't be overstated. While she captained the Eastman Selects team at the 2017 Female World Sport School Challenge, she showed she was capable of carrying her team at times with her skating and vision from the blue line. That turned into a very successful career at the University of Manitoba where she was named to the 2018 Canada West All-Rookie Team before helping Manitoba win the U SPORTS National Championship! It was a treat to watch her control the game from the blue line at the AAA level before she went on to do bigger and more storied things at the university level!

Of course, we can't forget the home team's professional player who has accomplished a heckuva lot in her time in the game. Kayla Friesen was a St. Mary's Flames forward who scored seemingly at will, and she helped St. Mary's earn two bronze medals at the tournaments. She earned a silver medal at the U18 Women's World Hockey Championship with Team Canada, and was off for a very successful NCAA career. From there, she was drafted into the PHF by the Connecticut Whale before moving to the Boston Pride where she helped the Pride capture the Isobel Cup last season! It was always an honour to know we got to see Friesen skating for the Flames before she conquered other levels of hockey!

There should be a lot of credit given to the AAA, JWHL, and CSSHL teams that play in this city because there have been a pile of future women's hockey stars who have not only suited up for these teams, but they've invited and hosted some of the best women's hockey players on the planet at games and tournaments for a long time. Combine that with the players in Canada West who have played here and visited here who have gone on to play in the PWHPA, PHF, SDHL, and other professional leagues, and we've been very blessed with the amount of women's hockey talent that have either called this province home or have visited for games.

This is why you should be clearing some time between January 26-29, 2023 when the Female World Sport School Challenge will be played again. There will be, based on the number of players and teams there, at least a handful of future women's hockey stars who will suit up at the Hockey For All Center. Like Aerin Frankel and Jule Schiefer, maybe they'll be the future of a different country's women's hockey program. Like Miswaggon and Warkentin, they could be future U SPORTS stars. Like Friesen, they could be future NCAA and professional hockey stars. The one thing that is certain, though, is there will be future stars playing there.

We're less than one month from the start of the tournament, so start clearing your schedule for the 2023 Female World Sport School Challenge. The action will be fantastic, we'll have the call on UMFM, and the talent will certainly be on display. As shown above, we've been treated to hockey by some of the best players in the women's game today, and this year's tournament will certainly add more names to that list as the future of women's hockey is on display in Winnipeg from January 26-29! Be there!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!