There's a new minor hockey league in Saskatchewan, and a new team to go along with it. The former South Sask Female Hockey League, in which the various Estevan Bearcats competed, has been replaced by the Sask Female Hockey League. Teams from the old one have had little issue reapplying, however, due to low numbers the Midget Bearcats have amalgamated with their equivalents in Weyburn to form the Southeast Goldwings. It's all a part of an SHA drive to get more girls on the ice.

"The numbers were low in general," stated SHA Officer Brad Robinson, "Throughout the league, there was probably enough bantam age players playing female triple A, to make up another team. The idea behind the restructuring is that you're going to lose those bantam players playing triple-A, it's going to cause a lot of talent to amalgamate and to start focusing on the girls and not their talents."

He pointed to the situation up north, where Tisdale, Melfort and Nipawin joined up to form the Northeast Aces, with the North Sask Female Hockey League combining with the South. 

"They're throwing together some Peewee, Bantam and Midget A teams as well. We might see some changes with Yorkton and Melville, there's going to need to be some collaboration there. It's really getting people talking, is what we want, and to focus on female hockey."

As for the newly formed 'Goldwings', they already have a coach, as Al Ohrt of Milestone will take over the role.

"He's looking at trying to stay with the mandate of not making it an Estevan team or Weyburn team. He wants it to be a Southeast team, so he's really wanting a lot of participation from the smaller towns that have those girls that could play the higher level," said Robinson.

The rest of the teams from both the North and South leagues have had to simply reapply with, according to Robinson, little difficulty.

Tryouts for the Goldwings are scheduled for September 8th and 9th, with location yet to be determined.