By TERRY PUGH
There’s a new game in town.
The Saskatchewan Senior Women’s Hockey League (SSWHL) is slated to take to the ice this fall, with the Dalmeny Senior Womens Sabres among the teams in the league’s inaugural season.
“It’s an exciting time for female athletes in this province,” said Janette Martens of Delisle, one of the organizers of the Senior Womens Sabres. “This is going to be competitive hockey, It’s going to provide women who’ve aged out of junior and have finished college or university hockey with a place where they can continue to play the game they love.”
Martens said female hockey in Saskatchewan is exploding in popularity. And with more girls playing minor hockey in female leagues each year, the number of girls graduating from those younger ranks is growing.
“This league really provides the next step,” she said. “It’s aimed at giving them a place to play competitive hockey at a high level.”
The Dalmeny Arena is the home barn for the Senior Women’s Sabres. The team will be coached by Dwayne Horner, who’s originally from Delisle. He’s coached female hockey for years and is a former coach of the PJHL’s Delisle Chiefs (The Chiefs are relocating this year to Martensville.) He’s also coached U18AA hockey and the U22 Prairie Blaze women’s hockey team.
The Dalmeny Senior Womens Sabres are currently working on completing their roster, and are inviting interested women (19 years and over) to participate in a fall camp on Saturday, September 6 at the Martensville Sports Centre (the old rink). Additional information is available by emailing sr.femalesabres@gmail.com.
The SSWHL began to take shape last spring, when Megan Leblanc of Estevan and her colleague Jenna Merk put out a call on social media to gauge the interest in creating a senior league for women.
The response, according to Leblanc, was overwhelming.
“We had over 200 people from across the province respond very quickly, asking how they can get involved and establish a team,” said Leblanc. “There’s so many girls across Saskatchewan that want to make this happen, it took shape pretty quickly.
“A lot of people stepped up to be managers in their own area and get this rolling. There are five teams in the north division and five in the south, and they’ll each play 12 regular season games and then playoffs and provincials.”
Leblanc, who grew up playing minor hockey in Estevan before moving on to play AAA and junior at Notre Dame and Melville and later university hockey in Edmonton, said it’s long past due for a women’s senior hockey league in Saskatchewan.
“There are lots of men’s senior leagues in the province,” she said. “But as far as I am aware, this is the first one for women. The guys I’ve talked to here are all really supportive. They can’t believe it’s taken this long to get something going.”
There are currently 14 senior men’s hockey leagues in Saskatchewan, all of which operate through the efforts of volunteers under the umbrella of Hockey Sask.
The SSWHL, however, will be independent of the provincial sports governing body.
“Hockey Sask hasn’t been as supportive of the idea as I’d hoped it would be,” said Leblanc. “It’s pretty disappointing, but we’re going to do it on our own. When you’re passionate about something, you’ll do almost anything to make it a success.”
Martens is also optimistic about the league in general and the Dalmeny Senior Womens Sabres in particular.
“The community of Dalmeny has been super helpful,” she said. “We’ve got the arena booked, and we chose the team name and identity to be consistent with the community’s minor hockey teams and senior men’s team.
“We’re also looking forward to helping out the other minor hockey clubs and the Dalmeny Skating Club. We hope to get the little ones to learn to skate, and we’ll have volunteers working the senior men’s games. The people in the community are amazing. They don’t have a female hockey program inn town and they want girls hockey there at some point. Having a women’s team would be a good thing.”
Martens said she and other organizers are also hoping to get a women’s U22 team organized and playing in the 2025-26-season.