New Parkland Female Hockey Program
Program to help support future female hockey players in rural Saskatchewan and Parkland Region
June 23, 2025, 9:37 am
Ashley Bochek
Hockey Associations in the region have come together to form the Parkland Female Hockey Program (PFHP) for the upcoming hockey season.
The PFHP will help support girls’ hockey teams among the participating hockey associations.
The PFHP has also announced a rebrand of three AA female hockey teams as the Parkland Phoenix out of Yorkton for this upcoming season.
Nicole Korpusik of the Parkland Female Hockey Committee, is a representative for U13 girls’ hockey on the new board and explains the new PFHP.
“We have created a female hockey program that is all encompassing for the communities that wanted to participate in the Parkland area.
“Different Hockey Associations around the area like Moosomin, Esterhazy, Canora, Churchbridge, Fort Qu’Appelle, Indian Head, Kamsack, Langenburg, Norquay, Preeceville, Rocanville, Whitewood, and Yorkton have agreed to come together to form the PFHP. We had reached out to the associations—the PFHP is an umbrella association for female hockey players to be able to move within the system. There are some different rules when it comes to girls playing hockey where they can play on a co-ed team with boys or they can play on a girls’ team, but when you need affiliate players, younger players, to help your roster you can only do an affiliate if you are within the same association. Otherwise our girls would have to actually register with us rather than just being an affiliate or a call-up. I used to coach co-ed hockey in Preeceville and then I also coached an all girls team, but in a different association. So, if I needed an affiliate the girls from Preeceville would have to actually register with us rather than just being a call-up.”
Purpose of new hockey program>/B>
Korpusik explains the significance the program will bring to rural Saskatchewan female hockey teams.
“This whole thing is to allow more opportunity for girls to play on different teams within the rules of Sask Hockey.
“It is also our greatest hope and vision for this, to be a collaboration, so working together with all of these communities because we are pretty spread apart and not all very familiar with each other, but we want to ensure that girls in our area have a place to play hockey if they want to, and have the opportunity to build all-female teams whether they are full-time in the Sask Female Hockey League or if they are carded tournament teams, so the girls have a chance to play all over, but this wasn’t really happening when we aren’t all communicating and on the same page so the formation of Parkland Female Hockey Program (PFHP) is to enable all of that to happen. We can all work together and pool resources to have all-female hockey camps—to get us all working together.”
She explains the new PFHP board is made up of representatives of the different hockey associations.
“The hockey associations were asked if they could put forward names of people in their community, so we could have as a representative and be part of our board. It is really exciting and has caused some questions because it’s different and people are apprehensive because they have done a lot of work building their female hockey programs—Moosomin has an incredible and growing female hockey program. They have done an incredible job growing female hockey in your area and it is awesome and we understand people don’t want to lose ownership of that and that is not what this is about—it is about collaborating, pooling resources, and all working together. We are hoping the people from Moosomin can shed some light on how they have done that and share the things they know so other communities can do the same.”
About Parkland Phoenix
Korpusik says the committee has announced the Parkland Female Hockey Program as well as a rebrand for three AA female hockey teams in our area.
“There are two different parts to this program. The Parkland Female Hockey Program is simply a space for us to connect the area. We also rebranded the U13, U15, and U18 AA teams originally based out of Melville with a new name and new colours. We are going to be called the Parkland Phoenix.
“The Phoenix represents rebirth, resiliency, and then taking flight. So just the AA U13, U15, and U18 teams will be called the Parkland Phoenix and any other team under this umbrella (the PFHP) for example, such as Moosomin—will still be the Borderland Badgers—the teams are all involved in this program, but still their own entity.”
Opportunities with PFHP
Korpusik lists the exciting opportunities for hockey associations that are part of the new Parkland Female Hockey Program.
“It is just a space—if we become one big association—think of it like Moosomin Hockey where you have a bunch of different teams under the Moosomin Hockey Association—this is like a sub-association that the female teams would belong to that then allows Moosomin to possibly affiliate a player from Esterhazy or from Churchbridge if needed.
“The hope is that we all work together to support all female hockey initiatives in the area, and get as many girls involved as possible. It is all just working together. It is not us creating teams besides those three AA teams, those were already created, but now just rebranded and based out of Yorkton— besides that it is about us all of us working together and making sure girls have a place to play. It is being a resource to help girls find where to play and wherever is needed. We are all on the same page.”
Strengthening female hockey in Southeast Saskatchewan
Korpusik says some hockey associations in the Parkland region were apprehensive about agreeing to be part of this program.
“Not all associations were onboard with this because it can be scary, and it can feel like you are giving up your autonomy over your teams—but that is not what it is. It took a lot of explaining and understanding of this agreement that we are all just here together to collaborate. We are not taking anything away from any teams, we are just here as a resource and have a representative from your community who people can go to and ask questions and can get answers and possibly direct them toward the next closest centre that would have a place for them to play.
“Melville is still considering signing on, but haven’t yet and so far Balcarres didn’t feel it was something they wanted to be part of. It is totally the associations’ prerogative and I get that Melville may be on the fence because Melville had control before and we have now divided their control amongst everybody in the area to make it more fair and welcoming. So I can see why they might be on the fence and I hope they do see in the next year or so that it is something that has been created to help strengthen girls’ hockey in our area, not to benefit one community, it is for everybody. It will take some time and lots of questions because it is so new and can be confusing so we are just hoping to make it more clear.”
Umbrella association
Korpusik explains the idea behind the PFHP.
“It is an umbrella that all these associations are part of. We don’t have any control over the associations, but we are here as a support and a way for teams to navigate Hockey Sask rules and female hockey.”
She says Western Saskatchewan has had a program similar to the PFHP for many years.
“We have actually mimicked—they have done this exact thing on the west side of the province. They are called Western Prairie around Kindersley, Unity, and that area. They’ve done this years ago now so we are simply following in their footsteps because it did work really great. Actually north of us I think they have done something similar or are looking into it—in the Melfort-Tisdale area.
“I think a lot of places are doing it because it is so much easier when we all work together.”
“The opportunities are endless when we all come together to help one another. It is nice to bring in other perspectives and viewpoints to grow the girls game whether it is for tournaments or camps,” said Korpusik.
Connecting Sask Female Hockey
Korpusik says the PFHP will help bring hockey associations together and bridge gaps in the Sask Female Hockey league. “It is about making the female hockey league smaller and more close-knit. With the Sask Female Hockey League there are a few things that hinder us as far as growth in female hockey. For example, our goalies, you can’t have a team if you don’t have a goalie so that is one thing that we are really going to have to focus on as a group—encouraging girls to play the positions, but also giving them the skills and training so they are confident in that role. The other thing is travel. In U15 AA, there are four divisions and we are part of the southeast division, there is a southwest division which is like half of Regina, Swift Current, Moose Jaw, then there is the northeast and northwest. Then, U18 it goes to two divisions of north and south. There is a ton of travel.”
Rural Saskatchewan Hockey
Korpusik says she hopes to see the new program help hockey teams all over rural Southeast Saskatchewan.
“I am hoping it will inspire some more collaboration across the board as far as hockey goes in our area, not just female, but for now with female hockey they are still a minority when it comes to playing hockey so I would love to see this program take off and help develop female hockey.
“I would also love to see it take off in places where maybe hockey isn’t super consistent in every age group and where communities start collaborating and creating these umbrella associations that allow for more movement within the Sask Hockey rules.”
She says the PFHP will help build female hockey provincial teams. “Creating provincial teams is another big bonus. If everybody registers under one association then you can make one provincial team.
“Hockey is hard at a rural level when numbers are inconsistent depending on the year so I would love to see as many communities as possible come together to make these umbrella associations to help them continue to have hockey in all communities, not just the bigger centres.”
Korpusik says the PFHP will hopefully help develop all female hockey programs.
“I hope this program will grow the game so we have enough to support the A and AA program and for them to be competitive as well. It is the hope to give the girls as many options as we can. The more girls we get out playing the better because then there will be more opportunity at every level.”
Rebranding to Parkland Phoenix
Korpusik explains the rebranding in further detail.
“Since Melville decided they didn’t want to sign off on this agreement, they couldn’t be the registering centre anymore so we are rebranding the AA programs of U13, U15, and U18 out of Yorkton as the Parkland Phoenix.
“Melville still wants to have their own A teams of U13, U15, and U18, and they are going to keep those jerseys that say Parkland Fire so they don’t have to get a bunch of new jerseys and this allows them to continue to have that Parkland Fire name in Melville.
“We just rebranded the three AA teams and had to move the registry centre.
Yorkton will just look after the registering process, but the hope is that the practices and games are going to be spread out through the area and region of Parkland Phoenix and PFHP. That is the misleading part that it’s happening out of Yorkton, but it isn’t, necessarily. Parkland is the home, Yorkton is just going to do all the work to register. We are just spreading these teams around the area so it not just based out of Melville.
“We weren’t going to rebrand and the Parkland Fire was going to stay the Parkland Fire if Melville was interested, everything was going to stay essentially the same, other than we would have a board that is getting representation from all the communities in the PFHP.
“It is just the three AA teams that will be the Phoenix and everyone else who is part of the new PFHP will maintain their team names they have. The program is about involving more people, making it more fair, accommodating, and more welcoming in the Southeast Saskatchewan and Parkland area.”
Upcoming tryouts
Korpusik says tryouts for the three AA Parkland Phoenix teams will be in September.
“Tryouts are in early September. The AA U15 and U18 teams are September 10 til 20th and U13 AA tryouts are the following week from September 17 to the 27th.
U13 AA is a new team coming this year because Hockey Sask has told us that we needed to have a U13 AA team in the area. Nothing is changing as far as the leagues go, so last year it was the Parkland Fire, the AA U15 and U18 teams, and now it is just called the Parkland Phoenix. It is the same teams and league just a rebrand and start of a new beginning.”
Future hopes for PFHP
Korpusik says she hopes to see the program develop over the next few years and to eventually sustain a AAA female hockey team again.
“AAA would be a hope eventually that once we grow the girls numbers enough that we could potentially have a AAA female team back here again, like the Prairie Fire years ago, which would be amazing, but we have a lot of work to do as far as numbers go to be able to support a AAA team, then AA teams, and A teams as well for everybody to play, but that would eventually be great because the closest centre for AAA women’s hockey is Weyburn and Regina, but it is the begining and we will see how it goes.”
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