Bears blueline to pick up the slack

“We’ll keep on adding and adding to the expectations I guess, keep pushing her limits,” said Bears head coach Jeff Willoughby. “That’s the way she wants to play and that’s the way we’re going to coach her. We expect a lot. She’s going to be a leader for us.

“I think everybody’s going to be chasing her.”

Although Hobson will be leading the Bears from the back, their D-core is hardly a one-trick pony. The Bears got very solid rookie seasons from underage defenders Hannah Koroll (14 last year), Jordan Ashe (14 last year) and Abby Soyko (13 last year).

Koroll and Soyko took some obvious steps forward in the second half of the season.

Koroll, the Saskatoon native who’s entering her 15-year-old season, started to be more aggressive by carrying the puck more out of her own zone and using her speed and skill to create plays. That showed up on the score sheet as Koroll had one goal in her first 13 games before registering a goal and six points in her final 15 games.

Soyko had an almost identical trend to her rookie year as well. The Prince Albert product also had one point in her first 13 games (an assist, though), before scoring a goal and three assists in her final 12. She won’t turn 14 years old until Oct. 30 but that doesn’t have seemed to have slowed her down at camp this weekend.

Shellbrook’s Ashe is more of a stay-at-home defender, but she already has logged a lot of safe minutes for the Bears at the start of her young career. Despite entering her 15-year-old season this year, Ashe has already played in 50 total games for the Bears. Ashe joined the Bears late in the 2013-2014 season as a 13-year-old, getting in 3 regular season games and seven playoff matches before a full work-load last year.

Although the Bears were hoping for a little more selection to choose from at camp this year with 40 players, but the 36 that did show up should be plenty.

“The numbers that came out, we’re happy with them this year,” said Willoughby. “The girls are showing really good effort and overall we’re really pleased.”

The Bears regular season doesn’t start until the beginning of October, when they’ll host the Weyburn Gold Wings for a pair of games on Oct.3-4 at the Art Hauser Centre.

jdandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_dandrea

by Jeff D'Andrea

Bears blueline to pick up the slack

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