The Coquitlam Express is expanding into female hockey.
The BC Hockey League team has been awarded a franchise in the Female Super League (FSL) that currently operates U12 and U14 developmental programs in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
The U14 league also introduces players to progressive body contact.
The FSL is in its first season. It’s owned by Alberta-based Silent Ice Sports and Entertainment that also operates the Western Hockey League’s Seattle Thunderbirds, the BCHL’s Spruce Grove Saints and the Junior Prospects Hockey League among several sports and entertainment properties. The Express has four teams in the JPHL in its developmental Coquitlam HC program for U14, U15, U17 and U18 players.
The FSL is growing. Big Franchise announcements coming soon👀 pic.twitter.com/5oKjW0z0lP
— Female Super League (@femsuperleague) December 31, 2024
Express general manager Tali Campbell said its entry into the FSL will function much like a hockey academy where players will integrate their training and practise five days a week with attending a nearby school.
It’s not cheap.
Campbell said final details of Coquitlam’s program have yet to be worked out. But an FSL team in Manitoba charges its players about $16,000 a season to cover ice time, travel, training and education expenses.
Campbell said the organization also still hasn’t determined what age divisions it will immediately join, “but the goal is that we will at one point operate a team in every division that the FSL has in the coming years.”
Campbell said it’s no coincidence the Express is announcing its new initiative on the same day the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s Takeover Tour of neutral site games visits Vancouver with a game between the Montreal Victoire and Toronto Sceptres at Rogers Arena.
On Sunday, Jan. 5, more than 12,000 fans at Seattle's Climate Pledge Arena watched the Boston Fleet defeat the Victoire 3-2 in a shootout in the tour's opening game.
First Takeover Tour stop ✔️
— PWHL (@thepwhlofficial) January 6, 2025
Thanks for the warm welcome, Emerald City! 🌲 pic.twitter.com/dONHiADIli
“We wanted to make this announcement on this special day as it really shows female hockey players that hockey doesn’t end in minor hockey; you can actually make something out of it like male hockey players can,” Campbell said.
He added high-level developmental leagues like the FSL are part of a path that can lead to opportunities for female hockey players to attain scholarships at NCAA programs and even beyond.
Campbell said that could eventually include a female junior hockey component similar to the BCHL.
“We see this as a small piece to this big puzzle that we want to bring to female hockey in the Tri-Cities.”
Bolstering the female game is not unfamiliar ground for Campbell. Since becoming the general manager of the Express in 2020, he’s forged closer ties between the BCHL team and the Tri-Cities Predators female hockey program and he helped manage the Pacific Coast Amateur Hockey Association’s district development program for female players for a stretch.
“Being GM of the PCAHA allowed me to really see the talent we have locally,” Campbell said, adding Express owner Fayaz Manji and his wife, Salima, share his vision.
“We believe that this program is long overdue in our community.”
The Express organization expects to begin its participation in the FSL in the 2025-26 season.
The league currently has two other teams from the Lower Mainland operating in both its age divisions, the Vancouver Aeros and Langley Leafs.
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