After a tough weekend of tryouts in Invermere, Kira Streliev made the cut and will be packing her hockey bag and heading to the B.C. Winter Games at the end of February.
“On Friday we did this fitness test,” Streliev said, “The next two days there was practise in the morning and a game in the afternoon...It was a lot of work.”
The hard work paid off, and Streliev now has a defence spot on the team.
“I tried out for defence,” she said, but her abilities are broader than one position, “On the team here in Nakusp I play every position.”
Streliev gets lots of practise in. She plays as part of the Nakusp Bantam House Falcons in town, and is AP with the Wildcats and will also be AP for the Major Midget team in Nelson.
All the travelling to play with different teams means that when she joins her team mates on the ice at the end of February, she’ll be competing with players she’s known for years.
Her ice time with the Wildcats means she knows most of the girls who made the Winter Games team, luckily. Already being familiar with how her team mates play will help, because the team’s practise time before the B.C. Winter Games is virtually none.
The Streliev’s are a family comfortable on the ice. With three hockey players and a figure skater mom, they made a great addition to the Nakusp Arena-goers when they moved here nearly ten years ago.
Not surprisingly, Kira Streliev’s hockey heroes are close to home. In fact, they’re in her home: she names family as her hockey stars.
“I look up to my dad and my brother,” she said,
“My brother got me into hockey,” Streliev said, “When I was younger I didn’t know I wanted to play hockey, but I started watching some of his games and I knew I wanted to play.”
Her dad Barry played for the Rebels and some other local teams, so hockey is pretty much in her genes.
With a combination of hockey genetics and a whole lot of practise, Kira Streliev will be sure to show her skills at the Winter Games.