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Howran heads to Calgary for tryout with Team Canada

August 11, 2015

By Nate Smelle

While preparing to fly out to Calgary the next morning for her tryout with the Canadian Under-18 Women’s hockey team, local hockey sensation Tori Howran caught up with Bancroft This Week to discuss her recent tryout with team Ontario and her aspirations to make the national team. Howran’s love for the game started early when her parents Tony and Melanie first started lacing up her skates at age 4.
“We are very proud,” said Tony.
“She has been working really hard for a very long time and it is paying off for her. She is part of the Hockey Canada Family now.”
Since first stepping on the ice she has gone on to play competitively with the Bancroft Jets Midget Boys team, the North Hastings High School Huskies and the PWHL Whitby Wolves. With a busy training schedule all year long both on and off the ice, Howran’s dedication to become the best player she can, has already started to pay off. Last year for instance, she found out that she would be receiving a full scholarship from the University of New Hampshire to play hockey for their Division I women’s hockey team. While playing for the Wildcats Howran plans to study psychology. For now though she remains focused on her goal of making the national team.
“The season never really stopped for me this year,” said Howran.
“I have been running, doing aerobics, weights to get myself ready for Calgary. There are a lot of excellent players trying out and I want to be in the best shape possible. I don’t really have favourite player, but I like to study the greats to try and pick up a few tricks.”
The 43 young women trying out for the team come from all over Canada and are under the age of 18. The experience of trying out for the Provincial Under-18 team has left her charged up heading into the two week tryout in Calgary that began on Aug. 6 and runs until Aug. 16. The players attending this selection camp will be split into two teams; one wearing red, the other white. Players will then practice with their respective teams before facing off with one another in several intrasquad games. The Team Canada hopefuls will also have to endure off-ice dryland training, fitness testing and high performance classroom sessions.
Having made a number of friends during the Team Ontario tryouts in Mississauga this past July who will also be trying out in Calgary, Howran said she was more excited than nervous.
“I was lucky to meet a lot of really good friends in Mississauga that I was playing with and against,” she said.
“Everyone has been great. The whole experience has taught me so much. We all push each other to work harder and it makes everyone a better player.”
Still waiting to hear whether she has made the Ontario team, will not find out if she makes the final cut for the national team until Aug. 18. If she makes the roster she will then travel with Team Canada to Lake Placid in New York State to compete in a three-game exhibition series with the American squad from Aug. 20 to Aug. 22.