A Rimbey athlete is back from Markham, Ontario where she competed with the Calgary Inferno Women’s Hockey Team in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League championship for the Clarkson Cup.
Camille Trautman, goalie for the Calgary team said she is pleased to have had the chance to compete in the tournament held March 4- 7.
“It was a good experience getting to play in a tournament like that,” she said.
The Infernos lost against Montreal two games in the semifinals and although Trautman only played 17 minutes in the third period of the final game, she said it was good to be in net.
“I felt pretty good. It was good to play in a game and be part of it (the tournament).
Team members watched the final game between Montreal and Boston which ended 3-2 for Boston in overtime.
Trautman said she especially enjoyed watching the Montreal goalie, Charlene Labonte play.
“She is very good,” she said.
Being beat out in the playoffs was unfortunate, but overall Trautman said she very much enjoyed the tournament.
“It would have been nice to win, but you can’t win them all,” she said.
The CWHL is comprised of professional teams from Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, Brampton and Boston and is the highest caliber of female hockey in North America.
Many of the women Olympic team members from Canada and the United States play on these teams during the years in-between the Olympics.
Trautman has played hockey since she was four-years-old and competed in the Rimbey minor hockey system until she was 13.
“I started playing goal when I was eight or nine years old,” she said. “I loved it, it was fun,” she said.
During her early teens she played major midget hockey in Red Deer and then spent three years playing with the Red Deer College Queens while she was enrolled in kinesiology at the college.
Now 22, Trautman has completed her rookie year with Calgary Inferno, ranking fourth goalie overall in the league.
The Clarkson Cup tournament marked the end of her competitive hockey career.
“Hockey has been good to me, but it’s time to start something new in my life and move on. And I do want to be on the farm.”
Trautman also enjoys ball hockey, biking and quadding and would like to continue to play hockey at a recreational level.