Game On Magazine 2017 Nov Game On low res | Page 128

WHEN MYA JORGENSON tried
out for her first hockey team,
her new teammates gathered
‘round. Many of them had
been playing for years. Most
of the best players knew
each other. This was, after
all, a Peewee A-1 team and
the top players in the area
were trying out.
But they didn’t know the
new kid. “It was Peewee
A-1 and the girls all
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wondered who this new
kid was,” said Mya with
a laugh. “They asked me
where I’d been playing
and when I told them I’d
just learned to skate they
were kind of shocked.”
Mya Jorgenson is
one of a group of 10
Manitoba players who are
playing this season with
the prestigious Junior
Women’s Hockey League’s
Boston Shamrocks. She
is in Grade 12 at Pope
John XXIII High School
in Everett, Mass., but
she’s a Winnipegger. That
first team she tried out
for was at Roblin Park
Community Centre and
that try out took place
only six years ago.
Some players compete
all their lives and still
don’t reach the level
Mya Jorgenson has
reached with the Boston
Shamrocks, but as she
finishes her Grade 12
year in the JWHL and
makes plans to play at
the U SPORT level in
Canada next season, it’s
hard to imagine that
she’s barely played the
game for half a decade.
“I didn’t even start to
skate until I was 11,” she
said. “I wasn’t a good
athlete before I played
hockey. I did soccer and
dance but I wasn’t that
good at either of them.
But when I started to
skate, I just loved it and I
really loved hockey. I tried
out for was the highest
level team I could in the
first year I ever skated
and made the team.
“I was always motivated
to play hockey. Right from
Day 1.” This is a huge
year for the Shamrocks
and their Can-Am team.
There are 10 Canadian
girls on the squad, all from
Manitoba: Jorgenson,
her two best friends,
the twins Keyanna and
Keyara Lea, Julie Albert,
Trechelle Bunn, Ashlee
Hirschfield, Saige McKay,
Shayna Moore, Carrigan
Umpherville and Taylor
Tom. So far, Jorgenson
is loving every minute
of this cross-border