A League Of Their Own

Inspiring strength and confidence through female hockey.

That’s SEFHA’s mission.

The South East Female Hockey Association was originally established to provide an opportunity for young girls to have a league of their own. 

The organization has grown over the years with several different associations starting up all over New Brunswick.

SEFHA understands that some girls have the desire to play on boy’s teams, but wanted to offer a different option for those that strictly enjoyed playing with girls. 

The association has experienced amazing growth over the past two seasons which is not only great for the sport, but all the young girls aspiring to play the game they love.

SEFHA’s President Nick Kitchen has been involved in the game his entire life and is truly amazed at the camaraderie and growth of the girls game.

“It’s just fantastic to see, the number of young girls we have out there enjoying the game and playing with other girls,” Kitchen said.

“It’s an unique opportunity and a different atmosphere for them.” 

Kitchen believes SEFHA will continue to have an impact on this region moving forward.

“My hope for the organization is that it continues to grow.”

“We have some really great things going on, membership grew by 26% last year and we are actually introducing female competitive teams this year,” Kitchen said proudly.

A lot of hard work and dedication has gone into developing the association over the years with countless people putting the work in behind the scenes.

“We have grown from less than 30 members six years ago to 215 this past season,” Kitchen said.

“We grew to fifteen teams last season, up from eleven the season before.”

“The largest amount of growth we experienced was at our U7, and U9 levels,” explained Kitchen.

“Due to the amount of growth not only SEFHA has experienced, but also some of our neighbouring female associations we were able to play in an all female league for the first time.”

Kitchen is thrilled the association will have a competitive element this season.

“This will provide a platform for even more girls to grow and develop as hockey players and young ladies,” explained Kitchen.

The “Fury” will take to the ice in 2020-2021.

Competition is extremely important, but SEFHA remains focused on their goal and ultimate mission.

“Our goal is to provide an environment for young females of all calibers to play in a league that emphasizes, fun, friendship and development.”

“By adding a competitive stream we are opening ourselves up to even more female players and giving them the opportunity to develop while playing female hockey.”

“For me personally, the amount of growth ensures the future health of the organization, especially given the fact that our growth is primarily at the younger levels.”

“It means that more and more young girls are choosing to play female hockey right from the start.”

The foundational aspects of SEFHA remain firmly entrenched within the associations culture.

“Player development has always been our number one priority, which is part of the reason that we have not introduced competitive until now,” Kitchen said.

“Up until this point we wouldn’t have been able to ice competitive teams without having a negative impact on our recreational program.”

“Going forward, this will allow the girls that have the ability to play competitive to do so and develop at a higher level, and hopefully then move on to play for the Rockets or another team of their choice.”

“We believe that this will also have a positive impact on our recreational programs whereby by removing the top three or four girls from a team, that it will allow for more touches of the puck for the remaining girls on the team which will help to further their development.”

“We will continue to focus on the growth of our U7 and U9 programs as it is our belief that the more girls you have playing at a younger age, the better the health of the association will be as a whole.”

There’s no question SEFHA are in a league of their own when it comes to growing the game for all the right reasons.

For more information about SEFHA and their programming contact them at WWW.SEFHA.CA