Oshawa Minor Ball Hockey League has long been a supporter of girls and women’s ball hockey and some of the members have gone onto wonderful ice hockey careers with Hockey Canada’s Women’s program and the Canadian Women’s Hockey League, Natalie Spooner, Jennifer Wakefield, Tara Watchorn and others the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS), Amber Ellis (Plattsburgh), Jackie Webster (Whitby Jr Wolves), Michelle Binning (University of Connecticut), Jennifer McLean (Niagara), Britni Smith (St Lawrence), Katherine Shirriff (Wilfred Laurier) and now Saroya Tinker who was recently been selected to Hockey Canada’s U18 team and will be attending Yale.
The Oshawa Stampede has produced many of the top female players over the past decade and Saroya began playing ball hockey in 2008 and will be participating in her 9th season in 2016. She has participated in the Ontario Ball Hockey Association (OBHA) Provincials for the past six years and in 2015 her Oshawa team took home the Girls U18 Provincial Championship.
Oshawa Minor Ball Hockey League President, Doug Smart commented, ‘she is a multi talented player’ and he continued ‘Saroya can play in any situation and has often played forward and defence in games which shows her versatility and can adapt to help her team win.’
Oshawa's Saroya Tinker headed for U18 Team Canada then Yale for hockey
From Oshawa This Week
Although her job as a defender often necessitates skating backwards, there’s little doubt Saroya Tinker’s hockey career is charging full steam ahead.
Tinker, a 17-year-old Oshawa resident who plays locally with the Durham West Lightning, has opportunities coming up that many others can only dream of; namely, representing Canada at a world championship in January and later in the year joining the Ivy League ranks of Yale University in Connecticut.
Tinker has had visions of donning her country’s colours for years now, but still had to pinch herself after learning the news she’d be part of Canada’s entry at the 2016 IIHF ice hockey U18 women’s world championship Jan. 8-15 in St. Catharines.
“It’s something you dream about, but never really picture it coming true,” she said. “When it does, it’s amazing.”
It’s been a lengthy process for Tinker, who began playing in the Oshawa Church Hockey League before switching over to the Lady Generals and later the Clarington Flames and making her way up to the Provincial Women’s Hockey League with the Lightning last season.
Tinker took part in a Hockey Canada strength and conditioning camp in May and another camp in Calgary in August, where she distinguished herself enough to play in a three-game exhibition against the United States in Lake Placid, New York, which Canada won 2-1.