Abbotsford’s Hailey MacLeod has been invited to the BC Hockey U18 Female Program of Excellence Provincial Camp, which will help choose the roster for the 2021 edition of Team BC.
The camp runs from Thursday (Aug. 19) to Sunday (Aug. 22) in Pitt Meadows.
MacLeod is one of 52 players ranked as the best female hockey players born between 2004 and 2006 and she is one of six goalies battling for a spot on Team BC. The 52 players are split into three teams and over the four-day camp, the teams will participate in a variety of on-and-off-ice sessions including practices and intra-squad games.
The former Yale Secondary student originally got into hockey at the age of five, but never played regularly between the pipes until the age of eight.
“I had actually asked my parents at the very beginning of my first year whether I had to play in goal or not because I dreaded the idea of playing the position,” she told The News.
She eventually tried out the position full time during a spring hockey season with the Vancouver Selects and hasn’t left the crease since. MacLeod went on to play minor hockey in both Abbotsford and Langley.
MacLeod was the winning goalie with the Langley Lightning when Langley edged the North Shore in a memorable quadruple overtime provincial title game. That was the first banner in the association’s history at the bantam level.
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She then got the call up to play with the Greater Vancouver Comets as an underage when she was in Grade 9 and stuck on for the entire season.
She returned to the Comets in her Grade 10 year and was named an all-star. Her numbers that season were impressive, as she collected a perfect record of 16-0 and had a 0.84 goals against average to go with three shutouts. She was also in goal when the Comets traveled to Fort St. James to participate in Canada’s first outdoor female U18AAA Winter Classic game back in January of 2020. She and her teammates earned a 4-0 shutout win.
Congratulations to 3 of our Comets: Hailey, Soph and Jenna for being named to the all-star team! Also congrats to Brette, Lyndsy, and Jaden! @NCapitalsfmaaa @lakersu18aaa @RushFMAAA
— U18AAA GV Comets (@GVanComets) April 2, 2020
More info👉🏼https://t.co/XMpm3vgalQ pic.twitter.com/7hLRRTSqAv
MacLeod has since moved on to the Delta Hockey Academy and now attends North Delta Secondary School. She appeared in three games with DHA in 2020-21, posting a record of 2-1 and a GAA of 2.00.
She has committed to the University of Minnesota Duluth and will be a Bulldog starting in the fall of 2022.
MacLeod recently returned home after receiving an invite to the Hockey Canada National Women’s Under-18 Team Summer Development Camp in Calgary. That event ran from July 29 to Aug. 5 and will choose a team to head to the U18 World Hockey Championships later this year. She will find out if she is selected in the coming months.