The Ooks women’s hockey team’s Blue Gold Tournament wrapped up on Sept. 7 after hosting nine preseason games over three days at the NAIT Arena.
The Ooks hosted five women’s hockey teams — four U18 teams and one junior team — from across British Columbia and Alberta, including the Edmonton Wolves, Northern Capitals, Okanagan Hockey Academy (OHA) Edmonton, Red Deer Sutter Fund Chiefs and Sherwood Park Reign.
NAIT walked away from the weekend with a 1-2 score in the exhibition matches, winning 3-1 over the Northern Capitals on Sept. 6 and falling 4-1 to OHA Edmonton on Sept. 5 and 3-2 against the Edmonton Wolves on Sept. 7.
Head start on 2026-27 season recruits
Unlike most exhibition games the Ooks play, this one has a special purpose. The Blue Gold Tournament is the Ooks’ first action in their preseason schedule and serves as a recruiting tool for the team to bring in new recruits down the road.
“It’s kind of to show off NAIT and everything that it has,” said Brendan Jensen, Head Coach of the Ooks women’s hockey team. “It’s our non-conference kickoff tournament … I look forward to every year, our program putting it on and doing a first-class job.”
“I have really good feedback with the Edmonton Wolves coach and from the other U18 teams … I think it’s good [for teams] to show their players the next level.”
Along with the ability to “showcase our school,” Jensen said the Ooks use the Blue Gold Tournament to showcase the female game. According to Jensen, this was an important reason for why the hockey program revived the tournament after its shutdown under previous coaching staff.
“The women’s program hosted it for a number of years. We kind of brought it back three years ago,” he said. NAIT was the only Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) program that competed this year, Jensen explained, “but in years past we’ve had MacEwan, we’ve had the U of A, we’ve had SAIT come … Lakeland came a couple years ago.”
Even though collegiate team participation was down this year, Jensen believes the event was successful and allowed the Ooks to get an early start on recruiting for next season.
“We were actually able to sign one of the players that we’ve been chatting to,” he shared. “It’s really good to be able to see five other teams and be able to take a look at what we need on the recruiting front … this year might be really one of the first where we’ve actually been able to come out of it and really start our [recruiting] class.”
Blue Gold “huge benefit” for U18 athletes, says new Ook
The Ooks have signed three hockey players from the tournament since its 2023 revival. One of this year’s recruits, Chloe Higgins, previously participated in the event with the Red Deer Sutter Fund Chiefs. Higgins said the tournament played a part in her joining NAIT.
“Playing in the blue and gold tournament as part of my U18 team definitely influenced my decision to join the Ooks,” Higgins said in a text message to the Nugget. “It gave me a taste of what it would be like to play at the next level, and see their team dynamic firsthand … I think the tournament is a huge benefit for U18 teams because it gives them a chance to test themselves against a college team.”
After three years of hosting, the Ooks will look forward to hosting the event once again next year — and possibly including more collegiate teams.
“We’re going to do it as long as we have the staff that we have and those capable hands to be able to do it every year,” said Jensen. “I see it at least being six teams and then who knows, I know other teams have expressed interest, whether they’re minor hockey teams or if it’s university or colleges in our conference.”
“I do like that it’s just six teams right now … but we’ll see where it goes in the future.”
The Ooks’ women’s hockey preseason picked back up on Sept. 12 at NAIT against the University of Alberta Pandas, and their season starts at home on Oct. 3 against the Olds College Broncos.
Feature image via NAIT Ooks
