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Vol. 6 Issue 5
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October 2015
Local Sisters Vying For Team Canada Hockey Positions Ste. Anne sisters, Bailey and Shelby Bram were among 47 players summoned to the Canadian women’s hockey team camp in Calgary this past month. Twenty-five year old Bailey played in the last three world championships for Canada and was among the last players released from the 2014 Olympic team. Her twenty-two year old sister Shelby is trying to make the national team for the first time. The only time they have worn the Maple Leaf as teammates was in 2012 when they were both named to Canada’s under-22 women’s team for the annual Meco Cup in Germany. “It would be a dream come true getting to play with her again,” Shelby said. “I’ve had a taste of it at the under-22s. Every year I miss playing with her and we only get the chance to play in the summers together.” The Brams were college teammates and linemates for a single season at Pennsylvania’s Mercyhurst University in Bailey’s senior and Shelby’s freshman years in 2011-12. The siblings are not teammates this season by their own choices. Bailey is returning to the Calgary Inferno of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL), while Shelby has committed to play for the Buffalo Beauts of the new National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL). Each tried to convince the other to change their choice of league, unsuccessfully. Uncertainty of the NWHL’s long-term sustainability and whether she could easily transfer back to the CWHL, prodded Bailey back to Calgary
where she has spent the last two seasons. “I’ll see what happens next year if the NWHL is successful. I was kind of hesitant about, what happens if it folds? I think after the first year we’ll have more an idea what’s going to happen,” Bailey explained. Bailey’s progress from rookie to veteran on the Canadian team accelerated the winter she was centralized in Calgary in 2013-14. The Canadian women play more games and practice more together in the seven months leading into the Olympic Games than they do in the three years in between Olympics. “My confidence went up, my strength went up, my skating went up,” Bailey said. “Every little detail of my game I think improved.” Canada will attempt to defend their Four Nations Cup title in Sundsvall, Sweden, in November. They will also attempt to reclaim the world championship on home ice in Kamloops, BC, from March 28 to April 4.