McKinney to join Team Canada in spring

By Laine Sedore

Playing hockey with the same group of girls is something Christi Mckinney has done all her life.

“Some of these girls have played together since they were seven-years-old, about eight or nine of them have played together since they were seven,” said McKinney’s coach Todd Robertson.

The 5-foot-8, 17-year-old left-winger from Belleville put up 14 goals and 15 assists in 44 games last season with the Belleville Bearcats AA Midget team. This season McKinney has five goals and 12 assists in 30 games played.

Todd Robertson, coach of the Belleville Bearcats AA Midget Team, said he rewarded McKinney this season for her hard work.

“I named her as an alternate captain this year because she’s one of our veteran players. Also because she leads pretty much by example on the ice by giving it her all every time she’s out there,” he said.

McKinney was invited to Team Ontario’s Under 18 Selection Camp in 2009-20010. That same year she was awarded Nicholson Catholic College’s most dedicated player. The year before she was named hockey’s most valuable player at the school.

McKinney’s favourite NHL team is the Pittsburgh Penguins because her favourite player, Sidney Crosby, is on the team.

“I like how good of a hockey player he is, he’s always focused and he’s a good leader,” McKinney said.

Robertson said McKinney is a very ambitious hockey player

“ Christi’s got a motor that doesn’t stop. She’s go, go, go, I’ve known her since she was six or seven-years-old as a hockey player, she was just as competitive back then as she is now,” said Robertson.

But hockey isn’t the only thing McKinney is good at. She was a minor ball hockey provincial gold medalist in, 2000, 2006 and 2007. She was also a Central Ontario Secondary School Association basketball champion in 2008-2009. In 2009-2010 she won the Central Ontario Secondary School Association soccer championships. This spring she will travel to Slovakia to play for Team Canada at the under 19 national floorball championships.

McKinnet wasn’t completely sold on the sport of Floorball when she first started playing.

“At first I was like what kind of sport is this and I kind of thought it was stupid at first, but once you get playing it, it’s kind of fun,” she said.

She will travel overseas with Team Canada in May. She is also set to graduate high school in June.

Courtesy of Laine Sedore at Beyond the Game