Hockey Manitoba is excited to announce the coaching staff for the 2024 Female Under-18 (U18) Program of Excellence.

Female U18 Team Manitoba will be led by Christine Bumstead (Winnipeg) who was recently an Assistant Coach for U18 Team Manitoba at the 2023 National Women’s U18 Championship in Dawson Creek, BC. This will be Christine’s second year as a coach within the Female U18 POE program. Bumstead has spent the last three seasons as an Assistant Coach with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies (U Sports). Christine also worked as a performance coach for the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades during the 2023-24 season, making her the first woman to ever be a part of the Blades coaching staff. Bumstead was previously a Head Coach and an Assistant Coach with the Pembina Valley U15 AAA Female Hawks where she spent three seasons behind the bench with the team. Bumstead comes from a background of more than 15 years of skills coaching with Northwestern Hockey Sports Camp and Jets Hockey Development.

Bumstead will be joined by Assistant Coaches Karissa Kirkup (Virden) and Autumn Garnham (Portage la Prairie). This will be Kirkup’s second year as a coach within the Female U18 POE program as she was an Assistant Coach for U18 Team Manitoba at the 2023 Canada Winter Games in Prince Edward Island. Kirkup is currently the Head Coach of the Brandon U15 AAA Wheat Kings team. Kirkup played two seasons of college hockey with the University of Maine and University of Minnesota-Duluth followed by three seasons with the University of Manitoba Bisons women’s hockey team. Her coaching experience includes coaching the Director’s Cup for three years, and serving as an assistant coach of the U16 Junior Bison team.

This will be Autumn Garnham’s first year as a coach within the Female U18 program. She was recently a coach for Hockey Manitoba’s Female U16 Program of Excellence. Garnham has spent the last two years as a Co-Coach for the U15 AAA Central Plains Capitals in the Manitoba Female U15 AAA Hockey League. During her playing career, Garnham played two years with the Balmoral Hall Blazers prep team, followed by a season with the Female U18 AAA Central Plains Capitals. She went on to play three seasons for the University of Toronto. Autumn has spent time coaching in both the Female Prospects and Directors Cup Prospects programs.

The goaltending coach for Female U18 Team Manitoba will be Riley Sveistrup (Portage la Prairie). This will be Sveistrup’s second year as U18 Team Manitoba’s goaltending coach. Sveistrup has been coaching netminders for the U18 AAA Female Central Plains Capitals for the last five years.

Director of Operations for the Female U18 POE will be Mathew Relf (Hockey Manitoba).

The Female U18 Program of Excellence process will begin in early June with the Top-68 Camp which will be held from June 7-8, 2024 at hockey for all centre in Winnipeg. Following the Top-68 Camp, approximately forty players will be invited to the POE Top-40 Camp which will be held from July 5-7, 2024 at hockey for all centre in Winnipeg. The third stage of the Female U18 POE process will see Team Manitoba compete in an exhibition series against the University of Bisons women’s hockey team in late September/early October.

The final stage of the 2024 Female U18 Program of Excellence will see Team Manitoba compete at the 2024 National Women’s U18 Championship which is scheduled to take place in early November (Location yet to be announced).

The Female U18 Program of Excellence is designed to provide high performance female players with the opportunity to develop advanced skills as well as an introduction to the concepts needed to play at an elite level. Players from the Program of Excellence go on to play at the CIS, NCAA and International level.

Hockey Manitoba is pleased to recognize CCM Hockey and the Western Hockey League as Official Partners of the Program of Excellence. The POE is our high performance program that offers developing athletes who are on track to be elite with the opportunity to represent their province while providing a solid development path to the National and International stages.

For more information about the Hockey Manitoba Program of Excellence please visit www.hockeymanitoba.ca/programs/poe/.