During the 2004-2005 season, the Northwest took a major step forward in girls hockey when the Portland Jr. Hawks made the decision to make the girls team a competitive 'Rep' level program.

Lead by Kent Lane, during the summer months, this new group offered skating sessions, off-ice conditioning, and a mini-camp ... the numbers of girls in the program soared. In the fall the girls were ready to play!

And play they did ... the U19 team played in two Midget AA tournaments in Canada, a series of games in Wisconsin, and multiple Bantam B games - 55 games in all. The team was a strong competitor in every event they entered and showed impressive improvement during the season.

As the season progressed, there were enough competitive girls that for the first time in over 5 years a team was sent to the District tournament in Los Angeles. In its inaugural year, the team girls did exceptionally well against the best girls teams on the West coast.

The desire is to keep the momentum going by building an even stronger program for all NW Girls ... The Northwest Selects.

The NW Selects program is made up of tournament teams.  This allows players to take advantage of USA Hockey’s dual roster rule for female players.  The goal is for the girls play on a NW Selects team, in addition to a local team, with a consistent practice and game schedule, which is more local to the player’s home.

The foundation of our program is based on strong commitment by the NW Selects board, financial support , community donors and a great group of dedicated players who have already established a tradition of playing with unbelievable passion. 

Overall our goal is to build a program that is sustainable long term and meets the unique geographic and demographic challenges that face female players in the region. This coming year we added more summer development camps and younger teams in order to strengthening our efforts to build this program from bottom up.

We welcome you to - The NW Selects!  

• Winning is important, but learning to win is the key to success
• Building good citizens is just as important as building hockey players
• Giving the gift of hockey to our kids is just that, a gift players need to recognize
• Picking the right college is more important than picking a college based on hockey
• Players never graduate from the NWS, they just become coaches
• If you can still skate after a game, you did not give enough during the game
• Leaders do not boast, they lead by pulling their teammates along with them