Two Prince George-developed hockey players have chosen a future for their current young careers.
Destiny Bautista and Cadence Petitclerc are former members of the Northern Capitals and each spent two seasons with the under-18 female AAA club before heading south last year in hopes of landing college scholarships.
That achievement unlocked this month for both athletes, who are currently with the Okanagan Hockey Academy (OHA) in Penticton.
Bautista will head south of the border and due east in the fall in officially commiting to the State University of New York at Cortland, or SUNY Cortland for short.
Starting in the 2021-22 season, the forward is set to join the Dragons in the seven-team Northeast Women’s Hockey League (NEWHL), which consists of seven schools at the NCAA Division Three level.
The 18-year-old is originally from Quesnel.
Bautista suited up in 57 games with the Caps, scoring five goals and 11 points. She recorded the second-highest penalty minutes in 2019-20 with 41.
SUNY Cortland finished fourth in the last full campaign, also 2019-20, with a record of 7-9-2 in 18 games.
Meanwhile, Petitclerc is staying in Canada, but will be headed four provinces over!
The goaltender is set to join the Windsor University Lancers in U SPORTS, Canada’s highest level of collegiate athletics.
The 17-year-old has one more year left of school, so her commitment begins in the 2022-23 season, but she turned some heads in the fall when she posted two shutouts and a .952 save-percentage in five exhibition games with OHA.
While in Prince George, originally from Williams Lake, Petitclerc played 39 games in two years with the Northern Capitals, combined for a record of 16-16-3 and had three shutouts.
Windsor’s women’s hockey team has yet to win a conference title in Ontario and registered a record of 3-18-3 in 2019-20.
