The Diamond Energy Female Midget AAA Wildcats are now just one week away from competing in south-central Saskatchewan at western Canada's largest female hockey tournament, which runs December 7-10.

Swift Current will be one of 16 teams playing in games located in both Wilcox and Milestone for Athol Murray College of Notre Dame's Mandi Schwartz Memorial Tournament.

"It's a pretty neat thing to have here on campus, we're kind of a pretty rural area here," said Notre Dame Hounds coach Tegan Schroeder regarding the 264-person village of Wilcox. "To be able to bring in 16 teams and anywhere from 40 to 50 college scouts every year is a pretty neat experience."

That experience of showcasing players in front of scouts from colleges and universities from around Canada and the United States is an excellent opportunity to be a part of for Wildcats head coach Terry Pavely.

"Some of our young kids have never played in a tournament like this. They've played in tournaments before, but not one with the scouts - this is the most scouted tournament in western Canada, the quality of teams is really high so there's some pressure," Pavely said while discussing it's important for players not to get too caught up in the moment.

"It's an important weekend in terms of post-secondary opportunities for them, but you don't want to put too much pressure on yourself and change the way you do things because if you, it'll hurt you in the long run."

The high-profile scouting atmosphere of the tournament and the sport itself has perhaps changed in Pavely's time coaching the female game.

"The recruiting process for girls has really changed since I started - players would get really looked at in grade 12. Now in grades 9 and 10, the colleges are already looking at them and talking to them, so it's important for us to get to events like this to get our kids on the radar," Pavely added. "For some of our younger kids it might not mean conversations with universities until next year, but if you have a good showing at a tournament like this, it gets you on the radar."

This marks the 18th year of the early-December tournament, but the seventh since the passing of the namesake of the memorial event - certainly the most important aspect of the tournament.

"With the tournament being named the Mandi Schwartz Memorial Tournament, that holds special meaning to both myself, the girls, and a lot of our staff on campus," Schroeder said. "Mandi was a Hound, and someone a lot of our players aspire to be like, so it's kind of neat to be able to share her story."

Mandi Schwartz attended, and played minor hockey at Notre Dame, graduating in 2006 - she continued her hockey career at the college level, joining the Yale University Bulldogs after high school.

In her junior year at Yale in December 2008, Schwartz was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.

After treatment for the disease, she managed to return momentarily to Yale - she returned to the ice a while later in January 2010, but tough news was around the corner. Cancer returned in April of that year.

Following advice from doctors, Schwartz pursued the option of an umbilical cord blood transplant. Due to leukemia's effect on bone marrow, it was their hope that cord blood, which has been found to help regenerate bone marrow and contains stem cells, would be an effective treatment.

In September 2010, Schwartz underwent the transplant, causing her cancer to go into remission for a few months, before returning again that December.

Mandi Schwartz passed away on April 3, 2011 at the age of 23 - the day after entering a hospital in Regina.

"Mandi was a true Hound. She had that never-lose-heart attitude in her battle with leukemia, she was very selfless, and always putting everyone else around her ahead of herself. That kind of mentality and that team-first attitude are things that we try to instil in our players through telling her story," said Schroeder, who was a teammate of Schwartz's at Notre Dame.

"As a teammate, Mandi was always one of those people that you looked up to, even though she was side by your side. She was always the hardest worker in the classroom, on the ice, and also in the weight room. She was always pushing herself and those around her to continue to get better. One of those kids that just being around made you a better person."

Schroeder added that Schwartz's selflessness was both inspiring and certainly contagious.

"She was like that (selfless) before she got sick, and remained that way through her battle with cancer," said Schroeder. "When she got sick, the whole hockey world kind of got on board to try and help out because she was so selfless and a team-first attitude. A lot of people kind of gravitated towards her cause, and it was pretty neat to be alongside that throughout her entire battle."

Schwartz's parents, Rick and Carol, will be in attendance at the event, both for a ceremonial puck drop, as well as helping spread their daughter's story.

As well, Schwartz's battle with the disease puts a lot into perspective, despite the hectic schedule of playing three games in 29 hours against some the best female midget hockey players in Western Canada to start the tournament.

"I think what they do at Notre Dame to honour her by naming the tournament after her is a great thing," said Pavely, the Wildcats head coach. "As much as there's pressure (to win), it also puts it into perspective that at the end of the day, it's a game. There's a lot of good lessons to be learned, but it's not the be-all-end-all, there are often bigger things in life, and I think it's just a really good tribute to her and to her family to have such a big tournament - a well-known tournament - named in her honour."

The Diamond Energy Wildcats are coming off a rare weekend off - their last game was November 19 against the Battlefords Sharks.

"A break's not a bad thing to make sure that we're really healthy before we get into that busy stretch where we're going to play a lot of games in a short time in the Notre Dame tournament," Pavely explained. "The break is good, I think you're always itching to play someone else but for us, the break was pretty well-timed."

The Wildcats are busy spending this week and the next preparing for the high-level competition after what will have been an 18-day break between games once the start of the tournament rolls around. Increasing the tempo and intensity will be the key in practice for Pavely and his team.

"If you don't do some battle drills, you kind of get a little bit lethargic in terms of when you get back in the game, you're not used to that compete and that little physicality along the boards, so it's important to do some battle drills this week and next week just to make sure that we're sharp and ready to compete when we get to Notre Dame." Pavely noted while stressing that the team needs to be ready to play immediately.

"We've got good competition, teams that we haven't seen this year, but we need to be prepared for the first game to play at a high level and a high pace."

The Wildcats start the Mandi Schwartz Memorial Tournament December 7 at 3:30 p.m. against the Fraser Valley Rush in Milestone, followed by two more divisional games on Friday. They play the Red Deer Chiefs at 10:30 a.m. in Milestone, and 8:30 p.m. in Wilcox against Calgary's Edge School.

The tournament still swings back to the spirit of Mandi's love for life and the game of hockey.

"For people who have been in the female game a long time they know the Schwartz family is a well-known hockey family, and Mandi was a really good hockey player - one of the elite kids to come out of Saskatchewan," said Pavely. "There are so many people that have so many good things to say about her, and it's just one of those really unfortunate things that a kid who had a really bright future - not just as a hockey player, but academically and was going to do a lot of good things - had her life cut short."

Click here for the full tournament schedule.