A special opportunity awaits Diamond Energy Female Midget AAA Wildcats forward Crystal Wale upon graduation in the coming months.

The Wildcats announced that the grade 12 forward has signed to play post-secondary hockey with the Dakota College at Bottineau (DCB) Ladyjacks starting in the 2020-21 season.

"I've been playing hockey since I was really young. One of my dreams was to continue playing hockey in a college or university. I think it's a really amazing feeling," said the Moose Jaw product.

Wale will be at the North Dakota-based program for their inaugural season at the American College Hockey Association (ACHA) Division II level. She noted that the bonding process between a group of fairly unfamiliar players will be part of the fun in her freshman season and beyond.

"It's a whole new team, so all the girls aren't going to know each other that well. We'll get to experience a lot of team-building activities, which will make our team closer and I think it's going to be really good," she said.

Wale will be joined by a couple current players in the Sask Female Midget AAA Hockey League, as the DCB Ladyjacks also signed Weyburn Gold Wings Chloe Burt and Katelyn Muchowski.

"It's a good feeling that I won't be going knowing absolutely no one," Wale said on the new endeavour.

DCB stood out to Wale from the start - along with pursuit from the recruiting coordinator, a direct-entry Nursing program piqued her academic interest as well.

"For some colleges or universities, you have to go into a year of kind of Arts & Sciences," she said. "Here, you can just go straight into it and I liked that the most."

Wale's a mere four regular-season games, along with playoffs, from finishing her third-and-final season with the Wildcats.

The forward has boasted a career of reliability in the grit and effort departments, adding in a large leadership role this season especially.

Wale has seen the most success this season elevating the play of several rookie linemates, while still being able to seamlessly jump from line to line. It's a role that may go unnoticed on the stat sheet, but is one she's glad to have undertaken.

"I feel really good that [the coaches] trust me and that I feel like I can lead the other girls on my team and they trust me too," Wale said, who added that she's enjoyed trying to display a game centred around hustle.

"It doesn't really matter if you're a first-year, third-year, fourth-year - anyone can come up and lead the team, and show by their actions and other things they do on the team. Lead by example, and it really stands out," she said.

In three regular-seasons with the Wildcats, Wale has posted 14 goals and 36 points over 82 games. She also thrived in the post-season last year, recording two goals and five points in seven games.

The final four regular-season games of her career come in the next five days. The Wildcats get set for Wale's third-and-final post-season with a March 4 game on home ice against the Notre Dame Hounds, before a three-in-three on the road against the Weyburn Gold Wings (March 6) and Regina Rebels (March 7-8).

"We won't be going into the playoff season with no playing time," said Wale on the approach to the final four games before playoffs.

"I think it's really good that we have quite a few games so our legs will be good. We can't go into it lightly, and we've got to go in as if it was do-or-die."

The March 4 tilt with Notre Dame is set for 7:45 p.m. from Fairview West.