Preface this with this is my opinion of my teammate and will probably be a boring read to most people.

Today i will be writing about my teammate and future Calgary Dragons Perennial Allstar Sonja Solberg. One half of the famous Solberg Sisters aka "The Norwegian Valkyries" and possibly the biggest reason for QCC's success the last few seasons. To understand how Sonja blossomed from a Rookie to one of the most dominate passers in the league today we have to start at the beginning.

Season 73- The Solbergs Sisters burst into the league

The SMJHL didnt know what absolute gems had found the league.
Before we talk get into Sonja I have to give a brief context of who her sister is for those that dont know. Froya Solberg aka NaomiMannequeen showed up and immediately became heavily involved with the site helping with streaming their own draft and since then has become the head of recruitment and a member of the awards team. Easily one of the nicest people Ive ever met, soon everyone else knew who she was and loved her as well. Sonja aka Tsunny though not as site involved as Naomi, like her sister quickly became a team favourite in Quebec and to anyone else that interacted with her. Its fair to say without Sonja our rookie chat would have been way duller without the constant banter and chirps (specifically between her and Celly) to the point i can say i don't think our rookie class would have bonded the way we did without her.

On the ice for her rookie year Sonja did not have an easy job, with 11 rookies joining the team someone had to learn to play shutdown minutes and luckily for the Citadelles Sonja was up to the task.
Putting up 20 Goals 35 Assists for 55 points is great for any rookie and even good for 6th on the team in points. These numbers are especially impressive considering they were deployed as a shutdown line. Still as impressive as her numbers were and how great of a locker room presence she was, no one seem to ever talk about her around the league unless it was "O the other Solberg".

The Draft

The worst kept secret on the 73 draft was Naomi was probably going 1st overall which was well deserved to anyone that has talked to her. The big Caveat to the draft that teams kept asking was "Do the Solbergs have to be drafted to the same team?". To which both said "Although eventually in there careers we would like to play together, we are ok playing against each other and being drafted to separate teams". Since Calgary only had one pick this was perfect for them, they could take Froya 1st and another team in the top 10 would probably take Sonja. Then the Mock talks started and Sonja wasn't even on alot of them, which can be forgiven as our class was huge and everyone thinks their teammates and friends should go high, especially with all the great recreates we had. This was still shocking to anyone in Quebec who had gotten to know her as we all thought she could challenge for a top 3 pick.
Anyway day of the draft happens picks 1-11 happen and still shes on the board, i was rattled she wasn't picked yet. She who kept was glue for all of us owlets. Then it happened Calgary traded for the 12th overall pick by trading lots of future picks and grabbed Sonja. In Quebec we were elated, the sisters didn't have to wait until the end of their careers to play together and  Calgary made out like bandits getting one of the top rookies in the class for uncertain futures. Then it happened. Whispers of Calgary getting fleeced, them wasting all their rebuild draft capital for the "Other sister". Which was frankly disrespectful, but im glad it happened cause it awakened "El Bicho".

Season 74- Breakout
After getting labeled as the lesser sister by the outside noise Sonja vowed to prove to everyone just who she was and that she wasn't the " Other sister" but a top player in her own right. She started by doubling down on being easily the best defensive forward on the team. Still on the shutdown line she put up another amazing season 17-37-54 with an amazing +24. Though she scored 1 pt less than the previous season she was dominating almost exclusively playing 4 on five. Playing over 2:20 a night on the PK it was opposing Power plays that were on the defense with her scoring 8 points shorthanded and blocking more shots than some defencemen on the team. She began to terrorize defenses and offenses alike similar to Christiano Ronaldo. There were even a few people around the league who started to take note of the exceptional two-way play. In my opinion, this was the year Sonja quietly broke out, you may never seen her in the the top 10 points or assist she was always hovering around top 12 for forwards in almost every category offensive and defensive for our draft class. This is when I realized "holy shit, Sonja isn't just good they have a chance to be one of the best ever."

Season 75- Dominance
After casually helping Norden dominate to a Gold medal in the WJC, Sonja returned to Quebec this season as thee number one forward. Power rankings were saying Quebec would struggle to fill the holes left by Jeff and Rowan Upfront and to be fair that was a good assumption, if you forgot about dre. Using the new found ice time this season and actually getting more than 30 seconds of power play time the rest of the league finally has gotten to see the reason for Quebec's success for the last few seasons shine as they always could. Absolutely dominating with 27-51-78pts so far this season she has blown by her previous career highs while making boom look like the smartest gm in the SHL for realizing Sonja is one of the greatest forwards in smjhl history. Yes you read that right, currently on pace to have one of the top 3 best assist seasons in J history Sonja is doing this while also still playing defense first hockey. Rocking huge PK minutes and a positive GA/TA ratio as a forward, Sonja is the one who is responsible for the rest of her lines success.

Always team first she is always willing to do whats best for the team. Quietly she has fought through the criticism of being the other Solberg and forced people to see she is both a gem on and off the ice. I am so happy that this season everyone gets to see her name at the top of the leader boards because that's where Sonja deserves to be. Calgary you got a good one. SUIIII

[1100+ words]

"I wouldn't be where I am without her. From the passion she brings to the drive that keeps us going forward. A lot of people see her as one step behind and those people are wrong. She's only behind me because she's propelling me forward to new heights neither of us would reach alone and then works harder than anyone to do it all again."

- Frøya Solberg, on her beloved sister and teammate Sonja Solberg.

" I'm both honoured and absolutely flattered by those words. While my role is not the most noticable for people outside of Québec, I'm more than happy to push both the team and myself to another level. I'm looking forward to winning the lot with you all before i get called up to Calgary. El Bicho is here to take over~ "

-Sonja S.

" Maybe someones er... they don't like me but... because i'm too good, i don't know why. "