Numbers up, ice time down

Times Reporter    

 

Numbers for Strathmore Minor Ringette have been steadily climbing, says Guy Bailie, president of the organization. In 2012, girls’ involvement was up 15 per cent from the previous year; for the beginning of the 2013 season, 191 girls are involved.

“Our teams are actually doing fairly well this year. We still have 14 teams in Strathmore Minor Ringette. Our numbers are almost 17 per cent up from last year,” Bailie said. 

“We’ve sort of joined forces with Ringette Alberta to do what they call Come and Try It programs. Essentially, between our association and a group of individuals from Ringette Alberta, they come out and run an introductory session for girls interested in playing ringette. Over the last couple of years, that’s brought in a fair number of girls for our association.”

Come and Try It programs usually run in September, just before the season begins. This is available to all girls looking to join the U7, U9, U10 teams, and the tiered levels of U12, U14, U16 and U19.

“For the first year in a long time, Strathmore has an open team, which is an 18+,” Bailie said. “It’s just a startup for this season. We want to feel the water a little bit with that one, and see how the ladies will do with that. I think they’re having a lot of fun. Next year they’ll look to put themselves in one of the league.”

So far this year the open team plays U19 teams or exhibitions against other towns.

However, with more ice time, the 17 per cent increase of players could explode to an even higher number. Unfortunately, not much is available in Strathmore, even for the teams that do already exist. Bailie and Strathmore Minor Ringette have tried to model the association using methodologies of long-term athletic development, which is meant to develop youth athletes to stay in sport longer.

“Some of their guidelines give you a really good practice-to-game ratio, and according to long-term athletic development, with the 14 teams that we currently have, we should be practicing a minimum of 37 hours a week, spread amongst all teams – assuming one game each per week,” Bailie said. “What we currently have in Strathmore is 6.5 hours of ice time.”

Strathmore Minor Ringette also uses 10 hours of ice time in Rockyford.

“Even when you add those two times up, we’re still 20 hours short,” Bailie said. “As our numbers grow, that’s just going to get worse and worse. We’ll continue to grow our numbers, because that’s what we really want to see, but we’re getting ourselves up against a bit of a wall with limited ice. It’s real unfortunate.”