Ringette up, ice time down

Times Reporter   

 

With roughly 170 girls on 14 teams, the Strathmore Ringette Association, the sport has grown by almost two teams each year, since Kim and Guy Bailie became involved six years ago.

“Every year, we get more and more players,” Kim said. “Other associations are flailing, but people keep coming to Strathmore.”

Unfortunately, with only two rinks to work with, and other sports vying for ice time as well, the Bailies have had to look to other options.

“Seventy per cent of our ice is out of town. So we grow the association, and we’re forced to go out of town. I understand, we’ve got two rinks, and that’s all we’ve got,” said Guy.

For ice time the teams travel to Rockyford and Standard, who also have their own team sports to accommodate. Five years ago the Strathmore Ringette Association had nine teams; last year, they had 12. 

“As we try to grow these community sports, we’re getting pressed to the point where we don’t want to but we’ll have to start capping the number of girls that can play, because we just don’t have the facilities for them to play on,” Guy said.

The Town of Strathmore is planning to build an outdoor skating rink beside the Ag Grounds; however, the project won’t be finished until 2014. 

“We could potentially use it. I mean, it’s pretty tough to utilize that for practice play and stuff, but absolutely, we’ll take advantage of stuff like that every chance we get, “ said Guy. 

Ringette, Kim explains, is a sport that is important to grow for young girls; the league’s motto is fun, friendship, fitness, and fair play.

“I like it because of the team aspect with girls, there’s a lot of camaraderie on and off the ice,” she said. “It requires girls to play as a team — not one player can dominate a game, they have to work together. It builds strong skaters and confident girls.”

Evaluations are running from Sept. 14-22 for teams ranging from U7 to U19, and are placed according to their skill. Practices begin once teams are made; game play begins in the second week of October.