Annual memorial tournament still going strong

Times Contributor

 

Strathmore was the proud host of the fifth annual Laurie Morton Ruppe Memorial Ringette Tournament this past weekend.  The tournament gave 36 teams from southern Alberta the chance to come out and participate in this long time event. Every year the tournament gets bigger and better and many teams always schedule the first weekend off in February so they can apply to Strathmore’s tournament. 

Tournament organizer Kim Proust was overwhelmed by how smoothly the tournament went.  

“It’s a lot of hours and work for all the volunteers,” said Proust.

The tournament is named after Laurie Morton Ruppe, who was a player as well as a big supporter of the Strathmore Ringette Association.  There are many people still involved with ringette that remember Ruppe well and were honoured that they once got to play with such a sparkling personality.  

Ruppe passed away nine years ago and her family still takes part in the tournament, whether it just be taking in a game or handing out medals. All had fun and all went home tired on Sunday.

It was an exciting weekend of ringette at the Laurie Morton Ruppe tournament for the U16B Strathmore Ice Ripperz. They competed hard as a team, facing some very tough competition. In the end, their teamwork took them to the to the gold medal game.  The Ice Ripperz knew the gold medal game would be a tough battle as they faced one of the top Calgary teams. 

However, as their coach Sonny Warrack told them before the game, if you play with courage and commitment as a team you will be rewarded. And rewarded they were as they came out with the gold.  

The game was very tight with the score still 0-0 after the first period.  Within the first two minutes of the second period, the Calgary Prisa scored. But the Ice Ripperz would not let that get them down and came right back and scored a goal. The battle continued and the score was 3-3.  The Ice Ripperz continued to fight for the winning goal and scored in the last twenty three seconds. Although Prisa tried their best to tie the game, the Ripperz stood strong and came out with the win. Way to go Ripperz!

Black Ice made it through the round robin with 1-1-1 record, which was enough to get them into the 2-vs-3 game on Sunday. Excitement, energy, exhilaration was the buzz in the room Sunday…final day. Winning the 2-vs-3 game, Black Ice proceeded to the final game. They played their hearts out and were able to give Beaumont a great game that they had to work hard for. Unfortunately there were too many minutes on the clock and the Black Ice settled for a Silver Medal!  No small feat to get there.