Laurie Ruppe tournament returns

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

The seventh annual Laurie Morton Ruppe Memorial Tournament has been a staple in the Strathmore ringette community and preparations are complete for what should be an exciting weekend of ringette.
“Teams are booked and the schedule is out,” said Pamela Betke, tournament director. “I think it’s a pretty big deal for Strathmore ringette. One partly because it’s a memorial tournament in honour of Laurie Ruppe who did a lot for the ringette association. We’ve heard from a number of other associations that it’s their favourite tournament to go to in the year. It also allows us to market the sport a little bit more in the community too.”
Ruppe made an impact on the Strathmore ringette scene as she served as a captain of a team, a coach and a president for the association. She was also known to be a positive person in the dressing room, having a smile on her face and providing encouragement when she could.
Betke said the tournament provides a great opportunity to play other teams and to see what other levels are out there in the province because otherwise it’s mostly the local teams who play each other.
“Our biggest focus is to make this whole thing fun to help the girls develop a real love of the sport,” said Betke.
“And for us it’s just nice to have the tournament go well enough so the teams want to come back year after year. But it’s nice to know other teams are willing to travel a fair distance just to have an opportunity to play in our tournament.”
Players will get the opportunity to see where they could play at a higher level one day as the Big Country Zone 2 U16 double-A team will play a game at 3:45 p.m., while the U14 double- A team will follow at 5 p.m. on Jan. 30 after the tournament games.
The tournament will run Jan. 29-31 at the Strathmore Family Centre.