By Sheldon Spackman

Central Alberta Sting U16 AA ringette team off to nationals

Apr 5, 2018 | 4:05 PM

The Central Alberta Sting U16 AA ringette team is set to battle for a national title.

The Canadian Ringette Championships run from April 8 – 14 in Winnipeg with the best teams from U16, U19 and the National Ringette League all taking part.

Sting Head Coach Chris Kelly says his team is excited for the experience.

“We’ve had a bit of a lay-off since provincials, it was six weeks ago,” admits Kelly. “But the girls have stayed focused and they’re ready to go. We fly out on Sunday and we’ll give it our best shot.”

In order to stay focused, Kelly says they’ve been keeping busy with practices, dryland training sessions and trying to find very competitive teams to play to stay sharp.

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“There’s no point in playing teams that we can beat but teams that will challenge us,” explains Kelly. “We’ve been playing difficult games, trying to fill our weekends playing to kill those six weeks.”

Kelly anticipates the competition to be very strong at nationals.

“Our first game next week, we play New Brunswick, they’re the defending national champions. Then past that, there’s a team out of Regina that’s very strong. It’s going to be very tough, it’s the top 21 teams in the country, so it’s going to be very challenging.”

According to Kelly, the key to their success will be keeping the focus they’ve worked so hard to maintain over the past several weeks.

“They’re certainly talented enough to be successful at this level,” Kelly states. “We’re going to be there for nine days, so to stay mentally engaged for those nine days, I’ve always said it’s more akin to a marathon than a sprint. It’s really just taking every game shift by shift and game by game.”

Once it’s all said and done, Kelly hopes the girls continue to challenge themselves past the tournament.

“They are playing the best athletes in Canada in their age group, and some of them maybe even the best in the world in their age group,” explains Kelly. “[The main goal is to] challenge themselves in playing the best and being the best that they can be as individuals and as a team, but really as players just to challenge themselves.”

Another strength the Sting will have in Winnipeg next week aside from their talent, is experience on the national and regional stage for many of their players.

“Half the team competed last year at nationals,” says Kelly. “It was a little bit of a different experience because Alberta hosted. This is a little bit different because it’s on the road. Half the team competed at nationals last year and won bronze, so they know what it takes.”

“The other half of the team were U14’s last year,” added Kelly. “The highest they could achieve was Western Canadian Championships and they were in the Bronze medal game as well, so most of the team knows what it takes to get to that big game at the end.”

Kelly also extends best of luck to all the central Alberta girls playing in the National Ringette League Championship in Winnipeg during the same time next week.

“There’s some athletes from both Lacombe and Red Deer that will be there as well playing in the open division,” explains Kelly. “It really is the top ringette in the world, some of the best players and we’re going to be there cheering on them and obviously they’ll be cheering for us. They’re playing for a team out of Edmonton as there’s no team out of central Alberta at that level for them to play on.”

For more information on the Canadian Ringette Championships, click here.

For more information on the National Ringette League, click here.