By Jordan Bay

Ringette tournament a key scouting tool for Team Canada

Feb 23, 2019 | 8:07 AM

The ringette tournament at the 2019 Canada Winter Games had no shortage of memorable moments, and was a stand-out event in first week of competition.

Teams had an exhausting week of play with first battling battling in the group stage, followed by the qualification round, then the playoff round. Most games took place in the Collicutt Centre, where the atmosphere was as good as any at the Games.

As the final four teams (Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, and B.C) played for medals on Friday, Lorrie Horne, Head Coach for Canada’s Junior National Ringette Team was in the crowd scouting and looking for talent to help the national team.

“The biggest thing we look at is their level of compete,” she explained. “Not just technically and tactically, but physical abilities to compete head-to-head one-on-one, as well as play their system play throughout the tournament.”

With the World Ringette Championships coming to Burnaby, B.C. later this year, Ringette Canada is looking to build off back to back golds, and the 2019 Games tournament in Red Deer is a great place for them to pluck talent from.

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“It’s our full intent to continue building a program of excellence, and certainly putting the best team on the ice that’s absolutely possible. I always talk about this being our nation’s team, I firmly believe that, and for us to have a successful showing, a gold medal showing in Burnaby, that’s why we go.”

Phyllis Sadoway, a former ringette coach for over 30 years, says this tournament is introducing tons of people to the sport of ringette, and creating fans for life.

“There have been a lot of volunteers here, and they haven’t been introduced to ringette before. We’ve had a lady from Scotland, somebody from Denmark, somebody form Brazil, and they’re all involved in and loving the game. It’s so exciting to see them appreciate a new sport for them, and the game is so fast and so fun that I’m sure anybody who comes will walk away and saw ‘wow.’”

She added, “All the games have been amazing games, and the play has been exceptional, I think, everybody is working so hard and the speed of the game is so fun to watch, it’s just been an incredible experience.”

Horne also felt that this Winter Games has seen one of them most competitive ringette tournaments to date.

“I think when I look back to the 2011, 2015 Canada Games, this is probably the healthiest crop of athletes that we’ve seen so the depth of the pool here is quite exceptional.”

On the ice Friday at the Downtown (Servus) Arena, Quebec won the gold medal with a 4-3 double overtime win over Ontario. Manitoba took bronze with a 6-4 win over B.C.