The Annual Manitoba High School Ringette
Tournament By Al Gowriluk
The Manitoba High School Ringette Tournament is in the books, the executive director of the Manitoba Ringette Association( MRA) congratulates Transcona Ringette for hosting a successful high school tournament. Laralie Higginson thanks Kim Fraser and the committee from Transcona. Sixteen teams participated in the tourney( 8 rural and 8 urban). Oak Park won gold, Portage Collegiate captured silver with Lorette took home the bronze. Higginson adds the high school tournament is a tremendous opportunity for athletes to represent their school. As we know, these athletes love to play ringette, they appreciate the fact that their friends who have never played ringette can also participate. The MRA looks forward to our 2017 high school tournament being hosted by the North Winnipeg Ringette Association. We believe there is an opportunity for our high school tournament to become a bigger event in the future, involving more teams.
Portage La Prairie:
Lorette- Bronze Medalists:
High School
Ringette Tournament
As former hosts of this tournament, we knew what to expect and Transcona Ringette did not disappoint. The school, the community and the players love this tournament as they get to play with some players who normally would not be rostered on the same team. This tournament gets everyone, including sisters the opportunity to play together. This is always a greatly anticipated tournament and we are always eager to attend. I just hope the AA tryouts and CanLan tournament does not conflict with next year’ s tournament, says team spokesperson Joy Howden of Lorette Collegiate. As the2017 tournament dates of April 20 – 23 at Seven Oaks have been selected, any perceivable conflict could be easily avoided by CanLan and the MRA.
Oak Park Raiders: Gold Medal Champions
At first, our high school was not on board with the tournament as ringette is not a sanctioned sport in high school. Through our perseverance the high school came around and allowed the players to take part. It was so well received by the players that we had more interest than we could roster and we had try outs. The last time we participated in this tournament was so long ago, that none of our present roster would have been able to take part. It gave the girls a chance to play with old teammates or with those who they have never played with before. Our 2016 roster, 2 players had made the move to high school hockey, so it was nice to see their return, says team spokesperson Michelle Jack.
Jack goes on to say our head coach, Darren Miller was able to coach his daughter’ s, Morgan( grade 12) and Kami( grade 9) in the tournament which he wouldn’ t otherwise been able to do. Morgan Paryinuk also joined our team, who has being playing AA Ringette for a few years now, allowing her to play with girls she started out with. It was a very positive experience for everyone, and we look forward to participating next year when North Winnipeg Ringette will host the tournament at the new Seven Oaks Arena.
16 / sportslife
Back row( L to R): Trish Harrison( manager), Cali Charron, Ashley Seitz, Sydney Southall, Courtney Thiessen, Allison Canvin, Gillian Laninga, Ken Groen( coach) Front row: Maria Marsh-Carilles, Breanna Hildebrandt, Belle Groen, Sammy Groen, Taylor Harrison, Meghan Austen-Blake. Missing: Courtney Kruse, Dana Poulton and Alyssa Olsen.
Tricia Harrison of Oak Park says“ we saw the ads for this tournament many years ago and many players could not wait until they could play. As Oak Park is very proud to consider themselves a sports school, the administration was more than happy to assist in the paper work for us to participate in this tournament. Surprisingly, only 3 of the girls of a roster of 15 had played in the tournament in the past and another 3 have never even played the sport before, but as word spread the excitement grew and it wasn’ t long until the school was