'It's ringette all the way'

Ringette player Lauren Morse is a first-year science student. (Nick Pearce Photo)

C A N A D A   G A M E S

Even though the Town of Windsor in the Annapolis Valley makes a claim to being the birthplace of hockey, hockey’s origins are very much in dispute as a made-in-Canada game. Some even trace the sport’s beginning to ancient Mesopotamia—but then, they may be skating on thin ice.

On the other hand, there’s no arguing the origins of Canada’s other team sport on ice—ringette. First introduced in 1963 in North Bay, Ontario, ringette was developed as an on-ice skating game for girls.

At Dalhousie, the sport has finally got a toe-hold; it was just introduced as a club sport last term and the fledgling team competed in the University Challenge Tournament at the University of Western Ontario, coming in a respectable fourth.

As well, three of Dal’s student-athletes—second-year nursing student Lily Barton, first-year engineering student Krista Vey and first-year science student Lauren Morse—have been named to Nova Scotia’s team for the Canada Games. On the Canada Games program since 1991, ringette will be played during the first week of the games at Cole Harbour Place.

Lily Barton is a second-year nursing student.(Nick Pearce Photo)

“It’s so exciting to be a part of such a big event,” says Lily Barton, 19, who hails from Ottawa, Ont. “It’s an honor to be able to represent this place.”

With its equipment and numbers, ringette may look like hockey on the surface, but the similarities end there. Ringette players tend to compare their sport to lacrosse or basketball—sports where possession is key.

“It’s a possession sport: you have the ring, you keep the ring, you guard the ring,” says Brent Dempsey, coach of Nova Scotia’s Canada Games team, after a recent Sunday afternoon practice at Dalhousie’s Memorial Arena. “It’s actually quite different. I think it has more of a flow to it. It’s fast-paced and a nicer game to watch.”

Teams are comprised of 11 to 17 players, with six skaters on the ice: a goalie, two defense, a centre and two forwards. The object of the game is to score by shooting the ring in the opposing team’s net. And of course, trying hard at the same time to prevent the other team from scoring.

Krista Vey is a first year engineering student. (Nick Pearce Photo)

The key is to gain possession, by getting the ring on your stick while skating at breakneck speeds. “It becomes second nature,” says Ms. Barton with a shrug.

“You just learn how to do it basically because you’ve done it so much,” adds Ms. Vey. The 18-year-old from Sackville, N.S. has been playing ringette since she was five.

The women, who all play on area house league teams, would like to see Dalhousie’s club team strengthened and to share in the ice time at Memorial Rink. But they admit it’s hard to find other university teams in the Maritimes to play against; the sport tends to be more popular in central and western Canada at the university level than here.

It just makes playing at the Canada Games all the sweeter.

“We grew up to love it,” says Ms. Morse, 19, from Berwick, N.S. “For me, it’s ringette all the way.”

Dalhousie is a proud Sapphire Sponsor of the 2011 Canada Games. For more:

• Visit our Canada Games website with links to all Games-related Dal News stories
• Read first-person Games accounts and get Dalhousie results at our blog
• Contribute your Games photos to our Flickr group.