Coaches looking to push ringette programs forward

Capitalizing on a general uptick in the interest in ringette locally, Sudbury and area coaches are looking to move their respective programs another step forward. For starters, the Sudbury Ringette Association will host three provincial "A" teams in 2015-2016 (U12-U14-U16), something which hasn't always been the case over the past decade or so.

With the Sudbury Association very much aligned on a local level with the Valley East Ringette Association and the Walden Ring Devils, it's of little surprise that progress is being made.

"This year is the best year of interest, to date, since we have been involved," noted U14 organizer Tammy Willis, as all three teams gathered for tryouts on Saturday at the Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex.

"The houseleague associations are behind us and are fueling the interest. The girls at the provincial level are bringing that provincial skill set back into houseleague, and everybody is improving as a whole. We're running a good program."

The local groups will need to, in order to remain competitive with areas of the province that still boast significant numbers of young ladies registered in ringette. Where the U12 team will garner an automatic berth into provincials next spring, both the U14 and the U16 groupings must crack the top-14 in the province.

"What we're lacking in our area is the fact that we don't have provincial caliber competition that we can play all season long," said Willis. With that in mind, Sudbury ringette opted to hit the ground running much earlier, rather than wait for the traditional tryout camps in the fall.

"We are going to finalize our roster at the end of May, and schedule to do dryland training and some practices throughout the summer to help these girls, to really bring them together," stated Willis.

Further information for any of the three provincial "A" teams is available by contacting:

U16 - Marta Merla - [email protected]
Lucie Poulin - (705) 855-2484

U14 - Tammy Willis - [email protected]
Melissa Lapalme - (705) 507-0386

U12 - Jackie Glogger - [email protected]
(705) 592-2346