Ringette on the rise

Citizen, Extra-Minor Sports, September 29, 2001 by Ted Clarke, Citizen staff

A year-and-a-half has passed since the Prince George Ringette Association hosted the 2000 Canadian Championships and the aftergrow shows no signs of wearing off.
The high-profile event held in April 2000 brought national attention to what had been a somewhat obscure sport in the Spruce City and the result was a flood of new young players joined up the following season.
With the new season starting with practices next week, it seems that trend is continuing. The PGRA had 130 players last season and at 135 and counting, has already surpassed last year’s figure.
"We’re up just a little bit and we’re happy with that," said PGRA president Brian Crandell.
"Probably the most encouraging thing is the petite division (10 and 11-years olds). We’re up to 32 players so that will give us three teams for the first time. We’ve never had enough for three teams in one division."
Crandell said there will be at least two teams in each of the bunny (7 and under), novice (9 and under), and tween (13 and under) divisions.
"We’re strong with the tweens, we easily have enough for two teams but we’re really short in the juniors and belles program," Crandell said.
"We’ll probably have to combine the juniors and belles and they’ll have to play in the older (belles) division."
Traditionally, the older players don’t usually sign up until after the two-week power skating sessions that ended Thursday night.
"They kind of get tired of it because they start when they’re young but it’s a good way to come out and get in shape for the season," said tween coach and former PGRA president Bill Engler.
"It’s a bit of a concern that we don’t have many older ones but once the season starts they seem to come out of the woodwork."
The Prince George Women’s Hockey League has been gathering strength the past few seasons and Crandell said there’s been a push to recruit older ringette players into hockey.
"Quite a few of them have gone over to hockey," Crandell said. "We are picking up a few older ones but some of the older girls are sort of dropping out and it’s been a bit of a struggle. We also get a lot of pressure from the schools that won’t allow their athletes to take any extracurricular activities if they’re on the basketball or volleyball team. It does create a problem."
Not surprisingly, the PGRA has been focussing on developing its younger athletes. A number of Prince George players attended a development camp in Quesnel two weekends ago sponsored by the B.C. Ringette Association.

It was mainly for the petites and tweens," Crandell said.
Engler said playing host to the national tournament provided a much-needed boost in public awareness of ringette.
"People you talk to now actually realize it’s a game played on ice for girls," Engler said. ((Before the national tournament) people didn’t have clue what it was."
The PGRA received the association-of-the-year award in May at the B.C. Ringette Association’s annual general meeting, a result of its successful national tournament and its coinciding rise in player registration.
"The nationals had very good exposure and there were a lot of younger kids who had never seen ringette and I believe that has encouraged them to join," Crandell said.
The PGRA hosts its annual Joy Hoffman Memorial Tournament, Nov.9-11 at the Kin Centre. Teams from Terrace and Quesnel will take part of that. The season gets under way Oct. 19-21 when Terrace hosts its tournament and Quesnel will follow suit in Jan. 4-6.
"We don’t really do a lot of travelling because of the expense," Crandell said. "Between us and Quesnel we play each other a lot."
The increase in players in the petite division has created a need for another coach and Crandell says there are coaching openings on at least three other teams. For more information call PGRA coaching director Keith Sullivan at 562-4224.