Breaking the ice for a new ringette season in Burnaby

Burnaby, B.C. – For more than 27 years, the Burnaby New Westminster Ringette Association’s November IceBreaker Tournament has marked the official start to the sport’s season in the Lower Mainland.

This year, 60 teams from around the region, Kelowna, Victoria and Comox competed in eight divisions from U10 to Masters.  With 900 players and coaches and 126 games over four days at five venues in Burnaby and New Westminster, this tournament is a big undertaking for a volunteer-based association. “It gets the season started,” says Larry LeBlanc, tournament director. “It’s a year-long exercise with volunteer committees for all aspects of the tournament. It’s a very large effort on many fronts.”

With the two-rink tournament headquarters at the new Rosemary Brown Recreation Centre in south Burnaby, the tournament games also took place at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre, Kensington Arena, Moody Park Arena and Queens Park Arena.

According to Ringette Canada, ringette has been dubbed the fastest sport on ice. Created in 1963 in Canada, the main objective of ringette is to use a stick to hit a ring into the opposing team’s goal.

Burnaby’s Michael Choi has been a long-time member of the local ringette association – as a coach, volunteer and father of two daughters in the sport.  “Ringette has been viewed as the lesser cousin to hockey,” he says.  “But nothing could be farther from the truth. Ringette is a fantastic sport and is the ultimate team sport.  We advertise our sport as the fastest on the ice and it is!”  As for the ringette parents in the stands during the games, Choi says they are “maybe a touch more mellow and laid back, but we cheer just as much,” as hockey parents.  After being involved for so many years in the sport, he says the ringette players and their parents have become like a second family.

“I like ringette, because it’s very team oriented,” says Gillian Choi, Michael’s daughter. This is her 12th year in the sport. “You get to build connections and bond with people outside of school.” And she agrees with the fastest sport on ice moniker for ringette. “It’s a quick pace.”

Michael Choi encourages anyone interested in the sport to contact the association about its Come Try Ringette sessions.

For more information, visit the Burnaby New West Ringette website.

Story and photos by Sam Corea

Group photo courtesy of BNWRA