In 2000, the Canadian ringette championships came to Prince George, the smallest city ever to host the event.
In 2008, the best of the west visited the city for the Western Canadian championships.
Following in the success of those two major tournaments and the excitement derived from hosting the ringette tournament in the 2015 Canada Winter Games, there's more high-calibre ringette action coming our way, March 25-28, when 25 teams will gather at the Kin Centre and Rolling Mix Concrete Arena for the 2020 Western Canadian championships.
"I think it's going to be amazing to watch, there are going to be so many teams and so many players from other provinces and I think (the Prince George teams) are going to be competitive," said Jen Erickson, chair of the 2020 Western Canadian tournament.
In 2008, Prince George had host teams in the under-14, under-16 and under-19 divisions and combined they won just one game, when the under-19 Prince George Power, after four losses, hammered their rivals from Kelowna 7-3 in their final game.
This time around there will be three local teams again, but none in the under-16 division.
The Northern Lights under-14 team, a combined squad of players from Prince George, Quesnel and Houston, was the last local team to qualify for Westerns. They finished fifth in the seven-team provincial championship in Coquitlam, which wrapped up Sunday.
Two other Prince George teams, the Prince George Rush (open 18-plus single-A division) and Prince George Storm (under-19 division), will play in the Western Canadian championship.
Players in the U-14 double-A, U-16 single-A and U-19 single-A divisions will take part in a skills competition at Kin 1 and Kin 2 on Wednesday, March 25, following the opening ceremonies at Kin 1, which start at 6:15 p.m.
Each team will play two preliminary-round games, starting on Thursday, March 26, with the top four in each division advancing to the championship-round playoffs. Semifinals, finals and placement games will be played on Saturday, March 28. Games will be played at the three Kin Centre rinks and Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.
A banquet and dance follows Saturday evening at the Prince George Conference and Civic Centre.
For more information go to the tournament website at 2020wcrc.com.
