Boys are not allowed to play ringette in Finland and that means three players from the Prince George-based Northern Lights under-16 team will be relegated to cheerleader status next week when they begin a 16-team tournament in Helsinki.
But it's not all bad for the boys - Marinus deDreu, Will deDreu and Austin Campbell. Not only will they get to go on the 10-day trip but they also get to see the world championships of ringette and junior hockey in Finland with their minor ringette teammates.
For Northern Lights centre Darian Campbell, this is the trip of a lifetime. She's one of three overage players on the under-16 regional squad which will also represent the north at the B.C. Winter Games in Penticton in February.
"I'm so excited, we've been fundraising for this for about a year, everything is like a dream come true -- ringette is huge in Finland," said Campbell, 16, who started playing ringette when she was three. "We've all played together for a long time and I think that will help a lot because we all know each other so well and how we play and we know where to go to. I think we have a real good chance of bringing back a medal.
Six of the girls who skate for the Northern Lights -- goalie Tashina (Jake) Wilmot, Campbell, Savanna Roy, Abby Lank, Emma Scully and Jenna Gray -- are from Prince George. Four are from Quesnel -- Sammire Skinner, Jaden Musselman, Emily Mackay and Sarah Milligan -- three are from Terrace -- goalie Jessica Dahl, Cassidy Pavao and Sarah McCloud -- and one -- Sonja Reimers -- is from Port Coquitlam. Three players from Finland will join the team for the tournament.
Lending their support on the bench will be coaches Keith Sullivan, Lee Ongman, and Jan Musselman, team manager Georgina Scully and water girl Myia Bruder.
The Northern Lights start with an exhibition game in Stockholm, Sweden Dec. 29 against Mississauga, Ont. Their tournament, which also includes three teams from Kelowna, runs Jan. 1-2.
"The competition will be hard but we'll just try our best," said 14-year-old forward Roy, a four-year ringette veteran. "It would be cool if we could win a medal."
The Northern Lights will be sporting brand-new jerseys paid for by West Fraser Sawmill of Quesnel and hoodies from Up the Creek Garment Company.
The timing and location of the event couldn't be better for the northern B.C. contingent. The world ringette championship is played once every three years and Canada is one of the world powers in the sport. A team from North Bay, Ont., where the sport was invented in 1963, lost to Finland in two straight games in the 2013-14 final in North Bay -- the fourth straight world title for the Finnish national team. This year tournament starts Dec. 27 and runs through Jan. 4.
Most of the Northern Lights will get to see Canada play Sweden in the world junior hockey tournament, as well as the semifinals. Some will get to see the bronze medal game and the final. Tickets for the final are about $60, a fraction of the cost last year when it was played in Toronto.
"The package included two games and a whole bunch of us decided to stay and we'll get to see the quarters, the semis and the final," said Sullivan. "That was a big selling feature, especially for the dads."
Sullivan went to Finland 25 years ago to help coach an under-16 Chetwynd team which included three Prince George players -- his daughter Cindy, Celynne Merritt and Terry Hamel -- and they played in the Finnish Winter Games in Kajaani in March 1991. The team lost its first game and went undefeated the rest of the way. One of their games was played outdoors in minus-20 C conditions.
"It was quite an experience for them, at that time Finland had only five indoor rinks," said Sullivan.
Sullivan wants his players to learn a few conversational phrases in Finnish before they leave Canada on Sunday. His 13-year-old granddaughter Lank is the youngest player on this year's team.
"She's never been on an airplane, let alone on a trip like this, so she's pretty nervous and excited," said Sullivan. "It's pretty hard to turn down an opportunity like this.
"We haven't had any practices together but most of these kids, except for (Reimers), have played for me before on the U-14 double-As so they know me and I know them."
