Compared to the Lower Mainland and the Okanagan regions, ringette players are few and far between in the wide-open expanses of northern B.C.
That general rule does not apply for Team B.C., the team which will represent the host province at the 2015 Canada Winter Games.
Four of the 18 players on the Canada Games team are from the north, including forward Sydney Irving of Prince George and three from Quesnel -- goalie Colleen Moorhouse and defencemen Jessica MacDonald and Hannah Young.
This Saturday afternoon at the Coliseum, the province's top team will be in action on the ice. Starting at 3:15 p.m., Team B.C. will be practicing together for the first hour, then will work with the Prince George Heat under-14 double-A team in a skills session. For Irving, the chance to return to her old stomping grounds to show off some of the Games venues with her provincial teammates is a dream come true.
"I think it's a big advantage to have the team here in Prince George before the Games and to play in the arena I've been playing in since I was nine," said Irving, 17, a Grade 12 student at College Heights secondary school.
"Our team is the definition of team. Everybody is 100 per cent behind each other and supports each other on the bench. Our coaches are there for us and give 100 per cent so we give 100 per cent effort. Everybody brings different things to the team and it really makes it a special team to be on."
As part of the northern tour, Team B.C. will also practice in Quesnel Saturday morning and evening and on Sunday morning.
"They're a great group of girls, they have bonded very well," said Team B.C. head coach Cathy Lipsett of Salmon Arm. "We're really excited to come to the city and familiarize ourselves with it and we'd like to give back to the groups coming to see us as much as possible."
Ringette will be one of the featured sports during the first week of the Games. The tournament starts Feb. 14. Lipsett has been to the previous three Canada Winter Games tournaments, the first two as a parent and most recently as an assistant coach for B.C. The team won bronze in 2003 in Bathurst-Campbelton, N.B., was fifth in Whitehorse in 2007 and ended up eighth in 2011 in Halifax.
"We have big expectations to go nothing but higher and watching how well this group is working I think we will meet our expectations to finish much higher," said Lipsett. "There are no great superstars, it's an even-keeled team that has the desire that's second to none and I see great things for them.
"The Games are really exciting, I can't say enough about the enjoyment they will get out of it, to see other sports and the friendships they make. That's a huge part of of it. It's a little bit of pressure being the home team but that's OK, it's all part of the challenge for us."
The B.C. team was picked in May following a year-long selection process. In August they gathered for a six-day camp in Salmon Arm, then went to a tournaments in Edmonton and Winnipeg. B.C. won just one of six games at the seven-team Winnipeg tournament over Thanksgiving, but three of those losses were by one-goal margins to traditional powerhouses from Manitoba (twice) and Ontario.
"Ontario was one of the teams to beat there and we lost 2-1, so we know we can compete with them," said Irving.
They will be in Langley for a tournament Dec. 5-7 and starting in January will gather every second weekend on the Lower Mainland for training sessions leading up to the Games in February.
Most of the players on Team B.C. play on either the Thomson-Okanagan or Lower Mainland. double-A belle (16-18-year-old) teams. Irving, Moorhouse and Young play together for the Kelowna-based team every other weekend against open (adult) division teams.
Ringette has been part of the northern B.C. sports scene since 1985, when the Northern B.C. Ringette League formed. This weekend's 23rd annual Joy Hoffman Memorial tournament includes 22 teams and 290 players. The Prince George Ringette Association has grown from 115 players last season to 159 this year and the sport continues to thrive in its traditional northern hotbeds -- Prince George, Quesnel, Houston and Terrace.
'The north has really worked with their programs and has done a great job at improving and competing in B.C.," said Lipsett. "We don't take the north lightly anymore."
