#WeAreRingette - Ringette is FAMILY

We live in Ottawa and are part of the MDRA ringette association. We have 2 girls who play the sport, our U14 daughter started playing the sport later at the U12 age and our younger one started at the Fundamentals 3 program during COVID and is now U12. 

 

 

When our older one started, there were no coaches for her level so both my husband and I jumped in and started taking our courses so we could coach. 3 years later we’re still both coaching, we’ve studied the game for 3 years now and improve our coaching skills and abilities right alongside of our daughters skills. We love coaching, it’s incredible to watch the girls grow and mature and learn what we’re teaching. 

 

 

Part 2 of our story - I am from New Brunswick and my best childhood friend also lives here in Ottawa and she has 2 girls who play ringette in Nepean, her girls are the same ages as my girls. While we’ve never lost touch and always kept our friendship growing, ringette has brought us together again and in a great way. Our girls have played against each other, on the same team as each other and I’ve had the privilege of coaching one of her girls….we’re not from Ottawa, we never played ringette growing up and yet here we are both playing as adults, and knee deep in our girls ringette career alongside our husbands. Between 2 families we have 6 people (moms and daughters) playing the sport and 2 coaches. She has been a huge supporter and ambassador for the sport and getting our girls into it, together we can laugh, cry, sweat and so much more together. 

 

This past spring, our girls all played on spring ringette teams and there was a good chance that both teams were going to fold until both Charlene and I got to work at recruiting people and between our connections and associations we were able to put together a U14 team made of 4 different associations and a U10 team with 2 different associations. We’re very proud of the fact that by doing this we were able to expand our girls experience as well as now knowing girls all over the city from different associations. At their ages, it’s amazing to know they have met people and friends that will continually pop in and out of our lives in the ringette world and every other sport these girls all love playing. 

 

It’s been amazing to reunite within this world and watch our girls grow and get to know each other 30 years later and we’re not slowing down anytime soon.