Steinbach Ringette teams have success in home tournament

Steinbach Panthers Ringette had a very exciting weekend, as they held a tournament at the T.G. Smith Centre from Thursday through to Sunday, January 25th-28th.

They had five Steinbach teams entered in the tournament: one team at the Timbit R4U level, one U10 team, two U12 teams, and one U14 team.  

Steinbach's Timbit R4U team

Kara Fehr, parent coordinator, gives an overview of how the tournament went for Steinbach. 

“There were two games on Thursday in our U-12 loop, that was our biggest loop this year was five teams playing in it, so it was a full round-robin.” 

Then Friday included their U10 and U14 teams.  

Fehr says that all of the playoff games were super close.  

“They were one-point games. It was high intensity, this weekend, about who was going to get to those medal games on Sunday night.” 

The tournament saw four Steinbach teams go for the gold in the three different loops, and three out of the four teams made it to the gold-medal game.  

“Our U10s got gold, one of our U12 teams got silver, and our U14 team got silver. And those silver games were also one-point games, so we were close to taking it all.” 

Fehr says the Steinbach teams have a lot of new players that have joined them in the last two years. 

She says it was great to see the players and family members enjoy the home tournament. 

“This was so exciting for the kids and for the families to experience a weekend like this.” 

They had positive feedback from teams that came from outside of Steinbach as well. There were three teams from outside Steinbach that stayed in the City for the weekend.

“There was one team that only had one game Saturday morning. That's just how the schedule worked out for them. But they took their team out for brunch after their first game, and then they took their team to the Aquatic Center. Some of the coaches stayed back and hung out in the hotel with all the kids and there was a parent dinner. So they were all over town this weekend.” 

They also got to highlight some Steinbach cuisine in their canteen. 

“We brought in stuff from Old Church Bakery and coffee from Hitch + Boler, and did some Bake World buns and muffins, Country Meat & Deli hot dogs, and Santa Lucia Pizza. 

This year they were limited to offer just the four different age groups, but in past years they have had U16, U19, and Oakland Loop. 

Fehr says it would be nice to offer games for more age groups again next year. 

“If we get that double ice space again, we can definitely have a bigger group of ages coming into town, which would be awesome.” 

With files from Dave Anthony