A busy weekend for Ringette

The North Bay arena's were full this weekend as the West Ferris Ringette Association hosted the 4th Annual Agnes Jacks Tournament. Thirty-two teams from as far west as
Thunder Bay and as far south as Niagara Falls competed in 8 different divisions.

Additionally, the first Birthplace of Ringette highway sign was unveiled and the National Ringette League came to town, displaying ringette at its highest level.

The Novice Rec division had plenty of excitement in the championship game, which featured the Tim Horton's Red team fron North Bay playing against the team from West Muskoka, which is a brand new ringette association, having only played for the past two years. Tim Hortons established a 2-1 lead on goals by Adwenna Peters and Siobhan Pitz in the first period. It looked like the lead would hold as neither team could find the net in the 2nd period, with goalie Diane Begin of Tim Horton's and her defence doing a great job of stopping the division's top scorer, Akasha Strength.

Unfortunately for North Bay, Strength finally was able to score with just four seconds left to send the game to overtime. In overtime, Strength scored her third goal of the game at :42 seconds into overtime, giving this new association their first ever tournament gold medal.

The Tween Rec division championship involved two local teams, Elks Lodge and TheRedpath Group. The Redpath Group had dominated the round robin but had their hands full with Elks in the final. The two teams were tied 3-3 after 1 period, with goals by Brittany Topham (2) and Aaron McCormick for Elks countered by goals by Teidra Buckley (2) and Sabrina Deshane for The Redpath Group. In the final period, Redpath managed to pull away, as Buckley scored 3 more times and Deshane scored a single while Elks got singles from Topham and Amy Chadwick, giving The Redpath Group the gold medal by a score of 7-5.

The Tween "C" division saw heavy favourite Valley East battle West Ferris for the Sam Jacks Trophy. This trophy was originally donated to West Ferris Ringette in 1971 by Mr. Sam Jacks, the man who invented the game. Valley East had won this championship the previous 2 years and made it 3 in a row by beating the local team 6-1, with the single goal scored for West Ferris scored by Brianne O'Rourke.

The Junior "A" division saw West Ferris against West Ottawa. The teams each scored two first period goals, with Janelle Martin and Courtney Whitwell taking care of the Ferris scoring. Ferris then scored 3 straight goals in the 2nd period, with Martin completing a hat trick and Whitwell getting her second of the game before West Ottawa replied with 1 of their own, bringing the final score to 5-3 for Ferris.

The first AAA Challenge Cup of the season was held at our tournament as well. These teams, comprised of the best players from each of 7 regions across the province, compete at three separate Challenge Cup events and then meet again at the Ontario Winter Games in March to determine the Elite champions for players age 17 and younger. The Northeast team, which has 3 players from North Bay (Alexandra Parker, Brianna Belzile and Amanda Storie), managed to win one game, going 1-5 for the tournament. The championship game was between the Eastern Ontario team and the Central Ontario team. Eastern Ontario is a hotbed of ringette talent and has made a habit of winning Challenge Cups through the years. However, Central Ontario came to play and thanks to great goaltending, defeated Eastern in overtime by a score of 5-4.

Saturday night featured the marquee game of the tournament, a regular season National Ringette League game between the Gloucester Devils and the Richmond Hill Lightning. The West Ferris Arena was packed, with the crowd estimated to be between 400 and 500 spectators. The fans were not disappointed, as both teams came to play as Richmond Hill held on for a 7-6 win over Gloucester.

The other big event this weekend was the unveiling of the first Birthplace of Ringette highway sign. Agnes Jacks, our late Ambassador of Ringette, had dreamed for many years of having signs at the entry points to the city to show pride in our community as the place where ringette began in 1963. Thanks to the work of numerous volunteers led by Karen Cook, the first sign has been built and will be installed soon on Highway 17 East. Bruce Jacks, Agnes son, helped unveil the huge 8' x 12' sign just before the start of the NRL game. The cheering was deafening when Mr. Jacks, assisted by players from both NRL teams, removed the tarp that covered the sign to reveal an anonymous ringette player skating with a ring and the words: "Ringette was invented in North Bay by Sam Jacks in 1963," President Jeff Francom said.

"This reflects Agnes' ideas about the sign, featuring a player as well as text to make the point that all of North Bay should be proud that one of its own citizens was innovative enough to invent a sport that is played internationally. Although we are sad that we could not fulfill Agnes' dream during her lifetime, we are proud that we were able to come up with something that we hope the people of North Bay can view with pride."

Submitted to BayToday.ca