Red River Rage shine at ringette showcase

The Red River Rage ringette team can do no wrong this season.

The Rage is nearly perfect in the Winnipeg Ringette League at 7-0-1, good for a share of the top spot (SJRA Boom) among all U16 teams in the city. On Wednesday, four of its most skilled players showed exactly why they’re so dangerous, blowing away the competition in the U16 team relay at the Winnipeg Ringette League’s all-star and skills competition at Seven Oaks Arena.

Tianha Christian led the team’s 150-foot relay with a backward sprint before Peyton Robert handled the sharp turns portion, Rayann Englisbee showed off her smooth transitions and Eloise Hiebert anchored with a sprint.

“It was intense. I was like, ‘Don’t want to fall’— that was all going through our minds,” said Robert, 15. “We came here just to have fun and our hard work paid off.”

Added Englisbee, 15: “It means that we have a good, strong team and that because of our hard work at practices and games and everything, it just shows what hard work can actually do to help you out.”

It was the 13th year of the league’s annual all-star competition, which spotlighted 156 of the players from the U14, U16 and U19 divisions. Close to 1,000 family and friends — and even more on the live stream — took in the event, which made its return last year after the pandemic.

One of the event’s organizers, Al Gowriluk, created a skills competition for the U16 players in last year’s competition as a gesture for them having missed the previous two years of all-star events.

“That went over so well that I decided to do something (new) for U16, but I wanted to be different because anyone can say, ‘Do the same.’ So I decided (to) do a team relay just because ringette has been an ultimate team sport,” he said.

There were more than 31,000 registered players across the country in 2018, according to the National Ringette School. Like many sports, the number of participants dropped during the pandemic, but Gowriluk said the numbers are on the upswing again.

“Now, the numbers are vastly improving from year to year to a point where before the pandemic it was the fastest-growing sport in Canada,” he said. “We’re doing good, we’re in good shape.”

The day was capped by two U19 all-star games, which saw some of the best in the province join forces with the frozen ring for a few periods. The U14 skills competition started the day and crowned eight of the best young talent.

McKinley Hedley (Interlake Ignite) and Meka Hogue (Eastman Heat) won the eight-leg goaltender challenge before Jillian Plett (Steinbach Panthers) and Brooklyn Main (BVRA Blaze) won the hardest shot event with top shots of 76 and 87 km/hr, respectively.

Cameron Pethybridge (MacDonald Wildfire) and Zara Kasdorf (Eastman Heat) were the fastest skaters by top speed, reaching 38.1 and 34.4 km/hr, respectively. Meanwhile, Lydia Singh (Interlake Ignite) and Isobel Fulford (BVRA Blaze) were the fastest skaters by time, with runs of 20.87 and 20.34 seconds, respectively.

“It’s pretty incredible, with all these amazing athletes,” said Fulford, 13, in her first all-star competition. “I had to compete against my teammates to even get here so it’s just been a wonderful experience, it was lovely to see everyone.”

The award was a big jump for Fulford, who didn’t qualify for the all-star competition last season after finishing fourth on her team. Now she’s the fastest U14 player in the province, for one year at least.

“I still don’t believe it,” she said, adding her goal was to not come in last. “I think that this is a really great competition and brings everyone together and I get to see wonderful athletes and see people that I haven’t seen in a while from different teams.

“Just really happy to be here.”

jfreysam@freepress.mb.ca

X: @jfreysam