Down By The Road, By The Old Cemetary...

...that's where the other team will be buried!
V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!
Victory! Victory! Is our cry!

Today, I relived twelve years of my life in just under sixteen minutes. And it was fabulous. What on earth am I talking (and cheering) about? Ringette. The grand sister game to hockey, except you have a rubber ring instead of a puck and a straight stick (no blade).

We went to Saskatoon today to watch my brothers play hockey. They were playing at a rink that has two ice areas (in two separate buildings but they are connected). As we were pulling up to the building, there was a large sign announcing the Western Championship Ringette Finals were happening in S'toon from March 25-28th. When we got into the first building, there was a game going on, but we couldn't stop and watch since the boys' game had already started in the other rink. When their game was over, I bee-lined it back to the first rink to watch as much of the ringette game as I could before we had to leave for supper.

I ended up watching the last sixteen minutes of a Belle 'A' (16-18 year olds) gold medal final between Alberta and Saskatchewan. When I walked in, the game was tied 4-4. I stood behind Saskatchewan's net and found it was a good place to stand - because Alberta hammered out four more goals in the final minutes to secure the gold medal win. With each goal that was scored, with each roar from the crowd, with each pass-by that a player made in front of me, more and more ringette memories came flooding back to me:

The feelings.
The intensity.
The adrenaline.
The comraderie.
The high from winning a well-fought game.
The agony of losing by a single goal.
The deal making with God to "just let us win this game".
The thumping music in the dressing room before a game.
Standing next to the ice, in your equipment (sans helmet), feeling like a warrior gearing up for battle.
The post-game slushes.
The over-night away tournaments.
The well-deserved penalties.
The yelling at the ref after he/she dealt an unfair call.
The little cheers the entire team would chant from the bench (like the one above).
The feeling of freshly sharpened skates cutting into freshly cleaned ice.
The perfectly timed wrist shot that found the top corner of the net.
The anger at your teammate for missing "an easy pass".
The pride when that same teammate later scored the winning goal.
The hatred for the other team and their star player.
The sneaky elbows thrown when the ref wasn't looking.
The accepting of medals.
The time I threatened to punch a referee and got a four game suspension.
The time I kicked a girl in the stomach with my skates on and got an eight game suspension.

Okay, so those last two aren't memories for all ringette players, but they are memories for me. I was a bit of a how-shall-I-put-this-delicately? bitch on ice. When I got mad, I got m-a-d. I spent more time on the bench in the penalty box than I did on my own bench. If you got more than eight minutes in penalties, you were done playing that particular game. I was lucky if I made it to the second period before being kicked out. The coaches finally just tied the dressing room key to my wrist so that I wouldn't have to skate back to the bench to get it.

I spent twelve years of my life on the ice. I loved every minute of it and I wouldn't trade those years and those wondrerful memories for all the oil in Arabia.

You can click on the pictures to enlarge them.

1989-1990 Gotta love the permed bang/long straight hair combo!




















1991-1992 How did a helmet even fit over those giant glasses?



















1992-1993 What time is it? TACO TIME! (I still yell that whenever we eat tacos for supper).



















1994-1995 Accepting a silver medal at provincials in Saskatoon















1997-1998 In the penalty box. I finally put a water bottle in there for myself.












This was by far the best year of ringette...fantastic memories with this group of ladies!














I was a self-proclaimed captain this year (showed up one practice with the 'C' on my jersey)...and I was the girl who was least capable of rationally talking to the refs!