About Us
History & Information about Drayon Valley Ringette Association....
The sport of ringette was brought to Drayton Valley by Lorraine Polei in January of 1990. Her family had just moved to Drayton Valley from Edson where her girls played & they wanted to continue .
Drayton Valley had never heard of ringette when she approached the Recreation Director and Ice Co-ordinator. She attended an ice meeting in February 1990 and that was the start of establishing a new league for Zone 5.
Drayton Valley had its first team the 1990-91 season with 21 players ranging in age from 7-14, playing at a Petite level. The first annual Friendship Tournament, a one day event from 7am-7pm, was held November 16th, 1991.
50 Years of Ringette...
Ringette is a Canadian sport game which was first introduced in 1963 in North Bay, Ontario by Sam Jacks, who worked at the Department of Parks and Recreation. The first ever ringette game was played in Espanola, Ontario in the winter of 1963-1964. Developed originally for girls, ringette is a fast-paced team sport played on a hockey rink in which players use a straight stick to pass, carry, and shoot a rubber ring to score goals. Jacks‘ invention of ringette was one of four sports featured on the Canadian Inventions: Sports series to be issued by Canada Post stamps on August 10, 2009.
Each year, Jacks‘ wife, Agnes, continued to be a strong supporter of the sport, attending Provincial Championships in many of the Provinces and, of course, the Canadian Ringette Championships each April until she died in April 2005. The Sam Jacks Trophy is awarded to the World Champions. The trophy currently resides with Finland.
Understanding Ringette ....
Ringette has some very distinct differences to other ice sports. In fact, while it looks a bit like hockey, it more closely resembles lacrosse or basketball in terms of its offensive and defensive play.
- Ringette uses a rubber ring and sticks with specially designed tips. The objective is to score on the opponent by shooting the ring into their net.
- There are two periods of 15 - 20 minutes depending on the age of the players. Most games last approximately 1 hour. The pace is very fast therefore players get lots of ice time in this hour.
- Teams consist of between 7-18 players. 6 players from each team are allowed on the ice at one time; 1 goalie (regular hockey goalie stick); 2 defence; 2 forwards; and 1 centre.
- The players wear full protective equipment like hockey players but ringette uses a unique stick and face mask. Ringette players wear jerseys but wear long pants instead of short pants and socks like hockey players do. The goalie uses regular goalie equipment but in ringette some goalies use a unique catching glove.
- Intentional body contact is not permitted.
- Ringette uses the 2 blue lines but not the centre line. It also uses 2 additional free play lines which create zones unique to ringette.
- Unlike hockey, the ring must be passed across the blue lines. This encourages passing and team play, enhancing the flow of the game and making it very fast.
- The game is kept fast moving and wide open as only three players from each team may enter the offensive or defensive zone at a time. There is lots of room to move which creates many scoring chances.
- Like basketball and lacrosse, in most divisions of Ringette, there is a shot clock that forces the teams to shoot quickly which also keeps the game moving quickly
