Burlington Blast is on the road to Regina

As the regular season winds down for ringette, the Burlington U16 AA team is set to blast onto the national stage.

The 15-member squad, which is coached by Brett Richardson and managed by Andy MacLeod, finished regular season play with 30 points, which placed them second behind London, with 38 points. 

Burlington then made it to the final in the provincial championship tournament in Kitchener at the beginning of March. After ending the third period — ringette has four of them —  in a 5-5 tie against Ajax Power, their opponent stormed back to score three more in the final frame to take the cup, 8-5.

“They outplayed us,” said Richardson of the loss, which came after playing eight games in four days. “We ran out of energy.”

The second-place finish was enough to qualify the Blast for a berth in the Canadian Ringette Championships, which take place April 9-15 in Regina. It’s the first time in the local organization’s 30-year history that a AA team has made it to nationals, noted Richardson.

During the week-long event, they will be facing off against 19 teams from across the country, with every province (except Newfoundland) sending at least one team.

“Alberta is the powerhouse right now, they’re sending five teams,” said Richardson.

In addition to training for nationals, the Blast has a lot going on. During a recent volunteer night at Food for Life, the U16AA players showed no signs of slowing down as they helped unpackage and sort items at the food rescue organization’s facility on Mountainside Drive. 

Fundraising events

As well, they are busy fundraising to help cover costs associated with their trip.

“The event itself is a formal opening ceremony, closing ceremony and a skills competition on Sunday,” explained MacLeod.

While the team is looking to local businesses for sponsorships to help with the cost of hotels and meals, the public can support them through a variety of initiatives.

This Saturday (March 25) the team is hosting a clothing drive in partnership with the KIdney Foundation. The players will be collecting donations in the parking lot at Mainway Arena from 2-5 p.m. Donors can drop off gently used clothing, and the team will receive a portion of the proceeds.

As well, the Blast is currently selling MacGregors Meat and Seafood products. Items can be ordered until March 27. 

Finally, the team has created a GoFundMe page to raise $4,000 to cover the cost of registration fees, ice time and banquet fees. At last check, they had received more than $3,000. 

Come Try Ringette

Once they return from Regina, the U16AA  athletes will be volunteering at the Ringette Association’s spring Come Try Ringette session, which aims to create awareness and recruit young players.

“Anybody in the community can come,” said MacLeod, noting his daughter Isla discovered the sport at a Come Try session set up at a local event. “She started in U9; she’s one of (U16AA’s) two goalies.”

The Come Try Ringette event takes place April 22 at Appleby Ice Centre’s Rink 2, from 10 a.m. to noon. The association will provide equipment (except for skates) and there will be coffee for the parents and pizza and snacks for the players. Those who are interested are asked to register online to ensure there are enough volunteers on hand.

While ringette was originally created as a sport for girls, everyone is welcome to give it a try. 

“It came out as a girls’ sport but everything is changing,” said Richardson. "It’s open to all genders but it is still predominantly female. At the younger age you have quite a few boys, and then when the boys hit 10, they want to go play hockey.

“I would put this group of athletes against any hockey team their age — maybe not with a puck, but for skating,” he added.