Ringette team ranked No. 1 in Ontario
The first time the U14 AA Waterloo Wildfire were all together in the dressing room it was dead quiet. It was a new season, the first year with a new coaching staff, a new age level for many of the players — no one was quite sure what to expect.
These days, the Wildfire are rarely quiet. The 2016-17 season has given the team of 12- and 13year-old ringette players plenty to cheer about — and they still have a few things left to conquer.
The Wildfire have only lost three games all year — none in league play, where they’ve won all their games but for one tie — on their way to winning gold at three tournaments and silver at another. The team took top spot at a tournament in Guelph earlier this month, earning the No. 1 ranking in Ontario in the process.
“Our team has so much depth,” said Wildfire head coach Melanie Norris. “We don’t rely on one or two top scorers, we have anyone that can make it onto the game sheet on any given day.”
Norris is in her first year as the team’s head coach, however the majority of the players on the team have played together for the past few seasons at younger levels. Norris says the players felt a bit of trepidation about getting used to a new coaching staff before the season started, but that quickly went away.
“They’re extremely tight-knit as a group,” said Norris, who has played ringette for 33 years and still plays on the Waterloo Wildfire 18-plus AA team.
“Our coaching staff all still plays or has played ringette and I’m the only mom, the other coaches are all younger, so I think that’s really helped with bonding. They all always have each other’s backs.
“For 16 girls to get along so well for eight months of the year, spending as much time together as they do, it’s pretty impressive.”
The team was picked last spring and spent the summer doing bonding exercises. Since the season start in the fall, the young players have kept up a busy schedule that usually includes two games, two practices and a twohour off-ice workout per week.
And all that hard work has clearly paid off. On top of dominating their league — which features teams from Cambridge, Guelph, London, Richmond Hill and Whitby — the Wildfire have won tournaments in Nepean, Mississauga and Guelph, all of which included teams from around Ontario.
Norris says London has been their biggest rival in league play, handing the Wildfire their lone non-win of the regular season, but overall, West Ottawa has given them the toughest time.
The Wildfire beat West Ottawa in the final of the Nepean tourney in December. At the Mississauga tournament, the teams met twice with West Ottawa winning a round-robin match up and Waterloo winning the rematch in the finals. At a tournament in Ajax, the roles were reversed with the Wildfire taking the round-robin game and then dropping the goldmedal contest to West Ottawa.
The Wildfire may end up facing their rivals from Ottawa again next month when they travel back to Nepean for the provincial championships March 9-12. The winner of that tournament earns the right to represent Team Ontario at the Eastern Canada Championships in April.
The runner-up will still go to the Eastern Canada Championships, but as their club team.
“We don’t take anything for granted and we really want to keep the girls humble,” said Norris of the team’s mindset heading into provincials. “We’re working them hard in practice, we’re skating them hard so they’re in shape.”
The U14 AA Wildfire are: Kyla Baumann, Rachel Bettke, Jamison Beuermann, Maddy Camm, Sara DeLaFranier, Kate Ferguson, Mollie Foy, Megan Heaney, Brianna Jacobi, Chloe Januszkiewicz, Brooklyn Norris, Avery Riley-McKay, Julia Roy, Erin Spence, Brooke Wasylyshyn, Tessa Williams. Head coach: Melanie Norris. Assistant coaches: Becky Branton, Emily Ferguson, Melissa Ryan, Shawnee Ryan.