Friend; a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard; a person
who gives assistance; supporter; a person who is on good terms with another.
I met the best friends at the rink, playing ringette. Your teammates become your friends,
become your sisters. It doesn’t matter who you are, what you’ve done, how long you’ve
been playing, you’re all at the rink to play ringette and that’s what keeps us together.
Your team. Scratch that, your family, supports you no matter what.
Ringette isn’t just a sport. You go to skate and to play the game but you do so much more.
Your problems become your team’s problems. Everyone cares about everyone.
If you do something funny or make a silly mistake, you laugh about it together and then
put it behind you. Because what matters is the next shift, the next period, even the next
game. That’s what you look forward to. The next time you get to have before and after
game chats in the dressing room. Discussions about things that have happened over the
past few days, we tell each other everything.
You see, ringette is always compared to hockey or other sports but I honestly don’t think
there’s a way that ANY other sport could compare to it. Ringette is comfort. It’s
belonging, and EVERYONE belongs.
It’s all for one and one for all. You get through the good and the bad as a team because,
just like the coaches say, “you’re only as strong as your weakest link” and that is so true
because if anyone, any one person on your team is upset or has something going on, it
affects everyone.
Ringette might seem competitive and like everybody hates each other on the ice but after
every single game, each team goes and hugs their goalie, cheers for the other team and
then they shake hands to congratulate each other. Every time I do it, I mean it.
Whether we win or lose, everyone stays positive. The coaches treat everyone as equals
and they never make anyone feel less important on the team.
I play ringette and I dance but I’d honestly give up dancing in a heartbeat if it meant I
could play ringette forever. And I can! Ringette is forever and my ringette family is
forever and NO ONE can take that away.
One day, my team joined up with a bunnies team to help them improve their skating and
teach them about ringette and even at that age they were all working together and helping
each other out. Ringette is about making friends and no one can say they don’t want that.
Our differences make us equal, our weaknesses make us stronger and our flaws are what
bring us closer, what make us a family. Ringette is happiness and I don’t know another
word to describe how it makes people feel.
Cassandra Smith
Saskatoon Maniacs
U16B