You play other school sports and would love to play for your high school Ringette team. How would you go about doing that?

1 - First thing is, you need to find other athletes willing to be on a ringette team, whether they are on a community based ringette team now or would like to learn - but they must attend the same school as you do. What about starting pick- up ringette or intramural games using gym ringette? That would help establish the interest in the school.

Remember, in the world of games, ringette is still a new sport. You may have to teach some people why you love this game. The more students you can interest, the better chance of getting a School Team going. It takes one step at a time. And it doesn’t matter if you have grade 9’s right through to grade 12. Or even if you have AA right through to C level. A high school team will eventually get seeded.

In the beginning, accept all players, and all skaters. If they are willing to learn, be willing to teach. Start small such as with Shinny Ringette intramural games. From there, consider a school sport to play against other schools.

2 - Approach a member of the school, such as a teacher you know well. See if they will help.

3 - What about other local schools in your area - contact other athletes and encourage them to get started at their school too.

4 - The Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA)- www.offsaa.on.ca is the sports governing body. Check it out.

5 - Each of the areas of this Province has a Representative that would help you tremendously in your quest to get a team going. Find out who your rep is in your area by e mailing: .You may also find this information through the OFSAA web site.

6 - Use that same e mail address: to ask for information on how to start a ringette high school sport. There are regulations. Don’t be put off by them.

7 - OFSAA has eligibility requirements, and application forms to be completed in order to form school teams. All the school teams have gone through these steps. You need to find out these steps and having a teacher or staff member from the school and the area OFSAA representative help you complete them.

8 - Don’t get discouraged when you have read through all these steps. Western Region had high school ringette for 11 years. But to continue as a high school sport, Ringette needs to get sanctioned. And to get sanctioned, Ringette needs you. We need to have teams round the Province - not just in Western Region. Play shinny ringette, intramural ringette, gym ringette and if the registration numbers are there, the next step would be looking into establishing a High School Ringette team. Then maybe a league, then maybe a tournament, then a Provincial High School Festival and then once sanctioning is achieved, a Provincial High School Ringette Championship Tournament.

9 - Once you have made some progress, let us know - Athlete Development ORA. We will post your progress on the ORA web page. Whatever helpful tips you may have could help out another school get started too. Spread the word!

Are you moving away from home and want to play Ringette?

Click on this link to bring you to all the contacts for University Ringette Teams!

With the amount of University and Varsity Ringette teams doubling in the last 2 years, more and more girls leaving for or at various Canadian Universities are looking to start teams at their institutions. This article is for those who wish to take on this demanding and sometimes daunting task. But remember, the rewards are ones that will last for years to come, and allow for opportunities that have never been available before. So, if you're ready to take this bull by its horns, then follow along and take some serious notes.

Varsity level Ringette will be supported at a club or recreation level, and not at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (C.I.S.) level. The difference here is funding. The volleyball team at your school who gets everything paid for by major sponsors and travels all over the place is a C.I.S. team. Even though you will gain support from your institution, do not expect this kind of attention. If you'd like to know more about C.I.S. level athletics, please visit http://www.universitysport.ca. Club level athletics are not administratively, but student supported.

If you want to start a team, YOU have to be willing to do the work. Understand that this isn't something that's going to happen on its own, or something mom and dad will be able to savage. You need to make the dedication and honor it, understanding that as a student your interests are those taken to heart by your institution and surrounding community, not those of your parents or your coach.

My first suggestion would be to find your local regional athlete representative, and make them aware of your intentions so that you can network some connections that may be useful down the road. Collect these names and don't be afraid to use them. These people are more likely then not to be VERY happy to hear from you, and willing to provide you with whatever information you may be looking for. Remember, don't call people expecting them to give things to you, or do things for you; varsity level athletics don't come on a silver platter. The brunt of the work needs to be done by yourself in order for your plans to succeed.

Once you've made these fundamental connections, you now need to go about getting information from your institution to proceed with the application process. Given the fact that YOU will be approaching your school's representative (ahem, and not you parent or coach) you will be very well received. Since this is a student based team, it needs to be student established. By talking to your schools Sports Club Coordinator / Recreation Manager / Intramurals Coordinator, you will get an idea of what is required in terms of time, interest and work involved.

Time: If you're approaching your representative at the beginning of the academic year, don't expect to have a team up and running by October. Unfortunately, because of financial restrictions and budgeting requirements, most post-secondary institutions budget their athletic programs almost a full year in advance. Therefore, use the current academic year to inform yourself on the application process to apply for the following year.

Interest: This one year of time to conduct your research can also be useful to demonstrate interest on you campus for a Ringette team. I can guarantee you that any application process will ask you to prove that Ringette belongs on your campus. How? There are two ways to do this. You can have people sign an interest list, and gather names and contacts from them, building your new community. Another, more feasible and effective way would be to purchase a semesters worth of ice on your campus, once a week, and run shinny Ringette sessions where people can sign up, or just pay each time they play.

Work: Talk to the ice Reservations Officer, and try to make an agreement with him that he will hold the ice for you until you collect the money from interested parties. Call a referee in the region, and ask them to come out once a week. Invite all community, not just students. This can pass the word around seeing as some external community members may know students attending your institution and be able to transmit the message. Put up posters in local arenas, community centers, your campus, and residences. Charge only for necessary expenses and make the registration price as low as you possibly can. Cut costs by asking participants to bring both light and dark colored jerseys to make teams.

Don't forget that while all this is going on, you need to be working on those applications to have them in on time. There will be things in the budget you may not know, like local league, region and provincial information, insurance information, etc. Use the contacts you made through your athlete representative, you will now realize how indispensable they are. Form a committee, a type of support group that you can call meetings with to get things done. Take it to heart that you are only as effective as the people you surround yourself by.

Include your participation numbers and statistics from your shinny Ringette sessions in your application process, and present this too to the appropriate parties. By proving you have the numbers, they cannot deny there is no interest within the community. Contact Ringette Canada and ask for a Ringette information package that can be included with the application, demonstrating the national presence of our sport. Now, hand it all in.

In the main time, don't give up on the shinny Ringette. Continue to have meetings, and find more potential players and a potential coach and manager. By pursuing the formation of your team, you will be ready when your applications are approved, and ready to tackle the next task of having a real team.

As you can see, the work involved can be intimidating but the rewards can be monumental. Not only will you now have somewhere to play Ringette and wear your school name while doing so, but you've gained an incredibly important and valuable life experience that looks tremendous on any résumé.

So leaving home doesn't mean giving it all up anymore; by being a part of your experience you can enrich it. And hey, we don't declare 'Ringette For Life!' for nothing.

The University Challenge Cup (UCC) is held annually during the first weekend in January. Visit www.canadianuniversityringette.ca for the latest UCC information

1 - The Director of Recreation or it may be under Campus Recreation or the Director of Sports Clubs. The Athlete Director is not the person to call as they only deal with varsity university sports and Ringette is not a varsity as yet. We need more universities to be involved.

2 - What opportunities are there for development? - Shinny ringette, Intramurals, University Ringette( more on University ringette below)

3 - To get the word around - Talk with the Student Association, your Student Newspaper, your Student Affairs department, your Student Activities Department, your Residence Life/Affairs /Activities people.

4 - Search for other players who may also be interested - place an item on your schools web site, as all the students see the University's intranet.

5 - Selling points for a Sports Club status - " we want you to join our club", "looking for friends", "do you enjoy a workout", want to learn a new sport?", what to play a female sport?",

6 - "If you join us, you are one of us."

7 - Check back with the ORA web site - as we update it as information is available. Your Athlete Development reps are listed for you on the ORA site as a resource. Stay in touch with them too.