A ringette team will be coming to Vita beginning next season and the community is invited to watch a ringette game tomorrow night. 

Darcia Barnabe has skated at the Vita arena her entire life, but as a figure skater, not a ringette player. Barnabe saw a need for more activities for youth in community, especially as she watches her daughter Luca, get older and want to participate in things. "I just saw so many girls her age, and I just thought wow, they'd have so much fun on a team together."

Vita had started the process of creating a ringette team in 2020, but that was shelved due to the pandemic and was never revived.  

Ringette started slowly this year, with approximately 12 girls from the area participating in some introduction sessions led by Emilie Roy, an instructor Ringette Manitoba.  "We'd never really heard of the game before, nobody had ever played it before, the rules are so different from what we know of, so we really enjoyed learning and spending time with Emilie."

Why did Barnabe reach out to Eastman Ringette and start the process of a team? "I just felt like there needed to be a bit more options available. Because not everybody is interested in the same things, and I just thought if we had more choices for children, that would be a good thing."

So, the girls in the community are now taking what they've learned and will be participating in the Eastman Ringette league in the upcoming 2024-2025 season. And to encourage more involvement, two of their teams will be playing in Vita on Wednesday night.

The Eastman U16A Heat team will be playing the Eastman U14AA Flames team at 7pm providing an opportunity for members of the community to watch a ringette game in action and learn a little more about the sport. Both of these teams are headed to Western Canada Championships later on this month representing the province of Manitoba in their respective divisions. 

Those girls that participated in the intro ringette sessions will be able to join the teams on the ice before the game for a quick warm up to ask questions and try out the sport as well.

Barnabe is looking forward to the game on Wednesday night, "I think if we show the girls how much fun it's going to be, I think we're going to have really good numbers when we register next year."

To learn more about ringette in Vita and specifically about tomorrow night's ringette game text Darcia at 204 972 0687.