Season wraps on Indus ringette

It was a banner year for the Indus Ringette Association, so they celebrated in fine fashion.
There was a wrap-up banquet held on March 24 at the Indus Recreation Centre where two teams — the under-12s and under-14s — were recognized for winning zone banners and finishing first and second in provincials this season.
Among the nine teams, they were all represented at the banquet in some fashion as the association put a cap on this season and looked ahead to a bright future.
“It was a very good year,” said Indus Ringette Association president Lorna Engelson. “It’s a celebration of our entire year and our association. It’s a celebration of what we’ve done over the 2017-18 year.
“It was a good time for our whole association to get together. We don’t get that chance to get together. We had a great time getting together with fellow athletes.”
Ringette keeps growing in Indus, but there needs to be an expansion of facilities if things are to keep going. The new ice surface in Indus can’t arrive soon enough but that will be years in the future, so for the time being they have to make due with the time they can get now at the busy arena.
The interest is there. For a try-ringette event two weeks ago, more than 30 skaters showed up.
“We are looking to expand our association and we want to grow our active start program to get the younger players out playing ringette,” Engelson said. “We will be trying to expand our U19 program but it’s all ice dependant. We need availability of ice and how we can grow from there.”
“There’s only one sheet of ice in Indus. They are looking to expand it but we don’t know what the timing is of that. Once that comes into play, depending on athletes interest then we should be able to get more ice and grow from there.
“We’ve grown at least 8-10 per cent over the last few years. We’re not decreasing our numbers. We’re definitely growing. Our association is trying to be more competitive and add more variety for the girls. It’s picking up.”