What is Ringette?

Did you know Ringette is a Canadian game that was first introduced in 1963 in North Bay, Ontario? It was invented by Mr. Sam Jacks, who was the Director of Parks and Recreation in North Bay, Ontario. He dedicated a great deal of time and enthusiasm to developing youth activities and one of his particular interests was to develop an on-ice skating game for females. He came up with the idea by watching girls play with broken hockey sticks and cans. He named the new game "Ringette" and the first-ever Ringette game was played in the winter of 1963 in the Northern Ontario town of Espanola.

After Ringette's invention it was played mainly in Ontario and Quebec for the first ten years. Since then the sport has quickly spread across Canada and is now played in all ten provinces and the Northwest Territories. There are now over 50,000 participants in Ringette across Canada. There are now Ringette associations in the United States, Finland, Sweden, Russia and France.

Now I bet you are wondering how Ringette is played. Even though Ringette is played on the same ice-surface as hockey, and we wear the same equipment and the number of players is the same, the similarities end there. Ringette is more similar to basketball, soccer or lacrosse. Ringette is a team sport with a different strategy.