She shoots the ring, she scores! Since being developed in North Bay some 43 years ago, the sport of ringette has often been over-looked by more established and high-profile sports like hockey and soccer. The president of the North East Region Ringette Association is hoping to put an end to all that by bringing local attention to the sport he loves, but he admits there is a lot of work to be done.

“The biggest thing ringette has right now is an identity crisis,” explains Harry Hirsimaki. “The sport as a product is as good as anything that is out there for excitement, speed, and ability; just nobody knows about it. We just got to get people to see it because when they do see it, they jump aboard.”

Hirsimaki, who has also served on the board of directors of Ringette Ontario for the last six years, points out that in the 1970s, there were as many as 800 local athletes playing ringette. However, that number has dropped dramatically since then, with only approximately 50 current athletes playing ringette in Sudbury.

He believes the decrease is due in large part to the increase in opportunities for young kids, especially girls, to excel in other sports and activities. Still, he remains hopeful that the sport will survive locally. “I think the numbers will slowly increase; just not in big numbers,” he says. “It’s just going to be a slow, steady growth.”

Sudbury is just one of the 10 regions in the association. There are also about 50 athletes involved from Sault Ste. Marie, 150 from Valley East, 50 from Walden, 150 from West Ferris, 200 from Timmins, and another 40 in Kapuskasing, Mattice, Iroquois Falls, and Kirkland Lake.

The Sudbury Basin, which includes Valley East, Sudbury and Walden, all compete against each other in various age groups as part of the Nickel Basin League, and the two best teams in each age group end up competing in a championship game at the end of March. The winners then have a chance to compete in the regional championship, which will be held in the Valley next year. It was supposed to be held in North Bay, but the city was unable to find enough room at their hotels.

Even with its relatively small numbers, the North East Region Ringette Association has had some success with five of its girls advancing to the team Ontario tryouts this past spring. They included 14-year-old Erica Kiviaho and her 16-year-old sister Jena (Kiviaho) from Walden, Renee Delarosbil from Valley East, Danyka Gagnon, an Azilda native who is playing for the Valley, and Danielle Proulx from Timmins.

Although none of girls cracked the Team Ontario roster, Hirsimaki was proud of all of their efforts, but admits they had a tough time competing against other players from down south. “They all fared very well and there were all kinds of compliments,” he says. “But, I think the downside of the North East region is we don’t have a AA program or a very big competitive program, so the girls up here are sort of lacking in some of the things the girls down south can pick up because they play at that level a lot more.”

The North East Region is just one of the six regions for ringette in the province, as there’s also a south, west, east, central, and northwest region. Even so, he feels the future of the association is bright and believes the Kiviaho sisters and Delarosbil have great potential.

“Erica and her sister Jena are still young, so it’s quite possible they can both get to the next level if they get the right opportunities,” he says. “Erica, Jena, and Rene are all also returning to the next AAA or the Ontario Winter Games team in 2007 and so they’re going to be leaders based on the experience they had this year.”

All three of them were playing against 18-year-olds on the team this year, but Hirsimaki feels they held their own and will only get better in the future. They will not be the only returning players on that team though, as 11 of the 17 players will be returning.

He also notes that a whole new team of 12 and 13-year-olds are going to be starting at the provincial level, so he hopes to expose them to the game outside of our little world here in Sudbury. Both the house league systems in the Valley and Walden also feature girls who play competitively as well, which the president believes will only serve to help the other young up-and-comers.

“There’s a big benefit because the exposure they get at the provincial level, the speed, the abilities of all the girls, the competition, all trickles down to the house league, so their fundamentals and their abilities just get better,” he says. There are all kinds of young girls that have the potential. They just to have to get the experience to be able to be seen at that level.”

He even believes there is potential for some of his athletes to make it to a national level. Hirsimaki, who first began coaching in 1980 when his sister was playing the sport, indicates that Team Canada is in the process of completing their final selections for the world championships and there is one athlete originally from Sudbury that is still on their list of 45 potential nominees.

Karen Duguay progressed through the entire system in Sudbury and is now playing in the National Ringette League in Richmond Hill. In addition, Hirsimaki boasts that Valley East has the reigning Junior A provincial champ, West Ferris is home to the reigning Junior A provincial silver medalist, while Timmins can lay claim to the defending Tween championship squad.

The Canada Winter Games are slated for next February in Whitehorse, while the World Championships will take place in Ottawa. No matter what happens though, Hirsimaki plans on continuing to be involved in the sport he loves and believes the future of the sport in general is promising.

“It’s a great outlet for girls to play a sport at a high level and more and more girls are getting to see the sport and when they do, they’re amazed at the speed and the abilities of the girls,” he says. “Personally, I love the excitement of playing the game, being involved in the game, and watching the girls develop as athletes.”