Championship season hit the Foothills Fierce in a two-fold triumph.
The U14 B team made Foothills Ringette Association history as the first team from the program to advance to provincials, capturing silver in Medicine Hat followed by a gold medal cap to the season at zones the following weekend.
“Being the first team in the association to ever go to provincials was still groundbreaking,” said Foothills head coach Sonja Price. “And placing second was amazing. These girls, they hustled hard, played really good games against really good teams and they never gave up.
“It was definitely a mindset of how do we want to go about these games? There were nerves, of course, as every team and young athlete would have, they know what’s at stake.”
The gruelling provincial schedule saw Foothills play six games en route to the final against Bow View.
“They did amazing,” the coach added. “I remember after we won our second game, there were so many texts coming our way and Medicine Hat really hosted an amazing tournament.”
The athletes took time away from the rink to build camaraderie in between competition.
Price recalled a Fort McMurray team placing pins on equipment offering supportive messages and the Foothills players then took on that mantle.
From the heights of provincials, the Fierce quickly reset into competitive mode with zones held the following week with a three-game series against Strathmore.
“We had never played six games in a weekend before and that’s a lot on a young body,” the coach added. “But the training we did leading up to it helped us tremendously.”
Fittingly, the series went the distance with Foothills taking Game 3 on March 23 by an 8-3 count at its home rink, High River’s Bob Snodgrass Recreation Complex.
“Strathmore was such a good challenge for our girls, they’re a great team,” the coach added. “You could tell we were tired from the weekend they just had, but those girls just battled and played hard and hot lots of fun to bring home the Zone 2 banner.”
In Game 2, Strathmore forced the series to the winner-take-all Game 3 with a home ice victory. From there, the Fierce locked in on the prize.
“The (final) game, you could really see the shift in the girls’ attitude, their support, their play, everything changed,” Price said. “It was, ‘This is our last game of the season and let’s go big or go home.’
“At the beginning, it was going goal for goal, but our girls took off and found their groove and soared from there and won the championship.”
For more information on the FRA, visit foothillsringette.com.
