The Houston Ringette Association (HRA) will be returning to competitive games against other clubs for the first time since February 2020, with the exception of a few games in November 2020. As long as all local and provincial guidelines allow for it, the HRA says they’ll be back to playing a full season schedule.
Houston Today spoke to HRA representative Marla Hamblin, who said that practices for the new season began on Sep. 27 and competitive games should have already started by now.
“Unfortunately due to the current Public Health Order for the Northern Health Region, the hosts for the first two scheduled tournaments this year had decided to cancel,” said Hamblin. “Currently, we are in the process of planning our U12/U14/U16 tournament which is scheduled to take place on Dec. 4-5. This tournament will welcome teams from Terrace, Prince George and Quesnel to come and compete against our Houston players, if Public Health Orders allows.”
Ringette Canada recently announced a mandatory vaccination policy for all nationally sanctioned events. This applies to coaches and staff as well as youth athletes. However, it’s only mandatory at events such as Canadian Ringette Championships, national regular season games, and Ringette Canada high performance camps, so the HRA is not operating under the mandate.
“Houston Ringette is currently following the most up to date Public Health Order for the Northern Health Region,” said Hamblin. “This states that all volunteers, organizers, coaches and officials aged 12 and older who are involved in sport for children and youth off of school property must be fully vaccinated. Athletes participating in youth sport are currently exempt from having to be vaccinated.
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Eddie Huband
Multimedia Reporter
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