Hannah Young, a 21-year-old ringette champion from Quesnel, knows how it feels to win big with a small-town team.
She’s played in many big competitions, including at the B.C. Games in 2009.
Her team also won the B.C. Provincial Championships, first in 2009, then in 2011 and 2013, knocking more high-profile teams from bigger cities out of the running.
Being the first A team out of the north to win provincials felt amazing, Young says, as bigger teams, like Vancouver, assumed they were going to win.
The Vancouver team had actually pre-booked their flights to nationals, and when Young’s small-town Quesnel team beat them, Vancouver had to cancel the flights, she says.
“A lot of [those big teams] have really crazy training programs. [But] I find up north we just have the talent.”
Young’s Quesnel team went on to compete in three National Ringette Championships and four Western Canadian Ringette Championships.
Young has been playing ringette since she was five years old, having watched her older brother, Riley, play hockey. When one of her friends joined the ringette team, Young quickly followed.
Although she’s now out of the age group to qualify for the AA team this year (ages 14 to 19), Young still competes with an older open association team out of the Shuswap area with a few of her former teammates.
Her team has already competed in a Vancouver tournament taking fourth, and in the Sweetheart tournament in Kelowna last week.
Despite the fact that she’s unable to compete at the B.C. Winter Games this year, Young still feels the excitement and anxiety for the Quesnel team attending in a few weeks.
“The biggest thing is to not be intimidated by all the big teams.”
Young says her team’s win proves that bigger, more high-profile teams can certainly be beat.
“And regardless of how you do, just have fun with it.”
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