Okotoks ringette continues to shine on the provincial stage.
Marin Jones, who played for the first competitive team in the young history of the Foothills Ringette Association, earned the right to compete in the ultimate youth sports showcase along with fellow Okotokian Marley Hinge when the 2024 Alberta Winter Games hit Grande Prairie.
“It was really fun, and I got to play with girls two or three years older than me and see the different kind of competition at the higher level,” said Jones, 13. “It’s way faster and way more contact.
“Since I’m moving up to U16, I think that gave me a feel of what I’ll be coming up against next year and I’ll also be eligible to compete in the next Alberta Winter Games.”
The U17 ringette competition saw the top 10 players from each zone selected and then in a province-wide draft, divided into zones to create more balanced teams across the board. In other sports, players are selected and represent the zones they come from.
Jones, along with her mother and assistant coach Leanne Jones, was drafted to Zone 7 with Hinge representing Zone 6, which finished fourth in the event, while Zone 7 was sixth.
“It was fun getting to know other girls around me, girls from Calgary, Lacombe, Edmonton, Medicine Hat, Fort McMurray, Lethbridge,” she said.
Jones plays for the Strathmore R.I.S.E. U14A team this season, a level the FRA doesn’t yet offer, with Hinge a member of the Indus R.I.S.E. U16 B squad.
“I loved skating as a kid, it was my life and once I started to move up levels I was a main scorer, out-scoring everyone,” Jones said. “Last year, I decided to step up my game and try out for the U14 A R.I.S.E. team. That was brand new to me, I had been with the same girls for five or six years so it was hard to play with new teammates when I had played people I would trust.
“It was a very new experience and I love my team this year.”
