BELWOOD – A local young woman will be representing the country in the fastest game on ice.
Belwood's Emma Mason, 17, will be playing for Team Canada in the World Ringette Championships taking place in Calgary from Oct. 29 to Nov. 4.
Mason has been playing ringette for essentially her entire life, starting when she was around three years old, but never expected to reach this level.
“I surprised myself there,” Mason said in a phone interview.
Playing ringette runs in the family with Mason noting her mom, cousins and aunts all played ringette and her dad played a lot of hockey.
She explained ringette is an on-ice sport similar to hockey except there is no blade on the stick players hold and instead of a puck a ring is used that is “stabbed” by the players.
“It’s also known as the fastest game on ice,” Mason said.
Mason’s home association is Elora Fergus Ringette Association but she’s also played for Guelph and currently plays for Waterloo.
Back in August, Mason was asked to go out to Calgary for a week to try out for the team. She said it was exciting to hear she made the team but acknowledged it was a fairly stressful process to get there.
“There was a selection camp and a development camp and then it was a week of training on ice, off ice and then they made a few cuts from there and here I am now,” Mason said. “Up until now we’ve had weekly meetings, doing fitness stuff, mental stuff, a whole bunch of strategies and everything to prepare for this coming week.”
Mason will be playing on U18 Team Canada, which she said is more of a development team and actually is split into east and west teams.
She flies out Thursday and the first couple days will be mostly practicing with her own squad and then when the tournament begins Canada will face Finland and USA.
“Finland is like the team to beat always, that’ll be very exciting to play them,” Mason said.
She’s also excited for inter-squad games which will see teams combined which gives her the chance to play on the same team with international players and learn other playing styles.