U14AA Alberta Ringette Team wins Western Canadian Championship

.Two Cochrane area ringette players were part of a highly successful U14AA ringette team that won the Western Canada championship over the weekend.

Millie Teskey, of Cochrane, and Aggie Baker, of Bearspaw, played for the elite Zone 2 Big Country team that swept its way through the provincials, Mar. 15-17, to become Team Alberta, then won the Western Canadian championship in St. Albert, Mar. 27-30. They went undefeated in both tournaments.

Head coach Laurie Reeve, of Airdrie, says they were a hard-working team that never gave up, even when the chips were down.

"We were the team to beat going into the provincials but we've had some bump along the way, so you never really how you're going to perform and everybody wants to beat you."

In the provincial championship, they came back from a two-goal deficit at the half to win 5-3 against St. Albert to claim the right to wear Alberta colours at the Western Canadian Championship. In the Western Canadian final, they were down by one at the half but went on to win 7-3.

"The girls took it one game at a time and they had the confidence to keep going," she says. "This was a team that typically stayed calm and kept going until the final whistle."

They faced teams from B.C., Saskatchewan, Manitoba and two other Alberta teams in the championship.

Teamwork is absolutely the key behind success in ringette and the Zone 2 team had a strong bond

"They worked really hard on supporting each other and letting each other know it was okay to make a mistake. They just played for each other. It's an excellent team sport and they played as a team and they all like each other."

"It has been a sad couple of days because they are already missing it."

Both Millie and Aggie were playing their first year at this level. Besides Cochrane, the 14-member team was formed by players from Airdrie, Chestermere, Indus and Strathmore.

When next season rolls around only three team members will remain in U14 and have the opportunity to try out for the Zone 2 team, says Reeve. The other 11 are moving up to the U16 division.