Indoor/In person activities to be paused effective January 5th

Good Afternoon Waterloo Ringette Families, 

The Province of Ontario announced yesterday morning that Ontario will be moving into a modified version of Step 2 of the "Roadmap to reopen" effective January 5th, 2022.

Under this step the following restriction applies:

• Closing indoor sport and recreational fitness facilities including gyms, except for athletes training for the Olympics and Paralympics and select professional and elite amateur sport leagues. Outdoor facilities are permitted to operate but with the number of spectators not to exceed 50 per cent occupancy and other requirements.

As such, we will be unable to use indoor rink facilities until at least Jan 26, 2021. 

Ringette Ontario has also just announced that they strongly recommend that all Associations suspend all activity for the health and safety of the athletes, coaches and their family members. In light of the Provincial Guidelines Waterloo Ringette plans to proceed with scheduled ice times Jan 3, 2022 and Jan 4, 2022. These ice times are optional. 

Restrictions may continue to be implemented by regional public health and municipalities/facilities over the coming weeks. RO will continue to communicate updates to the Associations and participants as they become available as they evaluate what the next few months of our ringette season will look like.  All tournaments for January 2022 have been cancelled and they will be working with tournament hosts to assess the viability of tournaments currently scheduled for February 2022 and March 2022.  RO has not made a final decision with respect to Provincial and Regional championships as they will be monitoring the situation in the coming weeks.

Please note that if you choose to participate in small group training, outdoor gathering restrictions will apply, and physical distancing and personal protective equipment is required. Again, please ensure you are aware of our local health unit guidelines and restrictions.

The Ringette Ontario team will be working in the coming days to provide virtual tools, resources, and competitions that can be made available to Associations, coaches and teams so that our players stay connected to the game and one another. 

Ringette Ontario and Waterloo Ringette  understand this is extremely disappointing and challenging for so many of our teams , we want to thank all the volunteers who have put in the effort throughout this season to ensure our players continue to play. We understand that it has been a challenging season and we are facing another hurdle, but we continue to ask for patience and support as we move forward and return to ringette.

Leah Chapman

Waterloo Ringette Association President