Strathmore High graduates, Karley Clark and Tessa Galandy have earned the opportunity to represent Canada at the upcoming 2023 World Ringette Championships that is being hosted in Calgary this October 26-November 4. 

Clark and Galandy were scouted during National competition and were invited to try out for the U18 age group. 

"We filled out a Google form and we had to answer questions and put in like a coach's reference and stuff like that. Then this past season at provincials and nationals, they had people scouting us and then we got invitations to the training camp to try out for the team," Galandy said.

The tryout took place at Win Sport in Calgary at the beginning of August and included the top 40 athletes from across Canada. After an intense week-long tryout camp, the top 34 athletes were split into a Western and Eastern team. Clark and Galandy were among the 17 athletes that were selected to the Western team. The Western team is made up of players from B.C., Alberta, and Sask.

"We are very excited. It's going to be a long week for sure, but we're going to be getting in a lot of games and we will be meeting some pretty cool people," expressed Clark.

"We get to play international teams. So, all the Finnish girls and everything. So that's going to be super fun," said Galandy. 

The two Western and Eastern teams will compete with teams from Sweden, USA and Finland during the 2023 World Cup. The girls will also have the opportunity to train alongside older players from both the Junior and Senior National teams.

Clark and Galandy are from the local U19AA Zone 2 team and have been training hard with them, so that they can secure the championship. 

"We're doing a lot of stuff through our own club because we have players on our team (Western team) from BC and all around, so we can't really practice as a collective to prep. So, we're doing individual stuff with our own teams," said Clark.

"We've also done bi weekly virtual meetings with Google Meet and stuff like that, where like we go over a variety of things," explained Galandy. 

Ringette has been a part of Clark and Galandy lives for a long time and they have learned a lot from it. 

"It has taught me a lot about teamwork and learning how to play with other people and learn people's strengths and capitalize on that. Also, along with like learning how to lose or how to get back up after losing or having a setback," said Clark.

"I have lifelong friends within the sport learning how to adapt to lots of different situations, whether that being people or things that happen on the ice that you don't necessarily like or that aren't going your way," said Galandy. 

As for where the girls want to take their career in Ringette, Clark and Galandy says it's to play the junior national team and then one day maybe the senior national team, but it all depends on where the pair wants to go to school.

"It honestly all depends on where I like locate myself due to university because there are university teams," says Clark. 

In response to Canada's Online News Act and Meta (Facebook and Instagram) removing access to local news from their platforms, StrathmoreNow encourages you to get your news directly from your trusted source by bookmarking this page and downloading the StrathmoreNow app. 

Send your news tips, story ideas, pictures, and videos to news@strathmorenow.com 

auction