Josée Roy, a ringette player from Ste. Agathe, has won bronze with Team Manitoba at the Canada Winter Games.
Roy, who was selected to represent her province in late 2018, took part in the Games in Red Deer, Alberta from February 15 through March 3.
Team Manitoba began the round robin in Pool A, where they faced off against Alberta, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. Manitoba went undefeated in the preliminary round, clinching them a spot in the playoffs, where they went on to face the top teams of Pool B.
“We knew coming into the tournament that we had a good chance against these teams because we saw them beforehand,” says Roy. “We were most nervous playing Alberta, because we hadn’t seen them since October.”
Manitoba ended up defeating Alberta in double overtime, coming back from a 5–1 deficit early in the game. That matchup was their final game of the round robin and set the tone for how the team wanted to play heading to the playoff round.
“It was faster energy across the arena… there were so many fans,” she says of the pace of the games. “Every day there was a line-up to come into our games. There was a lot of excitement and energy. After the preliminary round, there were more fans that wanted to come. It was do-or-die for us, and we wanted to keep winning to go into the semifinals and finals.”
Undefeated in the preliminaries, Team Manitoba played Saskatchewan, the fifth seed in Pool B, in their first game of the playoffs, winning by a score of 5–4. Next, they played Quebec, the second seed in Pool B, where they lost 7–5. This was good enough to advance them to the medal round, where they played B.C. and won the bronze medal game.
“It was an unreal experience,” Roy says. “It’s a good feeling to win bronze for the province, myself, and for my team.”
Her dad, Luc Roy, was there to watch his daughter play in front of the packed arena. He says he couldn’t help but feel an immense sense of pride for all the hard work she had put in to make it to this stage.
“It was a really exciting feeling,” Luc says. “It was nice to see all the hard work that she did throughout the last two years leading up to this. All of the personal goals she set and [the things] we talked about in order to make the team—keeping up with the workouts [and the] mental training it took. It was a great experience.”
Roy, who also recently won bronze in the Canadian Ringette Championship, is passionate about inspiring kids to explore athletics, and she wants to study kinesiology in University, as well as play one more year with the AA Eastman Flames. For her, the experience representing Team Manitoba at a game of this calibre is something she wants to remember forever.
“Winning bronze is cherry on the top,” she says. “Being able to spend time with teammates and build our friendships is the highlight of this experience. This may be the end of my career, so I love that I was able to make the most of it.”
