Expectations & Tiering Information

All players at each level are evaluated at the beginning of the ringette season. This helps the Association establish competitively-tiered teams from Novice through Belle, that compete in league games with similarly-tiered teams from across Calgary. At each level, all athletes from Novice to Belle will attend three evaluation ice times. During the evaluation skate, athletes will be evaluated on different criteria that is relevant to their age division.

Ice time notice can be very short and times may vary. Evaluation schedules will be distributed by each Division Coordinator.

Non-playing parent volunteers who have skilled knowledge and experience of ringette are asked to come out and act as volunteer evaluators for each level. Evaluators are expected to evaluate the athletes with an un-biased opinion, integrity and honesty.

After the three initial evaluation skates the athletes are separated into groups. Some athletes will be contacted to skate again in what is called a "bubble" skate. The "bubble" skate allows for a smaller, more concentrated group of athletes to scrimmage, demonstrating skill and playing level for the evaluators to make a more informed decision. The "bubble" skate process may take one or two ice slots before the athletes can be grouped into tiers based on skill and playing levels.

Once the "bubble" skate is over, athletes will be split into A, B or C tiers based on the average of the evaluators scores over the three ice times (C level is usually only formed at the Petite level). Athletes will then be asked back to attend the balancing ice time for the level they qualified for. The purpose of the balance is to ensure each team at each level is equally matched; one team is not stronger than the other.

Although the balancing process is not perfect, our margin of error in this process is quite minimal and NW Ringette Association stands behind the decision that is made by our qualified volunteer balancers after each ice balancing.