Red Deer’s Breanna Beck has dreamt of wearing the red and white jersey for 15 years.
The 26-year-old goaltender will live her dream, as she is one of five Central Albertans representing Canada at the Ringette World Championships in Mississauga, Ont. starting Tuesday.
“It’s pretty incredible,” said Beck. “My mom took me to Worlds in 2002 when they were in Edmonton. That was the first time I ever saw ringette at that level and it’s probably where the dream started.”
Beck, who is a landscape project manager, was on-site working when she got the phone call saying she was on the team.
“I was pretty emotional when I heard I made it. My brother was also working there at the time, so it was pretty cool to be excited with him,” she said.
Lacombe’s Gillian Dreger, Lindsay Vink, Jamie Bell and Dailyn Bell will join Beck at the World Championships. Gillian Dreger, also from Lacombe, will play for the junior Canadian team. All four women play with Beck on the Edmonton WAM!
“It’s going to be really amazing to have those guys there,” said Beck. “When you go into a team like this, you have all the support and chemistry in place.”
A couple of Beck’s roommates from university are on Team Canada as well.
Canada hasn’t won a gold medal at the Worlds since 2002. Finland has won the last five World Ringette Championships.
After one camp with all of Team Canada in October and a couple regional camps since then, Beck said she likes what she sees.
“We have unbelievable speed with a good mix of experience and rookies,” she said. “Everyone is buying in and committing to the program and to each other. When you have that kind of character on your team you can do some pretty incredible things.”
“The team chemistry we had when we finished the camp was phenomenal. It’s a really natural team environment so that’s very positive,” Beck added.
Canada’s first game is Tuesday against Finland. The championships wrap up Dec. 3.
sean.mcintosh@reddeeradvocate.com
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