| BC Thunder | |
|---|---|
 | |
| City |  Richmond, British Columbia |
| League | National Ringette League |
| Conference | Western |
| Founded | 2011 |
| Colours | |
| Head coach | Troy Takasaki |
| Website | bcthundernrl2022-23 |
| Previous franchise history | |
| Lower Mainland Thunder (2011–12) | |
| Championships | |
| NRL Titles | 1 (2012) |
The BC Thunder is a ringette team in the National Ringette League's (NRL) Western Conference. The team is based in Richmond, British Columbia.
The Thunder were founded as the Lower Mainland Ringette League Thunder (LMRL Thunder) in 2011, and joined the NRL that year. The league took over operating the Fraser Valley Avalanche when private owner Bill Bettles ceased operations. [1] The team was then run by the Lower Mainland Ringette League, a league based in Burnaby, and the Thunder practiced and played throughout the Vancouver area. [2] As a result of the work the Fraser Valley Avalanche did in recruitment, the Thunder's first season was highly successful. The team competed in the NRL's Western Conference along with teams in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. Led by Jennifer (Gaudet) Wakefield, a veteran who joined the team from the Cambridge Turbos, and Finnish imports Heidi Petrell and NRL scoring champion Salla Kyhälä, the Thunder won 22 games and finished second in the conference. [3] The 2012 Canadian Ringette Championships were being hosted in Burnaby, BC, which gave the Thunder the opportunity to compete for the national championship in front of home crowds. [3] The Thunder entered the tournament ranked seventh in the nation. [4] At the tournament, the Thunder started out 2–3 and needed to defeat the Turbos in a sudden-death tie-breaker to advance; they won and went on to face the undefeated Montréal Mission in the championship final. [5] The Thunder won the final 7–2 to claim British Columbia's first national ringette title. [1] Kyhala scored four times in the final and was named the tournament's most-valuable-player. [5] Wakefield and Melanie Thomas joined Kyhala as Thunder players named to the tournament all-star team. [1]
In December, 2012, part way through the 2011–12 season, the team found a new home in Richmond, with Richmond Ringette Association taking over management of the team, and re-branded itself as the BC Thunder to better reflect its status as a provincial team. [2] While based in Richmond, the team continued to play some of its games in other arenas around Greater Vancouver, including Delta and Port Coquitlam. [6] [7] The team narrowly missed out on a medal when defending their national title at the 2013 Canadian Championships, finishing in fourth place.
The Thunder paused operations ahead of the 2013–14 season in order to restructure and stabilize its ownership. Former coach Dale Hannesson took over as the team's owner, and the Thunder rejoined the NRL for the 2014–15 season. [8]
In 2018, Troy Takasaki took over as head coach after leading Richmond's under-19 team to a gold medal at the 2018 Western Canadian Championships. [6]
Burnaby hosted the 2019 World Ringette Championships. Thunder goaltender Kiana Keska was named to Canada's national junior team, which went on to win the gold medal. [9] [10]
The Thunder paused operations for the 2020–21 and 2021–22 seasons due to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. The team returned to the NRL for the 2022–23 season, and finished third in the Western Conference with a 9–15 record. [11]
 | This section needs to be updated.(July 2023) |
| Season [12] | League | Conference | GP | W | L | OTW | OTL | Pts | GF | GA |
| 2020–21 | NRL | Western | Did not play due to COVID-19 pandemic | |||||||
| 2021–22 | NRL | Western | Did not play due to COVID-19 pandemic | |||||||
| 2022–23 | NRL | Western | 24 | 9 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 131 | 166 |
| 2022–23 BC Thunder | ||
|---|---|---|
| # [13] [14] | Name | Position |
| 1 | Ashley Smith | G |
| 2 | Dominique Sobush | F |
| 3 | Jayme Simzer | F |
| 4 | Grace Kemp | D |
| 5 | Samira Tajbakhsh | D |
| 8 | Emily Ma | F |
| 10 | Robyn Gillespie | D |
| 11 | Kacy Hannesson | F |
| 12 | Emma Paradis | F |
| 14 | Hailey Takasaki | F |
| 17 | Hailey Magrath | D |
| 19 | Kiandra Gustavson | D |
| 23 | Edie Paul | F |
| 26 | Sidney Crowe | F |
| 29 | Sarah Macdonald | G |
| 86 | Jessica Jalava | D |
The Canadian Junior Football League (CJFL) is a national Major Junior Canadian football league consisting of 19 teams playing in five provinces across Canada. The teams compete annually for the Canadian Bowl. Many CJFL players move on to professional football careers in the Canadian Football League (CFL) and elsewhere.
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The Coquitlam Express are a Junior "A" ice hockey team based in Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada. They are members of the Coastal Conference of the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL). They play their home games at the Poirier Sport & Leisure Complex.
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The National Ringette League (NRL) (French: Ligue Nationale de Ringuette, LNR) is the premier league for the sport of ringette in North America and Canada's national league for elite ringette players aged 18 and up. The NRL is not a women's variant of a more well-known men's league or sport like professional women's ice hockey or bandy; one of ringette's distinctive features is that all of its players are girls and women. As such, the NRL is the continent's first and only winter team sports league whose entire athlete roster is made up of women.
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Julie Blanchette is an elite level Canadian ringette player who has also worked as a trainer and coach and served as the captain of several ringette teams including Team Canada. Blanchette plays for the Montreal Mission of the National Ringette League and has also been a member of the Canadian national ringette team as both player and coach.
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Canadian Ringette Championships, (French: Championnats Canadien d'Ringuette), sometimes abbreviated CRC, is Canada's annual premiere national ringette tournament for the best ringette players and teams in the country. It encompasses three age/class divisions: Under-16 (U16), Under-19 (U19) and the seasonal championship for Canada's National Ringette League (NRL). The competition is usually held in the month of April. The first CRC was held in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1979. The National Ringette League playoffs are the knockout match, round robin and tournament for determining the champion for National Ringette League.
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Ringette in Canada began in 1963 when it was first conceptualized by Sam Jacks of North Bay, Ontario, in West Ferris. The sport of ringette is played in all 10 Canadian provinces and the Northwest Territories and involves an average of over 31,000 registered players every year. Canada is the location of ringette's origin where it is also recognized as a national heritage sport. The sport is governed nationally by Ringette Canada. Canadian provinces and territories have their own individual governing bodies in their respective jurisdictions.
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Salla Kyhälä,, is a retired elite Finnish ringette player and world champion in both ringette and ice cross downhill. She played semi-pro ringette as a centre for Espoon Kiekkoseura in the elite Finnish semi-professional league, SM Ringette and the Saskatoon Wild and BC Thunder in Canada's semi-pro National Ringette League. Kyhälä was also member of the Finland national ringette team several times.
