Manon Vautour prepares for 2023 World Ringette Championships in Calgary

Originally published  Aug. 8, 2023 8:51 p.m. EDT.

By Glenn Campbell, CTV Calgary

 

Read the original and watch the interview here!

 

From CTV Calgary:

 

Ringette player Manon Vautour is making the most of her second chance with Canada’s junior national team.

Team Canada’s U-21 Junior National team is hard work at an August training camp, getting ready for the upcoming World Ringette championships which are being held in Calgary from Oct. 30 to Nov. 4 at the WinSport Event Centre.

Forward Manon Vautour, 20, of New Brunswick, was one of the final cuts last year and says she’ll never forget the feeling of being released from the team.

“It was really hard and I feel like it pushed me to where I am now,” Vautour said.

PLAYING THE TEAM CANADA WAY

This year, Vautour is one of 22 players to make the junior national team.

She says she was told she had to change here game and to play ‘Team Canada style.’

She says the adjustment wasn’t easy.

“I worked all year on it honestly, and it was really hard for me to change it,” she said. “At the end, I changed it, and I’m really proud of my work that I put in.”

DREAM COME TRUE

Making the National Junior team is a dream come true for Vautour and she says the day she was named to the team was special.

“It’s amazing,” she said. “I’ve never felt like this and to work this hard and to be here on this team that I deserve to be, it’s amazing.”

SHOWING RESILIENCY

Head Coach Andrea Ferguson says Vautour did all the right things and there was no way they could keep her off the team.

She says it’s a great story about never giving up.

“I think it offers a lot of resiliency,” Ferguson said. “You take the feedback you receive and go home and work even harder to want to be there.”

“It’s one of those like dream scenarios where you didn’t get what you wanted the first time, and then you’re like ‘I’m going to show you that I deserve to be there,’ and you come back even stronger.”

GETTING TO PLAY IN THE WORLDS

The reward for Vautour is to play at the 2023 World Ringette Championships in Calgary.

“It’s going to be amazing,” Vautour said.

“With my parents and all the fans watching me and seeing all the work that I put into this, and my teammates being with me, this is so exciting.”

Training camps for the national junior team and the U-18 teams are being held at WinSport until Aug. 14 and are open to the public.