The 2001 Esso Golden Ring:

• The tournament was sponsored for the 15th year by Imperial Oil Limited.
• Teams from Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Manitoba took part in the three-day competition. In addition to the 70 Calgary teams there were 79 teams from other parts of Alberta, and 18 out of province teams - 7 from British Columbia, 7 from Saskatchewan, 3 from Ontario, and 1 from Manitoba.
• A total of 181 applications were received from teams with hopes of securing a spot in the tournament. 9 of those teams withdrew and we were unable to accommodate 5 teams.
• Players Prize Draws were held to distribute a total of 620 draw prizes accumulated by Esso Golden Ring Committee members.
• The "take home" souvenir which the 2001 Esso Golden Ring committee provided to all players were "kick-balls" - imprinted with the Esso Golden Ring logo. In addition, all players were provided with a full color 2001 souvenir poster.
• The "carnival style" hospitality night was held Friday, January 19th at Marlborough Community Hall. Activities included kareoke, a radar gun to test shot speeds, carnival games, cotton candy, hot dogs, snow cones and lots of fun.
• Rachel Gilmour and Bob Campbell were responsible for the scheduling of on-ice officials for the 329 tournament games. Robyn Schweitzer, past-president of the CRRA, was also heavily involved in organizing and inviting out of town officials to the tournament.
• Murray Todd (Edmonton) was gracious enough to once again coordinate a referee shuttle service for out of town officials. Murray, with assistance from Lonnie Krahn and Dennis McGrath, spent his whole weekend getting referees where they needed to be.
• The Ringette Calgary Home Page provided an application form, hospitality night information, a list of successful applicants, and the schedules. This greatly reduced the number of inquiries to the Ringette Calgary office, and expeeded the process of providing information to teams.
• The Junior, Belle and Open AA divisions used shot clocks for all games. Many players, parents, coaches and officials took the opportunity to watch this new and improved version of ringette. This did create an unanticipated shortage of "high level" officials, and the result was an added expense to bring in out of province officials.
• Customized Game sheets with the Esso Golden Ring logo on them were used once again.
• In the interest of fair play, in the Novice division each player on a team was only allowed to score a maximum of three goals per game.

Those of us who have had the pleasure of working with this dedicated volunteer already knew that this was the case, but this season his Provincial Champion Team Fusion Deb A got to test his word to the limit.

Lonnie promised his team that they could shave his head if they won provincials. Lonnie says he "knew the deal going in - win provincials and get shaved bald - but don't touch the beard".

And win they did... So, on Friday March 30, Lonnie lost his hair...

Lonnie has been active in Ringette for 11 years, and has coached for 9 of those. This represents his fourth City Championship, and his first Provincial title.
Over his Ringette career he has been heavily involved in PSA (Properties Ringette Association) - he was President for 5 years, Ice Scheduler for 2 years and Past President for 4 years.

As president of PSA, Lonnie attended Ringette Calgary Board meetings for 5 years - where he offered down to earth solutions and much needed humour.

When Asked "Why did you do it" Lonnie replied:
"For the Love of the Game and the Participants"
Way to go Lonnie!