The Manitoba Herd is a

ringette Ringette is a winter team sport played on an ice rink using ice hockey skates, straight sticks with drag-tips, and a blue, rubber, pneumatic ring designed for use on ice surfaces. While the sport was originally created exclusively for female c ...

team in the

National Ringette League The National Ringette League (NRL) ''()'' 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 leag ...

's (NRL) Western Conference. The team is based in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

Manitoba Manitoba is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population ...

. The team was previously called the Manitoba Intact.

Team history

The Herd were founded in 2016 as the Manitoba Intact. They took their name from a corporate sponsor that made a Manitoba team's return to the NRL possible after the province's previous entry folded in 2013 due to financial difficulties. Winnipeg-based teams had a longer history with the NRL, but were hampered by the league's demanding travel. The Winnipeg Prairie Fire had been an on-ice success, finishing in second place in the Canadian Ringette Championships in what would be their final season in 2013. For several years the province also hosted a second NRL team, the Manitoba Jets. Those teams made an effort to host games in other areas of the province, such as Steinbach, which hosted a series between the Prairie Fire and Edmonton WAM! in 2013. The establishment of the Intact, then, filled a significant gap for the National Ringette League. In 2021, the team rebranded as the Manitoba Herd, a name that had been used informally in the past to reference Manitoba's ringette squads at the

Canada Games The Canada Games () is a multi-sport event held every two years, alternating between the Canada Winter Games and the Canada Summer Games. They represent the highest level of national competition for Canadian athletes. Two separate programs are or ...

. Manitoba hosted the 2018 Canadian Ringette Championships, which includes the NRL playoffs, in Winnipeg. Manitoba won its opening series against the BC Thunder to advance to the Elite Eight, but did not manage to win another game and finished in 8th place. Manitoba again defeated the Thunder in a knockout series in 2019, and ultimately finished in 7th at the national championships. The 2020 and 2021 championships were ultimately cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. After play resumed in 2022, the team put added emphasis on growing the game locally and saw larger crowds supporting the team. In 2022, Herd player Belle Paisley was named to the Canadian junior

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

ahead of the

World Ringette Championships The World Ringette Championships (WRC) is the premier international competition in ringette and is governed by the International Ringette Federation (IRF). Unlike most international competitions, all of the WRC's elite athletes are female rather ...

, where Canada won silver. The Herd's current head coach is Andrea Ferguson, who was inducted into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame in 2022 for her contributions to ringette. Ferguson is a former national junior champion and captain of the Prairie Fire who also won the player-of-the-year award in the Finnish Elite League in 2003.

Mascot

In 2016 the Manitoba Intact, the precursor to the Manitoba Herd, acquired a mascot, a Bison named "Mani".

Season-by-season

Rosters

Current roster

References

External links

Ringette Canada

Ringette Manitoba
{{Manitoba Sports National Ringette League Ringette teams Women's sports Sport in Manitoba Sports clubs and teams established in 2016 2016 establishments in Manitoba