Three women's sports leagues to watch

Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL)

Professional Women’s Hockey League is a professional ice hockey league for women located in both the United States and Canada.

Six teams compete in the league, including PWHL Ottawa and PWHL Toronto.

National Ringette League

Based on a sport that was first introduced in 1963 in North Bay, Ontario, the National Ringette League (NRL) was formed following the success of the Ringette World Championships in Edmonton in 2002. The league strives to educate the public about ringette and create more opportunities to play the sport.

The NRL consists of 15 teams and two conferences, which are composed of a western conference with five teams and an eastern conference with 10 teams divided into two red and white divisions.

The teams from Ontario are:

• Nepean Ravens
• Cambridge Turbos
• Waterloo Wildfire

NRL players are primarily from Canada with a few from Europe and other countries. The NRL playoffs involve the knockout match, round robin and tournament to determine champions. The knockout state is a best-of-three match for east and west conference teams. The round robin is called the Elite eight, with each team playing seven games.

Find out about teams and games on the National Ringette League’s website.

League1 Ontario

League1 Ontario (L1O) is a semi-professional soccer league that is the highest level of soccer for men and women in Ontario. It showcases and develops talented soccer players who want to play professionally. Some players go on to receive scholarships and may eventually take on professional positions around the world.

The women’s league was created in 2015 with nine teams and encourages continual growth of new teams. The regular season runs from May to September.

Each team plays one match against all other teams and playoffs are held at the end of the season. The L1O website contains up-to-date information about participating teams and where to watch the games throughout Southern Ontario.