VG-62 is a

sports club A sports club or sporting club, sometimes an athletics club or sports society or sports association, is a group of people formed for the purpose of playing sports. Sports clubs range from organisations whose members play together, unpaid, and ...

based in

Naantali Naantali (; sv, Nådendal) is a town in southwestern Finland, and, as a resort town during the summer, an important tourist centre of the country. The municipality has a population of (), and is located in the region of Southwest Finland, west ...

, Finland. It was founded in 1962 and the name is an abbreviation of Naantali's old

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

name, "''Vallis gratiae''". VG-62 is particularly well known for their exemplary youth operations, for which the club has been recognised with a (Young Finland Association) award.

History

Naantali's VG-62 sports club has several teams in many sports, including the sports of

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

figure skating Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, when contested at the 1908 Olympics in London. The Olympic disciplines are me ...

and

ringette Ringette is a contact sport, non-contact winter team sport played on ice hockey rinks using Ice skates#Ice hockey skates, ice hockey skates, straight sticks with drag-tips, and a #Equipment, blue, rubber, pneumatic ring designed for use on ice ...

. The VG-62 ringette club was founded by Alpo and Jan Lindström near the end of the 1970s. The ringette club eventually went on to compete in Finland's national ringette league, , now know as "SM Ringette". VG-62 is the home of the club.

Ringette

Ringette Ringette is a contact sport, non-contact winter team sport played on ice hockey rinks using Ice skates#Ice hockey skates, ice hockey skates, straight sticks with drag-tips, and a #Equipment, blue, rubber, pneumatic ring designed for use on ice ...

was introduced to the city of

towards the end of 1979 by a father-son duo, Alpo Lindström and his son, Jan Lindström, after Jan witnessed girls playing the sport while he had been an exchange student in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in 1978. Jan created the VG-62 ringette club once he returned to Finland. Alpo served as chairman of the local ringette association, the VG-62 ringette team coach, and sometimes as the team's manager. He was instrumental in establishing Finland's national ringette association in 1983 (

Ringette Finland Ringette Finland, ( fi, Suomen Ringetteliitto) is the national governing body for the sport of ringette in Finland and was founded in 1983. It is responsible for the organization and promotion ringette on a nationwide basis and organizes Finlan ...

) and later served as a member of the board of the

International Ringette Federation The International Ringette Federation (IRF) is a non-profit amateur sports organization and the highest governing body for the sport of ringette. Today the member countries of the IRF Board includes four member nations: Canada, Finland, Sweden, a ...

(IRF). VG-62 is the home of the club.

Notable footballers

* Jermu Gustafsson * Pauno Kymäläinen

References

{{reflist Figure skating clubs Multi-sport clubs in Finland Figure skating in Finland 1962 establishments in Finland Ringette

History

Ringette

Notable footballers

See also

References