RIngette nationals
Marie-Eve Gautier, a product of the Mission AA program in the St. Albert Ringette Association, contributed offensively for the Edmonton WAM! silver medallists at the National Ringette League championship tournament.Last week in Winnipeg, Gautier scored three times and added six assists in seven round-robin games and in Friday’s 4-2 semifinal potted a pair against the Cambridge Turbos (5-2-1).
WAM! (6-3) lost Saturday’s final 5-3 to the Atlantic Attack (7-1).
In the round robin, WAM! suffered a 7-5 setback to the Attack in the second game at nationals.
Gautier, a bronze medallist with the U19AA Mission at the 2015 nationals in Fort McMurray, played two seasons for the Black Gold Rush in the NRL before joining WAM! this season and in 24 games recorded 11 goals and 32 points.
Cheer provincials
The Paul Kane Blues pulled off a banner performance for the second year in a row at the Alberta Schools’ Athletic Association cheerleading championships.Paul Kane repeated in the Game Day division to finish ahead of the Lillian Osborne Legends and George McDougall Mustangs of Airdrie in the three-team competition at provincials last weekend in Lethbridge.
Game Day focuses on crowd involvement and is a bit of a throwback to the beginnings of cheerleading.
Cheer teams learn four 60-second routines – time-out cheer, band dance, defence cheer and offence cheer – but can only do three at a time. Teams find out which three routines will be performed right before they warm up and they need to be able to transition between the three routines based on what the announcer calls. The order changes every time the team competes. This is different than the usual cheerleading routine which is set and does need to react.
The Paul Kane cheer team lineup featured 10 seniors, including three from Bellerose Composite High School.
Meanwhile, the Morinville Wolves were bronze medallists in the senior level one division at provincials.
The metro Edmonton champion Oscar Romero Ravens were awarded gold and the Ardrossan Bisons received silver in the seven-team division.
Last year’s Wolves were the division one runners-up at provincials behind the Ravens.
Curling finals
The curling season ended for three St. Albert rinks as the second-place finishers at the 55th annual Edmonton and area Tournament of Champions.The President’s Cup playoff winners at the St. Albert Curling Club qualified for the men’s, mixed and women’s finals Friday in the 12-team double-knockout format at the Granite.
The women’s final was decided on the last shot as the Granite defeated Lauren Jenkyns 5-4 with a hit and stick in the eighth end.
Jenkyns, curling with third Christina Monk, second Andrea Forbes and lead Ashley Sykes, finished 4-2 and the team’s tournament opener was a win against the Granite.
The rematch was basically a game of singles. The only deuce was in four by the Granite by taking out shot rock to make it 3-2 after a measurement in three gave Jenkyns a steal of one.
Solid shot-making by both skips in the last four ends kept the scoring to a minimum.
Jenkyns, last year’s champion, escaped a potential big end by the Granite in five to knot it at three and also benefited from timely hits by her teammates in seven.
The men’s final marked the second year in a row the Dale Briske rink faced-off against Dan Sherrard of the Crestwood.
Briske, who was unavailable for the game, had Gary Greening calling the shots and Jamie King filling at third, while Rick Dallyn and Grant Cook were back as the front-end tandem the 6-3 loss in seven ends.
After two blanked ends, Sherrard opened the scoring with a deuce in three and the next end stole one on a measurement to lead by three.
A draw for two by Greening put St. Albert on the board in five.
Sherrard sealed the deal in six with a draw for three after Greening hit a guard with his last shot and the Crestwood lying two.
It was the first loss after four wins by the Briske team and Sherrard ran the table at 4-0.
Last year’s final was 8-2 in seven ends for Briske, with King subbing for Les Ferguson, over Sherrard, the Canadian Dominion (now Travelers) club champion in 2012 and 2013.
The mixed final was an interesting affair as the Saville Centre scored three in eight to win 7-5 against Jason Tuininga.
A lower body injury early in the final to Kathy Piper, who was subbing for Jenkyns, the regular third for Tuininga, resulted in St. Albert curler Laurie Conrad being pulled from the upstairs’ viewing lounge to replace Piper in the third end without her own curling gear.
Piper and Conrad, along with Monk, were Jenkyns’ rinkmates as city champions last year.
Tuininga, with Burke Atkinson at second and Alyssa Tuininga at lead, fell behind 4-2 after four ends before rattling off singles in the next three ends to lead 5-4.
Two rock-pounding shots by Tuininga in five with the Saville in position to steal cut the deficit to one.
In the next end, the last shot by the Saville skip was picked as Tuininga pulled even at four.
In seven, a well-guarded rock was untouchable as Tuininga stole another point for the team’s second lead of the match.
Tuininga’s record at cities was 3-1 and one of the victories was against the Saville in the first qualifier. The Saville finished 4-1.
Combo camp
The ninth annual Hawks Combo Camp is accepting registrations for its volleyball and basketball sessions Aug. 21 to 23 at the SkyDome.The popular camp is designed for males and females 12 to 15 years old to prepare for school volleyball and basketball club team tryouts under the direction of certified coaches and elite level local players.
Volleyball runs from 9 a.m. to noon and basketball goes from 12:45 to 3:45 p.m.
Players can register for one sport individually or attend the entire day and compete in both sports.
This year’s volleyball camp will be divided into competitive and recreational sides and each is capped at 14 players for 28 overall. Both are still co-ed.
The competitive side will be comprised of athletes who have played on their school’s senior teams or present club players and will focus on same position specific skills and game play.
The recreation side will cater to typically younger players with more introductory concepts and fundamentals.
The lead volleyball instructors are Kacey Jost (UBC Thunderbirds, outside hitter/defensive specialist) and Sarah Dedrick (Augustana-U of A, setter) and both are St. Albert Skyhawks’ alumna.
John Dedrick, head coach of the Skyhawks women’s basketball team, 4A provincial bronze medallists and metro Edmonton division one champions in 2018, and co-founder of PANTHAWK Basketball Academy for females 13 to 18 years old, is the hoops instructor.
The registration fee is $110 for one session (nine hours of instruction) or $200 for both (18 hours of instruction) and all players receive a T-shirt.
Space is limited. Registration, waiver and payment will be processed on a first-come, first-served basis.
To register, email Dedrick at [email protected].
