The St. Albert Curling Club slides into its 50th season at the TachĂ© Street facility Thursday night, when league play gets underway in the men’s and mixed divisions.
Only a few leagues still have openings for this winter.
Registration is up five per cent from the 2011/12 total of 800 curlers. Including bonspiels and special events, more than 1,000 curlers threw rocks last season.
The first bonspiel is the Men’s St. Albert OK Tire, Nov. 15 to 18.
Also on tap is the Solo Liquor Mixed Bonspiel, Jan. 24 to 27, St. Albert Centre Ladies’ Bonspiel, Feb. 21 to 24 and the River Ridge Seniors Community 50-plus playdowns, March 21 and 22.
Additional highlights for the upcoming season are as follows:
• A new dehumidifier was added to the arena, which should provide even better ice conditions.
• The arena was updated with new paint, carpeting, lighting and on ice seating.
• The concession will be open during the curling season.
• A new Monday 5:45 p.m. ladies’ league has been established.
• The Monday night men’s league will curl each week at 8 p.m.
• The Wednesday ladies’ league will alternate between 6 and 8:15 p.m.
• A new daytime stick curling league has been formed for Friday mornings.
• More beginners spots includes 24 rinks in total for Wednesday and Saturday nights.
• Enhanced focus on the Thursday junior (ages 12-18) and Sunday little rock (ages seven to 13) curling programs.
• A new playoff schedule will see less lag time between the regular season and the start of playoffs for all leagues.
For more information on registering for league play or bonspiels, visit www.stalbertcurling.com or contact Lynda at 780-459-7007.
The Victoria U18 Tier I girls are going to the Canadian Soccer Youth Club Championships with four St. Albert players on their roster.
Forward Tyler-Rae Molloy, midfielders Madison Kindzierski and Haylee Fank and defender Jade Fisher will kick the ball for Victoria at the Oct. 3 to 8 tournament in Sydney, N.S.
In league play Victoria finished first at 12-0-1 (54 GF and eight GA) in the Edmonton Interdistrict Youth Soccer Association.
At provincials Victoria outscored its opponents 9-0 in three matches, including a 1-0 decision over Blizzard Juventus in the final.
Victoria was also victorious in the U19 gold B playoffs at the Schwan’s USA Cup, a major North American tournament in Minnesota in July.
The provincial 3A/4A high school golf championships wrapped up Tuesday for the St. Albert Skyhawks.
Representing the championship winning Edmonton zone team in Fort McMurray was the foursome of Tyler Saunders, Salvatore DeRose, Joshua Barwick and Noah Lubberding.
Results were unavailable at press time.
At zones recently the Skyhawks finished first out of 23 schools with a team score of 233 at the Links Golf Course in Spruce Grove.
The Edmonton Christian Lions placed second at 245 and the Bev Facey Falcons were third at 247.
The Sturgeon Spirits finished 13th at 265 and the Bellerose Bulldogs placed 14th at 268.
Saunders carded an 18-hole score of 76 as the low gross winner. Barwick and Bryce Melville of the Spirits tied for second at 77, with Melville winning the playoff tiebreaker.
