Amanda-Dawn Coderre of St. Albert is on top of the world as the head coach of the junior women’s gold-medal winning curling team from Canada.
The Kelsey Rocque rink of third Keely Brown, second Taylor McDonald, lead Claire Tully and alternate Alison Kotylak from the Saville Community Sports Centre is the first Canadian women’s team since 2003, and the ninth in history, to win the world championship after beating Kyeong-Ae Kim of South Korea 6-4 in Wednesday’s final at the Waldhaus Arena in Flims, Switzerland.
Team Canada also edged South Korea 7-6 in the Page 1-2 playoff.
In the final the Canadians scored a deuce in the seventh end to lead 4-3 and stole two points in eight to break the game open against the first South Korean rink to qualify for junior worlds.
In the round robin South Korea defeated Canada 8-6 in an extra end as both teams finished 7-2.
Coderre, 27, a first-year head coach, was joined at worlds by her father, Garry, the associate coach for the University of Alberta curling program who served as the Canadian Curling Association team leader.
The Alberta Pandas’ foursome is also the seventh Alberta rink to win the junior women’s national title.
Rocque is the only player with U20 junior eligibility remaining from the team that compiled a 26-4 record in the provincial, national and world championships.
Wrestlers from the Bellerose and Paul Kane high schools pinned down provincial berths at the recent Edmonton zone championships in Stony Plain.
Conor McIntyre of the Paul Kane Blues was the 90-kilogram winner and Jack Hanna of the Bellerose Bulldogs placed second in the 120-kg plus category.
In the female 57-kg category Bellerose grapplers’ Jordan Piesinger finished third and Claire Vandervelden was fourth.
The top five wrestlers in each weight category at zones are eligible to compete at provincials this weekend in Calgary.
Evan Nelson of Bellerose also placed sixth out of 13 wrestlers in the 68 kg category.
High school basketball products from St. Albert celebrated an Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference championship with the MacEwan University Griffins last weekend.
The Griffins defeated the University of Alberta Augustana Vikings 74-65 in the ACAC final in Olds with forward Kelly Fagan of the Paul Kane Blues and guards Amber Easthope, Paige Knull, and Kendall Lydon and forward Katie Burak of the St. Albert Skyhawks on the roster.
Lydon scored 17 points and Fagan and Knull tossed in 10 apiece in the final as the Griffins battle back from deficits of 23-15 in the first quarter and 36-32 at halftime to lead 55-50 entering the fourth quarter.
The Griffins are 22-2 going into the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association championship next week in Longueuil, Quebec, with Champlain College St-Lambert hosting. The Vikings will join the Griffins at nationals as a wild card team.
The Griffins tipped-off the ACAC tournament with an 87-55 decision against Olds College Broncos as Fagan recorded 16 points and 11 rebounds and Lydon tacked up 15 points.
Fagan also tossed in 10 points in the 69-58 semifinal win over the Lethbridge Kodiaks.
Fagan is one of two Griffins remaining from the 2011/12 team that finished 24-0 as ACAC champions. At nationals in Lethbridge the Griffins placed fourth overall.
