Throw downs of various flavours
Good luck to local grapplers who are headed north to Edson this Friday and Saturday for the Alberta Schools Athletic Association Rural Wrestling Provincials. Qualifiers then advance to the full ASAA mat provincials two weeks down the trail, where the fields include Edmonton and Calgary reps. In terms of various body types, it’s hard for me to think of a fairer sport than wrestling. ••• With Family Day and Teacher’s Convention there are very few weekday high school sporting events this time around, but I do note the Chinook basketball lads challenge Catholic Central (winners of three straight league games) at Catholic Central Campus East tonight. Junior varsity action is set to tip at 6 p.m., followed by the varsity fray. ••• Crowds have been remarkable, perhaps record breaking, at various related Southern Alberta High School 4A Boys and Girls Basketball League
(www.SouthHoops.ca) venues this season. On the boys varsity side, six of eight teams are .500 or better. Games I can see drawing massive houses this weekend include Cardston at LCI Friday, and Magrath at Raymond Saturday. ••• Congratulations to the 8-0 Cardston junior varsity girls who captured their SAHSGBL regular season and will be the No. 1 playoff seed. It’s too lengthy to get into here but in JV girls only the first meeting between teams counts towards the regular-season crown and postseason seeding.
As for the varsity girls, they are divided into Division A and Division B for the final two weeks of the regular season over the next fortnight. Records from the first round-robin section of the schedule carry over to divisional play.
Division A: LCI (8-0), Taber W.R. Myers (7-1), Raymond (6-2), Cardston (5-3).
Division B: Medicine Hat (4-4), Catholic Central (3-5), Magrath (2-6), Chinook (1-7), Winston Churchill (08).
There are four Division A encounters this weekend with Cardston at LCI, plus Myers visiting Raymond Friday, while Saturday sees LCI in Raymond and Myers trekking to Cardston.
One oddity I was made aware of in the past few days is that no team has beat a team above it currently in the standings this season. Thus, the ultimate chalk loop (although I’m presuming — and hoping — there isn’t any actual betting on the league.) ••• The second of three official ASAA basketball rankings was released last Friday, with the final tally scheduled to come out March 2. Not surprisingly, there is copious South Zone content on the most recent nice list.
4A Girls - LCI (2); Raymond (7), Catholic Central (10), Medicine Hat High (Honourable Mention, which means between 11-15).
4A Boys - Cardston (5), Raymond (6), Medicine Hat (9), Magrath (10), LCI (HM).
3A Girls - W.R. Myers (1), Medicine Hat McCoy (2), Magrath (6), Dunmore Eagle Butte (HM).
3A Boys - McCoy (5), W.R. Myers (HM). 2A Girls - Immanuel Christian (3), Picture Butte (8), Coaldale Kate Andrews (9), Vauxhall (HM). 2A Boys - Claresholm Willow Creek (2), Vauxhall (4). 1A Girls - Stirling (1), Milk River Erle Rivers (3), Bow Island Senator Gershaw (HM), Coaldale Christian (HM), Foremost (HM). 1A Boys - Lundbreck Livingstone (1), Senator Gershaw (3), Coaldale Christian (7), Pincher Creek St. Michael (10), Foremost (HM), Nanton J.T. Foster
Looking at that list, it’s easy to get excited about South Zone Championships the week of March 6-11. As per usual following Wednesday games in higher ranked schools, the 4A hub will be the 1st Choice Savings Centre on the University of Lethbridge Campus, with all 1A-2A games at Lethbridge College’s Val Matteotti Gym. This time around 3A is headed to Medicine Hat McCoy.
As for provincials in the area, March 16-18, 4A will be presented at eight high school gyms, plus U of L Friday afternoon and evening, then all day Saturday; 3A is centred at McCoy, with 1A hosted by Gershaw. If you like watching high school hoops there will be many options available. •• • As for high school curling, a reminder next weekend, March 3-4, Catholic Central is the ASAA provincials host on ATB Centre Lethbridge Curling Club ice.
WELLSIE’S WORLD — I see the Lethbridge College basketball teams complete their Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference regular seasons this weekend at home hosting Briercrest who call Caronport, Saskatchewan home. It’s an oldschool Friday evening (women 6 p.m., men follow)/Saturday afternoon (women 1 p.m., men follow) ACAC doubleheader. Brad
Karren’s LC women are a true superpower, sporting a 19-0 season mark. They’ll return to home Val Matteotti Gym hardwood next week hosting the provincial Final Eight.
As for Ryan Heggie’s LC men, they are 13-6. Without delving into tiebreakers deeply it appears to me they could finish 2nd-4th in the South Division. The locals have booked passage to Medicine Hat for the men’s provincials, but earning a better seed this weekend certainly would seem to be desirable.