Track events highlight week
The University of Lethbridge Community Stadium has undoubtedly become the hub of local school track and field. This spring alone I see at least nine meets scheduled for the vast and modern athletics (the official Olympic name of track and field) venue.
From a Grade 10-12 perspective, the premiere showdown there in 2018 is the Lethbridge High School Track Meet this Thursday. Lethbridge is one of six districts in the Alberta Schools Athletic Association’s South Zone. I presume all are holding qualifying this week for the zone championships next Thursday, May 24, in Medicine Hat. The ASAA provincials are set for June 1-2 in Red Deer. ••• There is a plethora of additional high school team sporting action on the weekdays leading up to this long weekend. Rugby, baseball and slopitch loops are all in high gear, getting ready for regular season stretch runs. ••• From what I can gather there is very little ASAA sporting action scheduled for this Victoria Day holiday weekend. However, I see the Vauxhall Academy of Baseball Jets are set to host their high schoolaged elite Haven Agencies Invitational Tournament Thursday though Sunday.
As a sporting info aside, the ASAA does not allow Sunday competition under its sanctioning umbrella.
As a history (my undergrad degree — yes, I did drive cab and deliver food for a while) info aside, Victoria Day is named after Queen Victoria, who reigned from 1837-2001, an era when Britannia — and thus Canada by extension — really did rule the globe’s waves to a large degree. Alberta is named for her fourth daughter. ••• I note three local high school performers have been named to Alberta’s U-17 Provincial Girls Basketball Team who will head off to Fredericton, New Brunswick for Canada Basketball National Championships in August. They are powerful Grade 11 post
Kitawna Sparks, from ASAA 3A provincial champion Taber W.R. Myers; Grade 11 guard Savannah
McKee, a key Swiss Army knife in Stirling’s 1A provincial conquest; and Saige Gibb a long, long Grade 9 point from Raymond. Sparks and McKee are Alberta Basketball provincial program veterans in their last year of eligibility, while Gibb debuts on a provincial team with one summer left of U-17 eligibility.
Aggressive Catholic Central Grade 10 combo guard Kyra Collier is one of two alternates on this roster in her first year of U-17 eligibility. She has two previous seasons of provincial team experience.
Without question, all four of these kids have significant postsecondary upside. They have talent and there is absolutely no doubt training near year-round is a crucial component, especially if they aspire to play at the university level.
The team is head coached by University of Lethbridge’s campusbased lead assistant Dave
Waknuk. He’s been a strong contributor to the We The South basketball community since earning a form of hoop refugee status emigrating from Grande Prairie, well, actually Spirit River (brr!) to start the trek. ••• Just because there aren’t any ASAA-sanctioned sporting events this weekend doesn’t mean there won’t be high school athletes in action. For example, the Lethbridge College Kodiak Growl Basketball Tournament hits the hardwood. From what I can gather there are a minimum of 12 club hoop events in the area this spring. WELLSIE’S WORLD — I’m very impressed with the massive improvements in the Lethbridge College athletic website (GoKodiaks.ca) this past year. Truly laudatory.
In terms of a program with 25 years of consistent excellence, I tip my figurative cap to Todd Hubka and his Prairie Baseball Academy outfit.
I’m really pleased to read Catholic Central product Matteo Pasquotti is in the Lethbridge FC soccer lineup this season. He literally played in the 2011 FIFA U-17 World Cup, plus spent a season in the Vancouver Whitecaps residency program. Matteo has struggled with injuries since his high school days. When even close to healthy and in pitch condition he can be a force.
Hopefully Justify is healthy and ready to put on a show in the Preakness Stakes this weekend. Rocky Mountain Turf Club offers patrons live and telecast viewing opportunities in close proximity.
I’m intrigued to see the Excited States Supreme Court has now paved the road to legalized team sports gambling governed by interested American states. I note most major profit-seeking leagues’ sanctioning bodies supported this change. No doubt they crave working with governments, to fishing a potentially rich new stream, perhaps looking to supplement plausibly declining cable rights fees as more viewers cut the cord.
One coming local links event that has my senses tingling is the June 21-24 Mackenzie (previously Canadian) Tour Lethbridge Paradise Canyon Open. The men’s tourney has a prize pool of $200,000, but that’s only scratching the surface of its importance.
This is the level of outing patrons will almost certainly be able to look back on in the not too distant future while watching the top world tours and say: “I saw that guy in Lethbridge.”
From what I can gather, the Mackenzie Tour is somewhere around the No. 9 circuit on the globe, with points earned going towards the World Golf Rankings.
Heck, it wasn’t that long ago that Canada’s current best male and female golfers Adam Hadwin and
Brooke Henderson played in respective Canadian Amateur Championships here (and didn’t come close to winning.) On a world scale the Mackenzie Tour is clearly an exponentially superior level.