Minor football kicks off today as the St. Albert Fury host a bantam exhibition tournament at Riel Park field.
The 2009 tier II Capital District Minor Football Association champions and provincial finalists will huddle up against the Edmonton Chargers, Sherwood Park Rams and the defending tier I provincial champion Spruce Grove Cougars. The turf will be divided in half for mini games with no special teams.
Game times are as follows:
12:20 p.m. Rams vs. Chargers (north) and Cougars vs. Fury (south)
12:55 p.m. Fury vs. Rams (north) and Chargers vs. Cougars (south)
1:30 p.m. Rams vs. Cougars (north) and Fury vs. Chargers (south)
League play for bantam, peewee and atom teams starts Aug. 21, highlighted by a tripleheader in St. Albert. The season opener features the Buccaneers against the Jaguars in atom at 10 a.m., the 49ers against Fort Saskatchewan in bantam at 11:30 a.m. and Colts against Camrose in peewee at 2 p.m.
The last home game of the season for the St. Albert premier women’s rugby team kicks off today at 1 p.m. against the Lep/Tigers at the Leading Edge Physiotherapy Fields.
St. Albert is 2-8, with both wins by defaults, and the Lep/Tigers are 5-4-1 in the four-team Alberta league standings. In past meetings the Lep/Tigers shut out St. Albert 57-0 and 68-0. Not counting the pair of 20-0 default wins, St. Albert is averaging 76.6 points against per loss.
Meanwhile, St. Albert’s second division women’s team in the Edmonton Rugby Union starts its shield playoffs Wednesday against the Strathcona Druids (4-5). Kickoff is 7 p.m. at Sherwood Park. The last game for St. Albert (1-9) in the three team round-robin draw is Aug. 25 at home against the Lep/Tigers (5-5) at 7 p.m. In league play the top four teams qualified for the playoff cup semifinals and the remaining teams compete in the consolation round.
This weekend the Alberta West Central Baseball Association hosts its second annual Fall Classic at Legion Memorial Park.
The St. Albert senior Cardinals are in the 30-plus division with the Westlock Red Lions, Cadogan Night Hawks, Spruce Grove Eagles, Stony Plain Codgers, Slave Lake Heat and Edmonton Heat.
The 44-plus division includes the Edmonton Blues, Red Deer Snow Birds, Slave Lake CanAlta Cats and the Spruce Grove (44-plus) Eagles.
The Cardinals opened the tournament Friday night against Westlock but the score was unavailable at press time.
Today the Cardinals are up to bat against the Edmonton Heat at 10:30 a.m.
Sunday’s playoffs start at 8:15 a.m. and ends with the 3:30 p.m. final.
Last year the Cardinals finished 2-2 and were eliminated in the semifinals.
In league play the Cardinals placed fourth out of seven teams at 9-8. The top team was the Fort Saskatchewan Athletics at 15-3.
