Valkyries victorious
The St. Albert Valkyries proved their first win in team history wasn’t a fluke.
The female midget spring league team tamed the Leduc Wildcats 43-0 Friday to kick off the four-team regular season in the Capital District Minor Football Association after defeating the West Edmonton Raiders 20-19 the previous weekend in exhibition action.
The six-on-six full contact format consists of two halfs of 30-minute running time and the field is divided into two to accommodate two games at the same time.
The 45-yard line is the starting point for the offence and if the team doesn’t score on the drive, the opponent huddles up with the ball at 45.
The game against Leduc at Clarke Stadium got out of hand pretty quickly as the Valkyries scored on all but two possessions and one of them was a kneel out at the end.
Among the Valkyries who changed positions from the first game because of injuries was Olivia Colbourne. Head coach Rob Patrick lost count how many touchdowns the offensive player of the game scored but it was a handful as Colbourne piled up more than 150 rushing yards.
Brooke-Lynn Finnerty filled in at quarterback and scored a TD while guiding the offence like a savvy veteran.
Hannah Stolarchuk, Jasmine Desvoyault and Lily Smith provided staunch blocking on the offensive line.
Julia Baniak, the defensive player of the game, pulled off a nifty interception in addition to making 10 tackles and several were of the TD-saving variety.
Emily Krause, the youngest on the team of Grade 9, 10 and 11 players, also recovered a fumble and was credited with six tackles.
The Valkyries, with 12 players on the roster for the season opener against the Raiders, welcomed Abigail Lepine and Allyssa Chaabane into the fold and with only one practice they didn’t look out of place in their team debuts.
The next game for the Valkyries is April 26 against the Wetaskiwin Warriors at 8:15 p.m. at Larry Olexiuk Field. Gate admission is $5.
Wetaskiwin’s record is 1-1 after the 40-13 exhibition win against Leduc and Friday’s 46-38 loss to the Raiders.
Club provincials
Third place was the order of finish for the St. Albert rink skipped by Lauren Atkinson at the Curling Alberta women’s club championship.
Atkinson, third Christina Monk, second Andrea Forbes and lead Ashley Sykes started off the eight-team tournament at the Calgary Curling Club with two losses before stacking three wins together for a berth in Sunday’s semifinal against Vanessa McConnell of the North Hill Curling Club of Calgary.
McConnell, the B qualifier, counted five in the first end and a deuce in three made it 7-2.
The Atkinson foursome kept chipping away at the deficit with a deuce in four and steals of one in five and three in six to lead 8-7.
McConnell replied with a deuce in seven and a steal of one in eight.
McConnell went on to lose the final 11-3 in seven ends to Nanette Dupont of Lethbridge.
Losses of 6-5 to McConnell and 6-4 to Dupont, the B qualifier, dropped Atkinson into the C bracket and the 2018 President’s Cup playoff champions at the St. Albert Curling Club responded with victories of 7-4 against Michelle Hartwell of Sherwood Park and 7-6 against Suzie Kennedy of Ellerslie in the second of two C qualifiers.
Down 4-1 against Hartwell, Atkinson counted one in five and the next end was blanked before steals of two in seven and three in eight completed the comeback.
The C qualifier was decided by a four-spot in three and a steal of one in four to make it 7-3.
The 3-4 playoff against Sheena Engle of Okotoks, the first C qualifier, ended with Atkinson scoring the winning point in the extra end.
A deuce in seven put Atkinson on top 5-4 and Engle replied with one in eight.
Atkinson (nee Jenkyns), the 2013 provincial club champion curling with Kathy Piper, Laurie Conrad and Diana Backer, qualified for provincials by going 4-0 as the A event winner at last month’s playdowns in Leduc.
Senior Bowl
Three receivers from St. Albert cracked the lineup for the North All-Stars at the 30th annual Senior Bowl High School Football All-Star Game.
Ethan Wedman of the Paul Kane Blues, Nathan Brake of the Sturgeon Spirits and Travis Heggart, a former Bellerose Bulldog who played for the Salisbury Sabres last year, were among seven pass catchers on the 42-man roster.
Last weekend’s selection camp for the North All-Stars at Foote Field consisted of 150 Grade 12 players, including two Bulldogs, three Paul Kane reps and two from Sturgeon.
The Senior Bowl against the South All-Stars is May 20 in Calgary.
Metro all-stars
The Metro Athletics All-Stars in volleyball and basketball for the 2018-19 season are as follows:
Bellerose Bulldogs: Zoe Zurowski, basketball.
Paul Kane Blues: Bryce Neuls, volleyball; Ella Stanley and Jack MacPherson, basketball.
St. Albert Skyhawks: Teá DeMong and Kyle Torok-Both, basketball.
Sturgeon Spirits: Harley Patterson and Ben Keiser, volleyball; Jenessa Doctor, basketball.
Meanwhile, the Metro Athletics Coaches of the Year include JP LeBlanc of Sturgeon in division three men’s volleyball, Rick Stanley of Paul Kane in division one women’s basketball, Kerri Meadows of Sturgeon in division two women’s basketball and Jason Lafferty of Bellerose in division one Carr conference football.
The Coach of the Year recipients are voted on by the coaches with the metro Edmonton high school leagues/divisions and is a peer recognition award that is sponsored by the University of Alberta Golden Bears and Pandas.
