Springbank soccer teams win banners
2022 was a banner year for both of Springbank Community High School’s soccer teams.
In early June, the Phoenix boys’ soccer team overcame the Bert Church Chargers 2-1 in the Rocky View Sports Association (RVSA) championship game in Cochrane. The result marked a repeat of the 2019 championship game, when Springbank beat Bert Church 1-0 to claim the division banner.
Technically, it meant Springbank had defended their RVSA title from 2019, when they also beat Bert Church in the gold-medal match. (The 2020 and 2021 seasons were cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic).
Unfortunately for the Phoenix boys’ team, there was no South Central Zones tournament this year, but it meant their 2022 season got to end on the high of winning a league title.
In total, Springbank posted a 6-1-1 record this season.
In the fall, the Phoenix’s girls’ soccer team proved even more dominant than the boys did. With a squad boasting several Tier 1 club and Regional Excellence (REX) players, Springbank dominated the RVSA, coasting to the 2022 league championship with an unbeaten record.
The Phoenix toppled their bitter rivals, the Cochrane Cobras, from the RVSA pedestal by winning the title game 6-0 in late October at Airdrie’s Monklands Park. It ended a four-year title-winning streak the Cobras had enjoyed since 2017 and was Springbank’s first title since 2016.
Springbank was utterly dominant in 2022, scoring 60 goals and conceding only one against RVSA opposition. They averaged more than 10 goals per game.
Away from the RVSA, they also won the South Central Zones tournament, beating Cochrane 3-1 in the gold-medal match.
Abigail Strate earns Olympic bronze
Despite it being her first Olympic Winter Games, Springbank’s Abigail Strate was among Canada’s first athletes to make the podium at the 2022 Games in Beijing, as a member of Canada’s bronze-medal-winning mixed ski jump team in February.
Strate, who grew up in Springbank but now lives and trains in Slovenia for most of the year, was just 20 years old when she flew to China as a member of Canada’s mixed ski-jumping team. As it was the first Olympic Games for three of the four athletes on the team, expectations weren’t sky-high to place on the podium – especially given the vast experience of the other competing nations.
But making the podium suddenly became a real possibility after ski jumpers from Germany, Austria, Japan, and Norway were disqualified due to equipment violations. That meant Canada was in fourth place with one final round of jumps left to go. Strate’s teammate Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes then secured the bronze with an event-best jump.
After their Olympic performances were over, Strate said she and her teammate Alexandria Loutitt were able to book a quick flight back to Calgary. While the trip was short-lived, she said it was great to catch up with friends and family for a few days before heading back to Slovenia.
Strate said the next big-ticket competition for her will be the ski jumping world championships this winter. As fate will have it, the event will be hosted in Slovenia, on the very hills she and her Canadian teammates have been training on for the last two years.
Zone 2 U16AA ringette wins nationals
The Zone 2 AA ringette association’s U16 team capped off their 2021-22 season in perfect fashion in early April, winning the national championship in front of plenty of their friends and family.
Competing in nearby Calgary, the U16AA team – comprised of players from Airdrie, Cochrane, Strathmore, and those three municipality’s near-lying communities – overcame a team from New Brunswick 7-6 in overtime to win Zone 2’s first ever national championship. It was a fitting finale, as Zone 2 and New Brunswick were the only teams still undefeated at that point of the tournament. Both teams had won seven games en route to the final.
Zone 2’s victory seemed all but certain after they took a 5-0 lead in the gold-medal game early on, but the New Brunswickers refused to lie down without a fight, battling back in the second and third periods to tie the game 6-6 and force overtime.
Zone 2 head coach Wes Clark credited his players' ability to stay mentally sharp throughout the tournament, and said winning the championship was a full-group effort. According to the head coach, every game saw different players step up to the plate and put in game-winning performances.
That being said, three Zone 2 players enjoyed particularly strong tournaments, as evidenced by their selection on the tournament’s all-star team – Strathmore’s Karley Clark, Airdrie’s Madi Rice, and Langdon’s Talisa Cowley.
Edge U15 boys hockey team wins first CSSHL banner
Before 2022, the Edge School for Athletes’ U15 boys hockey team had never won a Canadian Sport School Hockey League (CSSHL) championship.
That changed in mid-March, when the Edge Mountaineers bested the Abbotsford-based Yale Hockey Academy 6-5 in the CSSHL’s gold-medal game. Owen Cooper scored a hat trick for the Mountaineers in the game, while Reed Reschny, Kyle Oakenfold, and Cruz Pavao also added to the team's goal tally. At the other end of the ice, Cole Prelusky registered 38 saves to keep the Edge's lead intact.
Not only was it the Springbank-based private school’s first CSSHL banner for the U15 age group, but also the first time a team from outside B.C.’s Lower Mainland area of Greater Vancouver had not won the division title.
The end result was somewhat surprising as the Edge had only finished third during the regular season. However, head coach Micki DuPont said the players elevated their performance at just the right time to come away from the playoff tournament victorious.
During the regular season, the Edge posted a 20-6-1 record to secure third place. The Mountaineers outscored opponents 166-85 to record the division's second-best goal differential.
“Throughout the year, we talked about continuing to get better and better,” DuPont said. “I don’t want to say it doesn’t matter if you win the regular-season games, but we had the goal all year of winning the playoff championship. That was our final goal no matter what. It didn’t matter if we were winning 8-1 or losing 8-1, we wanted to play the right way the whole time.”
St Gabriel boys' basketball team wins cities again
For the second season in a row (albeit, not the second year in a row, as the 2020-21 season was cancelled due to COVID) the St. Gabriel the Archangel Guardians senior boys’ basketball team won the Calgary city championship in their division.
The Chestermere-based basketball team beat the Nelson Mandela United 84-73 in the Calgary Senior High School Athletic Association’s (CSHSAA) Division 3 championship game. Star guard Thomas Teshome led in scoring with 47 points.
Before the playoffs, the Guardians dominated the Division 3 standings, posting a 9-1 regular-season record and outscoring their CSSHSA opponents 855-572 across their 10 league games.
They continued that positive momentum in the playoffs. Led by Teshome, St. Gabriel beat the Robert Thirsk Comets 88-66 in the quarterfinals and the Henry Wisewood Warriors 101-75 in the semis to book their spot in the banner game against Nelson Mandela.
According to head coach and St. Gabriel teacher Darrell van Paridon, the players were elated to defend their title from 2020, and said it was great to do so against Nelson Mandela, who have become somewhat of a regular rival for the Guardians’ boys’ basketball team. The United were also the team St. Gabriel beat in the 2020 city finals.
While the Guardians were confident heading into the banner game, van Paridon acknowledged there was some uncertainty, as St. Gabriel hadn’t played against Nelson Mandela yet that season.
Unfortunately for the Guardians, the team didn’t have the chance to compete at the provincial championships this year, as they lost a play-in game to St. Peter the Apostle Catholic High School to compete in the provincial tournament.
Springbank boys' rugby team wins zones title
Due to an initial lack of interest among student-athletes and the uncertainty of who would coach, Springbank Community High School almost didn’t form a boys’ team for the 2022 Big Sky rugby league season.
Thankfully, Springbank was able to cobble together a squad and find a coach at the last minute. Despite being hastily assembled and featuring mostly newcomers to the sport, the Phoenix boys’ rugby team went on to win the South Central Zones banner in May, thanks to a dramatic last-second penalty kick in the tournament’s gold-medal match against the Strathcona-Tweedsmuir Spartans.
A 40-metre penalty kick from James Keane on the last play of the game won the banner for Springbank, who overcame Strathcona-Tweedsmuir 25-22 at Rugby Union Park in Calgary.
In a Déjà vu moment for both teams, the zones banner tilt was a rematch of the 2019 Big Sky rugby league sem-ifinal, which was a similarly back-and-forth encounter between Springbank and Strathcona-Tweesdmuir that went down to the wire. But while Strathcona-Tweedsmuir won that 2019 match in penalty kicks following a hard-fought tie, the Phoenix managed to reverse their fortunes this time around.
With the game tied 22-22 with just a few seconds left, the Phoenix drew a penalty less than 10 metres in front of the field's halfway line. Keane, trusting his kicking confidence, opted to go for the kick. Despite the lofty chances, his kick soared through the uprights to seal the win for Springbank.
Beiseker school's relay team competes at provincials
With its small enrolment, Beiseker Community School’s athletics program is not very well known at the provincial level in Alberta. But four Grade 11 relay runners from the rural 1A school helped put the village on the map at this year’s Alberta Schools Athletic Association’s (ASAA) track-and-field provincial championships in Medicine Hat.
Beiseker Community School’s Ethan Meyer, Nolan Bell, Zach Harnack, and Colten Spackman competed in the Grade 11 boys' 4x100-metre (m) relay competition at provincials, just barely missing out on the event’s final heat with a preliminary heat time of 48.16 seconds. It put the fast foursome in ninth place.
According to Shane Hansen, Beiseker Community School’s athletics coordinator and track coach, this year marked the first time the village's K-12 school sent a relay team to the high-school provincial track championships. While Beiseker has sent athletes to the ASAA meet before, Hansen said the school usually sends throws or jump specialists.
Beiseker's fast foursome had qualified for the Medicine Hat meet after winning the 4x100-m relay at both the Rocky View Schools divisional meet and the subsequent South Central Zones meet, according to Hansen.
While being the ninth-fastest Grade 11 boys’ relay team in Alberta is a tremendous accomplishment, Hansen noted a poor exchange of the baton meant their time was actually slower than the team’s usual pace.
Showcasing his overall athleticism, Meyer also competed for Beiseker in the Grade 11 boys' high-jump, triple jump, and 1500-m race at provincials. He placed 15th in the high jump with a height of 1.65 m, sixth in the triple jump with a distance of 12.02 m, and fourth in the 1500-m, with a time of 4:27.08.
Irricana swimmer wins five medals at Canada Summer Games
Irricana swimmer Addison Butler demonstrated his versatility at the 2022 Canada Summer Games in Niagara Falls, Ont. this past August, competing and placing in multiple events throughout the multi-sport event’s swimming competition.
The then-17-year-old picked up five medals for Team Alberta in Ontario, including gold in the 4x100-metre (m) freestyle mixed relay and silvers in the 200-m individual medley and the 4x100-m medley relay.
Interestingly, Butler said it wasn't the gold or the two silvers he was most proud of, but rather his bronze in the 50-m butterfly. The accolade came thanks to a finals time of 25:54, which he said was especially fast for him.
“It was kind of out of nowhere – it’s just a side event for me – but I ended up dropping a massive amount of time, beating my teammates and I ended up medalling,” he said. “It’s kind of one I’m proud of, even though it wasn’t as high a placement as some of my other events.”
Butler also picked up bronze in the men's 4x200-m freestyle relay to round out the new additions to his medal cabinet at home.
In addition to his medal-earning performances, Butler swam in a wide range of other events, finishing eighth in the men's breast stroke, fourth in the 4x100-m freestyle relay, ninth in the 200-m freestyle, 34th in the 400-m freestyle, sixth in the 100-m freestyle, and 27th in the 50-m freestyle.
Having graduated in 2022, Butler began his post-secondary swimming career at the University of Calgary, where he is now training and competing under the watchful eye of Dinos’ swim coach Mike Blondal. Away from the pool, he is studying engineering.
Edge soccer heads to England
Members of the Edge School for Athletes' soccer program enjoyed a 10-day trip to the United Kingdom in October, where they got their kicks and culture in equal doses.
The group included both male and female players, ranging in age from grades 9 to 12. Throughout their fortnight in England, they enjoyed a range of training sessions and clinics with English Premier League academy coaches, as well as a few cultural outings, such as day trips to Stratford-upon-Avon, London, and Leicester's Museum of King Richard III.
They also played a few matches, including a co-ed game against a local boys' U15 side that ended in a 2-2 draw. The Edge girls also played a nine-vs.-nine game against Leicester City FC's female academy team, only losing by one goal.
Edge's soccer program director, Alan Rickwood, said the international excursion was something he'd wanted to do with his players for a few years, but had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We got a lot done – it was exhausting – but they got a lot of out it, both from soccer and culturally,” he said, adding the hope is for the Edge's soccer student-athletes to partake in a similar international trip annually from now on.
Cochrane surrenders RVSA, provincial titles
For the first time in over a decade, Cochrane High School's football players didn't hoist a trophy in 2022, despite yet again finishing their regular season with an unbeaten record.
This year saw the Cobras surrender their Rocky View Sports Association (RVSA) title to the George McDougall Mustangs in late October, after an inspired performance from the Airdrie team in the league's divisional championship game.
The 18-point loss marked the first time Cochrane didn't win the RVSA championship since 2014, a year George McDougall also beat the Cobras in the final. Remarkably, it was only the second time the Cobras had lost in a competitive game since that 2014 defeat.
And following two decades of provincial dominance at the Tier III level, Cochrane decided to declare for Tier I in 2022, which meant their provincial games after the RVSA season were played against bigger schools. After beating the Foothills Composite Falcons and the Henry Wisewood Warriors in their opening provincial playoff battles, the Cobras' run to the 2022 Football Alberta Bowl was sullied with a last-minute loss to the All Saints Legends in the south final.
Despite the disappointment of just missing out on a berth in the Tier I championship game, head coach Rob McNab said the players will learn from the experience and be ready to go again in 2023.
