Bragg Creek area’s Megan Pelkey is a world U17 waterski champion
Megan Pelkey went to Chile in January for the IWWF World Under-17 Water Ski Championships, where she won three medals–resulting in the local teen claiming the overall girls title.
“I remember going into it just very level and neutral," said the 16 year-old Pelkey. "Winning was not my main focus. I just went in there with the goal of skiing my best and putting all my effort into it, and then the title happened. I just couldn’t believe it.”
Pelkey was the only female competitor to make it to all three finals (slalom, track, and jump) and was one of just 10 Canadian athletes competing in Santiago. Canada, with the help of Pelkey, claimed silver as a team at the event as well.
Later in May, Pelkey went to Florida to train for the 2023 Junior Masters Water Ski Tournament which would be held in Callaway Gardens, Florida. Megan would not be the only Pelkey sister to make news in 2023.
Bragg Creek skier Rebecca Pelkey to race at 2023 Canada Winter Games
15 year-old Rebecca Pelkey, sister of championship water skier Megan Pelkey, punched her ticket to represent Team Alberta at the 2023 Canada Winter Games after she qualified in the Slalom, Giant Slalom, and Super G events at a competition in Panorama, British Columbia.
At the 2022 U-16 Nationals at Mt. Tremblant in Quebec Pelkey won silver in the Slalom. The Bragg Creek area teen said it’s the competition aspect of ski racing that drives her to commit to long hours of cross-training.
“I can’t wait to see where I stand against everyone in Canada," said Pelkey. She started skiing at four or five years old and kept her aspirations modest–she hoped for a top five finish or even a podium placement.
Held every four years, the Canada Winter Games features Canada’s top under 20 athletes that compete in a variety of winter sports. Most of the events for the 2023 games were held in Prince Edward Island, while the skiing events took place at Crabbe Mountain in New Brunswick, from February 28 to March 5.
Pelkey ended up winning two medals at the Winter Games, coming home with silvers in both the Slalom and Super G events.
Springbank snowboarder collects two medals at Canada Winter Games
Rocky View County athletes had a good year in 2023, especially when it came to the 2023 Canada Winter Games.
15 year-old snowboarder Felicity Geremia jumped and raced her way to a pair of medals at the Winter Games in Prince Edward Island. Geremia finished in third place in the big air competition and collected a silver medal in the parallel giant slalom.
“It was crazy–I wasn’t expecting to be near the podium,” said Geremia. In addition to her podium finishes, Geremia finished in fifth place in the snowboard cross and the slopestyle.
Even though she finished on the podium, Geremia doesn’t consider any of the events she competed in during the Winter Games as her strongest–for most of the snowboarding season, Geremia is a half-pipe specialist.
Earlier in the year, Geremia also won the World Rookie Tour event at Copper Mountain, which earned her an invite to the Tour’s championship event in Austria, which took place in March.
Despite her jam-packed snowboarding schedule, Geremia is also a competitive soccer player with the Calgary West Soccer Club that plays in the Alberta Youth Soccer League–the highest level of soccer available to youth players in Alberta.
In order to accommodate her hectic athletics schedule, Geremia is a student at the Edge School, which caters to elite-level student athletes.
Rocky View County powerlifter among Canada’s best
In March, Rocky View County teen Luc Dahlman, a 17 year-old Madden resident, finished first in the sub-senior (U19) division at the 2023 Canadian Powerlifting Union National Championships in Richmond, B.C.
Dahlman set three personal-record (PR) lifts in the squat, bench press, and deadlift categories and claimed gold with a 441 lbs squat, a 298 lbs bench press, and a 529 lbs deadlift.
“I came into the meet with a less than optimal prep period," said Dahlman. "I was battling through some injuries and got sick a couple of times. So to come out on the day and set three new PRs felt great.”
Dahlman had been competing in powerlifting since he was 14, although he said he had started working out in gyms and lifting weights much before then. A baseball player before he was a competitive weight-lifter, Dahlman said he came to prefer the training aspect of baseball, which made him gravitate towards powerlifting.
As a student of the Edge School, Dahlman is a member of the school’s fitness academy and gets to carve out a two-hour period every morning to work on his powerlifting in the school’s gym.
Thanks to his first place finish in B.C., Dahlman earned a spot on the Canadian National powerlifting team that competed in the world powerlifting championships in Romania in September.
Beiseker athlete puts school’s wrestling program on the ‘mat’ with provincial win
15-year-old Cash Friend, a Grade 10 student at Beiseker Community School, won the school’s first provincial banner in wrestling at the Alberta Schools Athletic Association (ASAA) championships, held in Lethbridge on March 18.
Friend said he contributed his provincial-winning performance to the work he put in during the weeks and months leading up to the competition. “I knew I’d done the work to be able to win and the goal coming together was nice,” said Friend.
In order to qualify for the ASAA competition, Friend had to first win the Rural Wrestling Provincial championship, which was held in Grand Prairie. Friend bested a wrestler from Cochrane High School in the boys’ 56-kg final.
While Beiseker Community School has won banners for athletics before, Shane Hanson, the school’s athletic director, said that Friend’s accomplishment was a major milestone for the school’s athletic department. Hanson noted that it was the first provincial banner for wrestling in the school’s history.
“As the athletic director here, it’s important the community knows the hard work Cash has put in to make this happen,” said Hanson.
Langdon siblings win national championship with Mount Royal Cougars hockey team
Another pair of sisters won some pretty impressive hardware in 2023 when Abbey and Kaia Borbandy helped the Mount Royal Cougars beat the Concordia Stingrays 4-3 in overtime to win gold at the 2023 USports women’s hockey championship in Montreal.
Abbey, a third-year player on defense, and Kaia, a second-year forward, said it felt surreal to play a part in MRU’s first national championship in women’s hockey. “It obviously meant a lot to the program, not only because we worked so hard for it, but it just felt like all the hard work paid off," said Kaia.
“There was no doubt from anyone," said Abbey. "We stood together and made sure we all believed in one another.”
While it’s extremely rare to win a national championship, the two Langdon sisters agreed it’s even more special to win one alongside your sibling. However, playing together has not been an unusual thing for the Borbandy sisters given that they're just a year apart in age and have played together throughout most of their hockey careers.
“Abbey and I have played together and we’ve kind of gone through the whole minor hockey path together,” said Kaia. “I think we’ve always been a part of teams that were either in rebuild years or we were going through [adversity] a little bit. I feel this year…to play alongside each other [on a winning team] was really special.”
Crossfield youth burning up the pavement in local mini-cup car races
Rhett Pearce, a 10 year-old from Crossfield, took up the sport of mini-cup car racing when he was nine, and had churned out a few impressive performances on the Alberta racing circuit throughout the summer, including one in Medicine Hat that started to send local media his way, as if a mini Nascar driving 10 year-old wasn’t interesting in itself.
Mini-cup car racing is just like regular car racing, but with much smaller vehicles that come with a weight cap. Including the driver, the vehicle–which comes up to the hip on a regular sized adult–cannot exceed 650 pounds. However, the mini-cars can still reach speeds of 100 kilometres per hour.
“I like when I race other people and how fast we go,” said Pearce. The involvement with mini-cup car racing started for Pearce after he previously raced go-karts. He said he also enjoys watching Formula-1 and Nascar.
Pearce’s parents were just as excited about his involvement with mini-cup car racing as he was. His father Roy said that his son had been called a natural by those who have been involved with the sport for a long time.
“They say he’s a sponge because they explain something to him and he just goes out there and does it,” said Roy. Pearce’s mother Michelle added that her son had always been athletic.
Local football players win national gold with Alberta U18 football team
In July, Alberta’s U18 female tackle football team earned their second consecutive national championship over Quebec with a 52-22 win. Two local athletes contributed to Alberta’s rout–Amir Harb of Chestermere and Hannah Franssen of Langdon.
Harb and Franssen contributed to an Alberta team that finished with an unbeaten record and scored a combined 108 points in two playoff games, allowing only six points combined in their two playoff games, performances that propelled the team to the championship against Quebec.
Most of the team's players grew up playing football for male or mixed-gender teams–it wasn’t until 2022 that an all-girls tackle football league for high school aged players emerged in the province.
“We always had to play against boys and really show we had heart and deserved to play with them,” said Franssen. “I think that made a lot of our players stronger.”
Both girls planned to continue playing the sport in 2024, with Harb suiting up once again for the Chestermere Lakers, while Franssen will be moving to Henry Wisewood High School in Calgary.
Springbank Phoenix’s rise halted in provincial playoffs
The 2023 Rocky View School football league was largely dominated by the play of the George McDougall Mustangs and the Cochrane Cobras, who would go on to play each other in the championship game.
However, the Phoenix, who finished top four in the leagues standings, had a terrific season that was halted just short in the provincial playoffs when Springbank lost to the defending Tier II provincial champions, the Holy Trinity Knights.
The Phoenix finished with just one win in their rebuilding year of 2022 and Springbank head coach Tyler McRae said the team’s steady rise came about from adding strength in numbers.
“Getting some new athletes on the team, getting our numbers up, that will be important moving forward,” said McRae. “We’re rebuilding this program…we’re on the up for sure and hopefully next year we get 20 more athletes and just keep moving up.”
Langdon WHL prospect ready for full season of play with the Winterhawks
Rounding out some of the top stories in sports for 2023 is Langdon’s Kyle McDonough, who after being drafted by the Portland Winterhawks in 2022, made the roster as a full time player in 2023.
As one of the youngest players on one of the best teams in the WHL, McDonough said he put a lot of pressure on himself to come back from an injury that kept him out of the lineup until October.
For a young hockey player looking to develop his skills, McDonough couldn’t be on a better team. The Winterhawks have shuffled between second and fourth place all season long and are led by one of the league's most accomplished coaches in Mike Johnston.
Throughout his minor hockey career, McDonough played for AAA teams in Okotoks and competed with Team Alberta in the 2023 Canada Winter Games. For a 16 year-old, his accomplishments are numerous, but ask McDonough and he’ll tell you he’s nowhere close to being done.
“I’m not satisfied,” he said. “I want to move up the lineup every day [and] be an effective player…the work is not done."
