Heather Little, centre in the toque, provides curling tips to 11 year-old Jayden Wipf  as she prepares to throw a rock. Thirteen year-old Kaylen Wipf and nine year-old Ella Andrew get ready to sweep the rock down the ice if needed.

Its had a few years absence, but a junior curling league is back at the Drumheller Curling Club to help young curlers learn the game.
    A group of volunteers with the Drumheller Curling Club has helped bring back a Junior Curling League. The club’s Heather Little, who helps coach the young curlers, said they’ve had in mind to restart for awhile, and everything came together nicely to get the junior league up and running.
    “I think it was about volunteers and having the right people in the right place and being prepared to put something together.”
    Little said a junior league has been absent from the Drumheller Curling Club for a number of years, and the club has received a lot of postive responses in bringing the league for the young players back.
    The club had compiled a list of names of people who had expressed interest in the junior league.
    “We had a good number people to contact about getting them involved and having kids participate in the league,” said Little.
    Twenty-five young curlers ended up taking part in the first session of the junior league, with most of the participants being from Drumheller.
    The league finished its first six-week session December 15, and will begin a second six-week session in January.
    The Junior Curling League is for kids ages eight to eighteen, and Little said there is room in the session that runs from January to March for  new year for new curlers. Anyone interested in joining curling for the next session can call the curling club at 403 823-4848.

With the preseason behind them, the Drumheller Dragons are tasked with putting together another successful season, and they have high expectations.
    The Dragons are following up their most successful season ever, going all the way to the AJHL final.
    The 2014-2015 season starts this Saturday, September 6 for the Dragons when they head to Calgary to play the Canucks.
    “We had a really good year last year and we don’t want to fall into a rut. It was such a great ride, we don’t want to sit back on our laurels,” said coach Brian Curran. “We’re trying to get the kids to understand we have quite a mission ahead of us. We want to go back to the finals, we want to win the finals. My goal has always been to put a championship team together every year. That is our goal and we certainly think we have a good start to it.”
    With a handful of preseason games behind them, coach Curran likes what he sees, with a solid number of vets, and some new blood. He credits the thorough job the Dragons’ scouts have done.
    “We are always going to think we want more, but at the end of the day, for us, I like us from the back-out,” said Curran. “Curtis Skip will be our starter, he had a very good camp.”    
    On defense, he says they are waiting on a couple players who are at major junior camps, but there is some depth.
    “For us we have some surprises on defense with some of younger players, who are doing well,” said Curran. “Our forwards are getting better. We had six or seven coming back from last year and we added on some good pieces to the puzzle.”
    He said it is going to be another very competitive season, especially in the Viterra South.
    “The South is definitely open to take a run at it. I think we are one of the teams that are right there.  There is going to be a lot of parity,” said Curran.
    He is proud of last season’s efforts, and every year sets his sights on winning a championship.
    “I won’t sit back and accept mediocrity. My goal this year for the team is to win a championship. It was amazing to watch the community support we had last year and I think people enjoyed it, we want to do it again,” said Curran.
    “The fans came out and said ‘we really enjoy this kind of hockey.’ Now we want to finish it. We want to put a team out there that is very successful, and have everybody enjoy the product we put on the ice and support and be proud of the team we have here.”
    The Dragons’ home opener is Friday, September 12 when they host the Calgary Mustangs.