Sports | DrumhellerMail

Break out your lacrosse stick

    The fastest game on two feet has started running.
   The Badlands Lacrosse Association is ready for the upcoming season and has begun practicing at the Badlands Community Facility.
   Already, the rosters are full for most teams after a registration drive at the Sports, Arts, and Recreation Expo earlier this month.
   “We had a really good turnout and had most of our teams filled up that night. Everything but the Bantam team was filled,” said Ren Dumaine, president of the Badlands Lacrosse Association. “Our season has started, with practices in the Community Facility.”
   The association held its annual general meeting on Monday, March 25 in the Badlands Community Facility. One of the topics they addressed is to get more volunteers to help coach or help with the administrative end of the organization.
   “We’ll be in need of coaches in our younger groups. We’re always looking for volunteers in our younger groups,” said Dumaine. “We’re also looking at other volunteers. We could use someone to help us with marketing, because right now, we don’t have enough time to handle that as well as we want to.”
   Badlands Lacrosse continues to benefit from strong support from the community. Last year saw full rosters as well on each team. The teams were busy throughout the season and the Bantam team made a run at the league championship, making it to the semi-finals.
   Anyone who is interested in getting involved with lacrosse or registering on a team is encouraged to drop by Source for Sports.

Local girl joins Calgary Xtreme softball team

    Years of intense practice are starting to pay off for former Drumheller resident, Cersten Peters, since she was recruited to play for the Calgary Xtreme U18 “A” girl’s fast pitch softball team this season.
   The Xtreme softball team consists of girls from Calgary and surrounding rural areas under the age of 18. They will start their regular season in the Calgary Women’s Fastpitch Association (CWFA), playing at a Division 1 level.
   “It’s definitely been a goal of mine just to be on an A caliber team or a highly dedicated and committed team for sure,” said Peters, who has devoted six years of her life to softball, playing for teams like the Drumheller Venom and the Canadian Adrenaline Fastball Association (CAFA) U18 team.
   After trying out for the Xtreme softball team in October last year, she heard the news on Christmas day that she would get to play for the U18 team this year.
   “They are a bunch of great girls and they were really welcoming,” said Peters. “They didn’t show me a cold shoulder coming in to play as the new person.”
   With team practices on Sunday nights, pitcher’s and catcher’s training on Mondays and team conditioning on Thursdays, Peters said the level of training and commitment that she has experienced in her short time with the Xtreme team is unparalleled to that of previous teams she’s played for.
   “It’s a lot more intense,” she said. “Every inning has a strategy. It’s not like you can just go out there, throw the ball, and hope for the best.”
   Off-season training for the Xtreme U18 softball team started in October and runs until the beginning of the regular season in April.
   The team will play their first tournament of the year indoors in Edmonton on April 21 before the regular season commences on April 30.
   All regular season games will take place at the Shouldice four-plex in Calgary with double-header league games being played every Tuesday evening.

Second Drumheller triathlon grows bigger

    Athletes in the area are being encouraged to test themselves on June 8.
   The Drumheller Triathlon, which was first held last year, is getting ready for its second race and things are already shaping up to be bigger than last year.
   “We’ve already got more people signed up than last year. It’s definitely going to be bigger,” Morgan Syvertsen, who is organizing the event. “The people who have signed up already are serious athletes, so this is going to be a pretty good race.”
   The route for the race is remaining the same as last year. The swimming portion will be held at the Aquaplex, the cycling portion will go along North Dinosaur Trail, and the run will utilize the trail system between the Aquaplex and Midland.
   There are two distances participants can do; sprint or Olympic. The Olympic distance is a 1,500 metre swim, 40 kilometre ride, and 10 kilometre run. The sprint distance is half of that.
   This year will be the first the triathlon will officially be a part of DinoFest. The date of the race has been set for June 8, at 9 a.m.
   The race was created last year as a way for athletes in Drumheller to do a triathlon in the comfort of the Valley.
   “We’ve got a lot of people here who cross train. They are swimmers, bikers, and runners, so this is an opportunity for them to come together and compete and, because the distances are standard for triathlons, they can compare their results with other races. Maybe they’ll get the bug and go out and try more races,” said Syversten.
   Should interest continue to mount, the hope is to keep the race growing.
   “If there enough interest, maybe we can go a bit bigger. It’s certainly looking that way. Down the road, maybe we could look at larger distances, or find a section of the river deep enough to swim in. We could even go outside of the Valley and host something for a few hundred people,” said Syversten.
   Anyone interested in racing are encouraged to contact Syvertsen at 403-823-7986 or meistermogie@gmail.com. Teams are accepted as well.
   “If you can swim, the rest is easy. Get in the pool and start practicing and remember: no one wins a triathlon in the swim,” said Syvertsen. “If you’re not a swimmer, don’t worry. You can bike and run hard, and still have a great time.”

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