Sports | DrumhellerMail

Titans top Cold Lake Royals in home opener

The Senior Titans started their season with a big win, taking on Cold Lake at their home opener.
The Titans hosted the Royals on Saturday, August 27. On their first offensive drive, they were able to make a 70-yard touchdown, however, it was called back. Despite this, it set the pace for the game and the Titans went on to a 32-0 win.
“It was a great start where we didn’t have any turnovers on our side, no interceptions or fumbles, so it’s super rare in your first game to have something like that,” said coach Ken Fournier. “It just shows they’re focused at practice and ready to play.”
He said the Titans’ defence was strong.
“Our defence was on fire, these guys were flowing to the ball well, they took care of the run and we had good coverage. We had a few breakdowns, but we got away with them.”
Despite the lop-sided score, coach Fournier said Cold Lake fielded a quality team.
They just moved up from tier 4 to tier 3 a few years ago. They have great numbers, the football culture around that area is awesome, and it was great to host them,” said Fournier. “They are in a league where they are super competitive.”
It will be a unique season for the Titans as Fournier explains the Big Sky Conference, which the Titans typically play in, is on a hiatus to re-examine rules and league structure. This means the Titans will be playing an exhibition season and is able to schedule games with a variety of teams.
“This year all the teams in Big Sky will be playing independent, which means in order to go into provincials, we’ll have to play-in to qualify. We will basically be playing the same teams that were in our league to qualify, so it doesn’t really change anything,” he said.
He says they are looking forward to playing a larger variety of teams this season and have a busy schedule laid out.
In order for our growth, we need to play some different opponents, we need to prepare for different games. When you prepare for provincials you need a variety of opponents, a variety of situations so we are trying to create that and we’ll be using the exhibition season as that opportunity,” said Fournier.

He likes the look of the 2022-23 version of the Titans.
“I like that we have a solid team effort, we are pretty well-balanced offensively and defensively, and we are getting a really good effort from a lot of guys in a lot of areas,” said Fournier. “These guys show up to practice and they put the work in, there is a lot of potential for them to excel as a team this year if they keep working at it.”
The Titans will be in St. Paul this coming Saturday to play.

Ball players national championship bound

Two local athletes are headed to the U19A Fast Pitch National championship in Fredricton New Brunswick at the end of July. Charli Calon and Alicia Christensen, both 17 years of age, play for teams that qualified by placing top three at the U19 provincial finals that took place in Lloydminster on July 1-3. Charli plays for the Calgary Kaisen Black team. They won provincials, by beating the Sherwood Park Storm in the gold medal game, 6-1. This was after going undefeated in round robin. Alicia plays for the Calgary Kaizen Green team. They placed third at provincials after placing second in the round robin with a 3-1 record. The U19 Canadian Championship runs July 26-31.

Big Valley's Zeke Thurston competing in 2022 Calgary Stampede

Copy of Zeke Thurston 1 768x614

The competitors for the 2022 Calgary Stampede Rodeo have been announced, including two time world champion saddle bronc rider Zeke Thurston of Big Valley.
A total of 25 competitors from Alberta will be participating in the various events at the Stampede Rodeo which includes bareback and saddle bronc riding, bull riding, steer wrestling and tie down roping, and barrel racing.
Rodeo is in Zeke’s blood. His father, Skeeter Thurston, was a six-time saddle bronc riding qualifier for the National Finals Rodeo (NFR) and five-time qualifier at the Canadian Finals Rodeo (CFR); brothers Wyatt and Sam are also saddle bronc riders, and his sister Tess competes in barrel racing.
Zeke began competing in 2013, and went pro in 2015. Since then, Zeke has earned two world titles, had seven Wrangler NFR qualifications; he placed third in the 2021 Wrangler NFR standings, and fifth overall in world standings the same year.
He will be competing in the Saddle Bronc Riding competition presented by Cenovus Energy against 21 other competitors. Among those he is competing against are fellow Albertans-Ben Anderson of Rocky Mountain House, Layton Green and Sam Kelts of Millarville, Dawson and Logan Hay of Wildwood, Lucas Macza of High River, and Kolby Wanchuk of Sherwood Park.
Viewers can watch the Calgary Stampede Rodeo in person at the GMC Stadium, or tune into a special broadcast of the event on Sportsnet and Sportsnet One, between July 8 and 17 starting at 1:30 p.m.

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