A tradition of more than 15 years continued in September with the Fall Ball Classic, and on the mound was more than 150 years of experience.

The Fall Ball Classic Slo-pitch tournament has become a Labour Day tradition. Originally played out at the Rosedale Diamond, it has grown over the years and now includes the Hoodoo Campground. Originally, there were eight teams, this year they hosted 16.

Tracy Symowoniuk and her family have been organizing the tournament for the last 12 years.

“We never had to ask teams to come back because they have always wanted in, because they had such a great time,” she said.  “They were guaranteed five ball games, a steak supper, they were guaranteed camping and team challenges.” 

Dating back to the original event, Tracy’s father Willie Samel, was an avid player but had not played in a number years. When they began brainstorming on how to celebrate the 15th annual event, they thought of putting together a legends team.

“It pulled together players from the previous 14 years onto one team to create this team,” she said.

There were players from Brooks, Carbon, and the former Outlaws team.

Willie Samel, now 81, was on the mound. Remie Defoor, who is 69, also pitched.

He (Willie) had been asking to pitch for years,” said Symowonuik. “He has not played for the last 10 years, we retired him at the age 70, but he didn’t take no for an answer.”

She adds he did not disappoint. “Dad pitched 8 KOs in his first game.” 

Samel went on to pitch three games, and Remie pitched two. The team was 4-1.

“We would have been in the playoffs but our points for–and-against wasn’t the greatest. But to me, we won.”

In fact, there were three generations playing at the tournament. They included Willie and Tracy, Willie Samel Jr. and grandsons Joey Conroy and Treighton Samel. Remie was joined by his daughters Dodie and Wendy and grandchildren Christina and Nathan.

They presented Willie with a plaque and license plate for his efforts.

The Drumheller Valley Secondary School (DVSS) senior girls Dynos volleyball team had a busy weekend, first attending the Oilfields Black Diamond tournament on Friday, October 2 and Saturday, October 3 before hosting Acme on Monday, October 5. 

On Monday, the senior girls took two loses first 17-25 and second a close 21-25. 

“Acme has a few heavy hitters on their team, so we adjusted our blocking accordingly and took a lot of that power away from them,” Coach Erica Crocker said.

“Our defense was digging nearly every hit, and our offence was starting to get aggressive. We had some long rallies where the girls would execute a smart play and win the point,” she said. 

“It is electric when that happens. The passion for the game really comes alive at these times,” she said, noting “big” offence from Payton Zacharuk, Brayden Peters, Sam Hirsch, Nikki Thomson and Rachel Graf.

“It is great to see them swing, and score. They get really excited and are almost surprised at the strength they have behind the ball,” Crocker told inSide Drumheller.

On Friday night the girls took on Crossfield and won both games 25-18 and 25-16. In the second match the team met Highwood. In the first of two games the team took a 4-25 loss and Thomson was removed from the court because of injury. The team made a forceful come back and took a 25-20 win in the second match with Hirsch aggressively attacking, scoring kills. At the end of the game the Dynos were tied for first place in their pool. 

Saturday’s first match was against Clearwater and the team lost both games 16-25 and 12-25. Strong defensive performances were shown from Karis Hilchey and Peters with aggressive serves from Eden Hilchey having a run of six with two aces. 

In the second match the team met J.T. Foster falling 13-25 and 16-25. Some notable defensive performances came from Thomson, Mikaela Koustroup and Hirsch. 

The third match, and the last of the day for the Dynos, was against W. H. Croxford where they took a close win of 25-23 but fell short in the second set at 17-25.

“This weekend was great for the girls, defeating strong teams we’ve never played before. We fell short of making playoffs by only a few points, which was a tough one to swallow,” Crocker explained. 

“It’s incredible to watch how quickly they’re improving and becoming more confident on the court and more aggressive which is exactly what we need. We have some great talent on the team.”

After round-robin play, the Dynos were tied for fourth place. The Dynos lost the chance of playoffs because their points against in pool play were less than the other fourth place team in their pool.
The team is now off until October 16 and 17 when they will head to Airdrie for the Kodiak Klassic Invitational.