After eight years of playing football, Travis Dietrich has become team captain for the Chilliwack, B.C. Valley Huskers.

His love for the game started in Grade Eight at DVSS. He played two years of Bantam before quitting for another two years.

For both his grade 11 and 12 year, the Titans team won provincials in the tier four category.

“After that, I jumped right to junior and after graduation moved to Chilliwack,” said Dietrich.

His friend was able to get a foot in the door for Dietrich, leading to his now fourth-year participation with the B.C. team.
Drumheller’s active care, appreciation, and interest for the sport and its players has helped Dietrich through the years as well.

“The community in Drumheller is huge, we’ve got a great fan support. Everywhere I go now in Drum is ‘How is your football going?’ kind of thing so the community is huge,” Dietrich explained.

"School was becoming less and less of an option due to a lack of scholarship money and timing. His new head coach for the Chilliwack Valley Huskers had approached Dietrich, convincing him to join the team for another year instead.

“I just kind of looked at it more as a financial situation to make a decision,” said Dietrich.

As a defensive lineman, his position consists of either stopping the run or going to get the quarterback but what sets Dietrich apart stems from many reasons like his drive, age, and stature.

“I’m the oldest on the ‘O’ line at the moment, I’m the veteran, a team leader. I’m the team captain this year so what separates me is my size and I’m lengthy so that helps a lot compared to other people.”

The team appears to be growing after new leadership from both coach and captain.

“This year we are doing a lot more team bonding and stuff so it’s a lot closer, more of a family feel.”

In the future, Dietrich plans to go pro and play in the CFL, NFL, or even European football.

“I tried to play professionally in Europe, I’m on a website to get on that,” Dietrich said. “It’s actually developing really strong overseas. Doors are always open.”

Home games are always live streamed so if you can’t make it to the games check out the valley huskers Facebook page:

or https://www.bcfctv.com/en/upcoming-games

Drumheller participants enjoyed a fun and competitive weekend at the 55 Plus 2017 Provincial Championships in Calgary on August 10, 11, and 12.

The event took place over 11 venues with a banquet to start things off.

As for the results of each sport, the golf competition was held at Fox Hollow Golf Course.

“It was a fun experience and everyone I golfed with had a friendly spirit of competition,” said golf participant Ron Bell.

For cycling, Jim Milman competed in two races; 10 km and 40 km, both of which were hot days. Despite the increased heat, he was able to bring home a bronze medal in the 10 km recreational race.

Phil Wade was a teammate of the gold winning team for slow-pitch after they beat Lethbridge on Saturday morning. He was also a competitor at the 2015 Strathmore summer games where he set a record in Javelin.

Linda Traquair holds up her bowling gold medal after the Alberta 55 plus Summer Games in Calgary from August 10 to 12.

Mailphotos by Terri Huxley

The Big Country Seniors Sports Society, the zone in which Drumheller is a part of, had 18 bowlers in the summer games with half coming from the valley.

Mike Barker, Barbara Barker, Daryl Saboe, and Linda Traquair won gold medals. Remie Defoor won a silver in the men’s 65 scratch division, missing a gold medal by only six pins. Two out of the three teams were able to come home with some type of hardware. As of now, all gold medalists qualify for the Canadian Seniors Games which will be held in August of next year in New Brunswick.