Sports | DrumhellerMail - Page #167
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Terrapins ready for season

 

terps

The Gridiron is filling up with fall footballers and the Terrapins are ready to go.

The Drumheller PeeWee football team’s season officially began on Monday, August 22, and coach Thomas Laffin is optimistic about the season.

“We are feeling great,” he said. “All three teams are looking really good. You watch the guys and they had a really good spring, and almost all the players have come back. They are on the ball and doing a great job.” 

  Numbers are looking strong, based on the players who came out for spring training, he is expecting in the area of 35-40 players.

“There are a few that are on vacation that let me know they were going to be late.  We are looking pretty good, but we won’t know the exact number until two or three weeks before our game,” said coach Laffin.

This year he expects the team to be competitive.

“We are well rounded on the offense, we have a lot of speed and athleticism. On the defense end we are really strong,” said Laffin. “When we were out in the spring they were basically stopping everything that came at them.” 

He loves to watch the progress of the players.

“You can’t grab a better group of kids than what we get.  It is great to watch them go from knowing nothing about football to plying a collegiate style game,” said Laffin.

The Terrapins are slated to face the Rocky View Rage on Saturday, September 17 at home.


Senior Titans looking forward to season

Titans

For the Drumheller Senior Titans this season, it’s good to be home.

This year the team has opted to leave the Rangeland League and play an exhibition schedule. The immediate impact of this decision is the team will be spending a lot more time on its home field, and they like it.

“We have six home games lined up this season so far,” said coach Ken Fournier. “I think that is as many as we had the last three years combined. We have been on the road for the last three years and this will be pretty nice to have some home games and build some school and town spirit.”

While having more home games is a bonus, the real advantage is that they will be better able to equip the team for the season.

“We decided to go exhibition so we are not facing teams with 60 player rosters. Last year we found it was a bit of a struggle, every time we took an injury, we would move a player to fill a spot and then we would have two spots with inexperienced players,” he said.  “When you are a tier-four team and you have young guys on your roster in starting positions, and you are going against teams that are all Grade 12, it is very tough to balance. We want to get as many guys as you can on the field.”

The Titans are in the same boat with a number of other teams throughout the province who are looking for parity.

“Other schools want to play more tier appropriate teams so they can develop their young players as much as they can, which is what we are trying to do,” he said.

The official season began this week, and the players have been out practicing.  Coach Fournier sees a lot of upside to this year’s squad.

“We have a lot of speed returning, we have some experience in a lot of skill spots, so that is nice to see,” said Fournier. 

The Titans season opener is Saturday, August 27, when they will be heading to Vegreville to play the Vortex. The team’s home opener is September 2 at 7 p.m. under the Friday night lights. 

Register for the Dinosaur Valley Half Marathon

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Summer is nearly over and the 7th annual Dinosaur Valley Half Marathon is getting closer and closer, and organizers say participants should register by 10 pm Friday, August 19 in order to guarantee their participation t-shirt.

The marathon, which will see hundreds of runners on either a 21, 10, or the family 5-kilometre race across Drumheller, is set for September 11. There are a number of promotions offered to participants – for more information check out www.dinosaurhalf.com


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