Local Sports

The CFL playoffs begin in beautiful downtown Guelph on Sunday when the homeless Hamilton Tiger-Cats meet the Montreal Alouettes. Montreal has rarely played in a road show for a semifinal since the franchise returned to the CFL in the ‘90s because the Als have been a perennial powerhouse in a traditionally weak CFL East Division.

It’s good news, bad news for the Hunting Hills Lightning.The newly-crowned Central Alberta High School Football League champion Lightning will open the provincial Tier II high school championships at home Saturday, but they will face the top-ranked Foothills Falcons from Okotoks.

The 40th anniversary edition of the Canadian Finals Rodeo kicked off in Edmonton in fine style, complete with retro western wear and the return of the 1974 champions. But Central Alberta cowboys stole the show when it came to capturing the cash in the opening round Wednesday.

The road least traveled doesn’t always lead to success on the World Curling Tour.In fact, the 2013 Red Deer Curling Classic champions both took the long route to their respective paydays, earning virtual last-minute quarter-final berths by qualifying out of the C event Sunday night.

The Canadian Finals Rodeo is marking its 40th anniversary this week. For most of those years, CFR week has begun for some contestants with the Alberta Champions awards presentation in Red Deer. The top earning competitors in each event from the more than thirty rodeos held across the province are given their trophies.

The Hunting Hills Lightning had their own special shock treatment this season — an offence that excelled both on the ground and through the air.However, with Great Chief Park covered with a heavy blanket of snow Saturday afternoon, the Lightning’s attack was somewhat limited in their Central Alberta High School Football League championship-game clash with the Sylvan Lake Lakers.

It’s been a year of transition for the Hunting Hills Lightning senior volleyball teams.Both teams have new faces on the bench with the boys returning four players and the girls three.But both teams are making strides as they head toward the end of the season.

The chemistry seemed proper right from the first meeting.As a result, Patti Wuthrich signed on this fall as the coach of the impressive Korean women’s curling team skipped by Eunjung Kim.

Red Deer Sutter Fund Chiefs head coach Tom Bast knows exactly what road his team has to go down to be successful in the Alberta Major Midget Female Hockey League this season.“It has to be a team effort,” he said. “The girls we have returning have been a big asset in terms of leadership, strength and knowledge and it’s been a good fit with the 14 new players we have on board with us.

The desire to return to the world junior curling championship still burns brightly for Jocelyn Peterman and her Red Deer foursome, but they are running out of time.The 2012 Canadian junior women’s champions who went on to post a 6-3 round-robin record at the worlds in Sweden before losing to Russia in a tie-breaker, are in their final season of junior eligibility.