Local Sports

Repeating a championship is supposed to be more difficult than winning it the first time around, but the Blackfalds Silverbacks are making it look easy as they take aim at their third senior C lacrosse provincial title in four years.With two dominating home wins on the weekend — 16-6 over the Edmonton Tomahawks on Friday and 24-4 over the Lethbridge Pioneers on Sunday — they clinched first place in the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League’s North Division with three games to play.

Put together one roping master and one talented kid, and you’ve got a team that could be hard to beat. At the 35th Anniversary of the Sundre Pro Rodeo, Rocky Dallyn and Kolton Schmidt showed why. The duo snagged a steer in just 4.3 seconds to claim the trophy buckles in the team roping event, along with a $1,540 payday each.

During the 1960s and ’70s Fred Cardwell was one of Canada’s premier baseball players, and in August he will be recognized as such by the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame.The Regina native and longtime Red Deer resident will be inducted into the hall on Aug. 16.

Frank Van Dornick of Camrose posted his second straight under-par score Thursday to take top honours in the Alberta Men’s Mid-Amateur Golf Championship.Van Dornick fired a 2-under 70 and coupled with earlier rounds of 73-71, finished the 54-hole tournament with a 214 total, five strokes better than Harry Aime of Edmonton Glendale (78-71-70—219) and seven up on Kevin Temple of Calgary Country Hills (75-76-70—221).

There may not be any belts on the line on Saturday, but master Lyle Cheney is promising solid card for Superfights 22 at the Sheraton Centre in Red Deer.Headlining the event is a showdown between Andre Braden out of Edmonton and Troy Kulasekere out of Calgary. Braden is looking to build some momentum back after dropping a fight for the Western Canadian belt at Superfights 20 to Jessie Vandervelden.

Clearly, Brandin Cote relishes a challenge.Just as he did when he replaced Brian Sutter as head coach of the Bentley Generals in 2012, Cote is following a tough act as the new bench boss of the five-time defending Alberta Midget Hockey League champion Red Deer Optimist Chiefs.The Red Deer Minor Hockey Association announced Tuesday that Cote has been hired as the Chiefs head coach. Cote replaces Doug Quinn, who was at the helm of the club for all five of the recent glory years.

Shannon Szabados is no stranger to adversity.She has battled it as the girl goalie on boys hockey teams going back to her minor hockey days, but what she and the rest of her Canadian Olympic teammates went through in the past year en rout to gold was unlike anything she had experienced before.

The Central Alberta Buccaneers (1-1) looked nothing like the team that steam rolled the Calgary Wolfpack in Week 1 on Saturday.They were brought back to Earth with a thud in a disappointing 31-18 loss to the Grande Prairie Drillers (2-0) at MEGlobal Athletic Park in Lacombe in their Alberta Football League Week 2 showdown.

Red Deer Boxer Arash Usmanee experienced the frustration — and discovered why so many former world champions and top contenders have failed to stop California’s Juan Ruiz — in the main event of the KO Promotions boxing card Friday at Shaw Conference Centre.

There’s no doubt there’s plenty of home grown rodeo talent in central Alberta, but a Bowden cowboy proved he can ride and rope with the world’s best at this year’s Daines Ranch Pro Rodeo.Ky Marshall earned both the bareback and the All Around Champion buckles.