The winter weather wreaked havoc on the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference schedule on Thursday, the biggest casualty being the entire Fall Bonspiel at the Pidherney Curling Centre in Red Deer.
Also getting cancelled was the Red Deer College Kings men’s hockey game in Camrose against the Augusta Vikings and the RDC basketball road trip against the Briercrest Clippers in Caronport, Sask.
For the RDC curling program, the snow-out is a big hit as it now likely delays the start of the season to the new year and they may lose hosting rights altogether due to the next available weekend at the curling centre not being until Feb. 20.
“Everybody was a little bit excited to see how we were going to look,” said RDC curling coach Brad Hamilton. “It is disappointing, but it gives us an extra month or so to get ready.”
Hamilton is looking at other possibilities like potentially hosting the tournament at the Michner Curling rink or in Lacombe. but nothing has been decided yet. One of the biggest issues is securing enough sheets of ice to keep the tournament to three days, the Pidherney Curling Centre is perfect for the event with 10 sheets booked for the spiel.
If they do lose hosting rights for this year, Hamilton is hoping they will be able to host next year instead.
For the Kings hockey team, this was the second straight week they’ve lost games due to the weather, as their home-and-home series with the Portage Voyageurs out of Lac La Biche was wiped out.
“It is frustrating, we’re preparing hard, the guys have had a couple of their best weeks of practice and they’re anxious to get at it,” said Kings head coach Trevor Keeper.
“We feel some good things coming here to hopefully get on a roll with some wins, then the weather takes those opportunities away from us, but we can’t do much about it.”
Saturday’s game in Penhold at 7 p.m. against the Vikings is still a go, with the weather report looking more promising.
Last week’s games have been rescheduled to the second semester with the men hosting Portage on Feb. 8 with the return game going in Lac La Biche on March 1.
Keeper is hoping to reschedule tonight’s game for Thursday or Friday next week in Camrose.