spjournal.com: Sports

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St. Paul’s U14 boys team battles it out against Bonnyville in a match held last year. The top U14 and U16 boys and girls teams from the area headed out to Vermilion this past weekend for the second half of the Lakeland Cup. Results from the tournament weren’t available because of the early press deadline, but will be posted in next week’s St. Paul Journal.

SPORTS

Lakeland Panthers gear up for provincials

By Mike Pomerleau
Journal Sports

The Lakeland Panthers Peewee girls’ softball team has been going strong for the past four months and is busy putting the finishing touches to what has been a very good season.

The Panthers are a rep softball team that consists of 12 players playing out in the C division. There are six players from Elk Point, four from St. Paul and two from Cold Lake. The girls have done their own fundraising and with that money, bought their own equipment. As if that wasn’t enough on the girls’ plates, each of them played on a league team during the minor ball season, as well as played in their respective communities.

The Panthers have been to a couple of tournaments to prep themselves for provincials later in July. They played in a C tournament in Red Deer back on June 6 to 8, where they finished with the gold. Then this past weekend, the girls headed out to a B tournament in Lloydminster. The girls will most likely play in the C division at provincials.

At the start of the year, Panthers coach Lorne Buryn said he wasn’t sure what sort of caliber team he would have this season.

"There’s no real categorization that you can use, you’ve got to feel it out for yourself and see where you fit. And if we feel that we need to step it up next year, we’re going to go into B."

Buryn said that his plan for this year was to keep the girls going and work with them so that they can be a much better team down the road. The Panthers are thinking about the long-term right now - the girls want to improve and evolve so that three or four years down the road when they hit the midget level, they’ll have a solid team.

"They’re here because they want to play ball - not because mom or dad said you’ve got to be here," said Buryn. "It’s kids that are eager enough that they want to play the game and they know that there is someone on the pine that can step in and take their spot at any time."

The girls have been training for four months and are eager to step onto the diamond once provincials get underway from July 11 to 13. While the girls are looking forward to this year’s tournament, Buryn said he hopes that they enjoy themselves there as well.

"My number one thing is that these kids go to have fun. We work hard and we play hard. The girls know that. They’ve been training with me for the last four months," he said. But enjoying the game remains the top priority, he said – the girls play for themselves, not for the coaches.

After provincials are done, then the focus will shift to next season. Once the season has concluded, the team will sit down together and discuss its future, said Buryn.

"We’ll see where we go," he said. But the plan is to get the girls playing again early next year and to keep the program going, "because it’s 12 girls that really want to play and are really focused on playing ball."

SPORTS

Sport Shorts

By Mike Pomerleau
Journal Sports

AJHL 2008-09 schedule

The 2008-09 Alberta Junior Hockey League regular season schedule was released last Thursday and will feature a full slate of games to start the season. Five games will be on tap when the season gets underway on Sept. 5, including the Bonnyville Pontiacs’ home opener against the Grande Prairie Storm at 7:30 p.m. at the R.J. Lalonde Arena.

The AJHL will also once again have its showcase weekend this season. It will take place Oct. 2 to 4 at Millennium Place in Sherwood Park. The showcase weekend usually sees some of the top scouts and hockey officials from different colleges come out to watch all the teams in the AJHL compete under one roof.

The AJHL pre-season will begin on Aug. 23 and run until Sept. 3. The regular season runs from Sept. 5 to Feb. 24. To see the full schedule, go to www.ajhl.ca.

ASA Provincials

Soccer teams from around the area will travel to different locations this weekend to compete at the 2008 ASA Rural provincial championships. As of last Friday, only one team from the St. Paul area was confirmed to compete at provincials and that was the St. Paul Rage U18 girls. They will travel to Medicine Hat to compete on July 4 to 6. See next week’s Journal for a full recap of this year’s provincial championship.

UFO Classic

The 2008 UFO Classic will not take place this season. Due to a lack of teams participating, the tournament committee decided to cancel this year’s tournament. In the past two UFO Classics, the tournament has welcomed some of the top tier III teams from across the province, including teams from Nunavut and Yellowknife last year and even a team from Mexico two years ago. The tournament committee will now sit down and begin discussions about the 2009 tournament.