Amateur Sports on Any Sport Any Time
Saturday, April 7th, 2012
With the 2012 Olympic Games in London, a new Canadian hope has landed on the radar screen as a legitimate medal contender.
According to the Canadian Press, 19 year-old Jasmin Glaesser won two medals yesterday at the World Track Cycling Championships in Melbourne, Australia.
Glaesser won Silver in the Women’s 25 kilometre points race and also helped Team Canada to a Bronze medal with Edmonton’s Tara Whitten and Victoria’s Gillian Carleton in the women’s team pursuit. It should be noted however that of the two events that Glaesser won a medal in, only the women’s team pursuit is at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. The men’s and women’s points race was dropped from the Olympic program following the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
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Tags: gillian carleton, jasmin glaesser, tara whitten, world track cycling championships, zach bell
Posted in Amateur Sports, Home | No Comments »
Friday, April 6th, 2012
The Masters will obviously headline my television viewing this weekend with the very first major of the PGA Season. Currently Peter Hanson of Sweden (-5) leads U.S. Open Champion Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland, former British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa, Ben Crane of the United States and day one leader Lee Westwood of England by a stroke.
Other players in contention are Major winners Zach Johnson, Jim Furyk and Paul Lawrie.
The television coverage for the tournament is Friday at 1pm on TSN, Saturday at 1:30pm on CBS, and Sunday at noon on CBS.
Here are the other events I’ll be watching this weekend:
Friday–NLL–Rochester Knighthawks @ Calgary Roughnecks–7pm–I’m heading down to the Scotiabank Saddledome this evening to see the Roughnecks in National Lacrosse League action. At 10-3, the Roughnecks are tied for first place in the West Division with the Colorado Mammoth. The Roughnecks lead the NLL with 180 goals scored, are led by former Knighthawk Shawn Evans, who leads the team in scoring with 58 points.
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Tags: ben crane, boston red sox, c.j. wilson, calgary roughnecks, chicago white sox, colorado mammoth, denver nuggets, dwight howard, gavin floyd, glenn howard, golden state warriors, hayley wickenheiser, heath bell, jeff stoughton, jim furyk, jose reyes, kevin koe, lee westwood, los angeles lakers, louis oosthuizen, masters, matt harrison, miami marlins, Orlando Magic, paul lawrie, peter hanson, philadelphia 76ers, philadelphia phillies, phoenix suns, rory mcilroy, Shannon Szabados, shawn evans, stan van gundy, Steve Nash, texas rangers, tom brewster, toronto blue jays, ty lawson, women's world hockey championship, world men's curling championship, yu darvish, zach johnson
Posted in Amateur Sports, Curling, Home, MLB, More, National Lacrosse League, NBA | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, April 4th, 2012
On Friday, April 13th, the Olympic Oval will be home to the largest roller derby tournament in Western Canada. Flat Track Fever, hosted by Calgary’s Chinook City Roller Derby, welcomes teams from all over Alberta, and even includes a few from beyond our borders.
Matchups promise to be exciting and unpredictable, as many of the teams have not played against each other. Friday’s schedule introduces teams in short 30 minute bouts, which are half the length of regular bouts, for determination on which pool each team will play in.
The first bout will take place on Track One at 2:00 pm on Friday, Northern Alberta’s Grande Prairie Roller Derby Association takes on Southern Alberta’s Lethbridge Roller Derby Guild. On Track Two, at 2:15 pm, our token international women’s team, the Spokannibals, face off against the young and hot Foothills derby girls out of High River. At 2:45 pm, Calgary’s own Kill Jills, of the Chinook City league, host the Central Alberta Roller Derby Association, in the first ever match up between these teams. At 3:00 pm on Track Two, another North vs. South rivalry faces off with the Gas City Rollers out of Medicine Hat taking on the Lakeland derby girls out of Cold Lake. The results of these primary bouts will determine who takes on the veteran teams from E-Ville, CRDA, OCDG, and the Red Deer Belladonnas, scheduled to play later Friday afternoon.
In the men’s pool, the Vancouver Murder are headed to the off leash park on Track One with Calgary’s own Glenmore Reservoir Dogs at 9:45 am, while the Red Deer Dreadnaughts have breakfast with the Puget Sound Outcast at 8:30 am on Track Two.
Junior action takes place at 2:15 pm with the G-Town Beat Down Derby Bratz and the GEJRD Rot’n Rollers in a rumble by the bike racks on Track One.
Derby action continues throughout the weekend, with ongoing scrimmages and challenge bouts scheduled. For a full schedule, go to www.flattrackfever.chinookcity.ca, and come cheer on your favourite team! Or if you don’t have one yet, head down to the oval and find out what kind of Derby fan you are!
Tickets are available online through Brown Paper Tickets http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/218458, and are $15/day or $30 for the whole weekend, if purchased in advance, or $20/day at the door. Kids get in free with a food bank donation, or $5.
Tags: belladonnas, Calgary, CARDA, cold lake, CRDA, Derby Bratz, E-Ville Roller Derby, Edmonton Roller Derby, foothills, G-Town, Gas City Rollers, Grande Prairie, lakeland, lethbridge, Medicine Hat, OCDG, puget sound, Red Deer Roller Derby Association, Roller Derby, spokannibals, vancouver murder
Posted in Amateur Sports, Home, Roller Derby | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 4th, 2012
1. Weather may be temperamental, but you can channel all your pent up weather frustration into your game.
2. It is a perfect summer complement to winter sports like ice hockey and speed skating; keep on skating, just swap out the skates (and drop the hockey stick)!
3. There are multiple derby leagues within reasonable driving distance: Canmore, High River, Red Deer, Edmonton, St. Albert…not to mention overnight trips to Cold Lake, Fort Mac, Montana, Spokane, Vancouver, Kamloops…the list goes on!
4. The people. Derby folks just rule. Roller girls, roller guys, roller kids, roller refs, derby fans; they are all vastly different, and unquestionably AWESOME!
5. Flat Track Fever; which actually rolls together all of the above reasons into one awesome tournament, April 13-15, at the Olympic Oval.
So…if you have yet to check out a game, because you think derby is not your thing, then you need to head out to Flat Track Fever next weekend.
Because I’m pretty sure you’re awesome…which means you’ll fit right in!
www.flattrackfever.chinookcity.ca
Tags: Calgary, Roller Derby
Posted in Amateur Sports, Home, Roller Derby | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012
Remember when “you hit like a girl!” was an insult? But with more mens’ roller derby teams cropping up across the world, it has become less of a slur and more of a compliment! Check it out at Flat Track Fever, the largest roller derby tournament this side of the rockies! Roller boyz from Canada and the US will take to the track to show derby fans that they can indeed hit like girls! Come watch the Vancouver Murder, the Glenmore Reservoir Dogs (Calgary), the Red Deer Dreadnaughts, and the Puget Sound Outcast (USA) Saturday, April 14th at the Olympic Oval in Calgary as they battle it out, mens’ derby style!
And just to prove roller boyz and girls can compete on an even playing field, there are also co-ed scrimmages happening throughout the weekend…
See? Betcha didn’t know roller derby was all about equal opportunity…:)
www.flattrackfever.chinookcity.ca
Photos by Steve Recsky
Tags: Calgary, co-ed roller derby, mens roller derby, puget sound, red deer, red deer roller derby, Red Deer Roller Derby Association, Roller Derby, roller derby bout, seattle, vancouver, vancouver murder
Posted in Amateur Sports, Home, More, Roller Derby | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012
I, like many other people, successfully predicted the University of Kentucky Wildcats to win the 2012 NCAA Basketball Championship.
They were clearly the best defensive team in the tournament. Monday night in New Orleans, the Wildcats defeated the University of Kansas Jayhawks 67-59.
But throughout the contest, there was one question that was going through my head. Is it me or does Anthony Davis have what it takes to be a power on the offensive side of the floor? His defensive skills speak for themselves. Davis’s 16 rebounds, six blocked shots and three steals shows he has the capability to be an outstanding basketball player when the opposition has the ball. It is more difficult to teach good defense than it is good offense.
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Tags: anthony davis, doron lamb, john calipari, March Madness, marquis teague, michael kidd-gilchrist, ncaa basketball, university of kansas jayhawks, university of kentucky wildcats
Posted in Amateur Sports, University Sports | No Comments »
Monday, April 2nd, 2012
The countdown is on…
With 11 days remaining until the kick off of Alberta’s largest roller derby tournament, teams from around the province and beyond its borders are getting all fired up for Flat Track Fever! Fishnets, tattoos, and quirky derby names, combined with finesse, strategy, and speed on eight wheels promise to make next weekend historically awesome!
Especially since it is an all ages show, both on and off the track. That’s right; hot on the heels of the Hunger Games, Calgary’s own Youthanizers, with some other kids refusing to eat their dinners, are showing their mad derby skillz Friday night at 6 pm in some kid on kid scrimmages – to the death! More murderous minor action takes place on Saturday at 2:15 pm as the Greater Edmonton Rot’n Rollers take on the GTown Derby Bratz.
If you can’t bring yourself to beat your children, come watch them beat each other!!!
Check out the Youthanizers and other Flat Track Fever participants at:
http://www.flattrackfever.chinookcity.ca/index.php
See you there!
Photos courtesy of GEJRDA website http://gejrda.vpweb.ca/
Tags: Alberta, Calgary, Chinook City Roller Derby, Edmonton, Grande Prairie, Hunger Games, junior, Roller Derby, roller derby bout, roller derby edmonton
Posted in Amateur Sports, Home, More, Roller Derby | No Comments »
Monday, April 2nd, 2012
If you were hoping to watch Canada’s opening game last night at the Olympic Men’s Water Polo Qualifier in Edmonton, well, you were out of luck.
The reason? Well, Team Venezuela just failed to show up. Twice Water Polo Canada officials waited at the airport in Edmonton to greet the team, only to find out that the team wasn’t on the plane.
The 12 team tournament has been dropped to 11, with the Canadian squad at a significant disadvantage. Why? Well, they were expected to open the tournament last night and now they’ll have to play five days in a row to qualify for the 2012 Olympic Games in London, while everybody else in Canada’s pool has a day off.
The absence of Venezuela at the qualifier puts a dark cloud over the entire Venezuelan aquatics program at the moment as FINA is considering sanctions against all Venezuelan athletes who participate in water sports.
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Tags: olympic games, water polo
Posted in Amateur Sports | No Comments »
Sunday, April 1st, 2012
Anthony Davis (Ian McCormick, Wikimedia Commons)
The University of Kentucky Wildcats are set to play the University of Kansas Jayhawks in the NCAA Basketball Championship on Monday night in New Orleans.
It isn’t many times when players at the collegiate level showcase their skills on the defensive side of the floor rather than the offensive side, but Anthony Davis, the star forward on the University of Kentucky Wildcats basketball team isn’t your typical college player.
Davis’ wingspan is remarkable. The freshman from Chicago recorded 4.6 blocks per game this season, to easily lead the NCAA in that category. Also, while the game was going on he was named the 2012 NCAA Basketball Player of the Year. It definitely looks like the Charlotte Bobcats might have a young version of Ben Wallace or Dennis Rodman on their hands.
Heading into Monday, the Wildcats should be an eight to ten point favourite against the Jayhawks and the primary reason is because of their strong basketball skills on the defensive side of the floor.
Tags: anthony davis, ben wallace, charlotte bobcats, dennis rodman, university of kansas jayhawks, university of kentucky wildcats
Posted in Amateur Sports, University Sports | No Comments »
Sunday, April 1st, 2012
Patrick Chan (Wikimedia Commons)
Ottawa, Ontario’s Patrick Chan successfully defended his World Men’s Figure Skating Championship Saturday in Nice, France. It is quite the accomplishment for the 21 year-old Chinese Canadian who is still very young in the sport and will be knocking on the door towards greatness at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia two years from now.
But in watching Chan’s performance as well as Japan’s Daisuke Takahashi, it remains very clear that figure skating judges continue to over reward strong footwork, artistry and presentation, and under reward the technical skills of each figure skater, such as the jumps, even with the new scoring system in place.
The bottom line is that Chan fell once with a minute left on his program during a rather simple Double Axel. He also stumbled slightly on another jump. Still, he did deliver two quads successfully. Takahashi meanwhile was technically cleaner, but the judges went with Chan’s artistry instead.
Interestingly, Chan wasn’t the only Canadian to make some slight errors and come away as champion this week. Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir made some minor mistakes in their ice dance long program, but came away victorious.
The state of Canadian figure skating is strong however. Along with Canada’s two Gold medals, Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje of Waterloo, Ontario finished fourth in the ice dance and Meagan Duhamel of Lively, Ontario and Eric Radford of Toronto finished fifth place in the pairs.
Tags: andrew poje, daisuke takahashi, eric radford, kaitlyn weaver, meagan duhamel, patrick chan, scott moir, tessa virtue, world figure skating championships
Posted in Amateur Sports | 2 Comments »
Friday, March 30th, 2012
Patrick Chan (David Carmichael, Wikimedia Commons)
2011 Lionel Conacher Award winner Patrick Chan of Ottawa, Ontario is one step closer to defending his title at the World Figure Skating Championships in Nice, France.
Today, Chan put down a solid short program, and leads the Czech Republic’s Michal Brezina by 1.74 points. Due to the fact the television coverage on CBC is absolutely lousy, the event can be seen live on www.cbcsports.ca or if you have Bold. The final flight of skaters in the men’s event is at 8am and the final flight of skaters in the women’s event is at 1:30pm on Saturday with Alena Leonova of Russia in the lead. In the pairs competition today, Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov hammered the strong German pair of Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy by 8.04 points, but only hung onto the silver medal behind the Germans after a poor short program.
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Tags: agnieszka radwanska, alena leonova, anaheim ducks, andy murray, bryan cochrane, buffalo sabres, calgary flames, Edmonton Oilers, erik karlsson, final four, glenn howard, heath mccormick, jarome iginla, john calipari, kansas jayhawks, kentucky wildcats, louisville cardinals, maria sharapova, marion bartoli, maxim trankov, michal brezina, new orleans hornets, novak djokovic, ohio state buckeyes, Ottawa Senators, patrick chan, Philadelphia Flyers, phonix suns, rick pitino, ryan miller, shannon kleibrink, tatiana volosozhar, thomas dufour, toronto maple leafs, Vancouver Canucks, victoria azarenka, world figure skating championships, world men's curling championship
Posted in Amateur Sports, ATP World Tour, Curling, Home, More, NBA, NHL, Soccer, University Sports | 1 Comment »
Friday, March 30th, 2012
Misty May (Jason Schock, Wikimedia Commons)
Will beach volleyball continue to be a high profile sport for spectators at the 2012 Olympic Games in London? Maybe not.
According to the Associated Press, women no longer have to wear bikinis while competing in the most significant global sporting event on the planet.
Under new rules made this week by the International Volleyball Federation, players are now allowed to wear shorts and sleeve tops rather than bikinis to respect the cultural beliefs of many nations worldwide.
My question is, with the International Olympic Committee recognizing the cultural traditional beliefs of many middle Eastern nations, are they becoming less “hip” with today’s younger generation? This has been something they have desperately tried to accomplish with the recent inclusion of even more snowboarding and freestyle skiing events at the Olympic Winter Games. (more…)
Tags: beach volleyball, jackie silves, kerri walsh, misty may, sandra pires
Posted in Amateur Sports | No Comments »
Friday, March 30th, 2012
Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue (David Carmichael, Wikimedia Commons)
For the second time in their careers, reigning Olympic champions Tessa Virtue of London, Ontario and Scott Moir of nearby Ilderton, Ontario are World Figure Skating Ice Dance Champions.
Thursday in Nice, France, according to the Canadian Press, Moir and Virtue recorded a grand total of 182.65 points to beat the reigning World Figure Skating Championships Meryl Davis and Charlie White of the United States.
Moir and Virtue previously won the 2010 World Figure Skating Championships in Torino, Italy, host city of the 2006 Olympic Winter Games.
But the bottom line is Moir and Virtue completely dazzle the crowds with their exceptional high level of personified entertainment whenever they compete on a sheet of ice. It also helps that they’re healthy. Virtue missed most of last year after having surgery on both of her legs, but was still able to win a World Championship silver medal last season.
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Tags: andrew poje, charlie white, kaitlyn weaver, meryl davis, patrick chan, scott moir, tessa virtue, world figure skating championships
Posted in Amateur Sports | 1 Comment »
With the 2012 Olympic Games in London, a new Canadian hope has landed on the radar screen as a legitimate medal contender.
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