We might have done this already, but congratulations to the four Slave Lake minor hockey teams that qualified for provincial championship tournaments this year. It’s quite an accomplishment. But while we’re at it, congratulations also to all the teams, players, coaches and management, who put in all that time and effort over six months or so. It is an impressive commitment. On the whole, as far as we can tell by observing the minor sports scene for the past 30-odd years, the impact on the people is positive. Kids learn valuable lessons – about the benefits of hard work, about teamwork and so on.
Recruiting for a Junior hockey program that is on the lower end of the prestige scale can’t be all that easy. That’s what we were thinking the other day after talking to Slave Lake Icedogs’ coach Dave Hyrsky. Of course you want the best players you can get. But the really good U18 players, if they go on to Junior, aren’t going to make the GMHL West Division their first choice. Or even second choice. Having said that, the High Prairie Red Wings have had a pretty darn good team the past couple of seasons. How they managed that is a question Hyrsky and other GMHL coaches stay up late at night pondering.
Anyway, Dave was keeping a close eye on the U18 Tier 4 provincials that were played in Slave Lake on the first weekend of April. Who knows, we might see two or three of those kids in an Icedogs uniform next season!
We were scheduled to meet up with Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidate Joseph Bourgault on the evening of Friday, April 1, but he got held up somewhere down the line (either Acheson or Westlock, or both) and arrived in town quite a bit later than he had planned. Bourgault was doing a campaign swing up into northwestern Alberta. How it went we didn’t hear. Bourgault, from Saskatchwan, is the CEO of Bourgault Tillage Tools. He joins half a dozen or so other candidates for the party leadership. The vote is in September.
We hear Grayson Conrad of the Slave Lake U13 #1 team was the leading scorer in the recent Tier 2 provincials in Rocky Mountain House. He racked up a whopping 13 goals and 18 points in just four games. This was after scoring 18 goals in four games in league playoffs, and a regular season in which he twinkled the twine 47 times in just 16 games. Nobody knows what the 2022/23 might bring, but we’re already looking forward to it!
We heard last week from one of Mary Giroux’s granddaughters (at least we think it was) that Mary recently had her 104th birthday! We’ve had her in the paper several times over the past few years, because at that age, another birthday is pretty big news. Congratulations!
The things you find out about if you pick up the phone. Last week, for example, we learned Taylor Kelham of Slave Lake was involved the world’s longest hockey game at Chestermere, near Calgary. It was an attempt to set a new record and get into the famous Guinness Book of World Records. It’s a fundraiser for the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation. It was to run from March 31 to April 11, non-stop.
It appears we got a phone number wrong on Page 9 last week. It was the item about the Rotary Club’s NHL playoff pool. To reach Ellen Criss, the correct number is 780-805-4346.
On Good Friday (April 15) at 11 a.m. there’s a joint service at the Community Christian Centre in southeast Slave Lake.
In other religious news, Ramadan started on April 2. This is the holiest season in the Muslim calendar. It ends on May 1.
The details are in for the Family Fun Night on April 20. It is flower pot decorating and a Subway supper. This free event is in the multi-purpose room in the MRC in Slave Lake. The registration deadline is April 14. To register, contact Darcy Hoover at 780-849-8003 or FCSS@slavelake.ca.
April 21 is the annual cake auction at Roland Michener Secondary School. It is a fundraiser for the grad class. It starts at 6 p.m.
Instead of a volunteer dinner, the Town of Slave Lake has tokens to give to volunteers. The deadline to apply is April 19th.
