St. Albert Gazette, Saturday, November 13, 2010 - 61

Sports Desk: 780.460.5528 Fax Line: 780.460.8220 TEEING UP RETIREMENT E-mail: [email protected] Af ter 29 years of distinguished service, Neal Connell is retiring as SPORTS Web: www.stalbertgazette.com director of golf at Sturgeon Valley. See stor y, page 62. ON TAP AJHL team poised to gain ground Volleyball finals in standings The Metro Edmonton High School Athletic Association serves up its volleyball championship finals today at Austin O’Brien High Steel School. Admission is $3. St. Albert teams are competing for playoff honours in the follow- ing conferences: rise up City junior girls At 11 a.m. the Bellerose Bulldogs BY JEFF HANSEN (13-1, 40 GW/13 GL) play the Staff Writer Ardrossan Bisons (11-3, 38 GW/16 GL). Building a winning streak is a The Bulldogs are gunning for work in progress for the St. Albert their first city conference junior Steel. girls’ volleyball championship in The most wins the Steel stacked school history. together in a row are three while In league play Bellerose finished going 12-8 to start the season. first and Ardrossan was third. In the “We want to chain together as season opener the Bisons beat the many wins as we can. That would Bulldogs 3-1 in St. Albert. be perfect,” said Rhys Hadfield, net- Bellerose is coming off a 3-1 vic- minder for the seventh-place Steel tory in Tuesday’s semifinal against in the north division. the fifth-place St. Albert Skyhawks, LAURA PEDERSEN/St. Albert Gazette After winning two of the last three winners of the last two city finals. LORD OF THE RINGS – Henry Stainthorp colours the rings at the St. Albert Curling Club on Tuesday afternoon, in games during last weekend’s home- Premier junior boys preparation for the beginning of league play Monday. Renovations to the club’s front facade pushed back the start of stand, the Steel pulled themselves to At 3 p.m. the Paul Kane Blues (7- the curling season. The $2.4-million facelift is just about complete. Construction of the front steps and ramp begins within two points of the sixth-place 5, 25 GW/25 GL) battle the Monday. The entire lower level should be finished by end of next week. The date for full occupancy is Dec. 10. Crusaders with a Archbishop Jordan Scots (7-4, 25 whopping five games in hand. They GW/19 GL). also trailed the fifth-place Grande The Blues have never celebrated Prairie Storm by five points with a premier conference junior boys’ four fewer games play ed. volleyball championship. “We have to use The Scots placed second and Prime time for these games in Paul Kane shared third place in the hand to our standings. The teams split the sea- advantage and get son series with 3-2 scores. The wins out of them,” Blues won Sept. 28 in St. Albert said Steel new- and the Scots were victorious Oct. Blues comer Brandon 19 in Sherwood Park. Fagerheim. “We RHYS In Tuesday’s semifinal the Blues have to show HADFIELD upset the undefeated O’Leary Rick Stanley joins Paul Kane as basketball coach people that we’re Goalie Spartans in five sets at O’Leary a really good High School. BY JEFF HANSEN The Blues can potentially return every player but hockey team and Premier women Staff Writer one from last season. The junior boys, premier final- we can do some At 5 p.m. Paul Kane (10-3, 33 ists four consecutive years, also have players that will damage this year.” GW/13 GL) will challenge the The Paul Kane Blues trumpeted the arrival of the challenge for roster spots on the senior squad. The Steel have defending champion Holy Trinity upcoming basketball season by blowing their horns. See “Paul Kane,” page 64 multiple games in Trojans (10-3, 32 GW/17 GL). “Paul Kane basketball, girls and boys, are going to hand on every The Blues can make school his- make a lot of noise this year,” declared Rick Stanley, team above them tory as the first Paul Kane women’s the new head coach of the varsity men’s team, during in the standings. BRANDON volleyball team to win the premier last Saturday’s successful banquet and silent auction “The north is FAGERHEIM conference crown. at the Paul Kane High School cafeteria. “This pro- really bunched up Forward In the regular season the Blues gram has an incredible amount of kids and athletes so if we’re going and Trojans tied for third place. that are waiting to explode.” to make a move we’ve got to hop The last tilt between the champi- While the parade route through the streets of St. on it right now and get after it,” onship contenders was Paul Kane’s Albert hasn’t been finalized, Stanley is confident the Hadfield said. “There is more pres- three-set sweep Oct. 20 in St. Blues will challenge for championship honours. sure now because of the games in Albert. “I’m really excited about the potential of the teams hand but we’re just trying to win Last year in the semifinals the this year.” more than we lose. That’s the way Trojans stunned the undefeated A playoff berth for the lady Blues would be a major you climb back up the ladder.” Blues in three sets at Paul Kane. accomplishment. They haven’t made the playoffs the Friday night the Steel hosted the In Monday’s semifinals, Paul last four seasons. In 2009/10 they finished seventh fourth-place Kane swept the second-place out of seven teams at 2-10 in the metro Edmonton but the score was unavailable at Spartans at O’Leary and the Trojans premier conference. The junior ladies, however, won press time. knocked off the undefeated back-to-back premier titles the past two seasons. Tonight the Steel travel to Falcons 3-2 in Sherwood Park. The varsity men haven’t got past the premier semi- Bonnyville to play the third-place As the only 4A team in the pre- finals or earned a spot in the Edmonton zone 4A Pontiacs at 7 p.m. mier final, the Blues are guaranteed provincial qualifying tournament since their second- “After last weekend everyone is a return trip to provincials. They straight metro playoff championship and historic 4A pretty positive in the room and are ranked second provincially in provincial gold-medal victory in 2008. we’re looking good for this week- 4A. The Trojans are the team to Last season was defined by two losses to the end,” Hadfield said. “We want to beat at the 3A level. Sturgeon Spirits: 79-71 in the second-last game in the keep it tight on defence like we did On Wednesday at 4:45 p.m., Paul regular season that pretty much determined first LAURA PEDERSEN/St. Albert Gazette last weekend over the last two Kane hosts the public league place in pool B, and 65-62 in the playoff to determine BOSS OF THE BLUES – Rick Stanley, the new head games and hopefully we get more champion to determine the first the third metro seed team in the zone tournament. coach of the Paul Kane Blues’ varsity men’s basketball production out of the offence like and second seeds in the Edmonton In league play the Blues finished 8-5 after going 8- team, discusses a drill while Zach Yare m ko listens we had Sunday [in the 5-1 win over zone for the Nov. 25 to 27 provin- 4 the previous campaign. during tryouts Wednesday. the Calgary Mustangs].” cials in Red Deer. 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