The Rocky Mountain Outlook would like to congratulate valley school teams that are making big noise and dominating in ‘other’ sports.
While the valley is well known for its ski-based athletes and volume of hockey players involved in minor sports, lately, soccer and rugby athletes have been doing the valley proud.
In keeping with what now seems to be the adopted tradition of each or our towns owning a pitch sport, the Canmore Collegiate High School Crusaders have chalked up another zone championship after blitzing through their opposition for most of the season and defeating the Cochrane Cobras, which boasts a much larger student body, in penalty kicks.
Kudos to the young men who have turned out to be so dominant in the beautiful game played in southern Alberta.
In high school rugby, where the old adage reads barbarians play a gentleman’s (and ladies, of course) game, and which goes a step beyond a zone championship, both Banff Bears squads are off to Edmonton this weekend (June 5-6) to take on the province’s best and hopefully, continue domination.
We realize not a lot of valley residents attend these high school soccer and rugby games, but we’d like to point out that, under the tutelage of quality coaches and team staff, these students have embraced sportsmanship and display an appreciation for fair play.
Now and then, coaches and members of other teams have shown a lack of grace on the pitch, but for the most part (never always, they are teenagers, after all), our Bow Valley rugby and soccer players display a team ethic that should make their parents proud.
Speaking of grace, our Illusions gymnasts also turned in many top results against solid Western Canadian competition at the Summit Invitational in Canmore last weekend.
Clearly, the Bow Valley is blessed with venues, coaches, competitors and supporters (yay, moms and dads) that creates an ideal environment for student and young athletes.
As calendar pages turn through almost any season, Bow Valley youngsters can be found to be on the brink of victory locally, provincially, nationally and on world stages in a wide array of endeavours.
At any given time, our young athletes can be found valiantly competing and crushing personal bests, even provincial or national records, in the pool, on ice and snow, on the grass and walls, the hardwood, the gridiron, the net, track, the dance floor, balance beams and mats, the list goes on …
For many, many reasons, the Bow Valley is seen and recognized as being a special place and the vast array of opportunities for area athletes ensures that that status will remain unchanged into the future.
Spin your wheels
With June being declared bike month, and both municipalities embracing the initiative, it will be nice to see two-wheeled locomotion embraced even further than it already is.
While the towns have all kinds of events, clinics, riders, etc. scheduled, it would also be nice to see cyclists embrace proper etiquette.
Sidewalks are for youth riders only, (or those accompanied by parents), night approaching should mean lights are turned on and bikes on roads are meant to follow rules of the road (streetlights, crosswalks, traffic lanes, etc.).
Small towns like Banff and Canmore are ideally suited to bicycle traffic, but let’s keep it moving in a somewhat orderly fashion.
