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Regular Season Wraps-Up For Kings And Queens Basketball & Volleyball Squads This Weekend

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The Red Deer College Volleyball teams will play their final regular season matches against the Briercrest College Clippers. Capping off the regular season, the RDC Basketball squads have a home-and-home series against the Ambrose University Lions. The Kings Hockey club faces the University of Alberta (Augustana) Vikings in a pair of games.

Kings Volleyball is supporting the Central Alberta Sexual Assault Support Centre (CASASC) to bring awareness to their #irespect campaign. Respect is vital in today’s society and a greater emphasis on it can prevent a number of injustices that occur daily. We invite everyone to come down to support your Kings and Queens this weekend and let us know what you respect.

At the games there will be the opportunity to sign a large #irespect poster, donate to CASASC and use our Snapchat geofilter to increase awareness. This locally backed cause needs your support. The Kings encourage you to post on social media using the hashtag #irespect and to attend the following games:

RDC Queens and Kings Volleyball | Friday, Feb. 17 | 6:00 p.m.

RDC Queens and Kings Volleyball | Saturday, Feb. 18 | 1:00 p.m.

RDC Queens and Kings Basketball | Saturday, Feb. 18 | 6:00 p.m. | RDC

Queens Volleyball | Friday, Feb. 17 | 6:00 p.m. | RDC

The Red Deer College Queens (19-3) host the Briercrest College Clippers (20-2). The Clippers occupy 1st place in the ACAC Women’s Volleyball South Division with 40 points but the Queens are close behind with 38. Both teams have qualified for the playoffs but want to capture top spot in the division. Winners of their past 14 matches, the Queens have momentum heading into this weekend series. With 11.2 kills per set, the RDC Queens are ranked 2nd in the league. Miranda Dawe has 3.82 kills per set which ranks the Kinesiology and Sport Studies student 2nd in ACAC Women’s Volleyball. Libero, Lauren Marshall has been playing well and will be a key component in setting up the Queens’ offence in the weekend series. The Bachelor of Education (Elementary) student has 3.53 digs per set which is 3rd best in the league. The Red Deer College Queens are ranked 7th in the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA).

Kings Volleyball | Friday, Feb. 17 | 8:00 p.m. | RDC

The RDC Kings (17-5) compete against the Briercrest College Clippers (13-9). Both teams qualify for the playoffs. In the ACAC Men’s Volleyball South Division, the Kings sit in 2nd with 34 points and trail the Medicine Hat College Rattlers by 2 points. The Briercrest College Clippers hold the 4th spot in the division with 26 points. Leading ACAC Men’s Volleyball, Regan Fathers has 3.92 kills per set. The RDC Kings Volleyball team is ranked 5th in the CCAA. Red Deer College will be hosting the 2016-2017 ACAC Men’s Volleyball Championship Feb. 23-25, 2017.

Queens Basketball | Friday, Feb. 17 | 6:00 p.m. | Ambrose University

In Calgary, the RDC Queens (8-11) face the Ambrose University Lions (3-14). Emily White leads the league in field goal percentage with an outstanding 68.6%. The Queens share 4th spot with the Medicine Hat College Rattlers in the ACAC Women’s Basketball South Division. Both teams have 16 points but the Rattlers have 2 games in hand. This is an important weekend series and the RDC Queens still have an opportunity to qualify for the playoffs.

Kings Basketball | Friday, Feb. 17 | 8:00 p.m. | Ambrose University

The Red Deer College Kings (13-6) hit the hardwood to face the Ambrose University Lions (7-10). The Kings have 26 points in the ACAC Men’s Basketball South Division. SAIT and Medicine Hat College share 1st place in the division with 28 points. The RDC Kings have clinched a playoff position.

Kings Hockey | Friday, Feb. 17 | 7:30 p.m. | U of A (Augustana campus)

In Camrose, the Red Deer College Kings Hockey team faces-off against the University of Alberta (Augustana) Vikings. Sitting in 5th spot in ACAC Men’s Hockey, the Kings have 23 points and have clinched a playoff spot. The top 6 teams make the playoffs. The Vikings are in 4th spot and look to be a potential matchup for the Kings in the opening round of the playoffs.

Queens Volleyball | Saturday, Feb. 18 | 1:00 p.m. | RDC

The Queens face the Clippers in their final regular season game.

Kings Volleyball | Saturday, Feb. 18 | 3:00 p.m. | RDC

The Kings hit the court to face the Clippers in their final regular season game.

Queens Basketball | Saturday, Feb. 18 | 6:00 p.m. | RDC

In their final regular season game, the Queens host the Lions.

Kings Basketball | Saturday, Feb. 18 | 8:00 p.m. | RDC

The Kings face the Lions in their final regular season game.

Kings Hockey | Saturday, Feb. 18 | 7:00 p.m. | Penhold Multiplex

In the 2nd half of the home-and-home series, the RDC Kings host the U of A Augustana Vikings. Next weekend, only a pair of regular season games remain against the Concordia University Thunder.

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The Raptors (Ridgefield Raptors that is) are coming to Edmonton next summer

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At first word that the Raptors will be spending a few days in Edmonton next summer, sports fans might be excused for jumping up and down at the thought of a high-profile NBA event.

But the Raptors under discussion play another game — baseball — and they’re based not in Toronto but in Ridgefield, Wash., a small centre near the Washington-Oregon border which claims fewer than 10,000 residents in its Wikipedia profile. Edmonton — officially labeled the Riverhawks — is now a partner in the West Coast League, which develops college players and has seen several top prospects selected in recent Major League Baseball drafts.

Also joining this week are teams based in Kamloops and Nanaimo, bringing the British Columbia contingent to four teams. Victoria and Kelowna were already members of what now is a 15-team organization.

Teams currently occupy Yakima, Wenatchee, Walla Walla and Port Angeles in Washington, as well as Bend, Corvallis and other communities in Oregon.

The city of Edmonton confirmed months ago that the Edmonton Prospects of the Western Canadian Baseball League would not be returning to Re/Max Field. Several years of association with Pat Cassidy and the Prospects had led to difficult feelings on both sides.

The Prospects are developing a new facility in Stony Plain. It will be ready for competition in 2022. Cassidy has said his team will find another place to play in 2021. All comments on next year and beyond are based, of course, on the progress of local, provincial and national fights against COVID.

Randy Gregg, the former Edmonton Oilers defenceman who led the new group’s campaign to function in Re/Max Field, unveiled his new organization at a well-attended news conference and said several options concerning the WCBL were considered but “there were continuing roadblocks.”

During months of negotiation, Gregg and his supporters did not communicate with the public. Neither did city council. “When you sign a non-disclosure agreement, you have to abide by it. Your signature has to mean something,” he said.

Gregg insisted the Riverhawks organization has no ill feelings about the WCBL. “It might have worked well,” he said. A few casual remarks were made about the potential value to this entire region if both the WCBL and the WCL are profitable.

The Edmonton approach includes sharing in travel costs for existing West Coast League teams. Similar situations made it difficult for a pair of so-called “independent” teams to operate in the years after the Edmonton Trappers were sold and Edmonton had no significant baseball.

Gregg is convinced the new load of travel costs will not be insurmountable. The Riverhawks are a collection of 28 contributors. He also pointed out that at least a couple of Edmonton’s new partners are owned or controlled by owners with major-league connections.’

“We’ve got a big job ahead of us,” he said. “We know that a lot of baseball fans have never seen a game at Re/Max Field.”

As things were unfolding between the Prospects and city officials, there were regular suggestions that no lease would have been granted for the WCBL in 2021. “Can you imagine what it would feel like to have no baseball for maybe three or four years in this great sports city?”

Last week our nation ran into a spree of high-profile miracles

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Edmonton

Hockey, basketball and volleyball gone from the U of A’s fall and winter to-do lists

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At almost any time in memory, Wednesday’s decision to remove hockey, basketball and volleyball from the University of Alberta’s fall and winter to-do lists would be considered a major surprise.

This year, I suspect fans and athletes should have been at least partially prepared for it. Blame the pandemic. That’s easy.

Explain that sponsorship money has dried up and every available penny must be saved to keep professors employed and students involved. That’s easy, too. Some are sure to suggest that there are deep political motives in this move to move beyond the Bears and Pandas for one year. Maybe. Maybe not. Rightly or wrongly, political movements are seen in every action these days.

If additional explanations are required, Alberta’s UCP government is sure to be singled out as cause number three; they inherited an entity in severe financial difficulty, ensuring that some budget cuts would be made as soon as possible after the NDP lost political control of the province.

This, of course, occurred well before the coronavirus crisis created overwhelming proof that sport, certainly in Canada, is something of an after-thought at all levels of society. As this is written, every professional sport is being exposed on a daily basis as a means for millionaires and billionaires to fatten their bankrolls. If timely political statements are necessary, fine; they’ll be made, but no rational soul would dare to suggest that sport has actual relevance in this time of incoherent arguments and twisted responses.

In one old scribbler’s opinion, good news ultimately will develop, almost as a result of the disappearance of the Bears and Pandas for at least one season. A move so dramatic at a level so vital is sure to create deep thought.

Which is where university sport fits in the puzzle. These organizations are the home of undoubted brilliance. In many ways, they create the model for all amateurs and low-profile professionals to follow. One day, perhaps soon, this world-wide rash of social, physical and emotional misery will be behind us. Then, cohorts of tough and committed leaders across the entire spectrum of athletics will have to step up. They will be obligated to contribute time and effort in a search for the best possible ways to ensure excellence in scholastics, citizenship and competition.

Now, looking back for even a few years, it’s essential to remember that amateur sports were being painfully slammed by financial necessities before COVID-19’s destructive arrival.

Athletic directors at U of A and MacEwan University have spoken of rising costs in tones that sometimes sounded almost desperate. I’m sure the same applies to the University of Calgary.

Similar words have been heard commonly in discussion with coaches and athletic directors at Alberta colleges. NAIT and Concordia leaders know the topic extremely well. So do alumni members working to keep hockey alive in the storied atmosphere of Camrose’s Augustana campus of the U of A.

In a lifetime of hearing old adages, one has stuck out since childhood:

“It’s Always Darkest Before the Dawn.”

This corner hopes the dawn comes quickly.

All is Well in Soccer – So Far

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