Jan. 1
Calling it like it is
The 100 Mile House Wranglers rookie webcast team – Josh Hall, Carlee Mohorich and Nathan Foote – received a lot of positive feedback while calling games for the local Kootenay International Junior Hockey League expansion club during its inaugural run in 2013-14.
Jan. 8
Meinert: ‘passion of a champion’
Local rider Elisabeth Meinert, and her horse, Chic Dreamin’ Darling, had an awesome experience at the National Reining Horse Association Adequan North American Affiliate Championships in Oklahoma City, at the huge Oklahoma State Fair Park, where they competed with other top riders from Nov. 28 to Dec. 7.
Jan. 15
10-dog race goes down to the wire at 108 Mile Heritage Site
Forty-four mushers and their dog teams ran the course at the 108 Mile Heritage Site for the 2014 Cariboo Challenge Sled Dog Race on Jan. 10-12.
Local competitors included Craig Conklin with a six-dog, purebred team, and Pam Barker and Mike Huntley in the skijoring category.
The main event, a 10-dog race, was a tight one. Only about 10 seconds separated the top three teams after two days of racing.
Jan. 22
100 Mile Curling Club hosted ‘impressive’ bonspiel
Seventeen teams hit the sheets at the 100 Mile Curling Club for the local club’s 55th Annual Men’s Bonspiel on Jan. 17-19.
It was an outstanding turnout, said organizer Joanne Doddridge.
“It’s a couple more than we had last year. For a small, volunteer-run club like ours, that’s tremendous.”
Jan. 29
‘Those kids from 100 Mile are tough’
Three local competitors – Paige Hall, Reid Collinson, and Chris Cruickshank – from the Kokoro Judo Club were set to represent the Cariboo Region at the BC Winter Games, the province’s premier amateur sports event, hosted in Mission, Feb. 20-23.
Feb. 5
100 Mile Invis are tourney champs
100 Mile House novice hockey teams finished first, third and sixth at a tournament played at the South Cariboo Rec. Centre in early February.
Playing in the championship was 100 Mile Invis and Quesnel. A strong finish propelled the local players to a 6-5 win. Noah Sanders scored the game-winning goal.
Feb. 12
Levermann, Mellott crack U16 Team North lineup
Two 100 Mile House forwards were set to lace up for the BC Winter Games in Mission, Feb. 20-23. Anya Levermann and Caily Mellott were selected to the Zone 8 team after tryouts in Williams Lake in early January. The tryouts, which saw 36 skaters, were tough and rewarding, the girls explained.
Feb. 19
Wrestlers grab medals
A trio of athletes representing the 100 Mile House Wrestling Club rolled into Mackenzie and locked up some hardware and top qualifying spots ahead of provincials at the end of February.
Mackenzie Secondary School hosted the Zone 8 championships, where Kody Kennedy, Tiana Dykstra and Heather Wolfear earned two gold and a silver medal, respectively, on Feb. 15.
Feb. 26
‘Fire lit’ for Round 1
The 100 Mile House Wranglers hosted the Chase Heat in its final home game of the regular season on Feb. 21, and, knotted at four, they seemed to have won in overtime.
The lamp was lit, the scoreboard read 5-4, and the Wranglers, all of them, were on the ice with their sticks in the air. The crowd cheered. Home ice advantage in Round 1 of the playoffs was still in the cards, with one game against Kamloops left to play.
Then the referees conferred, and determined the net was off: No goal.
Chase scored shortly after on a power play, solidifying their home ice advantage in Round 1 against the Wranglers.
March 5
Zone 8 judo team wins gold at BC Games
The medal count in Sochi wasn’t the only hardware on the minds of young athletes and sports fans in British Columbia when the 2014 Winter Games closed on Feb. 23.
Local judoka Paige Hall captured a silver medal in Mission, where B.C. had its own closing ceremonies, as close to 1,300 competitors representing eight zones throughout the province wrapped up three days of BC Winter Games competition. Hall, Reid Collinson and Chris Cruickshank from the Kokoro Judo Club in 100 Mile House were among the competitors as members of the Cariboo-North East (Zone 8) judo team, which finished first in the team judo competition on Feb. 22.
March 12
Local wrestler is B.C.’s best
Tiana Dykstra stood highest atop the podium in Prince George with a gold medal around her neck as a provincial champion.
Dykstra went 3-0 in the 43-kilogram division at the 2014 British Columbia Secondary Schools Wrestling Championships, which went Feb. 27 to March 1.
March 19
Footy players heading to Europe
They’re talented and dedicated players, and they deserved the opportunity.
That’s what coach Saibo Talic said of 100 Mile House soccer stars Reid Davidson and Masen Fernandes, as the Grade 9 Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School students prepared to tour around Europe with other British Columbia soccer talent from March 21 to April 2.
The trip with the European Football School, based in North Vancouver, saw 30 players from B.C. visit six countries – Germany, Austria, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy and Switzerland – and play exhibition games with different teams made up of players 14 to 16-years-old.
March 26
Grey Cup champion shares story
His is a story of overcoming adversity, and always wanting better, and of hitting people – hard.
J.R. LaRose shared “his testimony,” some of the inspirational pieces of his life, with a full house at the Cariboo Christian Life Fellowship in 108 Mile Ranch on March 7.
Rick Barker, a local pastor, was one of the 200 people in attendance. Barker said it was a privilege and a pleasure to have LaRose speak.
April 2
Wranglers lassoed new coach/gm
Dale “Duner” Hladun was named the new 100 Mile Wranglers coach/general manager.
The bench boss has decades of experience at the minor hockey level and Junior A level, and about 10 years in the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League with the Princeton Posse, and more recently with the Fernie Ghostriders.
It was known the Wranglers were looking for a new coach with the departure of Doug Rogers, who guided the club to a second-round playoff berth in its inaugural season and is returning to a career with the Prince George RCMP.
April 9
Life-saving equipment in Cariboo rinks
Arenas in the Cariboo are a safer place to play with the acquisition of new emergency medical equipment.
Staff at the South Cariboo Rec. Centre in 100 Mile House and volunteers from the Rolf Zeis Memorial Arena in Lac la Hache received training on how to operate automated external defibrillators (AEDs). The portable devices are used to identify cardiac rhythms and deliver a shock to correct abnormal electrical activity in the heart. The new equipment is part of an initiative directed by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada to promote public access to the life-saving equipment.
“You don’t need a medical director to work a defibrillator,” said first-aid instructor James Seeley. “They’re simple, they’re effective.
April 16
Wrestler wins national team spot
Tiana Dykstra was going to Brazil.
The 100 Mile House grappler won a spot to represent Canada on the international amateur wrestling stage.
Dykstra beat out the 2014 national champion at 43-kilograms, Brianna Raymond, and another nationally-ranked competitor, Alberta’s Jennifer Dang, in a round-robin style tournament on April 6 in Guelph, Ont. to win first string on Canada’s women’s team heading to Recife for the FILA Cadet Pan American Championships on April 29-May 5.
April 23
Soccer players impress on European trip
Reid Davidson and Masen Fernandes, 15-year-olds from 100 Mile House, were part of a British Columbia contingent that went on a tour with the European Football School, based in North Vancouver, which saw 30 players from the province visit six countries – Germany, Austria, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy and Switzerland – and play exhibition games as part of different teams made up of players 14- to 16-years-old.
Heading into it, the boys figured the Europeans would be stiff competition. They came back undefeated, with four wins and one tie.
After the games, the Canadians would talk with their opponents, Davidson explained.
“They were all surprised with how good we were. I guess we proved Canada can play soccer as well as them.”
April 30
Marking the ‘danger zone’
To make hockey a safer game to play, rinks in the United States are adding one more line to the ice surface – the Look-Up Line – an orange zone 40 inches wide, starting from the base of the boards around the perimeter of the ice surface.
The line works like a warning track in baseball, giving players a better sense of where they are in relation to the walls enclosing the playing surface.
“We watch these ideas and watch them grow and watch the results as they come out,” said Todd Jackson, Hockey Canada’s senior manager of safety and insurance.
However, it was too early to say whether the Look-Up Line will be adding colour, and caution, to the Canadian game in the future.
