Local Sports

Right back at it. Cochrane’s high school basketball players have barely had a chance to shake off their holiday turkey hangovers before hitting the hardwood for our town’s biggest hoops tourney of the season.

She may be new to town, but curling is old hat for this 13-year-old. It’s why Cochrane’s Hannah Airey is playing two levels above her age group.

Sometimes, that holiday hibernation can catch up to you. The 10-day Christmas break nearly caught Cochrane Generals, but visiting Strathmore Wheatland Kings delivered the perfect wakeup call in Heritage Junior Hockey League play Jan 4.

The Cochrane Generals are ahead of schedule this Heritage Junior Hockey Season compared to last.

They’ve changed their coach. They’ve changed their name. But they haven’t changed their game. The Rocky Mountain (formerly Highwood) Raiders are at the Mac’s Major Midget AAA Hockey Tournament, bringing five Cochrane skaters with them.

When fans at Cochrane Generals home games take a look at the team roster prior to each Heritage Junior Hockey League (HJHL) contest at the Spray Lakes Sawmills Family Sports Centre, forward Kurt Thrussell might be the first name they notice.

Tres Hombres. Could be a ZZ Top album title from 1973. Or, more recently, could be three Cochrane minor-hockey players who’ve advanced to Alberta Major Midget AAA Hockey League (AMHL) play.

Cochrane freestyle skiers Valerie and Noelle Cote qualify for Alberta Winter games at a qualifier in Fernie, B.C. Nine players from the Bow Valley Timberwolves hockey program named to South Central Alberta Hockey League all-star game.

All the Cochrane Generals are getting for Christmas is a lump of coal in their stockings, complements of the Coaldale Copperheads.

The Heritage Junior Hockey League, and all its teams, awoke to the shock and disbelief of a single-vehicle rollover that claimed one of its own Dec. 20.