You will be hard-pressed to pin down a larger one-day sporting event in Cochrane than the Alberta Amateur Wrestling Association’s Alberta Open tournament at Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre.
Four-hundred-sixty-one athletes aged 6-60 rolled non-stop over seven mats at the meet hosted by Cochrane Cowboys Wrestling Club on March 7.
When the dust settled, more than 1,200 matches were on the books. In one day.
It was wrestling’s big show.
“When everything was said and done, we were kind of like, ‘That was a pretty-danged big event,” said Cowboys wrestling coach and tournament front-man Vern McNeice. “Our goal was always to have the opportunity to profile the sport in our community.”
And Cochrane’s athletes were in the middle of it. Cowboys wrestlers combined for eight gold and two bronze medals.
But none of it would have been possible without Cochrane stepping up to throw the biggest one-day sporting event of the year.
“It happened in a lot of ways,” McNeice continues. “The athletes came and competed. But our group, within the Cowboys, they stepped up. They just jumped in. We had to have well over 50 volunteers to make it happen. And the community. We had people and businesses in the community; we sold out our banners in two days.
“It was wonderful to see that support for our sport in our town. People were buzzing.”
Brimming with athletes and spectators, Spray Lake Centre soaked up participants like a sponge. It got a little cramped at times, with the upper running track directly above the action filling up too quickly at one point.
“We were at a max. At one point, we were worried about parking. There was no parking left,” McNeice relays.
At the end of the day, it was the competition that brought everyone to town.
“The women’s national team is based out of the University of Calgary. I don’t think there’d be five rooms in the world that would have more talent in it for female wrestling. We had multiple national champions here.”
All part of Alberta amateur wrestling’s big show.
