Local Sports

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.

The proof is in the performance. Cochrane Generals have proven they can defeat a lesser opponent. Since November, Cochrane is 9-0 against Heritage Junior Hockey League foes lower in the standings. It’s the better teams Cochrane is struggling with.

In the wake of his community swimming success, Connor Matthezing is preparing to make waves at the next level. The 17-year-old Cochranite has signed a letter of intent to join the University of Calgary varsity men’s swim team in the fall.