The foothills is about to invade Cold Lake.

No, the flyboys at the air force base don’t have to hop into their planes. This invasion consists of a number of athletes who are on the Zone 2 team competing in the Alberta Winter Games this weekend in the Lakeland area in northeast Alberta.

Okotoks Figure Skating Club members Brianne Mass, Shelby Postlewaite and Kelsey Kosiorek will compete in the Alberta Winter Games this weekend in Cold Lake. photo by Bruce Campbell

The athletes range from badminton players to wrestlers. In fact the entire Zone 2 badminton team consists of players from the Edison Badminton Club in Okotoks.

The first match

A Cayley area wrestler qualified for the Alberta Winter Games this weekend without officially being on the mat in her life.

Brittany Steed, 14, made the Zone 2 wrestling team by acclamation when there was no one to wrestle in her weight class at the qualifying tournament in Olds in December.

Steed said the two-hour trip to Olds was worth it even without competitors.

“It was kind of disappointing,” Steed said. “It was good to go up there and learn about what wrestling matches are all about.”

Steed didn’t join the Highwood High School Mustangs wrestling team until mid-October.

“A friend of mine told me that wrestling was fun and that it’s a great workout,” Steed said. “It is terrific. I just feel so much better about myself.”

Steed won’t be going into the Alberta Winter Games without experience. She wrestled in a tournament in Edmonton last weekend.

Highwood Mustang coach Jordan Rhodes said Steed has been impressive at practices.

“She looks good for a first-year wrestler, but she needs to get some matches,” he said.

Steed will wrestle in the 71kg weight division at the Alberta Games.

She admitted to being nervous because the top wrestlers her age will be at Bonnyville next weekend.

“I’ve been practicing a lot, so I will just go up there and do the best I can,” she said.

She has been practicing with the Mustangs and with the Okotoks Wrestling Club under the tutelage of coach Mark Barnert who is also the coach of the Zone 2 team.

Go figure

An Okotoks figure skater missed out on an opportunity to do something she likes at the Zone 2 trials in December.

Brianne Mass didn’t get to show off.

Mass earned her position in the Juvenile division at the Games by acclamation. She had mixed feelings about not competing at the trials in Indus.

“It was good because I didn’t have to worry about it,” the 11-year-old Mass said. “I kind of wanted to go because I like to show off by smiling and keeping my head up.”

Figure skating isn’t about having a Pepsodent smile, it’s about athleticism. Mass has been working hard on her two-and-a-half minute freeskate routine in preparation for the Games.

“I have been working on double toe-double toe and double Salchow and double loop (combinations),” Mass said. “They are hard because you have to go up in the air.”

She’s getting plenty of help from Okotoks Figure Skating Club coach Kerri Roberts.

“She just tells me what I’m doing wrong and what I should do and she’s never mean,” Mass said.

Shelby Postlewaite, 15, didn’t get a bye to the Alberta Winter Games. She finished first among nine skaters at the Zone 2 trials in the Senior Bronze division. That was despite the fact she wasn’t totally happy with her performance.

“It wasn’t the best I have ever skated, but it was still pretty solid,” Postlewaite said. “I think I fell once or twice.”

She said she is looking forward to the Games.

“It will be the best in the province at my level competing,” said Postlewaite, who has been skating for 11 years. “I am going to go there stronger mentally and with a good attitude. That usually helps me do better.”

She said her goal is to win a medal, adding skaters from the Calgary and Edmonton area will be “the ones to beat.”

Postlewaite is fine-tuning, not rebuilding for the Games. Postlewaite, who practices six times a week at the Piper Arena in Okotoks, will be using the same three-minute program she did at the trials.

Twelve-year-old Kelsey Kosiorek will join Mass in the Juvenile division as the two skaters both got in by acclamation.

Although it had been awhile between skating competitively, Kosiorek said she will be ready for the Games.

“I have been in lots of competitions before,” she said. “I have been doing my freeskate a lot, a lot and a lot.

“I have been working on my jumps and my spins to get things down pat, but my combos are kind of bad… I’m trying to get better.”

Kosiorek is borrowing music from the Windy City. She skates to music from the soundtrack from the Academy Award winning film Chicago.

Foothills area athletes competing in the Alberta Winter Games this weekend include:

Cayley — Brittany Steed, wrestling.

DeWinton — Liam Spengler, badminton; Sean Badun, fencing; Riley Parkinson, alpine skiing.

Okotoks — Chantal Beaulne, fencing; Brianne Mass, Shelby Postlewaite and Kelsey Kosiorek, figure skating; Karina Richichi and Morgan Kravtsov, gymnastics; Cody Thompson, Thomas Kurth, Cole Chapman, Kevan Barrett, Jamie Irving, Abby Watkins and Cassidy Barnert, wrestling; Jasmine Wiggins, Felicia Barbeau and John Chernoff, badminton; Jake Burwash, freestyle skiing; Jereme Selbee-Beamish, boxing; and Taylor Ardiel, curling.

Turner Valley — Christina Macdonald, figure skating, Special Olympics.

The Okotoks Wheel apologizes if any athletes have been missed. Results from the Alberta Winter Games will be in next week’s Wheel as well as on line at www.westernwheel.com