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Don’t send the Okotoks Junior A Oilers a Christmas card this holiday season. Send them a get well card as the Oilers will be using the holiday break for a little R, R and R — rest, recreation and recovery.

“The break is coming at a good time,” Oilers coach Garry VanHereweghe said on Thursday morning. “Right now we have six players banged up — Brett Adnum, Brandon Hogenboom, Matt Strong, Roger Craig, Jeff Barrett and James Bannister.”
The Oilers were on the mend by week’s …

The coach of the Okotoks Junior A Oilers will be home for Christmas, but after the holidays he’ll likely be seeing hockey in his dreams.
Garry VanHereweghe will be watching more hockey than TSN analyst Pierre Maguire on a road trip when the Oilers’ head coach heads to the Mac’s Midget AAA hockey tournament Dec. 26 to Jan. 1 in Calgary to scout players.
“I will spend a full week there,” VanHereweghe said.  “I will not only be watching, but trying to talk to some of the Midget players to find out …

There’s nothing like the combination of defence and some help off the bench to help a basketball team — and some hot shooting from the outside doesn’t hurt either.
The Foothills Composite High School Falcons won the consolation side of the Bert Church Senior Boys’ Basketball Classic in Airdrie on Saturday when they beat Edmonton’s J. Percy Page Panthers 77-61.
“We were only ahead by five points at the half,” Falcons coach Amron Gwilliam said. “We played a lot better defence in the third quarter. When you play good defence that creates …

For at least one UFA Bison, playing in the Mac’s AAA Midget Hockey Tournament is like finding a Christmas tree surrounded by presents, every one with his name on it.
Steven Soto, second-year defenceman with the UFA AAA Midget Bisons, called the tournament the “highlight of my career.” That’s a bold statement, granted Soto is just 17-years-old, but it shows the regard with which minor hockey players hold the annual holiday tournament.
“Just a great tournament, I’ve never experienced anything like that… the energy is just wild,” said Soto.
Keaton Lubin, a rookie …

During an exhibition game against the Cochrane Generals, Jesse Lyall, an Okotoks Junior B Bisons forward, received a cut above his eye courtesy of a possible butt-end.
Lyall believed the cut to be the extent of his injuries. As it turned out he received a mild to moderate concussion and was held out for three games by Bisons’ coaching staff.
“After a while I couldn’t remember most of the third period,” said Lyall.
Lyall said he didn’t know he had been concussed and actually played another shift following the hit. Later, he went …

The Okotoks Oilers let go of their grip on second-place in the Alberta Junior Hockey League’s South Division when they let a game slip away Thursday night in Calgary.
The Oilers jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the first period against the Calgary Canucks but couldn’t hang on and Calgary scored four unanswered goals for a 4-3 victory.
Quinn Sproule got the Oilers on the scoreboard two minutes into the game to give Okotoks an early 1-0 lead.
Oilers road captain Brandon Hoogenboom gave the Oilers a 2-0 lead with a powerplay …

The Okotoks Oilers are alone in second place in  the South Division of the Alberta Junior Hockey League — at least for now.
The Oilers doubled up the Canmore Eagles 6-3 Tuesday in Canmore to improve their record to 21-14-0-1. Their 43 points puts them two points ahead of the Calgary Canucks.
It was a team effort for the Oilers as they had six different players beat Canmore goalie Sam Brittian.
Okotoks took a 3-2 lead after 20 minutes on goals by Jordan Principalli, Cody Dion and another by affiliated player Joel Grant, …

Don’t be fooled by the smiles on the Okotoks Synchro SeaQueens when they host their annual Christmas exhibition Thursday.
Sure they look forward to entertaining parents and friends at their Synchro SeaQueens Christmas Water Show, but some of the routines literally takes the athletes’ breath away.
“For a lot of our routines we have to hold our breath for a lot of the things we are doing under water that you can’t see,” said Amanda Millard, a member of the SeaQueens Tier III competitive team. “When we are on top of the …

In order to write about a sport, you have to get to talk to people in the sport.
So with notepad in hand, I headed to the Okotoks Curling Club to watch Okotoks’ own Shannon Kleibrink play Krista McCarville in the semifinals of the Winter Olympics Canadian women’s curling qualifying tournament in Edmonton.
I went down there on the pretext of work, but I had a double motive: A) I wanted to watch the curling; I don’t have cable and; B) It was a chance to take My Reason For Living out …

The Foothills Falcons served noticed they have learned from some painful Senior girls’ basketball seasons the last two years.
The Falcons shocked the four-time defending Foothills Athletic Council (FAC) league champion the Holy Trinity Academy (HTA) Knights 51-48 Dec. 9 at Foothills Composite High School in Okotoks.
“It felt so good,” said Falcon guard Taylor Conway.  “We’ve had this rivalry with HTA for an extremely long time, and if felt good to finally beat them.”
The rivalry has been purely geographical for the past few years because the Knights have dominated the Falcons …