2025 Year in Review in sports

Posted on January 8, 2026 by Taber Times

January

The Town of Taber recently received a grant for $15,000 from the Community Foundation of Lethbridge and Southwestern Alberta’s Community Priorities Fund.

Steve Munshaw, Director of Recreation for the Town of Taber says that the grant will be allocated to building a picnic shelter at the Trout Pond in 2025.

“This Community Priorities Grant will help us improve the Trout Pond area with a new picnic shelter, creating a welcoming and enjoyable space for residents and visitors alike,” said Munshaw.

On January 7, 2025, Seniors, Community and Social Services Minister Jason Nixon and Tourism and Sport Minister Joseph Schow announced that the Alberta government has provided a $500,000 grant to the AMP Legacy Foundation of Canada to assist them in ‘expanding their efforts to make Alberta a more inclusive place for people with disabilities.’

“The AMP Legacy Foundation of Canada is a leader in advocating for adaptive sports education and social change to ensuring our communities are inclusive for everyone,” said Minister Nixon. “This one-time investment will help AMP grow their community championship program here in Calgary and expand their program in Edmonton.”

After returning to play from the Christmas break the Taber Christian Lions came out ready to play. Their first game back was Jan. 7 when they hosted Winston Churchill. The girls came out strong with great defense against Churchill and were able to hold them to less than ten points in each quarter. They took the win 79-24, showing good offense throughout the game. Logan Meier led scoring with 21 points, Iya Hoekstra added 16, followed by Irena Kuypers with 13 and Kennedy Planger with 12. As a team we had great rebounding out of all the girls with all of them on the boards. Hoekstra led with nine and Planger and Nyla DeBoer grabbed eight each.  McKenzie Siemens had eight assists and Kuypers had four blocks. Their record for league play is now 3 and 1.

A track cyclist with local ties took a spin on the world’s grandest sporting stage. Calgarian Sarah Orban qualified for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris and it was an exciting time for Sarah, her family, and her supporters, said her father Scott Orban, who grew up in Taber. Sarah rode for Canada in the team sprint event at the National Velodrome in Paris and came in eighth, getting edged by Great Britain in an elimination round.

 His father Scott explained the team sprint for those not familiar with track cycling. “They follow each other on the track. So they go around one time, then the first rider leaves the other two slipstream behind. And then after the second lap, the second rider leaves in. The third lap, that rider takes it home. She was a specialist as a starter, which her coach asked her to do two years before the Olympics. It’s the ultimate in sprinting. She’s got to get everybody up to speed really quick and comes out of a fixed gate. The other riders don’t come out of a fixed gate, so they can glide into it. But she has to start from dead still out of the gate. She got to a point as they were qualifying, ranking number third in the world as a starter,” he said.

The Lions travelled to Lethbridge this past week for Deep South League play against Chinook High School.

This weekend both St. Mary’s and Taber Christian High School are co-hosting our annual Black and Blue Tournament. The tournament is 16 teams with eight boys and eight girls teams from throughout Southern Alberta competing. Both schools will have games on Friday and Saturday.  The first game is at 12:45 p.m., we invite everyone to come out and watch some great basketball throughout the weekend.

On Thursday, January 30 Barnwell School is hosting their 17th annual Cake Auction Night and we expect the events total to surpass a quarter of a million dollars in its overall existence.

What started as a fundraiser night for our athletic program at the school, has morphed into the highlight of our school year. Proceeds from the first Cake Auction went towards new uniforms for the school teams, but due to the generosity of the community, all areas of the school (academics, arts, and athletics) have benefited. This year we have eyes on a new video board/scoreboard in the gym as well as working towards a new track for our track and field program.

It’s been a busy schedule for Taber Golden Suns teams in the new year and several teams were back on the ice this past weekend for Alberta Elite Hockey League (AEHL) games.

February

On Monday, Jan. 27 we travelled to Prairie Winds Secondary School in Coaldale for a league game. We were expecting Prairie Winds to play us tough and they did, it was a very physical game for our girls with lots of fouls being called. We had a strong first half against them and they stepped it up on us in the second half, but we were able to pull off the win 62-54. Irena Kuyper and Logan Meier led scoring for the Lions with 20 points each with Iya Hoekstra adding 13. On the boards we had Kuyper leading with 14 and Meier and McKenzie Siemens each grabbing seven. Hoekstra also led with six assists and Meier and Kuyper each grabbed seven steals each.

Freezing temperatures persist in southern Alberta, but the Central Alberta Hockey League regular season is reaching its end. This past weekend, Taber Oil Kings teams were back on the ice to compete for points before the playoffs begin later this month.

It was a tragedy that struck the heart of Canada’s treasured national pastime. On April 6, 2018, the Humboldt Broncos team bus was struck by a semi-truck that failed to yield at a Saskatchewan highway intersection. Of the 29 bus passengers, 16 lost their lives. Logan Boulet, a Lethbridge native and Broncos defenceman was one of those, succumbing to his injuries the day after the crash. Sometime before the accident, Logan told his father that he was registering as an organ donor. Logan was inspired by his late coach and mentor Ric Suggitt, who had done the same. After learning that Logan would not recover from crash injuries, his parents, Bernadine and Toby Boulet, donated his organs, giving the gift of life to six waiting recipients.

 Out of the wreckage of that day seven years ago, Green Shirt Day was born. It’s an annual event that honours Logan’s legacy and promotes organ donation. This year’s Green Shirt Day At the Rink is coming fast, with an inspired day full of hockey on Sun. Feb. 23 at the Taber Community Centre hockey rink. The Boulet Family and the Canadian Transplant Association (CTA) have partnered with the Golden Suns Athletic Association since 2022.

This past weekend was another round of games for the Taber Golden Suns as they all continued their regular season schedules in the Elite Alberta Hockey League (AEHL).

Coming off the heels of a hugely successful 4 Nations Face Off hockey tournament, the Taber Food Bank and Taber Titans Charity are hoping locals will show similar pride in watching another type of face off.

The second annual Face-Off Against Hunger goes Saturday, March 8 at the Taber Arena.  

“There are so many service groups coming together for this great cause with the common goal to help those in need,” said Tamara Miyanaga, volunteer event co-ordinator for Taber Food Bank.

Taber Titans board members and friends will lace up the skates to play in the game against teams with Taber Minor Hockey, Taber Fading Sons and Taber Police and friends playing among the three periods of play.

In 2024, the leaseholder group for the Taber Archery Range contacted the Town’s facilities management department to discuss the current condition of the indoor floor at the archery range. The range leaseholders advised that the surface treatment on the original concrete floor slab had lost bonding to the concrete over time, resulting in large patches of exposed concrete floor mixed with patches of floor surface treatment.

March

It’s almost time for the Taber Viper Swim Club to jump into the pool for another season.

Registration opened Monday (March 3) for the 2025 season, a campaign that will be highlighted by a big hometown swim meet from July 4-5, as Taber will host the Southern Alberta Summer Games. It’s the first time Taber has hosted the Games since 2018.

“The meet is two full days,” said swim club president Maria Hughes.

“Friday will be preliminaries with finals on Saturday. This year we expect to have over 200 swimmers competing in varying lengths of freestyle, butterfly, breaststroke, backstroke, individual medley and various relays.”

Roughly 80-100 volunteers and coaches are required each day to pull off the event.

“Our club is in charge of coordinating volunteers for the meet and feeding all of the coaches and volunteers both days,” said Hughes, who added swimmers love attending the SASG because it is formatted the same as the regional championship meet— with preliminaries one day and finals the next day. “It is a great opportunity to prepare for regionals and get a feel for how regional championships will operate.”

The U18 Taber Oil Kings were the last Central Alberta Hockey League team in Taber still fighting for a banner. After receiving a bye in the first round, the U18s had to wait and see who would emerge between Picture Butte and High Country.

Picture Butte finished fourth in the division with 17 points while High Country also finished with 17 points and placed fifth. Butte would win Game 1 5-3 and Game 2 4-2 in order to advance to the semi-finals against Taber.

Taber’s regular season top five in terms of points were Kayden Kress (45 goals, nine assists), Jasper Sidam (16 goals, 14 assists), Konnor Wiebe (11 goals, eight assists), Ayden Umbach (10 goals, eight assists), and Jude Tams (four goals, 10 assists). Ty Dorin back-stopped Taber in 11 games and posted a record of 8-2-1 with a 3.91 goals against average and a 0.890 save percentage. Avery Remfert was in net for five games and went 5-0 with a 2.60 goals against average and a 0.940 save percentage.

On Feb. 24, Irena Kuyper appeared as a delegation before Taber town council with a request for financial support for a basketball trip. The NBC International Girls Basketball Tour will be travelling to Germany in the summer of 2025 and as a recruit, Kuyper looks forward to going.

The Taber Christian High School Lions won the bronze medal in the Deep South League Championship taking a 54-45 win over Stirling. We came out in the first quarter a little flat against Stirling and then we were able to pick up our play throughout the game to take the win. Stirling played tough defense on us, and we really needed to work to get our shots off. Heading into the fourth quarter we were behind 25-36, and we had to pick up our game. One of their key players fouled out in the fourth quarter and we were able to capitalize on that and out score them 19-9 for the win.

Late last week, the Vauxhall Academy of Baseball Jets departed for their annual trip to Las Vegas. Before they got to Nevada, the team made a stop in Twin Falls, ID for a pair of games against their high school team.

In the first game of the doubleheader, the Jets raced out to a 2-0 lead and never relented as they closed it out with a 6-0 win. The Jets totalled 11 hits over eight innings, with Callum Thomson leading the way with three hits, two RBIs, and a stolen base. Aaron Fuzesy had a pair of hits, including a double and an RBI, while Landyn Cummins, Easton Kitura, Ben Simmons, Alex Laurence, Rogan Rivard, and Noah McIntosh all had one hit.

The Vauxhall Spurs American Legion “A” Baseball Team will be holding their 2025 tryouts on April 12 and 13, 2025 at Jets Stadium in Vauxhall.

Jimmy Vulcano, who has worked in technical development and as a coach for the Spurs in various capacities since 2019, currently serving as an assistant coach, says that the team plays in the American Legion Baseball league and are in the Montana-Alberta zone. The Montana-Alberta zone has 4 conferences, Vulcano states, and the Spurs are in the north conference along with Medicine Hat, two teams from Lethbridge; Havre, Montana; Conrad, Montana; Lewistown, Montana; and Great Falls, Montana.

Late last week, several Taber schools saw their basketball teams compete in the Alberta Schools Athletic Association (ASAA) Provincial Championships.

After opening the Bishop Gorman Invitational with a loss to Palo Verde, the Vauxhall Academy of Baseball Jets still had plenty of games on tap. With the Vegas trip being early in the spring schedule, the coaching staff always expects ups and downs, and the Jets were hoping to see an upswing in their second game.

Facing off against Desert Oasis Varsity Diamondbacks, the Jets scored runs early and never looked back as they secured a 15-5 victory. Calum Anderson was the starter for VAB on the mound and the right-hander gave them 2.1 innings with a pair of strikeouts while allowing five earned runs on three hits and five walks. Kaleb Bozek finished the game off, going 2.2 innings while only allowing a single hit.

April

There will be a Moose sighting at the Heritage Inn in late April.

That is because the 1970 Taber bantam Moose baseball team will be inducted into the Taber and District Sports Hall of Fame for winning the Western Canada Baseball Championship. 

It was a similar feat to the 2004 Taber bantam Jets, who pulled into the hangar of the hall induction back in 2012, where both teams fittingly enough won their respective championships in Manitoba. 

“How neat is that? That’s really a phenomenal feat. Even though it’s called Western Canadian championships, there really is no Canadian championships at that level. This Little League level of baseball, it’s as far as you can go,” said Debbie Sargeant, president of the Taber and District Sports Hall of Fame selection committee. 

Taber will be hosting the 2025 Southern Alberta Summer Games (SASG) and there’s plenty to do in preparation for the event. The Games will take place from July 2 to 5 and feature both individual and team sporting events in and around Taber. Roughly 2,000 athletes and coaches are expected to compete.

 The Town has hosted the Games six times previously, and in the summer of 2024 when discussing a potential seventh, town council was decidedly split on the decision to submit a bid for 2025. When Taber hosted in 2018, the expenditures totaled approximately $110,000 including donations and sponsors. Last summer, when the event had not yet been budgeted for, the Town could foresee the cost rising as high as $230,000 between the combined cost of hosting and making facility upgrades.

At the March 31 Horizon School Division (HSD) board meeting, trustees carried a motion to include Lomond Community School’s senior boys volleyball program in the Deep South Volleyball League during the upcoming season.

 Melissa Gartly, principal at Lomond Community School, sent a letter to HSD requesting that the school’s boys volleyball team be accepted as competitors. She said, “We are asking that you consider making an exception for us. It would mean a change in scheduling for one year, but the impact it would have on our team would be immeasurable.”

The Southern Alberta Summer Games (SASG) will return to Taber just as this year’s Canada Day celebrations are winding down. From July 2 to 5, both individual and team sporting events will play out in and around town, with an expected 2,000 athletes and coaches to merge for the competition.

Later this month, the Southern Alberta Chaos will be back on the court for a new season. Competing in the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League in the Tier II division, the Chaos will take on the Calgary Axemen, Calgary Bandits, Calgary Wranglers, Foothills Spurs, Mountain View Stingers, Rockyview Rage, and Strathmore Venom for the division crown. The Chaos started their mini-camps in late February, with spring training taking place in March. The team officially started team practices at the beginning of this month as they prepare for the regular season.

This past weekend saw the U18 WHAM volleyball team travel to Olds for Division 2 Provincials. In Pool D with Ace of Spaces EP, CanWest, and SAS Thunder Navy, WHAM began their tournament on Saturday against CanWest. In a two-set sweep, WHAM won 25-20 and 25-23. Game 2 was against Ace of Spades and WHAM once again defeated their opponent in two straight — 25-20 and 25-17.  The round-robin finished off with a game against SAS Thunder Navy. This time, WHAM was unable to win a set as they went down in two straight — 18-25 and 22-25.

The spring is rolling right along for the Vauxhall Academy of Baseball Jets, who got into a handful of games last week against the Okotoks Dawgs. Things kicked off on April 11 when they welcomed the Dawgs for a doubleheader.

The first of the day saw the Jets play a strong game in all facets as they took a 5-0 win. They had three hits in the game including two home runs from Callum Thomson and Matt Getz, while Ben Simmons notched a double. The Jets also walked five times in the win. Sheamus Ryan was outstanding on the mound as the left-hander pitched all seven innings and only allowed three hits and one walk while striking out 10 hitters.

Last week, the W.R. Myers Rebels baseball team was back on the diamond for a pair of games in the South Alberta Hockey School Baseball League Tier II division. Looking to improve on their 1-1 record, the Rebels were on the road on April 15 to take on the Eagle Butte Talons. In a high-scoring affair, the two teams were held scoreless until the fourth as the Talons took a 2-1 lead. The fifth saw an offensive explosion for the Talons as they tacked on 10 runs and took a 12-3 lead into the sixth. The Rebels would add five more runs but were unable to find a way back into the game as they fell 14-8.

Lynn and Glynnis Turcado appeared as a delegation before town council on April 14 with a sponsorship request for the Canadian Classic Rodeo Association. This year’s senior pro rodeo in Taber will be held on the May long weekend and will run for three days instead of two as in previous years.

 The Turcados asked Taber Town council for $3,000 towards staging the rodeo. Council can allocate from its discretionary fund as it sees fit, and at the start of the day’s meeting, the balance for the 2025 discretionary fund was $23,264.

See next week’s Times for more Year in Review