Figure skaters Kyla Davies and Candace Braun as well as the St. Paul Peewee A Canadiens hockey team will head to the Alberta Winter Games this week in Spruce Grove, Parkland County and Stony Plain to try to bring home gold for St. Paul.
For Davies, who also coaches younger skaters in town, this will be her second time competing in the games. She attended the figure skating competition four years ago and was a little surprised with the amount of sports and athletes.
“It was actually a lot of fun. I didn't expect it to be anything like that. I had no idea how much of a big deal it was to people," Davies said. “I thought it was a normal competition, but then I saw all the different sports that were there."
Davies has been training three times a week for four hours to prepare for the figure skating portion of the games, which this year will take place at the ice rink located inside the West Edmonton Mall. Now in her tenth year, Davies said she's used to the pressure.
“Once you're out there and your music is going and they call your name you kind of zone out," she said. “I've never noticed the crowd. This year might be different because I'm competing at West Edmonton Mall and there will be a lot of people. I've never skated in front of that many people."
“Lots of people are running laps and jumping off ice so I'm usually just sitting there," she explained before it's her turn to skate. “I look out on the ice and I visualize my program, but then after that I try not to think about it because I stress myself out. I just plug in my music and focus on other things and not what everyone else is doing."
The St. Paul Canadiens Peewee hockey team qualified for the games after winning three two-game series in 2011. The final series wrapped up against the Marwayne Sled Dogs, in which the deciding goal was scored in double overtime.
Head coach Ted Graling indicated his team has made a few changes to its style of play and is ready for the opposing teams from Drayton Valley, Sexsmith and Calgary.
“Right after Christmas we changed and now we're being more accountable," Graling said. “We're keeping track of turnovers and looking after our own zone better. We can't 'run and gun' like we have in years past and this is the way we're doing things. We're a good skating club and we like to put the puck deep, forecheck and work off the cycle."
According to Graling, most of the players on the team have previously played at the provincial level and it has been the team's goal since day one to not only participate in the Alberta Winter Games, but also take home the gold.
“At the beginning of the year we had goal setting meetings with the kids and this was one of their goals, to win gold in the Alberta Winter Games," he explained. “For them to stay focused on it was pretty easy. I don't set the goals. They set the goals."
“They're pretty excited, it's on all their minds," he added, regarding the players. “The one thing with this is you only get one chance to go because it's peewee hockey and it's only every second year."
