local

Remember to get your Ten Best Christmasthemed entries ready for December. A winner will be chosen from those published and will win a wonderful Christmas basket of goodies from the DHT. Today, former DHT sports scribe Dale Woodard, who now works with the Lethbridge Herald, offers up his Ten Best memories of covering sports during his time in GP. I consider myself very lucky to have called Grande Prairie home for nearly seven years between October of 2001 to September of 2008 as the sports reporter for the Grande Prairie Daily Herald-Tribune, and with that came many memorable moments.

2006 ForD womens worlDs

The best of the best womens curling teams right in our backyard for an entire week, culminating with a last-shot win for Team Sweden over the U.S. in the gold medal game. Elite curling, lots of free food for the media and an interview on CBC radio I did where Im sure I talked too fast on account of being nervous for being interviewed on live radio.

Your 10 Best
2004 storm aJHl title

2 3 5

2002 greY CuP

The 2004 Grande Prairie Storm Alberta Junior Hockey League championship title. I was fortunate to be the guy who was able to document the Storms first championship title in franchise history. Ill never forget Mark Szotts gamewinning goal and Herald-Tribune photographer Randy Vanderveens picture capturing it. Mark, breaking in on Fort McMurray netminder Juliano Pagliero, the puck dribbling through his legs and over the goal line.

OK, this one didnt actually occur in Grande Prairie, but with the 2002 Grey Cup taking place in Edmonton as the hometown Eskimos faced the Montreal Alouettes, I was dispatched to Edmonton to cover it. I had never been to a Grey Cup before, yet the first one I went to I was covering it. While the big media outlets from Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver were in the main press box, those of us lower on the media chain were relegated to a press box that looked like a baseball dugout you would find in some rural Alberta town. But it didnt matter, I was thrilled to be covering an event I grew up watching.

2002 CCaa volleYBall

My first spring in Grande Prairie and the best womens volleyball teams in the CCAA came to Grande Prairie Regional College. Ill never forget the gold medal game between the reigning champion Collge Franois Xavier Garneau from Quebec and Malaspina College from B.C. While there was no local team in the final, the atmosphere in the GPRC gym was electric as Quebec notched another title.

Festival oF golD stomPeDe

I cant pick any particular year, they were all fun. Wandering around the rodeo grounds by day looking for feature stories - be it a saddle bronc rider, a calf roper or a bull rider - and then wrapping up the day covering the chuckwagon races always made for a fun day.

2002 tsn skins game

A field featuring Randy Ferbey, Kevin Martin and Russ and Glen Howard. Need I say more? I remember the Grande Prairie Curling Club being so packed that I was forced to watch the games on a TV in the upstairs lounge, which was converted into several living room sets with a couple of couches and a television .

Carters Call 2005

I cant remember the exact quote, but as the Grande Prairie Regional College Wolves womens volleyball team prepared for the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference championship, then- head coach Lee Carter told me You know what? Were going to win, thats it. Or something like that. Then Carter and his team promptly went down to Red Deer and took home the ACAC title and earned a trip to the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association championship in College Francois-Xavier Garneau in Quebec City. Carter called it.

Dale wooDarD
Submit YOUR 10 BEST to frinne@bowesnet. com, photos optional but welcome, and be eligible for some great prizes from the DHT

Again, I cant pick a particular year that stands out, they were all great. The Festival Of Gold was more than a free meal for the media, it was a chance to look back on a season of Wolves athletics and honour the athletes who wore the colleges colours. Watching Wolves cross country running head coach Bill Corcoran torch every other program while bragging up his own teams accomplishments was always entertaining as well.

2006 oilers CamP

Im primarily a Habs and Flames fan and always will be, but seeing an NHL calibre training camp pack up and head north to Grande Prairie was amazing. Getting a front row seat of that years prospects and watching the annual Joey Moss Cup was an eye opener. I have fond memories of the winning team of the Joey Moss Cup posing for a team picture afterwards, playfully hamming it up for the camera.

10

gPrC Pressers
What better way to start your week than by heading over to the college to recap the past weekends action in Wolves athletics and advance the coming weekend, all while having a hot coffee and a rice crispy square?

Check out the archive on our website under arts/life

your 10 best

DHT
dailyheraldtribune.com