Local prospect picked in NHL draft

Michael Latta cheered when teammate and friend Taylor Beck was selected by the Nashville Predators in the third round of the NHL draft last weekend. Two picks later, it was his turn to celebrate as the Predators chose him too.

The whole family – Michael, his parents Gary and Liz and older brothers Jeffrey and Jimmy – were in Montreal for last weekend’s draft selection …Read more

Stroller classes a good fit for moms

A toddler on the treadmill is not a good idea; neither is a baby on the weight bench. Andrea Kellough is hoping a stroller fit class will be better fit for new moms who want to work out with their little ones.

“It’s an exercise class outside that mothers can do with their strollers,” Kellough explained. “It’s a nice way to get a full-body workout without having to use a lot of equipment.”

After giving birth to her son Jackson a year ago, Kellough went to a stroller fit class in Waterloo Park with her cousin while she was on maternity leave. Now that she’s back to work part-time, she’d like to get a class going in Elmira.

It can be tough to keep a toddler occupied while doing a workout, Kellough said, but while they’re strapped in a stroller, they can’t wander off. Since the classes take place outside, there’s plenty for them to look at, including mom’s exertions.

“[Jackson] likes to laugh at me when I’m running,” she said.

He also enjoys watching her do lunges, when she disappears and reappears from behind his stroller like a game of peek-a-boo.

Moms don’t even have to work around their child’s sleep schedule, Kellough said.

“You can get away with doing an exercise routine and they can be up or asleep.”

Classes involve lunges, squats, running with a stroller and lots of work on the abdominals. Kellough is hoping to hold the sessions in Lions Park, where there are benches and bleachers that could be incorporated into a workout.

She is organizing the class under the mentorship of her cousin, Natalie Twomey, who leads Ultimate Stroller Fit in Waterloo. She said an Elmira group would work in a similar way; interested moms …Read more

EDSS fetes its top athletes

Elmira District Secondary School handed out awards to its top athletes at the school athletic banquet June 11. Taking home the awards for top senior male and female athletes were Scott Albrecht and Melissa Blake.

Blake, a five-sport athlete who excelled in all of her sports, said winning the award still came as a surprise.

“It actually was, I was not expecting that at all,” she said.

Blake was also honoured with an award recognizing extraordinary contribution to Lancer athletics over five years, an award that hasn’t been handed out for eight years.

Blake is finishing her fifth year at EDSS, having returned partly to boost a few marks but mostly to play sports for another year. This year, she was a strong presence on the basketball, volleyball and slo-pitch teams and also competed in badminton and javelin.

Blake said one of her favourite moments in sports this year was the basketball team’s playoff game.

“It was one of my better games. It was intense, the stands were full,” she said.

Another highlight was setting a Waterloo County record in the javelin throw. Blake bested her own record toss from the year before with a throw of 36.09 metres. …Read more

Golfers will score for football program

Football at EDSS has come a long way since the team kicked off on a makeshift field behind the school.

Four years later, the varsity squad will start the season on a new field equipped with a state-of-the-art scoreboard. The new wireless scoreboard is 24 feet wide and 14 feet high, with the words “Home of the Lancers …Read more

King set to Kruise once again

Elvis Presley, or at least a half dozen or so reincarnations of the late hip-swinging American icon, will be rockin’ Linwood June 20.

For a second year, Kruisin’ with the King – the local Elvis Tribute and classic car show – will take place at the Linwood Recreation Complex. …Read more

Local basketball player makes name for herself

Alex Klein scored her first big clutch basket when she was about 10, just a few years after she started playing basketball.

Down two points with four seconds left in the game, the coach called the team in for a timeout. The plan was simple: someone would set a screen and Alex would shoot a three-pointer.

“No one thought I’d get it in; I didn’t think I’d get it in. I got it in and I won the game, it was awesome,” she recalls with a grin.

Klein has shown an aptitude for her favourite sport since she was the smallest player on the Waterloo Wildhawks house league team in Grade 2.

Now 14 years old and 5’10”, she was recently invited to take part in the USA Junior Nationals International Sports Festival in Illinois this summer. Several hundred girls aged 14 to 17 – the best basketball players in the U.S. and Canada – will take part in a weeklong skills competition.

Alex got the invitation to the international festival after a strong performance at the state competition in Michigan in March. The mystery is how the Junior Nationals organization heard of her in the first place; Klein still doesn’t know who put her name in.

Klein hits the court between three and five days a week. She plays for the Waterloo Wildhawks rep team, and she qualified again this year for the tri-county team, made up of players from Brantford, Guelph, Kitchener-Waterloo and area.

The Grade 9 student also played for her school’s …Read more

EDSS continues to shine in track and field

Elmira athletes broke two records at the Waterloo County track and field championships last week, and vied for medals in 16 events at the regional meet this week.

In the senior girls’ 400-metre hurdles, Madeline Charnuski shaved more than two seconds off the previous record, with a time of 1:08.06. And in senior girls’ javelin, Mel Blake bested her own record toss of 33.51 metres, set last year, with a 36.09-metre throw.

EDSS holds records in 10 girls’ events at the WCSSAA level, tied with Bluevale Collegiate. Several of those are courtesy of Charnuski’s older sister Olivia and distance runner Tarah McKay, who have since graduated and who hold six records between them.

Blake was the top seed in her event heading into this week’s CWOSSA competition. EDSS sent nine athletes to the regional meet, held Wednesday and Thursday at Resurrection Catholic Secondary School. The top six finishers in each event will advance to the provincial championships.

After the first day of competition, several students had placed well enough to move on: Nick Timmerman was second in senior boys javelin; Lydia Frey fifth in junior girls discus; Mel Blake third in javelin; Jordan Moore fourth in midget boys high jump; and Madeline Charnuski finished fourth in both 100 metre and 400 metre hurdles …Read more

EDSS athletes advance to regional meet

EDSS will be sending at least a handful of students to the regional track and field meet, with the chance of more to come after the second day of competition at the Waterloo County championships.

EDSS sent 27 athletes to WCSSAA, held at Resurrection Catholic Secondary School on Wednesday and Thursday this week. Students have to be among the top four finishers in their event to move on to CWOSSAA next week.

In the first day of competition, Elmira had several javelin throwers place. In senior girls javelin, Mel Blake placed first and Steph Barber was fourth, while Nick Timmerman placed second in senior boys javelin.

Lydia Frey took third in the senior girls’ discus throw and might be a contender in long jump. Full competition results weren’t available at press time.
On the track, Madeline Charnuski is a strong contender in senior girls’ hurdles, running both the 100 metre hurdles on Wednesday and 400 metre hurdles on Thursday.

Hurdling runs in the family for Charnuski, whose older sister Olivia is studying at Liberty University on a full track scholarship. Both girls are members of the Laurel Creek Track and Field Club and help out with coaching hurdling. …Read more

Mixed results for boys’ rugby at EDSS

Last year the senior boys’ rugby team at EDSS had a full bench and players to spare, while the junior team was hanging on by a thread.

“Last year, the juniors we did on life support. We only had 16, 17 kids all year and we play 15 of them,” said coach Craig Stuart.

This year, it’s the opposite story; the junior team has 10 or 12 more players than the seniors, and that added depth on the bench is showing in their season.

The juniors had a record of 3-2 heading into Thursday’s match, with two close losses to rugby powerhouses Sir John A. MacDonald and Bluevale Collegiate.

Stuart said the junior team has enough players to give them more options on the field, allowing the coaches to tailor the lineup to the opponent they’re facing.

Stuart coaches both junior and senior boys, with help from fellow teacher Carl Smith and parent Tony Hoffman.

Points are spread fairly evenly …Read more

Hard work pays off in the karate dojo

It was a gruelling battle that lasted more than an hour, but Elmira’s Barb Lamble persevered. And now she is the better for it.

As a result of her efforts at a grading ceremony at Arthur Goju Karate Apr. 25, Lamble is now the first student from the Elmira Karate Dojo to receive her third degree black belt.

She’ll undoubtedly be feeling great about the accomplishment … once the pain has subsided.

“Right now it feels kind of sore,” said Lamble with a chuckle.

“It feels pretty good. It was a lot of work to build up to it.”

The grading was a great reward for months of hard work on the elliptical and at the heavy bag, she noted, not to mention the countless morning hours spent practicing katas (detailed patterns of movements) before work.

To obtain her third degree, Lamble …Read more

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