RED DEER – The first round of athletes, coaching staff and other members of Team Alberta arrived on Valentine's Day at Red Deer College full of excitement and love for their sport in preparation for the 2019 Canada Winter Games.
“We’re delighted to welcome Team Alberta as the first team to come in and we’re very excited to support Team Alberta and all of our athletes from across Canada,” said Joel Ward, president and CEO of Red Deer College.
“We’re pretty excited. We’re glad that we’ll be hosting the athletes at Red Deer College. They’ll be sleeping here, eating here and being entertained here, throughout the whole Games.
“It’s an incredible day for the City of Red Deer, for the Canada Winter Games and for our college,” he added.
About half of Team Alberta’s athletes, coaching and support staff, which number close to 300, arrived last week for the first part of the Canada Winter Games, which officially began on Feb. 15, and running to March 3.
Their arrival in Red Deer came with plenty of anticipation and excitement.
“For a lot of these athletes, it’s years and years of training that accumulate in this event,” said Guy Napert-Frenette, media liaison for Team Alberta. “For most of these athletes this is the biggest event that they’ve ever competed at and probably the first multi-sport (event) they’ve competed in.
“There’s lots of smiles, lots of energy and lots of excitement,” he added.
Red Deer College was designated the Athletes Village for the Games and will host all of the athletes from across Canada.
“We have athletes representing 47 different communities that are part of Team Alberta. We are spread out all over the province,” said Napert-Frenette, noting Team Alberta wore team colours for their arrival.
“It’s a tradition for Alberta to wear blue and white. You’re going to see a lot of blue here at all the venues,” he said, noting the support from fans, friends and family who will be cheering on the Alberta athletes.
One of those athletes is 18-year-old Ali Keylor, who is competing in ringette.
“(I’m looking forward) to just getting to see everything, being with my team and really take in the experience that we’re here, we’re finally here,” said Keylor. “After all the tryouts and everything, working so hard for almost a year now, we’re finally here. It’s awesome.”
She was thrilled to arrive on Feb. 14 and settle in. Her first game with her ringette team was on Feb. 16.
“I’m looking very forward (to our first game) but I’m a little bit nervous because I’ve never competed in such a big event with so many fans,” she said. “But I’m more excited.”
Keylor said being the host province, she and her ringette team have their hopes set high.
“With all the time and hard work and everything we’ve put in, hopefully we can all come together and bring home the gold.”
