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Some "final" words - November 3/11

I sat on this for quite a while and finally figured it was maybe time to put to "print" what's been spinning around my head for the better part of the last month and a half.

Many, many moons ago, there was a few folks in a cold tent in Airdrie of all places that decided to come up with a plan to make the Heavy Events in Alberta a real thing. About 9 months later all the paperwork was done up officially and the Alberta Scottish Athletic Association was born. Now we've had lots of folks in, through and out the revolving door of athletics since the official opening in 1998 and we've done what we can to immortalize the great Paul Sim, but I'm going to speak today on 3 other original members that have stepped back from their primary roles.

Mike Staal was one of the originals and by far one of the physically strongest members of our entire association. In a group of strong guys, this guy made it look easy and moved FAST with everything. Sometimes TOO fast to control but damn, it was impressive. Our longtime leader in the weights and one of the two guys constantly battling for the best hammer throws in the province, Mike was a competitor through and through. He pushed everyone around him to get stronger and when it was time to start healing up damage and gaining flexibility, he was the first to commit to that too. And he kept on getting better despite a job that wasn't always conducive to getting any time to practice or sometimes even compete. But I remember him packing weights and kettlebells in the back of his truck, just so he could toss in whatever oilfield his travels took him to.

A solid guy, great sense of humour and dedicated father, Mike slowly stepped back over the last few years and is happily enjoying married life. That mustache early on was an epic soup strainer too. Another one in the "not officially retired but don't wait up" category, Mike will always have a spot available for him, regardless of how many people we have throwing with us.

Terry Hunt took no small amount of abuse from Day 1, just for being the only actual Englishmen in a group of supposed Scotsmen. Terry was my first true head to head competitor. We got better at nearly the same (glacial) pace and constantly traded off events, often beating each other by inches for years. Except in one event: caber. Where, as many folks found out, he was damn near unbeatable in his class, effortlessly turning sticks that stumped almost everyone else in there. I was heartbroken when he moved to the black wastes of Eastern Canada, but couldn't stop smiling when he came back.

Terry was and is always a crowd favorite and noone knew how to whip them up and get them cheering like he did. Never one to turn down a hug from whatever girl(s) happened to be on the field with him, he is still the master of charm and I don't know anyone that didn't smile as soon as they saw him standing at the field. Because he was always one of the first to be there, first to volunteer to help and usually the first to come up with solutions to problems. To those that know him, this is no great surprise as he is easily one of the actual smartest guys I have ever met, to the point of needing to invent his own machinery just to run the processes that he himself has come up with. All just to make some engineers look good. I can't say enough nice things about Terry, but I'm happy to hear that his retirement only applies to competition, not to hanging out and refusing to give anyone a 12:00 on the caber unless they REALLY earned it. Buy Terry a beer when you see him. He likes that.

What do I say about Gord Walsh? This man is actually legendary both locally and with the various pros he was instrumental in bringing to the Calgary Highland Games over the years. With his no-nonsense attitude and quick wit, he can just as easily make you laugh or let you know who exactly is in charge (it's usually Lisa). Gord lead the way. I have said this to many people and I will say it again to everyone now: We in the ASAA did Gord a great disservice by just not being good enough to really push him to his best. Gord once went an entire season without losing an EVENT. Not a games, an event. At a grand total of 7 or 8 local games around the province, even with piles of us breaking PRs and putting in whatever effort we could dig up, Gord didn't give up a single first that year. So I'm going to apologize to him a bit here. We should have been better, Gord, because who knows how far you could have thrown if you'd had serious competition to push you.

Gord made us better in every way. Better safety. Better fields. Better technique. Better equipment. Better organization. Better competitions. Better competitors. And all the while, noone could have been happier or prouder of his children. All killer athletes in their own right, Gord took every opportunity he could to train them, train with them and has managed to give them a deep love of his first great sporting love: volleyball. In which Gord was still absolutely destructive in, training and competing with the National Masters team in the HG off-season. His appearances have been few and far between for the past couple of years and so have his practices and he still managed to take his age class at WMC this year. Despite organizing, not sleeping and getting up way too early. A professional in every possible way, it has been my sincere pleasure to have been competing alongside, if not necessarily WITH Gord for about 15 years. I hope he still finds the time to come and say hi and hand out some beatings for guys who don't train hard or smart enough.

So that's it. Sort of good byes, but I'm more hoping its a "Thanks for starting this. Come out as often as you can." from the skinny kid who ended up being the last active original member of the ASAA. It has been, without a doubt, the greatest pleasure in my life to share that many fields, laughs, throws, beers, bitch sessions and BBQs with all of you guys. In many ways, all of you helped shape me into what I am.

Other people may not thank you for that ;)

Yours truly and humbly,
Sean Langford

Paul Sim/Beaumont Games - September 19/11

Alright folks! It's that time and the weather seems to be cooperating. So drop me a line to make sure we all know who's coming . We need to know numbers for the BBQ and AGM afterward. Looks like the Radstaaks will graciously host, so let's get all the data in so we have enough food and the like.

- Sean

Last Word on Okotoks - August 23/11

Alrighty! The list is finalized by Dr. Dave and so we have a total of 18 athletes. We will be running 2 trigs, probably grouping the Ams and Open class together (as we throw the same weights) and Masters and Wimminz as a group. As such, all athletes need to be on the field for 9:30 for registration (for those that still need to sign up or pay for the day's events) and to get warmed up for a 10:15 or so start. Keeping in mind we have the kids games around noon-ish or so, I still figure we're laughing our way through 8 events. As is typical, I expect the women and masters to start goofing off early. Early report says good weather. Last comp (maybe!) this year in Alberta, so let's put on a show and have some fun.

- Sean

Calgary Heads up! - August 20/11

Just as a reminder there is NO regular competition in Calgary this year. CUSGA is proudly playing host to the 2011 World Masters Championship. This means a host of athletes, near constant events and 6-8 trigs and events going on simultaneously. A good many of us are there to help, however. If you are interested in that, drop me a line.

- Sean

Foothills Part the Second - August 18/11

Alrighty, I think here's our full list:

Ft. Ed Games Athlete List
Open	Amateur	Master	Women
Dave Roe	Wes Radstaak	Mike Gilpin	Megan Melham
Sean Langford	Kyle MacDonald	Terry Hunt	Laura Reusser
Rob Young	Dan Loeb	Aaron Andronyk	Carolyn Johnson
Gord Walsh	Adam Price	Jim Garrick	Alex Norman-Ross
Bob Brown
Joe Taylor

If anyone's missing off the list, I don't know about it. Seeing as we'll be running 2 trigs and we have a grand total of 16 athletes, I think we're looking at a 9:30-10:30 start time, full 8 events. If I hear different from Diamond Dave Roe, I will let you know.

- Sean

Foothills HG - July 18/11

From Diamond Dave Roe, President of High River: August 27 2011, Okotoks Ab, Throwing and then Celidh. What could possibly go wrong? Open: Dave Roe, Robert Masters: Terry Hunt Ams: Kyle, Paul Women: Meg,Alexandra Norman-Ross Let me know here, or e-mail atdroe@highriver.ca The closing date for entry is August 5. Cheers!

I'll also go over the registration forms and grab names, but it's always nice to confirm and make sure nothing's changed, so email your AD, Davey.

- Sean

More Fort Edmonton Stuff - July 4/11

Celtic Gathering

Saturday, July 9 & Sunday, July 10, 2011

10 am to 6 pm

Join us for two (2) full days of Celtic fun at Fort Edmonton Park. On Saturday, join our live radio remote hosts CISN FM and enjoy the magnificent sounds of the piping and drumming competitions. You will see the Highland strength and endurance skills shown in the Heavy Games competition on Saturday, with demonstrations and feats of strength continuing on Sunday! Be sure to catch the beautiful Celtic dance performances that are all a part of this great tradition! Sample haggis, play family games, and visit the merchant market to find your very own Celtic treasure. New this year, Ceilidh at the Hangar Saturday night! Buy your tickets for this evening event in advance or at the door (pending availability) and enjoy music and spirit of Fort Edmonton’s first ever Ceilidh.

Check out the full list of stuff right here in this word file

Ft Ed Registration and Stuff - June 29/11

Ft. Ed Games Athlete List
Open	Amateur	Master	Women
Dave Roe	Wes Radstaak	Bobby Brown	Megan Melham
Josh Goldthorp	Kyle MacDonald	Terry Hunt	Laura Reusser
Dave Laidlaw	Paul Kuefler	Aaron Andronyk
Joe Taylor	Kevin Matthew	Tim McLean
	Brian Christian	Mike Gilpin
		Ian Maplethorpe

This IS a two day event, although day 2 is a lot of caber demos and a keg toss or two with some other stuff thrown in. Day 1 is a normal comp. I'll be posting more data as time goes on, but if you're coming, make your presence known. Everyone on the list above will have their name at the front gate.heavyevents@heavyevents.ab.ca

Red Deer, Ellerslie and Ft. Ed - June 27/11

Hey kids! Fantastic weekend and some big numbers out there. I'll have tons of records to reboot and the like later. Suffice it to say, I think everything went swimmingly and a HUGE thanks to everyone who helped out but I wanted to give a monster thanks to Terry Hunt who is always a class guy and a huge help, Megan who made registration HER problem instead of mine, Bobby for being, well, Bobby, Davey Laidlaw for rockin the joint during setup and teardown both days and Wes Radstaak for making the crowd sing in Red Deer. That man should always have the mic.

But I'll write up more later on that. Ft. Ed is 2 weeks away. drop me a line if you're going to be there

- Sean

Updates, Start Times, Events - June 23/11

Alright, fruitcakes, here's the setup: We have 24+ throwers and we're throwing a full 8 events in Red Deer, but at the new field they've given us a lot more room to work with. It's going to take some cooperation and work from each group, but we'll be running 3 trigs all day long. The groups break down pretty nicely into groups of 8 or 9, so we should be able to pace it just fine. But Registration is from 8:30-9:00 and first throw at 9:30. If you aren't registered or an invitee, you don't throw. If you're late, that event is a scratch to you unless you have video evidence of you pulling orphans off of a burning bus. So far the weather prediction seems to be holding, but come prepared for sun OR rain.

Ellerslie is way more of a mess. First off, there's a marathon that day screwing everything up, so if you're not coming from the south, you're going to have to drive down 50th toward Beaumont and hang east on 41 ave SW, then north on 101 St SW and the ESS will be on your right. We'll have the same # of throwers but less space, so we're only throwing 6 events and 2 trigs (so no braemar and no light hammer for the open class. I'll let the other classes decide what hammer they want to kill). Start time at 9 there.

If anything else comes up, I'll let you know. Check often.

- Sean

Directions and Stuff! - June 20/11

Alright, first off: Red Deer is now at the Titans Rugby Park and Can apparently be found here:
Titans Rugby Club

Now, some may not have been to Ellerslie before and that can be found here:
Edmonton Scottish Society

I'll post start times by Thursday. Looking at 9-9:30 both days. Multiple trigs.

Grande Prairie - June 13/11

One of the first things I heard about this competition came from Wes when he let me know in no uncertain terms that I was fired as the AD for Grande Prairie. That's because Kyle MacDonald stepped up huge and helped put on maybe the best GP Heavy Events yet. I heard about competitor bags, gift cards, catered lunches, refreshments and then hosting a UFC to top it off. And, AND, looking at the results, he also had a banner day and handed out a beating to the other Ams in attendance. Also, this competition heralded the Alberta intro to young Josh Goldthorpe who looks to be a serious force in the Open division this year. Good deal. Maybe it'll push some of our established guys to up their game a little.

Also can't say enough nice things about Megan for stepping up and doing the comp secretary thing, which is why the results are already up and delivered. My life just keeps getting easier. And it's about damn time!

The ASAA would also like to give a huge thanks to the following for helping support Scottish Heavy Events in Alberta: Tim Hortons (yes, THAT Tim Hortons), Altus Geomatics, Primo Plumbing and Heating and Doug Neilson Construction!

Registration and T-Shirts - June 8/11

Alright, so El Presidente Extraordinaire Bob Brown has got us some performance shirts for this year. Registration this year is going to be $100 and include a t-shirt, or $25 for a single games plus you can buy a t-shirt for extra. Bob did an awesome job and here's what they'll look like this year:

I'm sure they'll look better on you guys.

Red Deer and Ellerslie - May 11/11

Ok, I have many inquiries about this and I have indeed changed the schedule, so let me just slap it out here: Ellerslie is back! June 26th, the day after the Red Deer Highland Games! So let's get this party started by opening up registration. Please contact me if you have the intention of competing on one or both days that weekend. Remember the rule, kids, if you don't let me know, you're going to be all sad-face and shagging weights unless you happen to be in the Great ASAA Hall Of Awesome. Which means basically Mike, Gord, Paul Sim and Terry Hunt. If you arent one of them, I don't have to hate you to treat you poorly!

Red Deer Games Athlete List
Open	Amateur	Master	Women
Sean Langford	Wes Radstaak	Bobby Brown	Megan Melham
Jason Johnston	Kyle MacDonald	Mike Gilpin	Carolyn Johnson
Rob Young	Paul Kuefler	Terry Hunt
Joe Taylor	Joe Kuefler	Aaron Andronyk
Dave Laidlaw	Kevin Matthew	Tim McLean
Dave Roe	Brian Christian	Todd Hennel
Josh Goldthorpe	Dave Cochran

Ellerslie Games Athlete List
Open	Amateur	Master	Women
Sean Langford	Wes Radstaak	Bobby Brown	Megan Melham
Jason Johnston	Kyle MacDonald	Mike Gilpin	Carolyn Johnson
Rob Young	Paul Kuefler	Terry Hunt
Joe Taylor	Joe Kuefler	Aaron Andronyk
Matt Doherty	Kevin Matthew	Tim McLean
Dave Laidlaw	Brian Christian
Dave Roe
Josh Goldthorpe

Grande Prairie - April 22/11

Hey look! More updates. Keep in mind that Grande Prairie is on SATURDAY, June 11/11. That departs from the usual Sunday games, so it's travel on FRIDAY, compete on SATURDAY. Don't know if that changes things for you Calgary folks or not. In other news, congrats and jeers to Joe Taylor's upcoming wedding ON THE SAME DAY. Doughhead.

Grande Prairie Games Athlete List
Open	Amateur	Master	Women
Rob Young	Kyle MacDonald	Terry Hunt	Megan Melham
Dave Laidlaw	Paul Kuefler	Mike Gilpin
Tom Fyvie	Joe Kuefler
Josh Goldthorpe	Wes Radstaak

Holy Smokes! (and GP) - April 21/11

I really need to update this mess more often. Anyway, let's hear if you're going to GP! Email me, so I can list it and drop our man Kyle a line for t-shirt sizes! That's right, GP t-shirts!

Welcome back, kids! If the snow's gone, I hope you're throwing.

- Sean

Results - Jan 5/11

Slowly coming up. Trying to get information from the CSAF on how to put them up into the database but information is slow in coming. A little bit of results work and gallery work is starting in on our site too. Check out Ft. Ed. More to come!

Paul Sim - September 15/10

Ok, so it's been talked about since Cowtown, but I know the official announcement is coming a bit late. If you want to come to the years end party and casual throw day, drop me an email here. It'll be in Beaumont, but probably at a new field with Wes hosting. But we need numbers :) Throwing from 1-4:30 let's say.

More Calgary - Sept 2/10

Ok, here's the scoop. We've got 4 trigs running this bad boy. The actual nationals will be in a static placement, unlike the Masters last year. The other 3 trigs will have a bit more rotation involved to accomodate the different events. Gord has the schedule and as per usual, I am sure it's all organized like clockwork. In any case, show up at the field at 8-8:15 to get your bearings, get warmed up and get the instructions for the day. We'll have 30+ athletes running for the day including Nats, so start time is at 9am to accomodate it all and to have the pace of the day be reasonable. Calgary puts on a good show, so lets do the same from them.

Calgary - Sept 1/10

Want to hang around some of Canada's best throwers? Or just have somewhere to go and eat, talk, listen to music and celebrate the last comp of the year? Drop a line to Eve and let her know your intentions to join the official after party and awards ceremony. She needs numbers, so give her a shout and make it official.

Hey, want to know how to get to Calgary Games? Check this one out: www.calgaryhighlandgames.org/directions/directions.html

- Sean

Foothills Start Time - August 26/10

Be at the field no later than 9, guys. First throw is 9:30 sharp. 8 events, 2 trigs, 20 people. No time to waste.

Calgary Highland Games - August 17/10

Here's the big one, kids. If you aren't already an ASAA member, registration is 20 bones and we'll take your cash at the field. But now is the time to actually drop me a line and tell me you're coming and what class you throw in. Duane, Norm, I know you guys already did but tell me is it's masters or ams or what. Hard limit of 24 athletes, guys.

Calgary Games Athlete List
Open	Amateur	Master	Women
Dave Roe	Kelly Strachan	Bob Brown	Megan Melham
Dave Laidlaw	Wes Radstaak	Mike Gilpin	Jamie Waine
Gord Walsh	Paul Kuefler	Aaron Andronyk	Laura Reusser
Wilson Burnett	Dan Loeb	Norm Little
Tom Fyvie	Mike Kelbert	Duane McClinton
	Mike Desilets
	Adam Price

heavyevents@heavyevents.ab.ca

- Sean

Foothills Highland Games - August 9/10

We have some news and updates from Davey Roe! And yes, I know I have a lot of stuff to do with the results, etc, etc.

Foothills Games Athlete List
Open	Amateur	Master	Women
Dave Roe	Kelly Strachan	Bob Brown	Megan Melham
Dave Laidlaw	Wes Radstaak	Terry Hunt	Jamie Waine
Rob Young	Paul Kuefler	Aaron Andronyk	Laura Reusser
Gord Walsh	Kyle MacDonald
Marc Morin	Mike Kelbert
Sean Langford	Mike Desilets
Tom Fyvie		Adam Price

Davey needs to know who else is coming and Bio information! Name, Age, Tartan, years Competing, Class, Hometown, highlights, etc. Drop Davey Roe a line to get that to him.

- Sean

Fort Edmonton Notes - July 6/10

Ok, so despite being 2 over my usual hard limit of 15 in a flight, the powers that be have decided to start this little shindig at 10am. Probably go until around 4:30 or so. The usual 7 events (stone, HW, HH, LW, LH, caber, WOB) plus the late-day stupidity of the Fort Edmonton Stone! Maybe I'll throw a bottle of whiskey at that one or something equally intelligent. Please direct all complaints to someone else :)

- Sean

Fort Edmonton, etc - July 4/10

Ok, so first off I have SOME results up: like here and stuff. More writeups to come. And then we've got this going on:

Fort Edmonton Games Athlete List
Open	Amateur	Master	Women
Sean Langford	Tom Fyvie	Bob Brown	Megan Melham
Dave Laidlaw	Wes Radstaak	Todd Hennel	Jamie Waine
Rob Young	Paul Kuefler	Terry Hunt	DAVE ROE
Gord Walsh	Kyle MacDonald	Mike Gilpin
Joe Taylor	Mike Kelbert

So who am I missing? Tell me now!

- Sean

Canadian Amateur Championships - June 30/10

Hey Ams, stop your grinnin and drop your linen. Want to play against the best of the Ams in Canada? Then you might want to check a few things out here:

You can send your applications to Young Christoph Wand

- Sean

Ft. Edmonton, etc - June 29/10

Ok, so next up is Fort Ed! Only, well less than actually, 2 weeks! July 10 at the Fort Edmonton Park. Seeing as it's construction season, they have been kind enough to toss up this here map for those not from Edmonton and area. By the way, if you're planning on attending, drop me an email and I'll track our stalwarts.

And yes, I'll get the Red Deer results up soon.

- Sean

One more quickie - June 24/10

Results and partial writeup for The Filthson Memorial Stag and Regatta

Out.

Red Deer - June 22/10

Alrighty, Red Deer questions abound:

9am start, so be there at 8:30 to start warming up
2 trigs. I-go-you-go style. Means people need to pay attention.
7 events
gate passes will be required. I have them. I'm making arrangements.
Red Deer is having a caleidh for those interested.
We'll talk about the Beaumont comp at the field.
Grande Prairie Results are up. Writeup to follow.

GP and RD - June 1/10

Looks like GP is shaping up nicely and Red Deer is already starting to fill. The lovely folks at the Red Deer games would like our athletes list, so if you're planning on coming, please remember to fire me an email.

That being said, here's my lists thus far:

Grande Prairie Games Athlete List
Open	Master	Women
Sean Langford	Bob Brown	Megan Melham
Dave Laidlaw	Terry Hunt	Laura Reusser
Rob Young
Wilson Burnett
Paul Kuefler
Joe Taylor
Wes Radstaak

Red Deer Games Athlete List
Open	Amateur	Master	Women
Sean Langford	Tom Fyvie	Bob Brown	Megan Melham
Dave Laidlaw	Wes Radstaak	Todd Hennel	Laura Reusser
Rob Young	Kelly Strachan	Terry Hunt
Wilson Burnett	Paul Kuefler
Matt Doherty	Shane McEwan
Gord Walsh
Dave Roe
Joe Taylor

Is this thing on? - May 25/10

I promise. I haven't forgotten this place or you, my lovely readers. I have some results I could post, I just don't have the full writeups done yet. I have a pile of stuff I need to update and then there's the general news blurbs, so let's start there.

On the home front, just to keep everyone up to speed, Grande Prairie is in 2 weeks. Red Deer 2 weeks after that. Drop me the lines here to let me know if you're coming. Also, memberships can be sent in any darn time you please. Or hand it to me in GP. Oh yeah! And Ellerslie is cancelled! I know! But, if there's enough interest, we can maybe set up a Beaumont games on the Sunday for those that really want a two dayer that weekend. Again, let me know.

In the real positive news, the West's own Jason Johnston, despite being a late replacement, made good on his opportunity to go to World's in Victoria this past weekend and managed a more than respectable 6th place overall, hitting a PR 43'2" in the HWFD while he was at it. Nice work, JJ!

-Sean

Welcome to 2010 - Feb 6/10

And a new one is upon us. The schedule is updated and I don't know about anyone else, but I'm ready to throw already. Let's also see if the new email addy works: heavyevents@heavyevents.ab.ca Who knows. It might.

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