Cypress, Medicine Hat fire up friendly rivalry ahead of S. Alberta SummerGames

By Sean Rooney on May 5, 2018.

The trash talk has already begun between Team Medicine Hat and Team Cypress County ahead of this year’s Southern Alberta Summer Games.

After Cypress coordinator Matt van der Sloot Tweeted “REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!! LET’S BEAT @MedicineHatSASG!! #SASG2018” from the @SASGTeamCypress account Thursday, Medicine Hat coordinator Jenny Styner wasted no time in replying “You can try!!”

It’s all in good fun of course, as the annual games are a family-friendly affair with participation as important or moreso than the hundreds of medals given out.

This year’s games run July 4-7 in Taber with 24 sports on the docket. Registration for the all-ages event began Friday for Cypress and start Monday for Medicine Hat.

Now’s a good as time as any to pick what sports you want to compete in, though. The coordinators routinely try a couple themselves, and this year will be no different.

“I’m doing a swimming relay with my family, we might do a five-pin bowling team (with regional coordinators),” said van der Sloot, who teamed up with Styner to play pickleball last year in the County of Newell.

“We competed for Cypress in pickleball and got our butts handed to us,” laughed Styner, who’s also considering beach volleyball. “Five-pin bowling, I might give that a whirl.”

Medicine Hat’s team combined for 117 medals last year with almost 300 participants. Styner hopes for a similar body count this year. Van der Sloot saw his numbers spike from 80 two years ago in Lethbridge to 120 last year, when Cypress totalled 78 medals.

“This year I’m hoping for that 100 mark,” he said. “They always blow us out of the water in the numbers but it’s more or less just to have something to talk about.”

Notable sports this year include motocross and rugby along with the aforementioned pickleball and bowling. Track and field, cycling and team sports baseball and soccer are always popular as well. Most sports only run over a couple days, so you don’t necessarily have to commit to the full four-day weekend.

Registration deadline isn’t until the first week of June but visit southernalbertasummergames.com for all the information you need to pick a sport and register with the right team.