Local Sports

It’s been a 10-year goal to transition online. It took a pandemic to make it happen. COVID-19 “changed everything,” Colleen Preston told Coast Reporter from her gym, Oasis Training, outside Gibsons.

In January a two-year-old Gibsons-based gym had just expanded into its new, larger space on the Sunshine Coast Highway to fit its growing membership. Two months later, public health restrictions forced the gym to close its doors.

The Western Hockey League’s Calgary Hitmen have drafted 15-year-old Oliver Tulk of Gibsons. The team chose Tulk 12th overall in April’s 2020 WHL bantam draft and announced May 1 that he had agreed to sign with the club.

For the past week, recreation facilities have closed, as have municipal fields, school district playgrounds, gymnasiums, ice rinks and basketball courts, leaving most Sunshine Coast sports clubs with little choice but to take an indefinite timeout.

While open fairways may seem like an ideal place to practise social distancing as other sports and recreation areas close in the effort to contain COVID-19, the Sunshine Coast’s golf courses have been forced to severely curtail operations.

A new season of golf for junior members was launched on Monday, March 9 at Blue Ocean Golf Club, with Chris Lowe of Lowe Golf Scores hosting an orientation welcoming the 21 new members.

Skater of the Month for March is Teigan Turner. Teigan is a year-round skater. She is thrilled to be able to skate on the Sunshine Coast for April and May this year, which will mean only having to travel off-Coast for June and July.

Kaigan Karate, the karate dojo in Roberts Creek, has enjoyed considerable success in this season’s tournaments, beginning with the Victoria Open in October, followed by the Zone 5, then the Sato Cup, the Provincials and most recently, the B.C.

Athletes from Grades 4 to 7 finished off their seven-week basketball season with three play days, hosted by the three Sunshine Coast high schools. Chatelech kicked off the final week hosting the Grade 4/5 Jamboree with 11 teams entered.

Gibsons’ Allan Harding was the overall match winner in the pistol class at the BC Target Sports Association’s Airgun Championships, held last weekend in Richmond. Bobby Reid (left) was the junior men’s match winner.