Local Sports

R.D. Parker Collegiate's top athletes for the first month of the 2009-2010 school year both say they're being recognized as much for what they say as for what they've done on the volleyball court.

Peewee hockey players skate a lap in the Gordon Beard Arena during the Thompson Minor Hockey Association's A team tryouts Oct. 3.

The Olympic torch will only be in Thompson for a few hours on Nov. 7 as it winds its way across Canada en route to Vancouver and the 2010 Winter Olympics, but the city has a full day of activities scheduled to mark the occasion.

Goaltender Ryan Delorme backstopped the Norman Northstars to a win in their first home game of the season Oct. 9, which was also the team's first game in the new C.A. Nesbitt Arena, putting on a clinic in the home team's net.

Anyone interested in trying their hand at curling will get the chance Oct. 18 at the Burntwood Curling Club, which is offering a free Curl Canada clinic from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

A delegation asking if there was any way to save Red Sangster Ballpark from becoming the site of student housing for the new University of the North Campus received a sympathetic ear from the mayor and council at their Oct. 5 meeting.

The Thompson skatepark is making progress towards the city's goal of having the facility completed this fall, but as early snow flurries have already arrived, how much skateboarding gets done there this year is at the mercy of the weather.

Last season's leading scorer Quentin Holmes led the way for the Norman Northstars as they picked up their first win of their 25th season Oct.

Seven-year-old Nikolas Boychuk of Thompson's Laban taekwondo competition team earned a gold medal in the head-to-head patterns competition at the World Taekwondo Academy's U.S. Tournament of Champions Sept. 26 in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Former Norman Northstars Jeff English and Jordan Ryan of Thompson picked up five points between them in a Keystone Junior Hockey League pre-season match Oct. 4 between the Arborg Ice Dawgs and the Sanford Titans.