While the town appears mostly high and dry, the Cochrane sporting community did not completely escape the great flood of 2013 without getting a soaker, at least.
The June 20-22 deluge pitched a spitball at lacrosse and baseball playoff schedules, while regular-season soccer and rugby fixtures were postponed and rescheduled.
But, all things considered, it was no more than a nuisance compared to the challenges facing neighbourhoods downstream in Calgary. The Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre, metres from the north bank of the Bow River, was unaffected.
“We were high enough on the floodplain that the actual building was not in jeopardy,” said SLSFSC general manager Robin Mitchell. He said road access to the facility was “in jeopardy” due to rising water on June 21, but didn’t get high enough to close the road.
The Bow Valley Grizzlies men’s rugby team was unable to play its June 21 Calgary Rugby Union Tier 3 fixture against Titans, the Bantam Rage girls lacrosse team had to reschedule its Calgary District Lacrosse (CDLA) playoff dates and the Cochrane Toros Little League baseball team waited out the storm to continue its undefeated season – 19-0 and counting as of June 24.
As the flood swallowed Calgary riverfront communities, the CDLA issued a June 21 bulletin on its website that read, in part: “Obviously, the current state of emergency in Calgary and surrounding areas has impacted a number of our lacrosse families, both directly due to numerous evacuations and indirectly though road and facility closures. A revised schedule is being drafted and will be posted on the website as soon as possible.”
All soccer matches for competitive Cochrane teams playing in the Calgary Minor Soccer Association were also cancelled June 21-23, with new dates still in the works.
The Active Start Soccer Fest planned for June 22 at West Terrace Fields in Cochrane was rained out. The season-ending tourney for recreational soccer featuring Cochrane players aged 3-14 has been rescheduled for Sept. 7 at the same field.
Grizzlies president Steve Horton said the various rugby teams under the Grizzlies’ umbrella took the weekend off. The team’s fundraiser for the artificial turf in Redwood Meadows was cancelled because key participants living in Redwood Meadows and Bragg Creek were besieged by the flood.
Some of his organization’s members will be reclaiming their homes and lives as water levels recede.
“We’ve got a number of players and families who live out at Redwood Meadows and Bragg Creek whose properties have been swamped or damaged, or they’ve been evacuated from their homes,” he related. “That’s affected us a lot this weekend.”
But he said the club’s home field at Mitford School appears to have weathered the storm.
“It looks OK, actually,” he said of the field. “It drains pretty well.”
Really well, in fact. Mere days after the Bow River crested in Cochrane, most of the town’s playing surfaces are already back in use.
