MEDICINE HAT, AB — Medicine Hat College Rattlers athletes competed against their peers over the weekend.
Athletes from all of the Rattlers teams participated in a gauntlet of events at their 2nd annual combine.
Some events included the 40 yard dash, bench press, and beep test.
Terry Ballard, athletic director at Medicine Hat College, says the drills chosen for the combine have a variety of purposes.
“It’d similar to the football combine, that’s sort of where we steal it from but we try to do some things that are attributed to the sports we have too. So, all these kind of fit,” said Ballard.
When asked about why they have a combine, Ballard says it’s a great opportunity for new students to check out the school before the year begins.
“All the coaches were always bringing their athletes in early. We always have the orientation on the first week of classes and it was just such a busy, busy time for all the students,” said Ballard. “We thought we take that away from the first week of classes. Move it to when they’re already here and then we just add the orientation and a little bit of fitness testing.”
Ballard says the athletes brought their A game and showed no signs of taking it easy over the summer break.
“Actually there was several new records set today. Couple on the bench press for both men and women, in the broad jump, and also in the beep test. Both men and women set a record,” said Ballard.
When school gets underway in September it’s not long after that the sports teams get their seasons started.
Ballard thinks the teams are set to have another strong year.
“We traditionally do make playoffs and we anticipate most of our teams will. So we’re really, really excited, a couple of coaches have done some outstanding recruiting jobs and you know we went to nationals in a couple sports last year. So, we hope we can get back there again,” said Ballard.
The men’s and women’s golf teams will be the first to have a crack at nationals.
Medicine Hat hosts the 2018 CCAA National Championship at Desert Blume Golf Club from October 15-19th.
