The Everything Red Deer Podcast: Revisiting rdnewsNOW’s top local SPORTS stories of 2025

Miss our Year-in-Review for local news (non-sports)? Listen HERE.

JANUARY

January 3 – Red Deer Ringette celebrates 40 years of Friends on Ice tournament.

January 4 – Red Deer’s Jocelyn Peterman wins gold at Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Trials, alongside partner Brett Gallant.

January 10 – Red Deer Rebels owner and GM Brent Sutter shakes up the team at the trade deadline, dealing away Matteo Fabrizi, Carson Birnie, Hunter Mayo, Cole Peardon, Taylor Tabashniuk, Trae Wilke, and a handful of draft picks. The Rebels finish the season 26-34-6-2, third last in the Eastern Conference, and seven points out of the playoffs. It would be the first time in over a decade the club misses a postseason berth.

January 14 – Five Red Deer Rebels are named to NHL Central Scouting’s mid-term rankings, including centre Matthew Gard. Gard, just 18, would be drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers, 57th overall, at June’s NHL Draft.

January 23 – Red Deer Rebels owner and GM Brent Sutter, reflects on being inducted into the New York Islanders Hall of Fame.

FEBRUARY

February 19 – Referees come together for benefit breakfast in Red Deer, including NHL veteran official Mike Cvik.

February 20 – Lacombe’s Brady McKinlay and Red Deer’s Eileen Park, two outstanding young golfers, are selected to represent Canada.

February 22 – Red Deer Curling Centre marks 125 years.

February 27 – Red Deer’s Rebecca Smith retires a two-time Olympian in swimming. Smith, 24, won a silver in the 4×100 metre relay at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

MARCH

March 5 – Lindsay Thurber Esports team finds international success.

March 8 – Central Sport announces 2024 Sport Award Winners; the Pattison Media Team of the Year is the U18 AAA Red Deer CarStar Braves, who captured the U18 National Baseball Championship — the first ever U18 AAA team from Red Deer to win national gold.

March 12 – Red Deer is announced as host of an upcoming Canadian Elite Basketball League game between the Calgary Surge and Edmonton Stingers. The game went down at the Centrium on June 19.

March 12 – Two Red Deer hockey players are named finalists for AJHL Rookie of the Year — Easton Daneault of the Drumheller Dragons, and Cooper Moore of the Lloydminster Bobcats. Two weeks later, the 16-year-old Daneault wins the award, having posted 56 points (21G, 35A) on the season.

March 15 – Before a Red Deer Rebels game, the team for which he wrote for decades, Greg Meachem, who passed away in April 2024, is posthumously awarded the Bob Ridley Award for media excellence by the Western Hockey League.

March 18 – Former Rebel Kai Uchacz speaks on making the most of his opportunity with Vegas Golden Knights organization.

March 23 – The Innisfail Eagles win their first ever Vanberg Cup as a member of the North Central Senior AA Hockey League. They beat the Lacombe Generals (the defending champions) four games to one.

March 28 – Sylvan Lake Wranglers defeat Okotoks Bisons to win Heritage Junior Hockey League championship.

APRIL

April 2 – New ownership is announced for AJHL’s Olds Grizzlys.

April 18 – Innisfail’s Luc Catudal, Red Deer’s Kian Siemens, and Blackfalds’ Tyrell Strauss are selected to join Team Alberta’s lacrosse team at the 2025 Canada Summer Games in St. John’s, Newfoundland from Aug. 8-25.

April 26 – Bentley’s Declan Peterson, recently drafted to the Canadian Elite Basketball League, speaks on his late start in the sport.

April 26 – Sylvan Laker Tristan Lindberg is one of five Alberta Blind Hockey players to participate in the 2025 International Blind Ice Hockey Series and help secure Canada’s sixth consecutive win over the U.S.

April 28 – Red Deer’s Easton Daneault, already AJHL Rookie of the Year, is nominated for CJHL Rookie of the Year. Two weeks later, he’s named the winner.

MAY

May 3 – Jocelyn Peterman of Red Deer, and partner Brett Gallant secure 2026 Olympic berth despite loss at World Mixed Doubles Championship.

May 7 – Red Deer Rebels lose 18-year-old d-man Doogan Pederson in WHL Expansion Draft for Penticton Vees.

May 9 – Dave Struch steps down as head coach of Red Deer Rebels due to personal reasons. He joined the club as interim head coach in March 2024.

May 9 – Ben McAuley, a 6’3″ and 180 pound wideout for Red Deer’s Notre Dame Senior Cougars football squad, is selected to play in the 2025 CFC Prospect Game in Hamilton, ON, later in May.

JUNE

June 2 – Red Deer athlete Kim Payzant becomes national champion after winning gold with Team Alberta at the 2025 Wheelchair Rugby National Championships in Montreal.

June 5 – Red Deer Rebels name vaunted Marc Habscheid as club’s 10th head coach.

June 9 – Former billet family cheers on ex-Rebel Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in Stanley Cup Final.

June 9 – One of Canada’s greatest Olympians, Clara Hughes, headlines incredible Class of 2025 inducted into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame.

June 11 – The Red Deer Tennis Club turns 125!

June 12 – Rimbey’s Dean Edge becomes third Canadian to win World Livestock Auctioneering Championship.

June 13 – Pro women’s football is expanding to Canada — could Red Deer be a target?

June 19 – Red Deer’s Molly Simpson, who placed 5th at the 2024 Paris Olympics, secures first World Cup victory in international BMX.

June 25 – Red Deer Minor Basketball announces closure.

June 27 – Former Red Deer Optimist Chief, Parker Burgess, is named head coach of WHL’s Vancouver Giants.

JULY

July 1 – Cross-Canada run for mental health to hit Lacombe.

July 9 – Former pro hockey player Nick Tarnasky, who’s also head coach of Red Deer Minor Hockey’s U17 AAA team, is involved in a viral incident at a central Alberta golf course. In August, Red Deer Minor says he is clear to continue coaching due to him not being the one to instigate the incident.

July 16 – Red Deer athletes win 51 medals at the Special Olympics Alberta Summer Games.

July 18 – Sylvan Lake’s Tyler Boudreau, a pitcher with the Sylvan Lake Gulls, inks contract with New York Yankees.

July 21 – Class of 2025 inducted into Alberta Hockey Hall of Fame — the group includes Canada hockey great and PWHL head coach Carla MacLeod, former Calgary Flame great Joe Nieuwendyk, and Edmonton Oilers legend Ryan Smyth.

July 22 – Red Deer is once again named Alberta’s ‘Most Active Community.’

July 23 – Alberta Sports Hall of Fame announces bonus class called ‘Legends Unveiled’ — a group of legends who should’ve had their name called by now. The group is inducted in September.

July 28 – Alberta Hockey Hall of Fame announces relocation to Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre.

AUGUST

August 1 – Lacombe’s Daxon Rudolph, a forward for the WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders, is selected to represent Canada at the 2025 Hlinka Gretzky Cup.

August 11 – National rugby team plays game in Red Deer.

August 12 – Sylvan Lake Gulls advance to WCBL Final. The Gulls win game one of the final 3-2 over Regina and on the road, but lose two straight at home, and lose the series.

August 15 – In a shock move, Rebels captain Ollie Josephson defects to the NCAA.

August 18 – The Red Deer Riggers men’s baseball team wins the Sunburst League championship.

August 19 – Red Deer’s Kristen Spady wins the Edmonton Marathon.

SEPTEMBER

September 3 – Red Deer golfer Bennett Love wins Alberta U15 title.

September 20 – Red Deer’s 2x Paralympian Tammy Cunnington talks release of new memoir called ‘Still Fighting.’

September 22 – Minnesota Wild sign Rebels goalie Chase Wutzke. Wutzke would be traded to the Moose Jaw Warriors in November.

September 23 – Dallas Stars sign Rebels forward Jaxon Fuder. Fuder is traded to Edmonton in late December.

OCTOBER

October 3 – Red Deer couple, Lady JB Owen and Peter Giesin, return home after a 91-day tandem bike trek spanning 7,600 kilometres from Mexico to Alaska.

October 6 – New Red Deer Rebels captain Talon Brigley says donning the ‘C’ for the first time was a “pinch me” moment.

NOVEMBER

November 5 – Dr. Wilton Littlechild, who is from Maskwacis, is named to lead Hockey Canada’s new Indigenous Advisory Council.

November 9 – Red Deer Polytechnic Queens soccer team wins bronze at 2025 Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association women’s soccer national championship.

November 18 – City of Red Deer renames downtown recreation centre after the late Don Moore.

November 18 – Red Deer to co-host 2027 World Juniors with Edmonton.

November 19 – Olds Grizzlys Ryder Riedel earns second straight AHL Rookie of the Week honours. He does it a third time in December.

November 20 – Red Deer to host 2029 Men’s Senior AAA Baseball National Championship.

November 28 – Best of The Everything Red Deer Podcast: Sports Edition — Year 1, drops on all podcast platforms.

November 30 – Red Deer’s Molly Simpson makes history as first Canadian woman to win USA BMX Pro Series in 20 years — giving her rights to the title of the top pro female BMXer in the United States.

DECEMBER

December 1 – Lindsay Thurber Raiders win double gold at provincial volleyball championships.

December 1 – Visually impaired student from Eckville wins bronze at 2025 Youth Parapan American Games.

December 3 – Alberta Sports Hall of Fame reveals Class of 2026.

December 3 – Red Deer-rooted Alberta Northern Lights wheelchair basketball organization of the 1980s inducted into Wheelchair Basketball Canada Hall of Fame.

December 4 – Golfer Eileen Park named to Canada’s NextGen team for third year.

December 18 – Sylvan Lake Gulls name Matt Hape new head coach.

by Josh Hall | @Vancan19