2024 Huntsmen Senior World Games
“A” Division CHAMPIONS!
HUFF ‘N PUFFS 55’s
Gerard Hittel, Randy Kambeitz
Front Row: Mike Sills, Don Hallberg, Garth Stark, Chad Stahl, Andy Stroh,
Coaches: Kerry Buss & Kevin Lane
Tournament Report:
We, the Medicine Hat Huff’ N Puffs 55’s played in the Huntsmen Senior World Games in St. George, Utah and came home with a GOLD medal in the “A” Division! A quick recap of how this happened!!
We came out of the starting blocks a bit slow, losing our first 2 games. The first loss was to Arsinal, from Arizona, who eventually went on to win the “AAA” division. The second loss was a close one to Hawaii, with a score of 18-17. This game was an interesting one to say the least, and thankfully it woke us up and from then on, both our defense and offence was strong. This game got the “big red machines” rolling! The third game in the round robin was against Lethbridge, where we beat them 18-4. This game ended the round robin, so onto the playoffs we went. We ended up getting seeded in the “A” Division.
Our first playoff game was against the undefeated Mayhem from Utah. Our bats were on and we won 23-13. Immediately following this game, we got a rematch against Hawaii, and we had a little revenge on our minds. Once again, our bats were on as well as our defense, and beat them 17-7, and we were on to the next playoff game the following day. Here, we found ourselves matched up against a very strong team from Alaska. The weather was cold and windy, but we came fired up for this one, and in the end, we defeated them by a score of 27-16. This win put us straight into the final, so now we had to wait to see who we would play. After all was decided, we would find ourselves playing a very strong team from Florida! This was a very tight game, with both teams hitting well and both teams playing solid defense. When the dust settled…..we came out with a hard fought victory with a score of 14-12. GOLD MEDAL CHAMPIONS!!!!
Every player played extremely well! The most amazing team effort!
Report by Kevin Lane