Once Bill Peddleston started to research the history of Chestermere sports, he realized how deep the subject could become.
On Feb. 20, Peddleston did an hour-long presentation at the library about sports history, and he couldn’t cover everything. He’s planned at least one more presentation and could possibly do more with the sheer amount of content there is that is of interest.
“I went through types of sports,” said Peddleston, who has lived in Chestermere for around 40 years. “It was a little bigger than I thought it was going to be so I didn’t cover everything.
“Chestermere has been around a long time and people don’t recognize that. I sort of dealt with some of the older sports which are water skiing and sailing. I did motorcycle racing around the lake and curling.
“There a lot of old photographs, particularly of sailing because it was around a long time. There’s a lot of old water skiing from when it started up and there are a lot of athletes that have been relatively significant that have come out of Chestermere so that’s been kind of interesting. Then you bump into people you didn’t know about.”
Some of Peddleston’s discoveries include wakeboarders Chad and Nicole Hudson and Robert Ulrich, who competed internationally, as well as Lesley Reichenfeld, who won the world’s masters sailing competition in San Francisco in 2011.
There’s also David Shaw, who competed in sailing at the 1980 Olympics and was also on the crew for the America’s Cup.
“It’s such a big area that I’m sure I’m going to miss lots of people,” Peddleston said. “I’m sure I’m leaving people out.”
There’s enough content here that Chestermere sports history could be turned into a book, but Peddleston hasn’t thought about that yet. He’s just hoping to enlighten locals about what has happened in the area. Some of that history is still being written, as curlers John Morris and Ben Hebert both just went to the Olympics and have lived in Chestermere.
Of course, this is all with leaving out the biggest sport played during the winters.
“I’m just looking at hockey now,” Peddleston said. “I coached out here and taught at Chestermere so I know we’ve had some pretty nice hockey players to come out of here.”
Although a date for a second presentation isn’t set, Peddleston expects it to be within a few weeks.
