Monthly Archives: December 2013

Sports

Cyclones turn special teams talk into action

The Davidson Cyclones senior hockey team lit the lamp three times in the second period while on their way to a 6-1 road win last Wednesday against the Nokomis Chiefs.

Jason Shaw, head coach of the Cyclones, said they dominated the play during the middle frame, which was book-ended by an even first and a quiet third. He said Nokomis doesn’t play a physical style, so that makes for a bit of a different game for them, but the most important thing is they still got the win.

“We were short staffed, but we played pretty good. The guys that were there played well. Brady Willner played pretty good in net,” said Shaw. Chad “Manz had a breakaway goal (4:43 into the second to put the Cyclones up 2-1), which was pretty good and then Carter (Smith) had a nice shorthanded goal. I guess with guys gone it gives different guys a chance to play a little bit more.”

The penalty kill goal by Smith, who also picked up two assists, came after Zach Sim scored his first of two on the night on the power play. Colton Allan and Rance Anderson also figured into the scoring with Allan potting the opening goal for the Cyclones to even up the score at 1-1 less than a minute after Tyler Hartmann gave the Chiefs their only lead of the game and Anderson scored the final goal with a little over five minutes left in the third. Davidson forward Cody Danberg didn’t find the back of the net against Nokomis, but he did add to his league leading point total that now sits at 24 after he picked up three assists during the game.

Shaw said it was especially nice to see Smith back on the ice and helping them out on special teams after suffering through an injury earlier in the year. He said the improved power play and penalty kill has also come around just through players chatting amongst themselves about what works and what doesn’t.

“During games (players are) talking about what we want to do power play wise (and) where we want to set up,” he said. “The first part of the season, especially on the power play, we had some chances (and) we just couldn’t score. Then on the penalty kill we’ve cut our penalties down quite a bit, but we’ve just as we’ve gone along change it up how we want to defend against their team’s power play and it seems to be working.”

After a slow start to the season the Cyclones (3-3-1) seem to have found their stride going two-and-two over the past four games, but keeping each of them fairly close with the big win against the Chiefs being the lone exception.

“For the rest of the year anybody can beat anybody,” said Shaw. “Nokomis had two wins and they’re on the bottom (of the standings) and Watrous is on the top with five, so we got to come every night to play well. As long as we can get three lines and four or five (defencemen) it gives us a chance every night.”

Davidson

Altar Egos marries comedic and musical talents

It was the time when the Soviet Union was falling, the Berlin Wall was crumbling and apartheid was ending.
Important events that changed the world.
Closer to home, however, all newly engaged couple Colleen McMasters and Mark Frobisher want to do is plan a simple wedding.
They soon find out that nothing is simple when two completely different sets of parents get involved. Add some bridesmaids who are girls who just want to have fun, a cast of other eccentric characters, the unexpected appearance of an old girlfriend, set it to the soundtrack of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s and you have the makings of a pretty good musical comedy.
The version of Altar Egos, presented Nov. 28-30 by Davidson’s Kinsmen Club and Davidson Community Performers, was made great by the comedic and musical talents of the community’s performers.
From the band that played the music, the choir that provided the beautiful voices, to the actors on the stage, all turned in exceptional performances. Some gave memorable ones. Everyone in town now knows who Cory Dean is.
Mandy Tichit, delivered a Melissa McCarthy worthy performance as bridesmaid Maxine.
Appropriately big-haired Kelly Allan, as Colleen, conveyed the stress felt by many a bride-to-be who was foolish enough to have not eloped, despite her father’s (played by Peter Sarich) $20,000 incentive. Jason Low, as Mark, whose idea it was to have a simple wedding in the first place, quickly learns that nothing is simple when it comes to planning nuptials.
The audiences were appreciative of performers’ efforts and those of director Arlene Low, co-director Karen Reich and musical director Tracy Hodgins.
It took a lot of work, countless hours of preparation by cast and crew. In return, audiences received an evening of excellent entertainment and the opportunity to see yet another side, this one tie-dyed, of Jim Cross.

featured

$2.6 million improvements planned for Blackstrap

A “start” is the best way to categorize the two new agreements between the provincial government and private investors that would bring $2.6 million worth of improvements to Blackstrap Provincial Park, said a leader with the Dundurn Rural Municipality.

“There is a long ways to go yet,” said Fred Wilson, Reeve of the RM of Dundurn. “The Park itself is planning some more campsites and that is an important part of it too, but the marina is a good move because that will take quite a bit of pressure off their highway on the weekend with everybody having to bring their boat down and then take it back home again. The boat launch will help out quite a bit too.”

The Saskatchewan Parks, Culture and Sport Ministry reached the multi-million dollar agreement Nov. 15 with Blackstrap Marina Corp and Waterfront Development Ltd. to develop and operate a 190 slip inland marina at the Park that will offer multi-year, annual and daily slip rentals to the public as well as a marine fuel service, boat launch and vehicle and trailer parking as well as a new 12 fully-furnished year-round unit rental accommodation cabin project.

In addition to these agreements, the Parks, Culture and Sport Ministry announced they are in the planning stages of a new serviced campground for Blackstrap Provincial Park with design and development to occur over the next two years.

Lin Gallagher, deputy minister for Saskatchewan Parks, Culture and Sport, said the ministry began this project by entering into some public and stakeholder consultations as well as incorporating some of their own ideas on what would be appropriate for renewing Blackstrap and enhancing recreational opportunities in the area.

“Then coming from there… some unsolicited interest came in to us for proposals for different initiatives in the area of the Park and within the Park,” said Gallagher. “What we did then is we had a RFP (public request for proposals), so we formally solicited some detailed proposals for commercial or private parties and…we received two formal proposals from both of the companies that we’re working with now.”

Gallagher said the agreements entered into are for 25 years with the two companies responsible for paying the government for the lease along with all the costs of constructing and operating the facility. She said the marina developers are presently undertaking geo-technical and soil samples before they put in their construction and detail designs while working to obtain all federal and provincial regulatory approvals.

“What we understand from them is that they hope to be through all of that for spring of 2014 and they’re hoping to open in July of 2015 or earlier if possible,” she said. “For the rental cabins…they’re presently working on the detailed design plans for the cabins along with any supporting infrastructure requirements and plans and then they also have numerous regulatory approvals that they have to acquire and we need to ensure that they do that before they start work.

“They’re anticipating pouring foundations for all the cabins in the spring of 2014 with the cabins completed and ready for occupancy in the fall of 2014.”

To read more please see the December 2 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Davidson

Study suggests ways to boost spirit

The Davidson United Church is trying something new in order to build the spiritual well being of the community and the individuals within it.

Mary Smillie, a leader with the multi-faith Rural Spirit Study project initiated by the Davidson United Church, said they are going to be installing “around $10,000” worth of audio-visual equipment in the church, so they can use the resources of the Internet to start content-driven conversations among community members. She said this would be phase two of the three-phase $30,000 research project that is funded by the United Church of Canada and is being conducted by the church and the Centre for Rural Community Leadership and Ministry (CiRCLe M) in Saskatoon.

“We saw, ourselves as a congregation, the need to understand better what it is that makes people’s spirit tick,” said Smillie about the purpose of the Rural Spirit Study. As “a church we’re supposed to exist for that, but as everybody can see in Canada and North America church populations are generally dwindling. That doesn’t mean people don’t still have a spirit that they want to nurture and we as a church need to change how we approach people from a spiritual point of view. We can’t do that unless we understand what it is that makes people’s spirit tick.”

Smillie said the word spirit is representative of things such as wonder, awe, and a person’s purpose, meaning, and connectivity in the world. She said religion is “not essential” in the steps they are taking to nurture the spirit of the community and individuals in the community.

“The end goal would be to take what generations before us built in terms of this church and this structure and this space…and continue to have it evolve and expand in what it does to be more relevant to more people in this community,” she said, noting they are not trying to get more people to attend United Church services with this project.

Cam Harder, executive director of CiRCLe M, said phase one of the study identified a number of factors through focus group research that resulted in a sense of spiritual well being in a person. He said one of these factors is the importance of having a place where people can have a content rich conversation about things that are important to them and that is something the church can provide using some of the funds from the scholarship.

“People felt that having these conversations was a really rich experience, so we thought what if we set up a space where we can for example Skype somebody in on a large screen TV from anywhere in the world really who could share something really interesting with us and we could have a back-and-forth with them,” said Harder, noting they could also show the self-development video TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) talks or YouTube videos and then have conversations about them. “We could (also) have the young people come in and they could share their favourite content piece from the Web…and it would allow for some intergenerational sharing of resources. It would allow for some content rich conversations.”

To read more please see the December 2 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Sports

Penalty shot helps Canucks secure win

An errant trip by Cyclones defenceman Orrin Gryba with 7:54 left in the second period against the Drake Canucks proved the turning point in Davidson’s second-straight loss last Wednesday.

Gryba wasn’t sent to the penalty box on the play that saw the defenceman swipe his opponent’s feet with his stick on a diving attempt to stop a breakaway chance. The referee on the call instead decided to award the Canucks, who were losing 2-1 at the time despite playing the majority of the game in close quarters with Cyclones goalie Mark Zoerb, a penalty shot.

During the free attempt Canucks forward Doug McLeod raced down the centre of the ice shifting the puck from backhand to forward and again to backhand before slipping it low through the pad and glove of Zoerb who had went down to try and slide sideways to stop an expected shot to his blocker side.

“You just try and make him do the first move and then react to it,” said Zoerb, noting a goalie doesn’t usually face many penalty shots during the season, but they do happen.

“A call like that is a referee’s discretion,” said Cyclones coach Jason Shaw. “I could see why he’d call it, but maybe I didn’t think it could be a penalty shot. There is no changing his mind once he’s made that call.”

Canucks forward Derek Eberle struck 4:56 later at the tail end of a power play when he stuffed in a rebound off a Nick Kalnicki shot through Zoerb’s legs from in close giving Drake a lead they would not relinquish. A seeing-eye wrist shot from the point that somehow found the high glove side on Zoerb courtesy of Canucks defenceman Matt Rintoul 14:59 into a defence-first third period for Drake held up as the insurance marker.

Davidson would make it close 3:01 later when assistant captain Brett Siroski tapped in a behind-the-goal-line pass from Chad Manz bringing the score to 4-3 with their goalie pulled, but that would be the closest the Cyclones would come to a second home ice win this season.

“It was a really good game,” said Shaw. “We’re kind of short staffed a little bit right now, but the guys that were there played well. Drake is a good hockey team. We would have liked to win, but we were right there to the end. A couple breaks either way, a bounce here or a bounce there, and it might have been different.”

To read more please see the December 2 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Sports

Aztecs best Cougars in provincial volleyball playoffs

The Loreburn Aztecs and Imperial Cougars senior girls volleyball teams didn’t take home any medals from the 2013 SHSAA Provincial 1A Girls Volleyball Championships played at Mankota and Glentworth Nov. 15 and 16, but they can still take pride in their strong play at the tournament.

Aztecs coach Coralee Vollmer said the Loreburn girls’ bronze medal game at provincials against the Elrose Eagles was a close affair with both teams having a chance to walk away with a win. She said the two teams have similar strengths and both played well, but the Eagles were a little more “on” than they were.

“We’ve played them before and we’ve beaten Elrose before and they’ve beaten us,” said Vollmer, noting the Aztecs defeated Elrose 2-1 on their way to a gold medal finish at the North Regional Championship held a week earlier at Loreburn. “It’s a back-and-forth deal between the teams. Our girls can go out and compete and every other team at provincials can go out and compete. Whoever (plays) the strongest (that day) is going to come out on top.”

Loreburn won the first set 25-18 against Elrose, but lost the final two by scores of 25-17 and 25-16 despite determined play by middle Gillian Wankel and power Ashley Norrish. Gillian and Ashley both had a number of brilliant hits leading to scores for the Aztecs during the game.

Vollmer said the two players are Grade 12 students, so the Elrose game would be their last as Aztecs. She said both were invaluable for the leadership and good attitude they brought to the team all season and the experience they brought to provincials considering they’ve been there a few times before.

“They try to make (their teammates) laugh and calm them down and yet play serious,” she said adding this was the seventh year in a row Loreburn has competed at provincials. “They are both very strong players. They kept the team up.”

The Aztecs made it to the bronze medal game after a semifinal 2-0 loss to the Fox Valley Legends, which came on the heels of a thrilling three-set victory over the Imperial Cougars.

The first set saw Imperial battle back from an early deficit only to eventually fall 25-18 to Loreburn in the quarterfinal match. The second set proved much closer with both teams trading points throughout the game. After going down early Imperial tied up the score at sevens during the second set and both teams then fought point-by-point throughout the rest of the action eventually coming to a 28-28 deadlock in extra time. Imperial would pull through scoring two big points to take the second set with a 30-28 score. The Aztecs offence proved the difference in the third set winning 25-13.

To read more please see the December 2 print edition of The Davidson Leader.