Sports

Cyclones rout Chiefs and 19ers in first round of league and provincial playoffs

The Davidson Cyclones senior men’s hockey team are 2-0 in playoff action, beating the Nokomis Chiefs 8-2 last Tuesday in their first Long Lake Hockey League (LLHL) playoff game and the Loreburn 19ers 10-0 a day later in their first provincial “D” playoff match.

“It is what it is,” said Jason Shaw, head coach of the Cyclones. “We won’t play the same style as we do against Nokomis and Loreburn as we do against LeRoy (the Cyclones next opponent if they beat the Chiefs) and probably Kyle (their likely competition in the next round of provincials). We just have to get through these games and hopefully we can get everybody back and healthy and make a good run.”

The Cyclones game against the Chiefs started slow and somehow seemed to get slower, but that’s expected when only the Chiefs can only dress 10 guys for the game and the Cyclones just 11. In a first period that saw the clubs exchange one goal apiece, everybody seemed tired–the players, the fans and the officials.

Davidson broke out for five more goals in the second to Nokomis’s one, bringing the score to an out-of-reach 6-2, but that had more to do with the sloppy play of the Chiefs than with any expertise on the Cyclones part. Missed pass after missed pass was the order of the night.

“Pretty much it’s been the same all year (for us),” said Chiefs head coach Adam Hendry. “We were short benched and didn’t really have a good start and their top line took control of the game. We probably just got tired of chasing them around all night.”

Full lineups were at hand for the Cyclones-19ers game and the game did have a faster pace than the night before, but the end result was pretty much the same.

To read more please see the Feb. 11 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Sports

Raiders revive basketball glory

Once a Raider, always a Raider.

The blue and white lives on after graduation from Davidson School with the Raiders senior men’s basketball team racking up win after win in the Saskatoon Senior Men’s Basketball League (SRML). The team is comprised of former Davidson high school players now plying their trade in Saskatoon, including two current coaches of the Davidson School junior and senior basketball teams.

“We’re a good team,” said Ian Kadlec, who helps coach the Davidson junior team and is a Raiders point guard, both then and now. “Every team has a couple good guys on it, but once we shut down on their guys, our team is more balanced. The level is not quite as good as we can play against.”

Sporting jerseys sponsored by Davidson Western Sales, the senior men’s Raiders have so far amassed an impressive 11-0 record with four games left to play. The club usually competes against other SRML teams at Walter Murray High on the south side of Saskatoon on Sundays with their next game coming up the morning of Feb. 17 against the team Make It Rain.

“The league is fairly competitive,” said Kattlyn Williams, former and current Raiders point guard, along with a being a coach of the school senior ball team. “Any higher and you’d start getting into Huskies players or college ball, so it’s a pretty competitive men’s league.”

Williams said the average age of players on the Raiders is 25 and the team is comprised of members of Craik, Outlook and Saskatoon as well. He said the team, which is currently in E division, is looking to win the championship this year moving them up a division and into better competition for next season.

“We have playoffs after the season ends (in late February),” he said. “We’re hoping to win in playoffs.”

Kadlec said the club is just “taking it one game at a time” and he doesn’t want to look too far ahead, but the team as it is gets the guys in some action and gets them back to their roots, which is a good thing.

“The team is pretty cool,” he said. “When we do our chant when we go on the court, we do our ‘Raiders on three’ chant from high school.”

Williams said anyone looking to come out and support the club could head down to the Walter Murray Gym to see them play. He said they currently get around 10 people from Davidson over for their games now and could always use more.

“When people find out we’re playing ball, they’re pretty excited because they used to watch us back in high school,” he said. “They could come watch us if they want.”

Davidson, featured

Businesses welcome penny’s demise

Businesses in Davidson don’t seem too worried about the demise of the penny in Canadian currency.
Starting today, businesses will be rounding cash transactions up or down to the nearest five-cent increment according to a guideline provided by the Government of Canada. According to the guideline, only the final amount, after taxes have been added, are subject to rounding.
For example, if a final amount owing is $1.01 to $1.02 the figure will be rounded down to $1, while if the amount is $1.03 or $1.04 the figure will be rounded up to $1.05.
“We’re almost there,” said Natasha Larsh, co-manager of Gunner’s Gas and Convenience, on whether they’re prepared for the change. “When we first opened we were rounding everything off anyways. There are just a few products we need to change.”
Pennies can still be used in cash transactions indefinitely and the rounding off policy does not apply to cheques or electronic payments such as debit, credit or payment cards.
Kamal Saini, supervisor at Davidson’s A&W restaurant, said the tills have already been configured to take the rounding policy on cash transactions into account and there have been signs posted on the tills leading up to the change to inform customers. He said the prices of food would not actually change.
“The tills are going to change, but not the prices on the menu boards,” said Saini.
By phasing out the penny as a Canadian coin, the government states it will save taxpayers $11 million a year. This savings comes from the rising cost of production of the one-cent coin compared to it’s worth, the amount of pennies that are lying around Canadian households right now and the handling costs imposed on retailers with the penny.
Judi Packet, co-owner of Packet’s Foods, said the phasing out of the penny is not going to affect them in any way as they’ve already been rounding off transactions for about the past four years.
“We’re a coffee shop,” said Packet. “We didn’t want to deal with pennies in the first place.”

Davidson

Student teacher face-to-face time goes up

Instructional time for the 2013-2014 school year in Saskatchewan is being set to last a minimum of 950 hours, forcing school divisions in this area to readjust their calendar.
The Sask. Party government proclaimed legislative and regulatory amendments on Jan. 1 choosing the 950-hour minimum face-to-face teacher-student time that will apply to the next school year. Saskatchewan school divisions did not offer a minimum amount of instructional time before these amendments were introduced and the changes are an attempt to create a standard consistent with other western Canadian provinces.
Instructional time does not include teacher in-service days or teacher preparation.
Larry Pavloff, chair of the Prairie Spirit School Division board of education, which represents schools in Dundurn and Hanley, said they did not know the changes were “coming down,” but they did hear it was a possibility. He said the new legislation may or may not be a positive thing for students and teachers, but that depends on the quality of education provided.
“Just the fact that we add more time to the calendar year does not mean that student achievement is going to improve,” said Pavloff. “If we add the same quality of time that we know our teachers are presently providing, I don’t know how it can’t help but improve student achievement.”
Pavloff said the Prairie Spirit School Division will have to add 30 hours of instructional time in the coming year to meet the legislative requirements, but how that will happen will not be known until the division board of education calendar committee, which sets out the schedule of the school year, comes to a conclusion of what options they will decide to implement.
He said the committee will meet “very shortly” to work out these details and will then submit their proposals to the school board before April 1.
“Then the board has until May 1 to get their choice of calendar or present their calendar to the ministry,” he said. “The board has to have the decision made by May 1 as to what our school calendar is going to look like.”
Darby Briggs, communications coordinator with the Prairie South School Division, which represents Craik School, said the division is currently putting together a package of options to get up to the 950-hour minimum. She said they would then present that package to the board Feb. 12 in an effort to decide what they’re going to do come September 2013.
“We currently don’t have the 950 (instructional hours minimum), so we’re definitely going to have to take a look at things,” said Briggs. “We’ve got a lot to look at and definitely a lot of options to examine in making sure that what we decide is best both for the kids and the teachers, but also meets the ministry’s requirements.”
To read more please see the Feb. 4 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Davidson

Snow planes a “sweetheart” at local rally

“Snow plane nuts” from across Saskatchewan came to Davidson Jan. 27 to compare the fruits of their labours and offer free “at your own risk” rides for anyone brave enough to hop into a cockpit.
“It was a pretty good turnout,” said Charles Deaver, a local snow plane enthusiast and organizer of the rally. “Something I didn’t do is advertise it a lot because I didn’t want a lot of people to come out, especially younger kids. I didn’t have things set up right for that. If this happens again, I’ll know how to plan it better.”
Deaver owns two out of the six planes at the rally held at C&M Motors, a larger one he rebuilt four years ago and a smaller one “built right from the bottom up.” He said it takes him about four months to build a snow plane working on it part-time, when he’s not busy playing guitar for his old-time country and dance band, 3 For The Show.
A snow plane doesn’t actually fly, but can zip around a snowy field at close to 65 kilometres an hour. They’re kind of like a hovercraft, except made for Saskatchewan winters instead of Florida swamps.
Watrous’ Jack Isabelle came out to the rally to show off his homemade, other than the propeller and 290-Lycoming aircraft engine, snow plane. He said the whole body of the plane is made out of wood and there were no blueprints to fall back on when he was building it.
“You just look at other things and decide what you’ll put into it,” said Isabelle. “When it runs good, it’s a sweetheart. When it doesn’t, it’s a pain in the ass.”
Isabelle said he has been building snow planes for about 20 years. He said he first saw a picture of one and was intrigued and when one of his buddies built one, he had to have one too.
“Anybody can buy a skidoo, but these you have to build,” he said.
Lorne Winslow, who travelled from Wadena for the rally, brought along his “Snow Dragon” plane. He said the plane is equipped with a 235-horsepower Continental aircraft engine and six-foot propeller, plus a propane furnace inside the cockpit “so it stays nice and warm.
“I had a ride in one when I was six years old and I said I had to have one,” said Winslow. “They are a fun machine.”
To read more please see the Feb. 4 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Davidson, Sports

Raiders girls win home tournament

The Davidson Raiders junior girls basketball team took their competition to school at the Davidson gym Jan. 25 and 26 winning all three games they played in their home tournament on route to taking the first place honours.
Sandra Baldwin, coach of the Raiders, said Davidson was “pretty strong” at the tournament, first beating the Outlook Blues 43-28 and the Eatonia Spartans 49-19 in pool A action before moving on to the first place game, a 61-35 win over the Eston Mustangs. She said the other teams at the tournament were pretty young, comprised of mostly grades 7 and 8 players, so her team that dresses four Grade 9s proved formidable to their opponents.
“They are good leaders on the court,” Baldwin said of Grade 9 players Tina Stone (guard), Kaitlyn Baldwin (post), Cheyanne Nordmarken (wing) and Sydney Booker (point guard).
Cheyanne was particularly strong on the offensive side against the Mustangs scoring a team high 18 points including a couple long threes. Sydney netted 13 points during the blowout that saw Davidson go up 19-3 in the first quarter and 35-9 by the half.
Tina was all over the court during the final game coming down with numerous rebounds and playing a quick transition game to get the ball back up to her wings, while Kaitlyn was solid on the defensive side wrestling for any balls that an opposing Mustang dared try advance into the key.
“My girls thought Davidson was going to be difficult to begin with and they were a little bit slow getting out of the gate,” said Mustangs coach Marea Olafson. “Finally, it was like ‘oh, we can play with Davidson so let’s play,’ but we started slow.”
The Mustangs dominated the third quarter scoring 18 points to Davidson’s 10, bringing the score to 45-27. The home side came back to form in the final 8 minutes, putting the game away for good and taking first place with the 26-point victory.
Olafson said the tournament as a whole was “great” for their club, as it let their younger players get in some game action and grow more as a team.
“We were able to win a few basketball games,” she said. “The Grade 7s are getting stronger and the Grade 9s are helping them. Our team building is really strong right now.”
Baldwin said her girls played extremely well together as a team even though she mixed her players up position-wise throughout the final game.
“They still went out and passed well to each other,” she said. “They made sure everybody touched the ball and they spread out the points.”
The Raiders coach said the junior girls have enjoyed a solid season so far and they look forward to playoff action come the beginning of March.
“I expect us to be at districts in the final game,” said Baldwin. “That’s our goal.”

The Davidson Leader, Davidson, Saskatchewan