Sports

Raiders junior boys basketball team off to tremendous start

The Davidson Raiders junior boys basketball team got their 2012-2013 season off to a great start last week with a ‘B’ side championship win at the W. W. Brown School season kick-start tournament.

The boys defeated a strong Warman Wolverines club 51-47 in the championship final Dec. 1 before a deafening crowd in Langham that continually rooted for the Davidson side to defeat the W. W. Brown School rival. The game featured exceptionally strong and gritty play by Raiders centre Ben Nykiforuk, shooting guard James Morrison and point guard Huck Rettger as well as an overall great team game against the Wolverines.

Kim Rettger, head coach of the Raiders, said the Warman team is a big 4A school population wise that also includes six club players, so heading into the game he just told his boys to “stay with them” and make the game respectable. He said what transpired next was the “best team game” he’s seen from his boys in three years.

The Raiders rushed out to a 10-point lead in the first quarter thanks to strong defensive play by the whole Davidson squad who each saw regular playing time. The Raiders kept up the urgency pressing the Warman defence as the 10-point lead held past the half and through the third quarter.

In the fourth quarter, the Wolverines started chipping away at the Raiders lead eventually going on a run that saw Warman take a three-point advantage heading into the final two and a half minutes.

Rettger said Nykiforuk then made a “tremendous and courageous” drive to the net with a Warman player draped all over him, scored and hit the free throw to tie it back up. The Wolverines came right back with a basket, before Morrison tied it up once again for the Raiders. Huck Rettger hit a two and a free throw after that giving Davidson a three-point lead heading into the last minute.

The Wolverines pressed throwing up threes to try and tie the game up and send it into overtime, but couldn’t find the mesh. Huck would hit another free throw with 0.7 seconds left to give the Raiders a deciding four-point lead.

To read more please see the December 10 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Davidson

Junior drama club perform “Saturday Matinee”

Over 100 people packed into the Davidson School gym last Thursday night to take in a performance of “Saturday Matinee,” put on by the school junior drama club.

“I really like this one because it is about kids this age,” said co-director Cathy Rettger, noting the cast is made of grades 6 to 8 students. “It’s about the things they would be worried about and the things they would be thinking about, so it’s a lot of fun and they had some fun doing it.”

“Saturday Matinee” is a look into the minds of a young audience seated in a theatre and waiting for the movie to start. The funny and sarcastic play, which features the majority of the dialogue in monologue, examines the questions kids have about what other kids are doing and what they should be doing in response.

Opening with Alice (Sarah Allan) walking into the theatre and deciding what seat she wants, the play action quickly rises with the introduction of new characters Tom (Jacob Schilling), Kate (Emily Read), and Pat (Elena Nykiforuk) who can’t figure out what each other are up to and why it’s taking Tom so long to actually sit down.

Kent (Morgan Manz) and Maria (Katherine Cool) then enter as the older kids on a first date and their own questions about how fresh the other one wants to get. Social outcasts Mindy (Jade Thomson) and Ben (Justin Sandsbraaten) follow providing the advancement of the plot and comic relief respectably.

Next coming in is the cool mean girls clique of Laura (Breanna Shaw), Holly (Tiara Shaw), Gina (Geena Heinrich) and Crystal (Brayden Sharron) whose job it is to torture social outcast Mindy to adverse results.

Shannon (Jacquie Gackstetter) and Charlie (Josh Landry) enter next to fill out the cast bringing the story to climax with an overflowing of voices leading the production into a state of chaos.

The falling action sees the actors exit quickly in teen angst and frustration before the movie has even begun, leaving Alice once again as the lone attendant of the theatre picking out the perfect seat to watch the movie.

To read more please see the December 10 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

featured, Kenaston

Kodiaks to play on hardwood

The Kenaston Kodiaks senior girls basketball team are tentatively scheduled to take on the Middle Lake Avengers Dec. 14 in what will be the grand unveiling of the new hardwood floor and glass backboards in the Dan O’Handley Gymnasium at Kenaston School.

Darren Gasper, principal of Kenaston School, said the basketball tournament will serve as a “kickoff” for the refurbished gym and the school is looking to bring in all the major donors for the game who helped in getting the funding secured for the school to build the floor and install the basketball backboards. He said the school is also inviting members of the community to come to the afternoon game to take a look at the improved gymnasium that also serves as a community hub for sports activities.

“We’re aiming for about a 2 p.m. start, but we’re still waiting to hear from Middle Lake if they’re able to come at that same time,” said Gasper. “It’s coincidental, but Middle Lake is the school we based the fund-raising floor project around because they did the exact same thing last year. Their basketball coach was actually a big help with suggestions about how we could go about doing it. They’re going to be here to kick it off, so it’ll be nice to see.”

Gasper said the floor, which last received an upgrade 28 years ago, was supposed to be replaced by the Sun West School Division next year with a rubberized gym floor, but after consulting with members of the community the school decided to approach the division about putting in a more expensive hardwood floor this year. He said the school division agreed to the project if the school could come up with the cost difference of installing a hardwood floor versus a rubberized one.

“While we were doing that we decided to do the glass backboards at the same time, so the gym is going to get a whole refinished look.”

Gasper said the school had to come up with $40,000 on top of the $55,000 Sun West was putting towards the renovation for the floor, while the school was responsible for the full $8,000 cost of the new backboards. He said members of the community including individuals, families, organizations and businesses were extremely helpful and willing to donate funds to make up the extra costs.

“We’re building a big donor board made up with the same floor material to go on the wall outside the gymnasium to recognize all our donors with some family names or memorials in memory of particular people or company logos if it’s a business that donated just to recognize them,” he said, noting the major donors to the gym floor project were Dakota Dunes and the Kenaston Lions Club through their Super Draft hockey lottery.

Gene Zdunich, head coach of the senior girls basketball team, said everyone is extremely happy a new floor has been put in as the old one was “compacted” and provided no give in it. He said the new hardwood floor is going to make it easier on the players’ knees during game time and practice.

Gasper said the school also has plans to build a running track behind the school in the spring and renovate the school and community playground in the early summer. He said building the track would come at a cost of around $20,000, while the new playground will cost at about $64,000.

To read more please see the Dec. 3 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Craik

Craik School students connect to native culture

Students at Craik School learned the importance of the interconnectivity of all living things last Wednesday through native hoop dancing as part of an ongoing effort by the school to provide students with an understanding of and connection to First Nations culture.

“With the hoops I connect all of the make-up-all, which represents the earth,” said Saskatoon hoop dancer Lawrence Roy Jr. “With the earth everything is connected to one thing or another, so one thing needs another thing to survive and therefore so on and so on. If you take one of those things out then the earth will fall apart. It won’t explode, but it will fall apart.”

Roy Jr. has been practicing different hoop dance styles like the great eagle and the prairie chicken for close to 25 years and now travels to schools throughout Saskatchewan where he teaches children about native culture and how to perform the hoop dance during workshops for each grade.

In Craik, he first performed a dance to traditional native music with 30 hoops for the whole student body in the gymnasium. During the dance he formed the eagle, flower, snake, butterfly and ball with hoops during the half-hour presentation as a way to demonstrate how everything is connected in some way to another.

Roy Jr. said he is not sure how those images came into place as the representation of all living things, as the dance’s origins go far back into the past, but he does see the benefit of using them to teach the message.

“The eagle is flying high up into the sky, so it can answer the prayers for all the people that are praying,” said Roy Jr. “The butterfly is for the beauty of the world. The flower is for the beautiful smells and everything that you experience throughout life. The ball represents all the different things that are around that you need to survive.

“When I was a kid I always used to try and sneak around like the army men and that is the thing you would have for the snake, a sneaky thing slithering into the next camp or something, so that person can scout better or go and see different scenes.”

Jody Kearns, a grades 3 and 4 teacher at Craik School, said Métis and native culture is a big component of their curriculum, so every year they try and come up with a way to try and enforce the importance of the First Nations to their students.

“Native and Métis culture is not something that is usually found in our area, so this was something for the kids to see and experience,” said Kearns, noting the workshops with the grades 1 to 8 students were the big part of the day. “It wasn’t just them seeing hoop dancing that I wanted. I wanted them to actually learn it and be a part of it so they have a connection and remember it.”

Sports

Sigfusson named CCA high point cowboy

A local cowboy is making a name for himself on the CCA (Canadian Cowboy’s Association) rodeo circuit this year by placing first as the high point cowboy in the association for the year, while also securing himself a second-place finish in calf roping and an honourable mention in steer wrestling at the year-end finals.

Davidson’s Scott Sigfusson was awarded the high point award during the Western Canadian Agribition held at the Brandt Centre in Regina from Nov. 20 to 24. He also qualified for the steer wrestling and tie-down roping finals at the Agribition, due to his great showing in the semi-professional rodeo season held during the summer months.

Sigfusson said he won two performances and finished in second once during the five trials of calf roping at Agribition finishing in second place overall to winner Shawn Williamson, a Canadian Finals Rodeo professional.

“I didn’t do real great in steer wrestling,” said Sigfusson. “I sprained my foot three weeks prior to (the finals) and it was pretty painful to get down off a horse and try and stop a steer in the dirt. I placed fifth twice.”

Agribition is the toughest challenge on the rodeo circuit for cowboys as it brings together the best competition from sea to sea to sea in Canada as well as qualifiers in the various competitions from cowboys in the United States.

Sigfussion said how someone finishes in the regular rodeo season doesn’t matter at Agribition as long as you’re in the top 11 at the end of your year to qualify in your desired competitions.

“Anybody has a chance to win the championship,” he said, noting this is the second time he has qualified for the calf roping finals and the third time he has qualified for steer wrestling. “She’s for all the marbles there.”

To read more please see the Dec. 3 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Davidson

Winter Gala brings in $18,000 for new Davidson Swimming Pool

For five partygoers at the First Annual Winter Gala held Nov. 23 at the Davidson community centre, the night took on a bit of a strange air.

Edmonton hypnotist Sebastian Steel hypnotized Jacob Zdunich, Trudy Smith, Karen Reich, Kristin Sampson and Lois Dueck as part of an after-dinner performance at the new Davidson Swimming Pool fund-raising Gala. Steel brought 12 people up on stage and of the 12, five were hypnotized.

“The people who were hypnotized were great,” said new Davidson Swimming Pool fund committee member Jessie Foster. “They were funny. At one point he had them think their hands were stuck together. He had them believe they were on a hot beach, then he switched them and they were in the Arctic for a little while. During intermission the hypnotized people gave back massages to people for money. He had Jacob become pregnant and have a baby.

“There was lots of stuff, but it was all tasteful, really good and nothing over the line.”

Dueck, who like the other four was hypnotized for the whole three-hour show, said she remembers the whole time she was under.

“I would have to say I was conscious of what I was doing, but it was weird,” said Dueck. “I was aware, but I was still doing it. It’s tough to explain. It wasn’t like I was unconscious or anything like that, not at all. It was just a feeling like ‘OK this is what I’m supposed to do, so I’ll do it.’ It was fun.”

Dueck said she had been to see a hypnotist “a few years back,” but could not be put under at that time. She said being hypnotized this time around was quite a surprise to her and the length of time she was “asleep” came as an even bigger shock.

“When we came down off the stage and I came back and sat down at my table I could not believe that three hours had gone by,” she said. “I was like ‘what do you mean we were the whole show.’ I had no idea we were up there for three hours. It went super fast, so that was cool.”

Foster said about 190 people attended the Gala, which raised $18,000 for the construction of a new pool in Davidson. She said the committee was only hoping to raise $10,000 at the $50 a ticket Gala, so the party that extended into the wee hours of the morning proved to be a big success.

To read more please see the Dec. 3 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

The Davidson Leader, Davidson, Saskatchewan