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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

Unused steel billboards cost taxpayers thousands

The Town of Davidson is out tens of thousands of dollars after a previous town council’s idea to generate revenue for the community didn’t quite work out as planned.

According to discussion around the council table last Monday, it was a well-meaning idea to erect two large steel billboards by Highway 11, which the town bought for around $30,000, in order to generate revenue for the town through paid advertising.

The steel signs were purchased less than two years ago in order to replace the wooden signs that grace the side of the highway. Council decided to replace the wooden signs because they are susceptible to damage by wind, but the new steel signs are now being sold without ever being put up due to the cost of erecting them.

At the April 20, 2010, Davidson town council meeting a request was presented by then-recreation director Morgan Grainger to purchase two steel billboards from Abacus Signs for an approximate total cost of $37,000 and that the funds be taken from the town recreation capital account. The motion was carried.

After purchasing the 12 feet by 48 feet steel billboards for $27,540 plus PST, it was learned that to erect them the town would need to put in three feet square by 16 feet deep concrete piles at a further cost to the town of $27,000. This is due to concerns of the large signs blowing over during a windstorm.

The idea to put up the billboards stopped there and they have been lying on the ground behind the Davidson Communiplex ever since.

Town council passed a motion to advertise for tenders for the two billboards at their March 20, 2012, meeting in an effort to sell them and recoup the cost. They have been unable to find any takers so far.

At the recent Jan. 14, 2012, town council meeting a motion was passed to try and sell the billboards at a reduced cost as a way to cut their losses instead of sinking any more money into the project.

Davidson

Mandatory 10-digit dialling coming to Saskatchewan

A change is coming this spring for anyone trying to make a phone call as the province rolls out a new 639 area code and introduces mandatory 10-digit dialling for all local calls.

Tara Tibeau, SaskTel communications manager, said the population increase in the province and the continuing trend of people to own multiple mobile devices have depleted the 306 area code number availability. She said these factors led the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to introduce the second area code for Saskatchewan residents and businesses, which will be distributed starting May 11 through an “overlay” method.

“It’s not going to be a geographical distribution of the code,” said Tibeau. “As the 639 is introduced, it’ll just interchangeably come up. The system will generate a random number, how we normally generate numbers, and it’ll come up with either a 306 or 639. Generally we’re going to start seeing a lot more 639s as we run out of 306s.”

Since the new area code will not be assigned to a specific region, the CRTC came up with the need for 10-digit local dialling, which is the area code plus the seven-digit number.

Tibeau said SaskTel has been preparing the network for 10-digit dialling since the decision to add a new code was made in 2010. She said the network can accept 10-digit dialling right now and beginning Feb. 25 whenever someone makes a call by punching in only seven digits they will first receive a message reminding them about the change before the call goes through.

Starting May 11, whenever someone only dials seven digits the call will not go through, so Tibeau stresses that people prepare their equipment that has phone numbers programmed in such as security systems that call out to the police and make sure they add the area code in.

“Most of the other provinces have already added a second (area code), some are already on their third,” she said. “Some provinces like BC actually have six different area codes. Toronto alone has three. It’s good. It’s actually a sign of growth and it’s a good indication that the province continues to do well in these times.”

Craik

Craik School class works to improve lives of kids around the globe

The grades 7 and 8 class at Craik School is trying to make a small change in the world.

The students have reformed the Upstanding and Outstanding (U and O) group at the school into a complex enterprise devoted to improving their lives and the lives of everyone they meet. By separating the organization into three divisions, namely a clothing, media and fund-raising group, the students have worked throughout the school year to engage the elementary students at Craik School as well as members of their community into becoming better people through applying eight simple concepts during their day-to-day lives.

“The characteristics are integrity, diligence, citizenship, respect, honesty, fairness, trustworthiness and responsibility,” said Kalib Vibert, a Grade 7 student who works with the clothing division. “You have to be all those to be an upstanding and outstanding person.”

Explaining that integrity means doing what is right even in tough situations, diligence is setting and reaching your goals, citizenship involves working for the common good, respect means treating others as you want to be treated, honesty is telling the truth, fairness concerns playing by the rules, trustworthiness is keeping your promises and responsibility means doing what needs to be done, the group has been implementing these concepts through their work this year on Free The Children initiatives.

Started by a then 12-year-old Canadian named Craig Kielburger in 1995 in an effort to fight child labour, Free The Children has grown into an international charity and educational partner with more than 1.7 million youth involved in education and development programs in 45 countries. The main goal of Free The Children is to create a world where young people are free to achieve their fullest potential as agents of change.

“We got involved with Free The Children so that people could have a sustainable source of clean drinking water,” said Grade 8 student Sky Ann Stinson, who is part of the media division. “We’ve raised $1,264 so far and now we’re thinking of sponsoring a village.”

Grade 8 student Chase Bakken, clothing division, said they haven’t decided which village to sponsor through the Free The Children Adopt a Village program, but have narrowed it down to a list of eight countries where help is needed.

To raise funds for the Adopt a Village initiative, the clothing division has designed an Upstanding and Outstanding logo that they will emblazon onto hoodies and ball caps they are making, which they will then sell to the student population at the school. They are also selling buttons to the community until Feb. 14.

“They’re called Love Is buttons and it’ll be sort of like a Valentine’s Day card,” said Haley Spencer, a Grade 8 student and fund-raising division member. “There are six different buttons and you can buy them and send them like a Valentine’s Day card.”

The media division is promoting these fund-raising efforts through their blog, facebook page and twitter account they developed this year.

To read more please see the January 21 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Sports

Cyclones blow into last week of season

The Davidson Cyclones senior men’s hockey team is heading into the last week of their regular season schedule on a tear, but a slow start to the year may cost them a first round bye in league playoffs.

The club has won seven of their past nine, including a 15-5 devastation of the Nokomis Chiefs in Nokomis Jan. 12 after idling the Drake Canucks with a 5-4 shootout win a day earlier at the Davidson Rink, putting them within striking distance of a second place finish in the Long Lake Hockey League (LLHL) standings and a first round bye.

The problem the Cyclones face is they’ll need to string a few wins together this week against the LeRoy Braves on Tuesday and the Chiefs on Friday at home along with the Watrous Winterhawks in Watrous a day later, and on the final night of the season no less, to make up for the poor start they had to the 2012-2013 season in order to get that bye.

Their 3-5 start to the year has them sitting solidly in third place in the six-team LLHL, which would give them a home-ice advantage in the first round of the league playoffs, but would create for a much more condensed schedule considering their first round provincial “C” match-up against the Loreburn 19ers will be taking place at the same time as the first round of those league playoffs.

“It would be nice if we could get up to second, but we’ve got some injuries right now,” said Jason Shaw, head coach of the Cyclones. “Pat Cey (a leading forward with the Cyclones) is hurt and Zach Sim (their top defenceman) is hurt. Hopefully we could get up to second, but it’s not the end of the world either.”

Cey suffered a wrist injury against the Winterhawks during a Jan. 5 game and it is “not sure” if he can get back into action this week, while Sim should make the final three games after mucking up his ankle in that same game against the ‘Hawks.

“We need them back to make a good run in league and provincials,” said Shaw.

Whom the Cyclones will face in the league playoffs starting in early February won’t be decided until league play action ends this weekend, but their provincial rivals, at least in the first round, will be Loreburn. The 19ers have been blown away by the competition in the Saskatchewan Valley Hockey League (SVHL) this year, currently sitting with a 1-13 record.

“They have a lot of younger guys on their team,” said Cyclones captain Derek Allan. “I think we’ll be alright because we’re an older team, but it’s provincials and you never know.”

Shaw said Loreburn could pose a problem as they have young guys making a transition into the league, so they don’t know what they’re capable of. He said the last time the Cyclones played the 19ers was in the 2009-2010 provincial “D” finals, when Davidson won their first of the past three provincial championships, but this year things are a little different.

“Now the younger guys have come on (for the 19ers) and they’re trying their best,” said Shaw. “It’s tough to compete with some of those teams with just a bunch of local guys.”

The provincials start Feb. 6 in Davidson with game 2 going Feb. 9 in Loreburn.

Davidson

Parked car damaged in local hit-and-run

DAVIDSON—Police are asking the public for information on a hit-and-run incident that took place in Davidson in mid-February.

On the afternoon of Feb. 16, the Craik RCMP detachment responded to a call regarding a vehicle parked on the 200 block of Ottawa Street in town. The car, a blue 1992 Oldsmobile Eighty Eight, was struck by another driver, who did not remain at the scene.

According to a news release issued by Const. Kevin Morrissette, road conditions may have been a factor in the collision.

The police remind motorists to reduce their speed and drive with caution during the winter.

Anyone with relevant details is asked to contact the Craik RCMP detachment or Saskatchewan Crime Stoppers.