Category Archives: Sports

Morrison wins kickboxing gold

DAVIDSON—Local kickboxer James Morrison has kicked and punched his way to another international gold medal.
The Davidson School Grade 11 student won gold at the TAFISA World Martial Arts Games in Richmond B.C. in early September.
The World Martial Arts Games were held Sept. 3 to 7 at the Richmond Olympic Oval. The event attracted over 300 athletes competing a range of martial arts disciplines.
James won gold in the kata event at the games.
Kata are a series of training forms, small, structured practice routines that include punches, kicks and jumps that martial artists practise over and over so they become an ingrained habit.
James says he knows about 25 different types of katas. The one he used in Richmond takes about five minutes and it’s his favourite.
For the World Games, he decided to change it.
“Probably the day before, he says, ‘I’d like to add a little bit of flare to the ending’,” his mom Michele said.
Michele questioned the wisdom of altering a tried-and-true kata so close to an international competition.
“A few days before, I decided I wanted to do it and I practised it a few times,” James said.
He decided to embellish the kata ending with a tornado kick, which is a jump and spin kick, then to add an extra note of finality to the routine, he punched the floor and yelled.
“I was nervous,” Michele said as she watched James compete. He ended up tied for third.
To break the tie, James and the other competitor had to perform their katas again.
“I ended up doing way better than I did before,” he said.
His score was even better than the first and second place scores, so judges bumped James up to gold.

Schroeder wins National Triathlon Championship

Kaycee Schroeder negotiates a technical bike course in Kelowna, B.C.
Kaycee Schroeder negotiates a technical bike course in Kelowna, B.C.

DUNDURN—Dundurn’s Kaycee Schroeder exceeded her personal goals this summer by winning Triathlon Canada’s Youth Elite Series and Triathlon Canada’s National Championship.
The series has Canada’s best Under-16 athletes competing in four grueling triathlons that consist of a 500-metre swim, 10-kilometre bike and a 4-Km run.
Based on her strong performance in the 2014 series and the subsequent improvements she made in her times over the course of her training last year, going into the summer Triathlon Canada Youth Series Kaycee had hoped to finish in the top three.
At the series opener in Pike Lake near Saskatoon in June, the first stop in the four-race series, Kaycee, 15, showed that she may of set the bar a little too low. She was in the lead pack of girls the entire race and powered through the run to win by nearly a minute ahead of her nearest competitor.
In mid-July the race series moved to Quebec. On July 12 Kaycee competed in the race at Lac DeLage. She had an amazing swim, coming out of the water first. In the first transition, she hit a snag and couldn’t immediately locate her bike and missed the first pack of girls. This didn’t deter her. She powered on, catching the lead pack to return to the transition in first place. During the 4-Km run she stretched out her lead and pulled away from the field to win the second race in the series.
To learn how Kaycee did in the rest of the series, please see the Sep. 8 edition of The Davidson Leader.

Loreburn prepares for RAVE tournament

Over 200 girls are coming to the Village of Loreburn this weekend with the intent to put on a show for the many community members who make this annual trip to one of the largest volleyball tournaments in rural Saskatchewan possible.

The girls make up the rosters of 16 different senior girls volleyball teams that will be competing in the sixth annual Really Awesome Volleyball Experience (RAVE) tournament held at the Loreburn Rink and Loreburn Central School Sept. 5 and 6. Eight junior boys volleyball and an equal number of junior girls volleyball teams will follow the senior girls into Loreburn on Sept. 13 for the second leg of RAVE.

“It’s just a lot of volleyball,” said Vanessa Tastad, president of the Loreburn Recreation Board and an organizer of the event. “The kids don’t have a lot of breaks. They’re getting a lot of games in and it’s at the start of the year, so that seems to be good.”

Tastad said the Loreburn Recreation Board puts on the tournament in partnership with Loreburn Central School and both split the profits made through RAVE to help fund different initiatives over the following year. She said the board would be using the money from the annual fund-raiser to help cover operating expenses at the Loreburn Rink during the winter season.

Community help from manning the booth to working the gate along with just the initial set-up of the three courts at the rink is key, said Tastad, noting it would not be possible to put on a tournament of this size if it wasn’t for the way residents of Loreburn, Elbow and Strongfield embrace it every year.

“We ask our community people to help fill in shifts for the booth, which is huge because the booth is the big money maker at the event,” she said. “The community does that and we add extra items throughout the tournament, like we try to have more healthy items. We ask the community members then to donate the food to it, so we have fruit cups and veggie bags and perogies.”

Arlene Norrish, an assistant at Loreburn Central School and co-organizer of RAVE, said their portion of the money raised at the tournament helps fund some of the school’s programs and activities they do for the kids during the year. She said they have managed to bring in around $2,000 for each organization in past years at RAVE, but really the main purpose of the tournament is to get the girls together for a volleyball season kick-off.

It’s “mostly teams from within our Sun West School Division, but there are a few from outside our division,” said Norrish. “Loreburn is actually combined with Davidson this year because we (have) a low number of girls. We’ve only got three Loreburn girls for the senior tournament and they are actually playing with Davidson, but they wanted to keep RAVE going and are enthusiastic about coming out and helping to try to keep this tournament alive.”

Sandra Baldwin, coach of the Davidson/Loreburn RaiTecs, said the Loreburn girls and 10 Davidson kids that make up the senior girls volleyball team this season are “very excited” to hit one of the three courts at the rink or the fourth one set up at Loreburn Central School this weekend for their first tournament action of the year.

To read more please see the September 1 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Tigers and Hitmen put on show for local ball fans

The Saskatoon Tigers and Regina Hitmen baseball clubs put on an exciting show for local ball fans earlier this month when the two Special Olympics teams took the field for a well-played afternoon doubleheader at Davidson.

“It was good,” said Tigers third baseman Braden Skillitier. “We had a lot of hits. We had a loss and a win. Regina was good.”

The scorching sun beating down on the teams Aug. 10 at the Davidson Ball Diamonds didn’t stop the players from giving their all in both halves of the two-game series that featured Tigers pitcher Trevor Unrau peppering the corners with smoke and teammate Morley Varcoe knocking the stuffing out of the ball to Hitmen ball players Morris Aisican running hard around the bases and Jason Mercer turning two from second. The boisterous crowd that filled the bleachers behind home plate showed their appreciation for the good effort whenever a nice hit was cracked or a strong defensive play in the field stopped a runner from advancing.

“It was great competition and great sportsmanship from everybody,” said Tigers coach Steven Koszman. “It’s a good social atmosphere and it’s a good opportunity for us to play in a game because our athletes practise (and) practise, but it’s really hard for us to find games. That is really what these games are all about. Give them that opportunity to compete.”

Rick Sanden, coach of the Regina Hitmen, said whenever the two teams meet the games turn out to be a fun experience for everyone involved and serve to keep the interest up among the players. He said a few members of their recent bronze medal winning team from the Special Olympics Canada 2014 Summer Games dressed for the Hitmen in the Davidson doubleheader and along with the new faces on the club allowed him to see where the team is at as they prepare to travel to St. Paul, Alberta, later this month for the Conrad Jean Slo-Pitch Tournament.

“Some of our guys (made plays) we haven’t seen before,” said Sanden. “There are a few things we’ve got to work on, but it was good (and) two close games.”

Koszman said the doubleheader at Davidson and everything else they do during the year is made possible through various fund-raising initiatives put on by Special Olympics teams including their popular SlugFest Charity Slo-Pitch tournament. He said the annual spring tourney raised over $15,000 this year and helps support the Special Olympics Saskatoon softball program through giving their athletes the money and opportunity to take part in sport, which sits fine with his third baseman.

“I love the game,” said Skillitier while the team packed away their equipment after the series.

McNabb hoists Cup as a Kings black ace

Brayden McNabb got the chance to hoist the Stanley Cup at centre ice in Los Angeles’ Staples Center this past June when the Kings defeated the New York Rangers in five games, but he still doesn’t consider himself a Stanley Cup champion quite yet.

McNabb, 23, lifted the Cup as a member of the Kings black aces, a taxi squad of minor league players brought up to the big club during a long playoff run to serve as extra players during practice and as emergency replacements in case of injury. The 6’4″ and 205 lb defenceman didn’t see any game action during the playoffs or the regular season with Los Angeles.

“It was a good learning experience for me just to see what a team like that goes through to obviously win the Stanley Cup,” said McNabb, who was joined on the Staples Center ice after the Kings win by his father Kim and brother Dean. “I wasn’t part of it on the ice, but to be around and practising with the team and being in all the meetings, it was cool. It was more of fuelling the fire in me to win a Stanley Cup.”

McNabb began the 2014 playoffs with a goal of capturing the Calder Cup as a member of the Manchester Monarchs. After the Norfolk Admirals defeated them in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, he joined the Kings in time for Game 2 of their Western Conference Quarterfinals series against the Anaheim Ducks.

McNabb said he practised with the team through the remainder of the Ducks series and the Conference Finals series against the Chicago Blackhawks. During the Stanley Cup Finals, he and the three remaining black aces took the ice after the Kings had finished practice and went through drills with assistant coaches John Stevens and Davis Payne.

On game days the black aces would come in at warm-ups and work out with the trainer before heading to the dressing room to watch the game on TV. He said the group still got to feel the craziness of NHL playoff action from the room because they could they could hear the highs and lows of the crowd that packed the stands above them.

“It was pretty emotional watching (the game from the room),” he said. “It’s almost more nerve wracking watching than playing, but like I said it was a great experience just to see a team like that go through all the ups and downs and the bad adversity they had to go though. So it was definitely a cool experience.”

A month and a day after the Kings lifted the Stanley Cup for the second time in three years, McNabb signed a two-year one-way contract with the big club giving him a good opportunity to stay in Los Angeles all year.

To read more please see the Aug. 18 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Hanley Sporting Grounds plays host to National Sporting Clays Championships

Sporting clays enthusiasts from across Canada descended on the Hanley Sporting Grounds earlier this month for their annual shooting competition.

The around 70 participants who took part in the Canadian National Sporting Clays Association (CNSCA) 2014 National Championships Aug. 1 to 3 at the Hanley Sporting Grounds each put on a display of their shotgun shooting skills in a 5-stand competition on the first day followed by FITASC (Fédération Internationale de Tir aux Armes Sportives de Chasse) and the main event of English Sporting on the next two days.

Graham Perry, owner of Hanley Sporting Grounds, said the annual CNSCA national competition moves from shooting range to shooting range across Canada each year and is open to shooters of any ability as long as they are CNSCA members. He said there are CNSCA affiliated ranges across the country and it just so happened his range, which is located seven kilometres east of Hanley, was picked by executives from the organization to host nationals this summer.

“We are pretty proud of that to have it out here in Saskatchewan,” said Perry. “We’re fairly central, so we draw people from all around, but to hold an event of that sort is pretty special.”

Sporting clays is similar to golf with a shotgun, said Perry, and like golf involves courses where no two are completely alike. The Hanley Sporting Grounds, which opened its doors in 2009 and is Saskatchewan’s only fully automated sporting clays range, features multiple stations over its about kilometre-wide course that each give a participant an opportunity to experience near-life hunting situations.

To read more please see the Aug. 18 edition of The Davidson Leader.