A local athlete is back at work in achieving her goal of becoming an elite Canadian shot put thrower after recently making another successful trip to the Canadian Track and Field Championships.

Taryn Suttie placed second in the senior shot put event at the annual national competition held June 27 to 29 at Moncton Stadium in Moncton, New Brunswick. Suttie, who represented the University of Saskatchewan Huskies at the games, won the silver by throwing a Saskatchewan senior record distance of 16.48 metres.

“It was a fun weekend,” said the 23-year-old Hanley-raised athlete who now calls Kamloops, B.C. home. “The girl who got third was very, very close to me. She was on my heels and was beating me actually for part of the competition. I was definitely hoping for a top three finish (going in), so I was happy to steal that second spot.”

Suttie has participated in the Canadian Championships every summer since 2009 and has placed in the top three at the shot put event in five out of the six years. In those six appearances, she has represented the Huskies three times and the province of Saskatchewan as an independent athlete in the other three.

The shot put competitor left the U of S and moved to Kamloops to train at the national throw centre in 2012 to pursue a “strictly throwing” regime, but competed as a Huskie this year because she was enrolled in online courses this past winter that allowed her to also compete in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) indoor shot put season. Now that her university season is over, Suttie is focusing on attending as many meets as possible during the normal April to August outdoor season along with spending the rest of her time in training at Kamloops.

“There are a few different aspects of the training,” she said. “It’s very technical, so we spend a lot of time with a coach. My coach is always at my practices (and) gives me feedback after every throw because you want to get everything perfect technically.

“Speed and strength are (also) very important, so after every throwing session I’m in the gym lifting weights. It’s a power sport, (so) speed and strength combined. It’s lots of really quick powerful movements and lifts. When I train in Kamloops I train twice a day. I do two throwing sessions and two weight session per day five times a week.”

Suttie endures this regime to attain her goal of first competing for Saskatchewan in the Pan Am Games next summer in Toronto. From there she hopes to make it to the World Championships before attaining the ultimate goal of a 2016 Olympic berth.

“I still definitely have to step it up,” said Suttie. “I haven’t qualified yet or anything like that, so I’m within a metre of Olympic standard. I will have to get up to that in the next two years. It really depends on the year and it depends on who else is competing in my events.

“I will keep trying and hopefully it will all fall into place and the hard work will pay off and I’ll make it. We’ll have to see I guess.”

The 2014 season may have come to an end for the Davidson Red Sox peewee girls softball team with a 2-2 split in round-robin action at Provincials late last month in Regina, but their coach believes it could be the start of some good ball in town for future years.

Jason Shaw, who coaches the Red Sox with Kendall Wightman, said the 15 girls who played baseball this year have all improved skill-wise since camp first broke in April. He said finishing the season in a round-robin loss at Provincials isn’t what they hoped for, but the important thing is the players were able to come together and showcase the skills they’ve learned over the course of the year.

“We went into provincials, into that tournament, with the same kind of philosophy (that) all the girls got to play and nobody sat on the bench,” said Shaw. “Some girls during the year played infield and outfield and got a chance to play different positions. In this (tournament) we focused a bit more on one or two positions, but everybody batted and everybody got to play the field. We wanted to win, but as a team. We were going to win as a team.”

The Red Sox began the June 27 to 29 Provincials tournament in Regina with a 6-4 loss to Weyburn in a hard-fought game that could have gone either way considering the amount of stranded runners left on base by Davidson. The Sox quickly put the loss behind them when they came back onto the field later that first day to hit a 12-4 win over Southey.

The second day started the way the first day ended with the Red Sox running 12-3 over Regina, which put them one win away from securing a berth in playoff competition. The girls took the field against Carlyle that afternoon, but their bats went cold and a four-run inning for the opposition resulting in an eventual 7-0 defeat ended any hopes of advancing.

“We were a little bit rusty, but I thought our pitching was really good on the weekend,” said Shaw, noting league playoffs were canceled the weekend before due to rain. “Our defence was pretty good. We made a couple mistakes along the way, but nothing too big. We just didn’t hit like we normally would. Especially in that Carlyle game we needed a couple hits to get us going, (but) their pitching was strong (and) we just didn’t hit like we could have.”

To read more please see the July 7 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

The Raiders minor football team wanted their season to end on the field and weren’t about to let Zeus tell them any different.

The Raiders brushed off the torrential rain that poured down from the heavens June 21 resulting in a flooded field at Griffiths Stadium in Saskatoon and bided their time for seven more days. On June 28 the Raiders marched back onto the gridiron and fought tooth and nail first with a strong Outlaws team and then an Outlook squad shortly after that.

“It was good for us,” said Raiders coach Blair Frederickson, noting they lost 28-21 to the Outlaws before falling 21-14 to Outlook. “We gave up touchdowns in the last two minutes, so they were both competitive and back-and-forth games. The ref on Saturday…said those were the hardest, most intense (and) well-played games I’ve seen this year.”

Frederickson said the eight-game season and 4-4 record the team compiled in the lead-up to the June 28 jamboree was a “good experience” for him and his coaching staff as well as the kids who took the field each game. He said the Saskatoon Minor Football League helps the players gain exposure to a wider range of coaches as well as show Football Saskatchewan personnel the skill and talent that is present in rural parts of the province.

“A couple times Football Saskatchewan guys came by and said ‘man, you guys are doing a nice job out there. These kids are really polite and well mannered. They go hard to the whistle and then they help the other team up and pat them on the back,'” he said. “I think that was a nice compliment for the kids and maybe a nice compliment for the other coaches.”

Coaches Trevor Ouellette and John Jamieson along with student coaches Andrew Read, Addison Ouellette and Jon Taylor joined Frederickson on the sidelines and on the field directing the players in the controlled games this season. He said the kids really benefited from the help of Andrew, Addison and Jon because they were able to reemphasize to the grades seven and eight kids the necessity to play hard to the whistle and always exhibit sportsmanship on the field.

To read more please see the July 7 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Two local ballplayers are joining the Moose Jaw Miller Express on the field again this summer with a hope their experience and leadership will help the high-ranking club win a Western Major Baseball League championship.

Craik’s Tanner Spencer and Davidson’s Terry McNabb are taking the mound as starting pitchers on the WMBL Central Division first place team this season. Both players are back playing with the mostly hometown Millers and expressing delight in it after recently returning from their respective college baseball teams.

“Me and Terry both played minor baseball in Moose Jaw and grew up watching some Miller Express games,” said Spencer, 20, a right-handed starting pitcher for the Kansas-based Colby Community College Trojans this past spring. “It’s a good league. I enjoy playing here. It’s some different markets. Sometimes we get a lot of fans out and sometimes there are a few fans, but it’s always good competition. It has been for a while.”

Spencer is enjoying his first full season with the Millers this summer after suiting up sporadically with the team during the 2011 and 2012 seasons. The Alberta Vauxhall Academy of Baseball graduate missed last season due to a torn UCL (ulnar collateral ligament) that required Tommy John surgery and the average one-year of rehabilitation that follows it.

“I don’t think anyone has ever said that rehab is fun, but it is what it is and it’s part of the game,” said Spencer, who has a 7.71 ERA this year in 11.2 innings pitched with the Millers. “It’s just the mental hurdles now at this point that you’ve got to get over and just trust in all your pitches and trust in your arm.”

McNabb is back for his fifth summer with the Millers and is enjoying the same WMBL success he achieved in his last season with the club in 2012. Like two years ago, the hard throwing right-hander is once again leading the team in innings pitched (34), strikeouts (36) and wins (five) through their first 15 games of the Millers’ 46-game May 30 to July 30 regular season.

“It’s more so just being aggressive in the zone and trusting the people to play good defence behind you and get on offence to pick you up if you make a mistake,” said McNabb, 22. “If you give up a run they’re going to make it back pretty quick. Knowing you got that; there is a lot less pressure on you. I feel you don’t have to press too much because everybody else around you is going to try to pick you up.”

To read more please see the June 30 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Six local high school track and field athletes excelled at the provincial meet held earlier this month in Moose Jaw as evidenced by the medals now glistening in front of their chests.

Craik School’s Charly Nolting, Hanley School’s Kaycee Schroeder, Jade Peters and Courtney Orsen and Loreburn Central School’s Shane Lafontaine and Maddy Vollmer all won a medal or two or three in their respective sports. In total the six athletes brought home 10 gold, silver or bronze medallions from the provincial track and field championships held June 6 and 7 at Gutheridge Field in Moose Jaw.

“I think it’s great that we get the opportunity to compete against all those different athletes that are at that level,” said Courtney Orsen, 18, who won a bronze in the pole vault event. “In my competition there were four of us who jumped the exact same height and it came down to who missed one jump before that to say who got the medal. It was a very close competition (in) the senior girls category.”

Hanley Saber Kaycee Schroeder, 15, who won a silver medal in both the midget girls 1500-metre and 3000-m run, said competing at provincials along with over 1,500 other high school athletes in front of thousands of onlookers was a great experience for her. She said there were people cheering the athletes on and lots of other kids to talk to no matter what event someone was in.

“At first because I was the youngest in the group it was kind of hard to be there racing against older kids, but once I got going I just had to know what I could do and what my limits were,” said Kaycee, noting this was her first time competing at provincials. “It was great racing against all the older kids.”

Hanley’s Jade Peters took the silver medal in the junior girls high jump event as well as a gold in the triple jump event with a leap of 10.92 metres. Loreburn’s Maddy Vollmer finished close behind her at 10.44 metres to win the bronze medal.

Maddy, 16, said the experience of competing at provincials was “awesome” and also pretty tough as every athlete there trained hard during the year for that privilege. She said to get ready for the four events that she qualified in at provincials, three days a week of training at Loreburn Central School was called for along with getting in “as many jumps” as she could during the time leading up to the competition.

Craik Cougar Charly Nolting helped her South Central team win a bronze medal at provincials in the junior girls 4×100-m relay event. Shane Lafontaine also won a relay medal for his West Central team to go along with two more individual awards he took home.

Shane, 14, won gold in the midget boys 4×100-m relay, silver in 100-m hurdles and silver again in the triple jump event. The first-time provincial track and field athlete said winning the medals was not an easy task because of the tough competition, but he made an effort to put in the needed training all year to get to the meet and is happy how things turned out.

“It was really cool to be able to compete with the entire province,” he said. “You feel really good even making it there and then medaling is like maybe I’m one of the top athletes in Canada.”

The Davidson Red Sox peewee girls softball team are moving on to playoff competition this weekend with a goal of putting everything they’ve learned about playing both sides of the game this year into action on the field.

“We’ve come a long way,” said Red Sox coach Jason Shaw, who is being helped on the sidelines this year by Kendal Wightman. “In league we’ve won seven (and) lost seven, so we’re a middle of the pack team. At this age it’s about teaching the girls how to play ball. We’ve given them a chance to play different positions and learn a little bit about how to play the game.”

Shaw said the 15 girls who play for the Red Sox have beat every team in the league except two this year, including the Conquest Coyotes who they hosted last Tuesday. He said they have as good a shot as anybody else at winning the Saskatoon peewee B league playoffs this Saturday and securing a berth in provincials the following weekend.

The 2014 Red Sox includes Brianna Jess, Sarah Allan, Breanna Shaw, Gracie Allan, Hannah Gust, Kaitlyn Glubis, Teryn Bristow, Sydney Smith, Nevada Wightman, Tori Rendall, Elena Nykiforuk, Jocelyn Millham, Chaselyn Dean, Annika Ouellette and Lauren Bueckert. The 14-and-under team have been putting in as many practices as possible starting indoors at the Davidson Communiplex in April before trying to schedule them around the many games they play in Saskatoon and three tournaments they participate in during the short spring season.

The 12-7 loss against Conquest last Tuesday was Davidson’s third game at home this season to go along with a doubleheader they played earlier in the year against a Saskatoon club. The coach said the Coyotes game showed the emphasis each team places on good pitching to get wins.

“It was a good game,” said Shaw, noting the Red Sox will play a playoff tune-up game this Thursday in Loreburn. “We could have scored a couple more runs. We were up 5-2 in the first two innings. They had a strong pitcher come in to pitch the third to the sixth inning and we made a couple errors, but it was a good game. There were a few hits (on) both sides and a few good plays made.”

To read more please see the June 16 print edition of The Davidson Leader.