The sight of peewee hockey players nailing each other with open-ice hits or rubbing each other out against the boards may be a thing of the past.

Al Hubbs, president of the Saskatchewan Hockey Association (SHA), said the policy Alberta Hockey decided upon two weeks ago, which would ban checking until bantam as a way to reduce youth injuries and concussions, probably will follow suit in this province. He said this could actually be the wrong way to go as bringing in checking for the atom or novice groups instead would teach adolescents the proper way to hit opposing players earlier on thus reducing the possibility of kids getting hurt.

“Our belief here in Saskatchewan has been that you have to start teaching it and implementing it at a younger age, so that they learn the respect part of it,” said Hubbs. “One of the things that is being bantered about in this go-around on body checking in moving it from peewee to bantam is there is quite a size differential at peewee. Well in 2002 we changed the ages (of peewee). It didn’t really solve any problems and that’s the premise we’re going on. Is this a Band Aid solution or is there other things we should be doing.”

Hubbs said the size differential of bantam players is greater as some of these 13 and 14 year olds could vary between 5’4″ and 110 lb to 6’2″ and 190 lb, so moving the first learning of how to hit and take a hit to the novice and atom levels when there isn’t so much of a difference would be the safest way. He said the SHA has not seen an increase lately with injuries or concussions among peewee players due to body checking, but the data that is collected doesn’t differentiate between if a player got hurt getting checked or by just falling on the ice.

“The medical experts are saying there is a huge increase in concussions and I believe they’re right, but I think they are just recognizing it a lot more than they used to in the past,” he said.

Patrick Neary, a doctor in the faculty of kinesiology and health studies at the University of Regina, said he welcomes a stop to checking among peewee players from both a personal and professional standpoint. He said there should be an emphasis on teaching skating and puck handling skills to 11- and 12-year-old kids rather than focusing on the physical aspect of the game.

“I’m happy to hear that Alberta has gone that route,” said Neary. “Personally, I don’t think it’s going to affect the hockey. It may even make it better hockey. One of the things it will do is it will help to eliminate some of the concussions that we’re seeing at this young age.”

To read more please see the May 20 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

The Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League’s (SJHL) Champion Yorkton Terriers and the identical twins who man their blue-line came a post away from extending their season last weekend, but “it just didn’t work out in the end.”

Chase Norrish, a 20-year-old defencemen for the Terriers and a Strongfield product, said their 1-0 loss to the Alberta Junior Hockey League’s (AJHL) Brooks Bandits in the final game May 5 at the 2013 Crescent Point Energy Western Canada Cup (WCC) held in Nanaimo, B.C. was really close and despite the loss his team should be proud of themselves because they tried their best.

“Each team had their chances,” said Chase. “It was a great game. Everybody on our team was closely matched with them. We just didn’t put the puck in the net, but we hit a lot of posts.”

With the win, Brooks locks up the second and final spot in the 2013 RBC Cup National Junior A Championship held May 11 to 19 in Summerside, P.E.I. The British Columbia Hockey League’s (BCHL) Surrey Eagles took the other Western spot in the national tournament by finishing first at the five-team WCC. Joining teams from the SJHL, AJHL and BCHL at the first-ever WCC were the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s (MJHL) Steinbach Pistons and the host Nanaimo Clippers.

Chase said the competition at the WCC was great and each team was similar talent wise to each other, so nobody was “blown out of the water” at the tournament.

“Everybody on our team was thrilled to be there,” he said. “It was the first one ever to happen and it would have been nice to win it, but just being there was pretty special too.”

Brady Norrish, Chase’s identical twin and partner on defence, said the games at the tournament were “pretty intense” and it was a great experience to be representing Saskatchewan at the Cup. He said they all had a “little bit of nerves” to start the tournament, which saw the team go 2-3 in round-robin play before defeating the Clippers in playoffs to advance to the final against the Bandits, but all the players stepped up and gave it their best effort.

“We have a great group of guys,” said Brady. “We were one goal away and on every chance we were giving it our all.”

To read more please see the May 13 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

The lure of playing winter ball in front of professional scouts proved too much for one Loreburn native, so he packed up his bat and glove and headed to Palm Springs this past January and February for a reliever’s role with the British Columbia Bombers baseball team.

Brent Stamnes, 22, took to the mound seven times for the Bombers during their Jan. 19 to Feb. 9 season in the California Winter League (CWL) going 0-2 with a 9.00 ERA. In seven innings pitched, the 6’2″ 205 lb right-hander struck out six batters while allowing 10 walks and seven earned runs for the 6-12 Bombers.

“They called me one day at work and asked me to play baseball in Palm Springs in January,” said Stamnes, who earned the honour through his time playing with the Western Major Baseball League’s Saskatoon Yellow Jackets, a top collegiate team. “I couldn’t pass that up.”

Stamnes said the eight-team CWL is a minor league for free-agent players looking to gain attention from scouts for future contracts with independent teams or even minor league teams affiliated with big league clubs. He said this winter was his first time playing in the league and he was really pleased with the strong ability of the players who took to the field each day.

“There were a lot of guys in the league that have played independent or top-notch college ball or with a minor league affiliated team,” he said. “It was the top free agents looking for a job.”

Stamnes, who grew up playing ball in Loreburn and Davidson before moving on to play AAA baseball with the Moose Jaw Canucks as a midget player, said he originally played shortstop, but was moved to a pitcher’s role while suiting up with the Vancouver Island University Mariners.

“I figured out I had a good arm and I could throw, so I stuck with pitching after that,” he said, noting he utilizes four pitches including a curve, slider, a fastball that averages 88 m.p.h. and a changeup that sails over the plate 10 to 11 m.p.h. slower. “I try to set batters up to get them out with my high fastball, but my strongest pitch would be my curve.”

A tendon tear in his elbow forced Stamnes out with six days left in the regular season, but he said if given the chance he’d be back next year for another go at winter ball.

“Right now I’m doing (physiotherapy) to heal up my elbow, but I’m hoping to go for an open independent league tryout somewhere in May and to try and keep strong for next winter.”

The Davidson Cyclones senior men’s hockey team are provincial champions for the fourth year in a row after coming back to defeat the Hudson Bay Hunters 4-3 March 30 at the Davidson Rink to take the best-of-three provincial “C” finals series 2-0.

“We weren’t worried,” said Cyclones defenceman Chad Allan about Davidson going down 3-0 to Hudson Bay at the four-minute mark of the second period. “We felt if we could just get a couple goals we would be alright. Once we got those two quick goals (by forward Pat Cey with 11:25 remaining in the second and forward Steve DaSilva 14 seconds later) we had a pretty good feeling.”

Through the first 28 minutes of the game it appeared to the 300 fans that packed the Davidson Rink the Cyclones were going to be heading back to Hudson Bay the next night for a game three. Nothing seemed to be clicking for the home team as everything they threw at the Hunters net either went far wide or hit Hudson Bay goalie Derek Leidl.

But after the two quick goals, it was all Cyclones. The shots up to that point were 17-13 in favour of Hudson Bay. By the end of the game Davidson would get another 27 shots and third period goals by forward Carter Smith and the winner, for the second year in a row in the provincial “C” deciding game, by Colton Allan, with four minutes remaining in the third frame. The Hunters, on the other hand, seemed to lose all forward momentum by continually getting pressed into their own zone and only managed eight more shots through the final 32 minutes of the game with none being counted as a goal.

“You never like to go down 3-0, but we knew with past provincials when you get to the final both teams are going to be good and it’s going to be a tough game,” said Cyclones head coach Jason Shaw. “You have got to play 60 minutes and that is what we talked about after the first period. We were down 2-0, but if we kept on working we thought we could wear them down a bit and get some goals and turn things around.”

To read more please see the April 8 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Basketball season came to a close for the Hanley Sabers senior boys and Loreburn Aztecs senior girls teams last week at regionals.

The Sabers made it to the final at the March 15-16 regionals in Birch Hills, but foul trouble did them in. Despite leading at the start of the game, the team would eventually lose to the Birch Hills Marauders by over 20 points.

Mark Anderson, head coach of the Sabers, said the club held a 14-12 lead heading into the second quarter, but it was all Birch Hills after that. He said the Marauders were up by seven at the half, 12 by the end of the third quarter and rolled through the fourth eventually putting up 85 points to Hanley’s 62.

“We didn’t shoot well,” said Anderson. “If we had shot anything like the night before (a 83-59 win over Balcarres), we would have been in fine shape. Our top scorer from the night before (forward Steven Sira) had four fouls before the first half, so I had to pull him and then he fouled out in the second half. Our top scorer from this game (centre Josh Anderson) had four fouls as well, so it was tough.”

Anderson said the kids on his team had a great season even with the miss on Hoopla competition and should be proud with the strong athletic game they brought to the court.  He said his team is more of a “football team playing basketball,” but as the season progressed they picked up their play and became a real threat.

“When we got to the end here, if we could of put it all together we would have been dangerous, but at the end we faltered,” he said. “It was a great group of kids and a really good game.”

Loreburn Aztecs

The Aztecs can say they ended their season on a winning note, but a loss a day earlier cost them a chance of playing at Hoopla.

Tim Hom, head coach of the Aztecs, said the club beat the Kerrobert Rebels “handily” in their final game at regionals in Frontier. He said despite the lopsided win, both teams showed great sportsmanship throughout the game.

A day earlier the club lost to the Middle Lake Avengers, whose undefeated record at regionals propelled them to this past weekend’s Hoopla tournament.

“We lost by 40 (to Middle Lake),” said Hom. “They are a very good team, well-coached and have lots of good skilled players. We had a pretty short bench, but that’s no excuse. We played well.”

Hom said he is happy with the season the Aztecs put together this year and credits their fans, parents and staff at the school for their support and help building a great basketball program at Loreburn Central School.

“The girls gave a lot of effort,” he said. “Success isn’t measured in wins or losses, but I thought we were pretty (good). A lot of our team is coming back (next year), so hopefully we get a better result.”