The Conquest Coyotes bantam A softball team won gold at the Western Canadian softball championships this August with a near sweep over teams from across the four Western provinces.

Davidson’s Elise McJannet, 15, a shortstop and left fielder for the Coyotes, said it was nice to end the season on a winning note. She said it was her first year playing at the Western Canadian under-16 softball championships and managed to pound out a few singles in the gold medal winning effort.

“I love hitting and being with this team,” said McJannet, who has been playing ball since she was four-years-old. “I also loved the excitement of playing in this tournament.”

The Conquest Coyotes made it to the Western Canadians by finishing third at the Saskatoon softball championships in early July. That placement led them and the team they lost to in the silver medal game at the provincials, the Saskatoon Phantoms, to the Westerns.

They were joined at the Aug. 9 to 12 tournament in Strathmore, Alberta, by two teams from each of the other three Western provinces as well as the host team.

The Coyotes went 6-0 in round robin play at the Strathmore Diamonds before losing their first playoff game Aug. 12 against the Phantoms by a score of 8-0. They rebounded later that afternoon with a 5-3 victory over the Calgary Kaizens setting up a gold medal grudge match against the rival Phantoms.

The Coyotes, made up of players from towns around the area, gave it their all against the Phantoms eventually coming out with a hard fought 2-0 win and the gold medal.

“It was the most exciting baseball tournament I ever experienced,” said McJannet. “It’s great being on a team that is the best in Western Canada.”

A couple local cowboys showed their mettle at the 18^th Annual Lakeshore Stampede Rodeo July 28 in Elbow by climbing into the ring for some roping, bareback riding and steer wrestling.

Davidson’s Scott Sigfusson, the current high point cowboy in the CCA (Canadian Cowboys’ Association), said the rodeo had “great stock and great facilities.” He said he travels to around 70 rodeos a year, pretty much one every weekend between May and October, where he competes in tie down roping, team roping, and “for the bigger adrenalin rush” steer wrestling.

“I was able to acquire the high point cowboy when I was in high school and steer wrestling was just the next step,” said Sigfusson. “You just ride up to a steer on your horse. You slide off your horse. Then you grab the steer by the head and twist his head and throw him to the ground.”

Across the Canadian semi-pro association, Sigfusson is currently sitting fourth in steer wrestling, second in tie down roping and 14^th in team roping. He said that his goal is to qualify for the CCA championships in November at the Canadian Western Agribition held in Regina.

Dustan McPhee, from Hanley, took home the top prize this year for bareback riding at the Stampede. A regular at the Elbow rodeo, McPhee said he doesn’t make to many CCA rodeos as he regularly competes at the pro level, but he’s quite fond of the Lakeshore Stampede.

“It’s always a good rodeo and close to home, so I try to make sure I go over there and get entered,” he said. “I’ve been to Elbow a lot and I’ve won it before.”

Refraining to take any praise for his ride, McPhee said it was just a “good little horse” that enabled him to walk away with the prize money in Elbow. He said usually he would be trying to make it to the CFR (Canadian Finals Rodeo) at Edmonton in November during the summer, but not this year.

“I’m too far out of it, but I’ll go to a few more CCA rodeos (this summer) and try and make it to the CCA finals.”

The Davidson Red Sox Squirt Girls’ softball team are league champions after a convincing two-game playoff sweep against the rival Saskatoon Hustlers Extreme June 24 at Glen Reeve Park in Saskatoon.

The win has earned them a berth in the provincial championships held in Regina later this summer.

Jason Shaw, head coach of the Red Sox, said the ages nine to 12 team had a fantastic showing at the season ending tournament, winning six of their seven games at the championship including two back-to-back 14-2 and 11-7 victories against the Hustlers on the final day. He said what makes this more admirable is the team had to play two more ballgames on that sunny day before the two-game final, creating quite a workload for the young team.

“For those girls to win four games in the heat when we haven’t played a lot of ball this season was pretty impressive,” Shaw said. “It wasn’t one or two girls carrying the team.  It was all 14 girls working together as a team. If one struck out, the next one up got a hit.  If one made an error, the next one made a play. That was pretty good.”

The Sox, who placed second in league standings after the regular season with an 8-1 record, started the final day with a victory over the Saskatoon Falcons at 8 a.m., before moving on to the powerhouse Warman Panthers at 10 a.m., who finished first in the regular season standings with an undefeated 10-0 record. Then came the hometown favourite Hustlers with the first game starting at 2 p.m. and the girls really started to show their mettle.

Shaw said the young team, which had seven rookies on the roster out of a squad of 14, had nine rainouts in its 18-game spring season causing problems with teaching aspects of the game to the girls. He said the club did manage to get in a few good practices though and with the help of assistant coaches Charmaine Bristow and Lindsay Cross, they did teach them a little about the great game of baseball.

“It was kind of tough for us, because in the city they group the kids or try them out,” Shaw said. “We had some girls that played some ball before and then we had some younger ones who weren’t quite as experienced, so basically it was just get them on the field and see what they’ve got.

“It was a steep learning curve for some of them,” he said. “A lot of the newer girls have improved quite a bit and we still had to keep some of the older girls interested, but we worked on things to keep them going too. We really didn’t have any expectations at the beginning of the year. We’re not in this for wins and losses. It’s to teach the girls how to play ball.”

The Sox now head to Regina July 6-8 for the provincial championships, where the Panthers and Hustlers as well as a few select clubs from the Regina league will join them. Shaw said the tourney will prove to be a difficult one for the team, but the girls will give it all they have, which is really all he can ask for.

“We’re not going there with any expectations, just like we weren’t going into this season with any,” he said. “We’re just hoping to play some good games, go there with a good attitude and try and play our best. If it doesn’t work out, we’ve still had a good season.”

CRAIK—Local girls have a chance to learn how to play the beautiful game.

Wade ter Heide has put out the call for girls between the ages of 10 and 14 to get together to have fun learning how to play soccer.

ter Heide said he’s starting with this age group because his daughter Aurora is 11.

So far, he’s got about five girls interested, but needs more. Girls from Davidson and other communities are welcome to join in the fun.

The registration fee is low, just enough to cover the cost of a soccer ball.

Each player will have her own ball, one she can take home to practise with.

This will come in handy for the juggling contests. Although it may not be essential in a game, juggling a soccer ball helps players develop ball control. ter Heide said it improves foot-eye co-ordination and it helps players learn how to keep the ball close to their bodies.

“With the ability to juggle, you can do all sorts of crazy things on the ground,” ter Heide said.

The ter Heides moved to Craik from Saskatoon about a year ago. Over the past year, ter Heide, who has his soccer coach certification, drove to Saskatoon three times a week coaching his daughter Aurora’s team.

Rather than continue the soccer commute, he said, “I thought, let’s get some kids around here interested” in playing soccer.

“I want it to be really fun. The focus is on movement and touching the ball a lot,” ter Heide said.

To this end, he’s going to coach them using the Dutch training method.

The Dutch style of soccer is more about finesse than power. The Dutch focus on individual skill and keeping close control of the ball. Short, simple passes are preferred to long-range kicking.

Under the Dutch method, players should be comfortable controlling and kicking the ball with either foot. Rather than lots of games, training matches involve four-on-four games on a small pitch to develop players’ ability to maintain control of the ball.

Such a method is ideal to rural Saskatchewan because it isn’t necessary for every town in the area to field a team. Rather, ter Heide said they’ll practise and develop their skills locally and then enter tournaments to see how they fare.

He expects local kids to pick up the skills quickly.

“The kids around here are in fabulous shape and they are talented,” he said.

He just wants to teach them to be soccer players.

“A lot of kids will discover abilities they have in soccer they didn’t have in other sports,” he said.