Lakers Ready To Hit The Field

It's been a long wait for the Grandview Lakers, but the baseball season is just about here for the team.

After a couple of postponed games earlier this season, they officially kick off their Southeast Senior Baseball League season on Sunday at Wilson Park in Grandview.

"Yeah, everyone's really been looking forward to it," said Branden Storey. "Talking about the first couple of games everyone just wants to get on the field and get the season going."

On Sunday, the Lakers welcome the perfect Roblin Stars (3-0) to Wilson Park. Roblin has outscored their opponents 24-8 this season. With that said, Branden is confident the club can get off to a good start to their season.

"I think we're looking pretty good so far," added Storey. "We haven't had everyone out to practice yet, but the guys who have come out have been working really hard. We're ready to give it our all."

Grandview finished last season with a 3-10-1 record. They did play some solid baseball at times, including a win against Canora who finished with an 8-5 record last year.

"I think our biggest part is being consistent throughout the season," said Storey. "Sometimes we have guys go on a hot streak with a few hits in the game, but the next game they will strike out. I think if we can just stay consistent all year we'll be looking good."

Details: Contributed by Darnell Duff; Published: May 24, 2019 - 10:17 am

Many of the best amateur golfers in the province will embark on the Portage Golf Club this weekend and one of those golfers is Swan River's, Ethan Weir.

Ethan's taking part in Golf Manitoba's Match Play Championship Qualifier. All of the best players will compete for 32 spots in the Match Play tournament that begins one week later.

Weir plays his first round on Saturday afternoon at 1:08.

"I'm playing pretty good right now," said Weir. "I shot a 76 recently to win my "Mundie Putter" match, so that was pretty solid."

"I'm pretty confident that I can put a couple of good rounds together to lock up a spot in the main field," he added.

6367 yards is what Ethan and the rest of the field will have to deal with. That by no means is a long layout as just four par 4's are more than 400 yards. Two of the pars 3’s are less than 160 yards while six of the par 4's are less than 384 yards.

"I've been spending quite a bit of time on the range. Like you don't have to be long, but I've been struggling with the big stick a bit so far this year," said Weir. "I've been picking spots and I won't stop until I execute the shot."

Ethan will start on the Par 5, 532-yard 1^st hole. His starting time for Sunday will depend on his finish on Saturday.

Details: Contributed by Darnell Duff; Published: May 23, 2019 - 2:09 pm

The Parkland Vipers Volleyball Camp is set for August 29-30 at the DRCSS.

The camp will feature two groups, playing at the same time:

Grade 6-9 - 9:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Grade 6-9 - 1:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.

The fee to take part is $130, which includes both sessions and a T-Shirt.

Former Canadian women's team members Tammy Silworsky, and Kathy Preston will be the two instructors.

You can register your child today by giving Ted a call at 648-4433, or email him at tedrea@mvsd.ca. You can also head to Parkland Source for Sports here in Dauphin, and pick up a registration form.

Details: Contributed by Darnell Duff; Published: May 23, 2019 - 9:55 am

A few games hit the field tonight in the Santa Clara Baseball League.

The Neepawa Cubs got past Plumas, 7-2 while Portage pounded Austin, 19-2. Jared Roy earned the win for Portage going four innings and he only gave up two runs.

Lane Taylor went 2-3 with three RBI and Dustin Donald went 4-4 with five runs scored.

Carberry also played and they beat Ebb & Flow, 3-2.

Dauphin men's fastball league:

Justin Chartrand picked up the win as the Sko Giants beat Wayway, 11-7.

Ogidajiw beat Bigman, 17-14 and Jason Richard got the win.

Details: Contributed by Darnell Duff; Published: May 22, 2019 - 9:08 pm

The Dauphin Clippers girl’s rugby team are set to play for a league title. The team smashed Swan River, 55-0 in one of the Westman High School Rugby League semi-finals.

Brie Toews led the team with three tries as the hometown crowd cheered the ladies onto victory.

"Yeah, the girls were very happy with how they performed on the field," said Rod Carberry, Coach. "They continue to get better and better at sticking to our plan."

The win was a complete team effort, but there were a couple of players that really rose to the occasion of a must-win game.

"Sophie Delaurier probably had her best game ever. She had some fantastic runs for us," added Carberry. "Mackenzie Maxwell is back and she's doing a great job. We didn't have her for the first half of the season, so we're really glad to have her back."

The win from the Clippers sets up what many people expected. They will now take on the Minnedosa Chancellors in the league final on Saturday. Dauphin played them once this season and they won a nail-biter, 32-31. For the first time in Clippers rugby history, the finals will be on home turf.

No Clippers team on the boys or girls side has ever hosted a final, until this year's edition of the Clippers girls team. The game will be played at KIN field. Kick-off is still to be determined.

Minnedosa hammered Souris in their semi-final, 53-24.

"I think there may be more nerves on my part than there is on the girls," said Carberry. "Having the home field advantage is big for us."

"The girls are starting to believe in themselves as much as I believe in them," he added. "We haven't made any major changes to our system. We've just been able to perfect it in the last few games."

Details: Contributed by Darnell Duff; Published: May 22, 2019 - 2:14 pm

For 30 years, the Mallard Stars have been travelling across the country to play fastball. That includes playing local games and they have also taken part in several Canadian Native Fastball Championships.

Last year the Stars joined the Dauphin men's fastball league for its inaugural season and they became the league's first champions.

As a new season started earlier this month, the Stars are right back on track to defend their title. They won the Dauphin men's tournament that was held earlier this past weekend in Dauphin. They didn't lose a game at the event.

The team didn't have much time to celebrate as they were set to begin their regular season on Monday, and they did so on a good note. Behind a very strong pitching performance from Parkland Ranger Hayden Lacquette, the Stars kicked things off with a 5-1 win.

"We've really invested in our youth. We have some of our nephews that are coming up and they are young," said Terrance Lacquette, Coach/Player. "We've brought them in slowly and now we're looking for some of them to have bigger roles this year. They're playing with confidence and things are working out."

After a busy start to the season, Mallard now gets a little bit of a break. They won't play another league game until Monday, May 27 when they challenge Showtime.

The first half of the regular season ends on July 3 against Ogidajiw. With all of the success the team has had over the years and into this season, the Stars once again look like they will be a force to be reckoned with.

"We're a pretty tight-knit group and we know exactly what each person is capable of doing," added Lacquette. "We try to compete as best as we can, but we also try to have a lot of fun as well."

Although it's not on their immediate radar, the Stars will take part in the Canadian Native Fastball Championships from August 1-4 at John Blumberg Complex in Headingley.

They haven't reached the top at the tournament yet, but they're looking forward to the challenge of achieving just that this year.

"It really all boils down to getting a top end pitcher. We have some young arms on our team and I don't think they're experienced enough to win that tournament," said Lacquette. "I think we're one elite pitcher away from winning it. We're really satisfied with what we bring defensively and our sticks offensively.”

Mallard Stars Dauphin men's fastball league schedule:

Monday, May 27 - Showtime.

Monday, June 3 - BigMan.

Monday, June 10 - Wayway A's.

Monday, June 17 - Crane Bay Knights.

Monday, June 24 - Sko Giants.

Wednesday, July 3 - Ogidajiw.

Details: Contributed by Darnell Duff; Published: May 22, 2019 - 10:38 am

The Dauphin Clippers baseball team are heading to the Provincial Championships.

Hosting the zones earlier today, the Clippers went into cruise mode to pick up two wins to earn their spot.

They first up beat Alonsa, 15-5.

That set up a game against Ste. Rose/McCreary with the winner moving onto provincials.

Carter Williamson was great on the mound as Dauphin went on to win 10-4.

Carter pitched 5.2 innings and he struck out six batters while only giving up three runs.

Austin Storey closed out the game with four strikeouts and he didn’t give up a run.

Jesse Korbet went 3-5 while Austin Storey was 2-3 with two walks.

Declan Sweetman was 2-4 with a double.

The provincials are next weekend in Winnipeg.

Details: Contributed by Darnell Duff; Published: May 21, 2019 - 11:40 pm

Isaac Labelle played 77 games for the Waywayseecappo Wolverines and he quickly became the goalie you expect big saves from. Now he's set to make big saves for a new team.

After aging out of junior hockey at the end of this past season, Labelle has now committed to play for the Trinity Western Spartans men's hockey team.

Playing in the British Columbia Intercollegiate Hockey League, the Spartans went on to win the league last year. They went 18-6 in the regular season and they went a perfect 4-0 in the playoffs to clinch the league title.

"It's pretty exciting for me to commit to playing for the Spartans," said Labelle. "I went to visit them back in April and I really liked what I saw. I had a lot of great options, but my family and I felt it would be best to go to Trinity Western."

"They have a good academic program and that's exciting," added Labelle.

Labelle will play just one season with the Spartans in the BCIHL. After that, Isaac and the team will embark on a new journey. The program has recently been accepted into USports.

They will join the Saskatchewan Huskies, Alberta Golden Bears, Calgary Dinos, UBC Thunderbirds, Mount Royal Cougars, Lethbridge Pronghorns, Manitoba Bisons, and Regina Cougars to create a nine-team league.

"That was definitely really neat to find out. Playing against Saskatchewan will be awesome because it's my hometown," commented Labelle. "It's going to be a fun ride for sure."

When it came to leading the Wolverines this past season, that's exactly what Labelle did. He helped Waywayseecappo make a return to the playoffs with some great numbers. He played in 49 of the team's 60 regular season games and he racked up 24 wins. That was paired with a .918 save percentage and a 2.55 goals against average. He also earned three shutouts.

"Yeah, it was definitely a good year. We definitely had some success," said Labelle. "We were all really close. We didn't get the finish we wanted, but just getting there was a pretty big accomplishment."

When it comes to Waywayseecappo's future, Labelle had this to say.

"I think they're going to do great things in the future, without a doubt," he added.

Labelle will join the Spartans for their final BCIHL season in August. After a championship season, Labelle is hoping to help the team win another title before they embark on their USports journey

"I'm definitely hoping to help the program win games," said Labelle. "I'm excited about the opportunity."

Details: Contributed by Darnell Duff; Published: May 21, 2019 - 3:26 pm

When Winnipeg's Dylan Sacramento first kicked a soccer ball at a young age, he knew it was the sport for him. The goal since that day was to make money playing the game he loves, and that's exactly what he's done.

Back in December, he signed his first ever professional contract with Valour FC. The road to the contract has been an exciting one with several stops for Sacramento. He started his collegiate career at York University before transferring to Florida Golf Coast University in 2015, where he played for three seasons. Prior to that, Dylan won a title with Toronto FC's Academy team in 2014.

Last year he played with Vaughan Azzurri of League 1 Ontario. He scored 14 goals in 14 games and was named a First Team All-Star and the league's MVP.

Sacramento made his professional debut on May 1 when Valour FC beat Pacific FC, 2-1.

"Yeah, it's definitely something really special to me. Being from Winnipeg it's awesome to be able to play in front of my family and friends," said Sacramento. "I actually grew up on Valour road as well so I spent a ton of my time there. That makes it even more special to me that I signed with this team."

Dylan and the rest of the club have gotten off to an okay start in their first season in the Canadian Premier League. They've played five games and are 2-3. That has them with six points which is good enough for third place, and one out of second.

After opening the season with that 2-1 win against Pacific FC, the club has lost two of their last three contests.

One of the losses came on May 4 when they hosted FC Edmonton in their home opener. Nearly 10,000 fans packed Investors Group Field to welcome professional soccer to Winnipeg. Unfortunately, it was a 2-1 loss. Despite that, it's a night that Dylan won't soon forget.

"Yeah, that was honestly surreal. Just going out for the walk out and anthem, I definitely had some jitters," said Sacramento. "The support from the city was absolutely fantastic. I think it's only going to grow and that's very exciting. When people talked to me after the game they said they loved it and that's always what we want to hear."

"We would have liked to win one or two more of those games that we lost. I don't think anyone has come in and necessarily beaten us," said Sacramento. "I think in each of those losses we've made some silly mistakes that really cost us some points. We're just trying to get better every day and we'll see how the rest of the way goes. We want to win the "spring" session, but Calgary hasn't lost so it's going to be tough to catch them."

After playing five games in 15 days to begin the season, Valour FC now gets a little bit of a break. They won't hit the pitch again in CPL game action until June 1. They will travel to Alberta to take on FC Edmonton

When it comes to a personal goal for this season, Dylan's goal is to play as much as possible, and he's done a great job in achieving that goal so far. He's started in four of the team's five games.

Although he knows he may not put up the numbers he did last season when he had 14 goals, he does feel confident that the goals and assists will start coming.

"I want to get as many minutes as possible and I'm off to a good start here," added Sacramento. "I need to stay healthy and I think good things are ahead as the team gets more familiar with each other. I don't want to set any expectation on goals or assists because you never know, but I think they will come naturally once things are going well for me on the field."