Sudden interest surge shows how sport can link community

Supporters come out of closet for football title games

The Hilltops charge out to the SMF Field turf on Oct. 29.

The phenomenon of “sudden interest” has likely been around in the sports world since there has been a sports world.

Even with that being a trend that seemingly repeats itself, it still always comes as a surprise when it happens. When it does happen, it shows how sports can link a community.

In Saskatoon over the past four weeks, the “sudden interest” phenomenon repeated itself in the football scene for the CJFL’s storied Saskatoon Hilltops along with the Aden Bowman Collegiate Bears and the Holy Cross High School Crusaders in the high school football scene. “Sudden interest” perked up as all three teams took part in championship games on November 11 on Remembrance Day, which fell on a Saturday.

The Hilltops were playing in the CJFL championship game – the Canadian Bowl – against the Westshore Rebels at Starlight Stadium in Langley, B.C., which is a suburb of Victoria.

The Bears traveled to Weyburn to take on the Weyburn Comprehensive School Eagles in the Saskatchewan High Schools Athletic Association 5A provincial championship game at Darold Kot Field.

The Crusaders stayed home to host Regina’s Miller Comprehensive Catholic High School Marauders in the SHSAA’s 6A provincial title contest at Saskatoon Minor Football Field.

Bears receiver Brady Blackburn, right, sprints past a defender.

As the time approached for those three squads to play in their respective title games, a flood of messages from well wishers came their way. A lot of the positive messages for the teams came could be seen in the comments section of posts make on the Facebook page for the Gordie Howe Sports Complex.

It seemed a lot of the people passing on good luck messages followed the teams only casually, but stronger connections from the past were hinted at. The connections could have included being former players, coaches or staffers of those squads, or you could have had family members on those teams.

Some of the people were more engaged fans at one point in time of their lives maybe in childhood, or in the case of the Bears and Crusaders, when they were students at those respective schools. No matter where the link came from, it turned out to be a positive link.

The Hilltops, Bears and Crusaders have existed for decades and all have their own storied histories. The current Hilltops in their modern day era were formed in 1947.  Aden Bowman Collegiate opened in 1958, and Holy Cross High School opened in 1963.

Due to being in existence for a lengthy span of time, it shouldn’t come as a surprise people will reconnect with these squads, when they make an appearance in a championship game. People who are reconnecting with these teams aren’t able to follow them on an avid basis, because life has a tendency in the current day to keep people busy.

Some of the people passing on “good luck” messages to the Hilltops wanted to know if the CJFL championship game was going to be on national television. Those folks have been so involved in their own lives they didn’t realize how much the media - especially the sports media - has been cut in Canada, which meant the CJFL title game would not be on television.

Elias Flory slings a touchdown pass for the Crusaders.

Those asking about the game being on television had to settle for the CJFL’s online broadcast, which was really good.

For the Bears and Crusaders, people did ask if their championship games were going to be streamed online. Unfortunately as far as I could find, there were no online streams of those contests, and they weren’t picked up by the community channels of SaskTel or Access 7.

People didn’t realize the majority of the sports world in Canada depends on volunteers. In the United States, there is a much larger chance paid professionals will make those broadcasts happen.

Ultimately, it was cool to see these teams get their surges of “sudden interest” even for a short time.

The “sudden interest” phenomenon was seen in Saskatchewan in the professional football world in recent days as former Saskatchewan Roughriders star quarterback Cody Fajardo was playing in the Grey Cup in Hamilton, Ont., on Sunday against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. The Alouettes prevailed 28-24 in the CFL title clash at Tim Hortons Field with Fajardo executing a game-winning scoring drive that ran seven plays and covered 83 yards.

He concluded the drive throwing the winning touchdown pass from 19 yards out to Canadian receiver Tyson Philpot with 13 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. Following the Alouettes win, Roughriders fans poured out congratulations messages for Fajardo on various social media networks.

Cody Fajardo raises the Grey Cup.

The Hilltops would see congratulations messages too. On Nov. 11, they downed the Rebels 17-10 to capture the Canadian Bowl and their 23^rd CJFL championship in team history.

The Bears fell 35-15 in their 5A provincial championship game to the Eagles. The Crusaders dropped a 12-10 heartbreaker to the Marauders, who won the 6A provincial title for a third straight year.

It was a great thing that these “sudden interest” moments materialized in Saskatoon. If these moments continue to happen in the future, it would be a welcomed thing.

U.S. road trip was good one for Raiders

The Raiders bang their sticks on the boards prior to a faceoff.

One of the toughest challenges in the WHL is to make a road trip through the U.S. Division.

For the Prince Albert Raiders, their jaunt through the U.S. Division was one that saw them make strides forward. In total, the Raiders played seven games on the trip make a stop in Lethbridge to face the Hurricanes on November 8 before venturing into the United States.

The Raiders took the clash with the Hurricanes 4-2 to get some good vibes going. The Raiders posted a 4-2-0-1 record on the trip to allow their overall regular season mark to sit at 13-10-0-2.

On the jaunt, the Raiders downed the Chiefs in Spokane 3-2 on November 10 before falling to the Tri-City Americans in Kennewick, Wash., 5-4 on Remembrance Day. The Raiders proceeded to down the Seattle Thunderbirds 3-2 in Kent, Wash., on November 14 before dropping a 4-3 decision to the Silvertips in Everett one night later.

The biggest moment of the trip came this past Friday, when the Raiders slipped past the Winterhawks in Portland 2-1. It is huge challenge for any visiting squad to pull off a win in Portland.

Raiders netminder Max Hildebrand stole the show in that contest making 42 saves in the win. Oli Chenier and import left-winger Krzysztof Macias potted single for the Raiders.

The trip ended this past Sunday with a 4-3 loss after a tiebreaking shootout to the Wild in Wenatchee.

Now the Raiders get to enjoy being back at the Art Hauser Centre for a couple of nights. This coming Saturday, they host the Moose Jaw Warriors at 7 p.m. on a night the #16 jersey of Raiders all-time great centre Dan Hodgson will be retired.

This coming Sunday, the Raiders host the Brandon Wheat Kings at 6 p.m. at the Art Hauser Centre.

I wrote a column in the Prince Albert Daily Herald talking about how the Raiders would get a significant test on the U.S. Division trip. That piece that ran on November 15 can be found by clicking right here.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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Beware of online sports streaming site scams

Scammers want money from Aden Bowman Collegiate Bears supporters.

This in one of those cases where it should be common sense, but common sense isn’t that common anymore.

Please SHARE this post. If you don’t normally share anything I write, please SHARE this one.

If an online sports streaming site looks too good to be true, it is too good to be true. I am finding particularly with Facebook that someone will create a post being at a sporting event, and within a few minutes to perhaps a day, a link will show up in the comments section saying you can watch that event by clicking on this link.

If you click on that link, you can be sure nothing good will happen. If you are asked once you are in that link for credit card or banking information, you can then expect your credit card or bank account will be cleaned out.

If that happens, good luck in recovering funds. Usually, they go to an entity outside of Canada, and at that point, the police departments in Canada can do very little to help you. At that point, you have to deal with any insurance channels you have on your credit card or bank accounts.

Countries like Russia and China have office towers full of computer techs that work to cause havoc with online networks in other countries. That will include scams that drain your credit card or bank account to fund a foreign government. There are numerous other countries outside of Russia and China that engage in these types of activities too, and if a country gets on bad terms with Canada, you can expect that country’s hackers will target Canada’s online network to create havoc.

Often if you click on this link, you will go somewhere that will do something malicious to your computer system or your phone. There are cases where you will go to porn site that will implant something really bad on your computer or phone.

Again, if a link looks suspicious, it likely is suspicious. It is common sense in the online world, but that sense doesn’t appear to be common.

If a link to a site is posted on a social media page and the account posting it has less than 10 followers or is less than two months old, that should be a warning sign. If the link posted on a social media account doesn’t go to a known media company like CBC or TSN or a sports league like the NFL, NBA, MLB or NHL, that is a warning sign.

I have found it is common for these malicious links to be in the comments section of a Facebook post be it a personal page or pages operated by sports organizations. Often, those creating the links target Facebook pages of minor sport organizations, especially not for profit ones that have limited resources to have someone moderating their social media lines.

I first ran across this about May of 2022, and the hackers targeted the social media accounts of the Saskatoon Valkyries and other WWCFL teams.

Due to the fact a lot of these sports organizations don’t stream their games, hackers will attempt to leave their malicious sports streaming links in the comments sections of the posts made by these sports organizations. Even some that have streaming services like Saskatoon Minor Football get these malicious sports streaming services links placed in the comments sections of their posts too.

I’ve seen that happen with the sports of minor baseball and minor softball too in Saskatoon. I also once saw one of these links on a post on the Facebook account of the SFU18AAAHL’s Saskatoon Stars.

These hackers are directly preying on parents. They know parents are so invested in their kids in sports they will do anything to see their kids games they can’t be at.

The hackers create sites to take money from these parents, and they love it when parents just pour open their wallets with “donations.”

I am making this post now because in Saskatchewan we are heading on to a week where the high school sports scene is heading towards football championship games. In Saskatoon, the Holy Cross High School Crusaders will play host to the 6A provincial final on Saturday, while the Aden Bowman Collegiate Bears will head to Weyburn for the 5A provincial final on Saturday.

The parents and followers of the Crusaders and Bears teams will be TARGETS by these hackers. These hackers really like Saskatchewan high school sports because streaming services are hit and miss on this front.

I have found these malicious sports streaming links often don’t appear for posts with Canada’s three leagues under the CHL umbrella in the WHL, OHL, and QMJHL or teams in U Sports. Those entities have well-known streaming services for their games. The same goes for the CJFL, but I have found malicious sports streaming links on CJFL posts.

I have found some tactics that work that prevent the frequency of these links. If you want advice on that front, please feel free to send me a direct message or email.

Online fraud with the sports industry is nothing new. I would say for at least 10 years fraud in selling fake sports merchandise has occurred.

Full disclosure, I almost fell for one of those sites in 2018. I decided to sleep on the purchase I was going to make.

The next morning I decided to do research to find out where the supposed “company” I was going to do a purchase with was located. I eventually tracked an address down to Russia. The site for that supposed “company” was eliminated a long time ago.

I’m glad I didn’t hit the purchase button, but I can see how easy it is to do.

I wish I didn’t have to write this post. It is taking away time from writing a feature story for the Prince Albert Daily Herald on University of Alberta Pandas forward Abby Soyko, working on a Saskatoon Hilltops feature on defensive tackle Craig Torgerson for my blog and working on Howe Happenings content for the Gordie Howe Sports Complex. I will still be completing all of these pieces, so watch for them.

Anyways, I am posting all of this because the idea of not talking about this subject is doing nothing. I want to use this as a reminder that these online malicious sports streaming sites are out there. I might post periodic reminders about this.

During my life when I have done work on the new side for media companies and even the sports side, I have taken part in seminars put on by police departments regarding fraud, where you learned things in an enjoyable way. They were good, and I remember one RCMP seminar was really good at helping you learn to spot counterfeit money.

One thing all these agencies said is usually only 1-in-10 persons falls for a fraud scam. Unfortunately, that 1-in-10 ratio brings in tonnes of money for fraudsters. You can get money from a lot of population with a 1-in-10 ratio.

Sometimes it is hard to find out how widespread this is too. If someone is taken for $40,000 by a fraud scam, they usually don’t want to talk about it over the shame of being taken by a fraud.

It might not be with money, but we all get taken by a fraud at some point in our lives. If you have avoided that, that is great to hear.

Again, please be aware of malicious online sports streaming sites. They will give you more than you bargained for, if you let them.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.

Murphy’s versatility benefits Valkyries for almost a decade

Saskatoon closes WWCFL regular season with perfect 4-0 mark

Kelsey Murphy returns a kick for the Valkyries.

Becoming part of the Saskatoon Valkyries family allowed Kelsey Murphy to become a better supporter of the football exploits of her two younger brothers.

Murphy joined the Valkyries way back in their 2014 WWCFL championship season and has been with the powerhouse women’s football squad ever since. The veteran defensive back has spent the most consecutive seasons with the team out of anyone on the current roster at nine, which is also good for the most total campaigns spent on the squad as a player with the club’s current lineup.

When Murphy joined the Valkryies in 2014, she fell in love with the game of football quickly. The now 29-year-old admitted she actually didn’t have any warm feelings for the sport until she became a member of the Valkyries.

“Before that, I didn’t like football,” said Murphy. “I didn’t want to watch it, when my family wanted to watch it.

“I regret missing a lot of my brother’s football games early on, because I wasn’t interested in it. Then, Valkyries made that space for women to be in football. For me, that is when I fell in love with it.

“Now, I’m at every game I can get to.”

By the end of Murphy’s first season with the Valkyries, her brother Liam, who is two years younger than her, had just graduated from Aden Bowman Collegiate. By that time, Liam had played tackle football for a lengthy stretch starting in Saskatoon Minor Football’s Six-A-Side program, the KFL and in the high school ranks with the Aden Bowman Collegiate Bears.

After Kelsey played her first season with the Valkyries, Liam joined the Saskatoon Hilltops as a running back and helped them win CJFL championships in all four seasons he played with the club from 2014 to 2017.

Kelsey Murphy looks to blitz from the halfback position.

The elder sister didn’t ignore all her brother’s games before she joined the Valkyries, but she was a regular in the stands at all his games with the Hilltops.

“I would go to his games, but I wasn’t watching it because I didn’t know the sport,” said Murphy, who stands 5-foot-5. “I felt like a big outsider to football.

“Once I started playing Valks, I was at every game watching him, because I was like, ‘This is so cool and exciting.’ I have an idea of what is going on now and feel like it is a space that I can be in and be excited about.”

Liam is currently a running backs coach with the Valkyries. On top of trying to get to all Liam’s games when he was with the Hilltops, Kelsey made it to as many of the high school games as she could of their youngest sibling in brother Jacob at Aden Bowman. Jacob’s tackle football days came to an end when he joined the University of Saskatchewan Huskies Men’s Track and Field team in September of 2017.

Kelsey has continued suit up to play in tackle football games for almost a half decade since Liam or Jacob last suited up to play. She is also one of the oldest active players on the Valkyries roster, and she finds the experience she has gained has become a valuable asset.

“I think there is like a big sense of comfort,” said Murphy. “I know what is coming and can do my best to welcome other people into it.

“I think that is one of my favourite things about being at this stage in football.”

On Sunday at Leibel Field in Regina, the Valkyries stormed out to a 24-0 lead in the first quarter and cruised to a 41-0 victory over the host Riot in the final regular season contest for both sides. With the win, the Valkyries officially wrapped up first place in the Prairie Conference with a 4-0 record. The Riot place second in the Prairie Conference with a 2-2 mark.

So far this season, Murphy has interceptions in each of the Valkyries two regular season home games. She returned one of those interceptions 45 yards for a touchdown to open the scoring in the Valkyries 59-0 romp over the Winnipeg Wolfpack on May 28 at Saskatoon Minor Football Field.

Kelsey Murphy (#85) returns an interception for the Valkyries.

Overall, Murphy loves how the Valkyries have come together this season.

“I do feel like we’ve got a lot of really new young players who are doing amazing and coming up with such skill and talent with all the development that Football Sask and all those people have been putting into women’s football,” said Murphy. “We have a great core as well of vets like Sarah (Wright) and everybody and Woj (Alex Wojcichowsky) that have been around for quite a while and are just like such good players.

“I think it is a really exciting mix.”

Murphy had seen her role with the team change quite a bit over the years. She started out as a running back in 2014 but didn’t see the field a whole lot due to how deep the club was at that position at that time.

Murphy switched over to receiver for a number of years before becoming a defensive back. On special teams, Murphy has returned kicks for a lengthy part of her career.

“I don’t think running back was necessarily the best place for me to start,” said Murphy, who has helped the Valkyries win four WWCFL titles over her playing career. “It was good, because I learned a lot about how to hold a ball going into contact and learning how to get tackled.

“Just for my size, it was like they could just push me over. Receiver was really fun, and I loved it. I’m so happy to be at DB now.

“I wish I had started there from the start, but then I wouldn’t have gotten as much practise catching and carrying the ball.”

Valkyries head coach Pat Barry came on board with the program as a position coach the same year Murphy joined the squad in 2014. At the end of the Valkyries championship campaign last season, Barry asked Murphy if she was coming back for another campaign, and Murphy said she would be back as she was having too much fun.

“She (Murphy) is just a positive person,” said Barry. “Kelsey is a great person, and she does so much for our team, and people just gravitate towards her.

Kelsey Murphy starts into a backpedal for the Valkyries.

“We always wanted the best for her. We thought she would get more playing time as a DB. She has really emerged as a great defensive back, so it is exciting.”

Away from football, Murphy has been involved in various community endeavors. On May 14, 2021, Murphy was recognized by the Saskatoon YWCA Women of Distinction Awards being named the winner of the 29 and Under Award.

Barry said Murphy has a gift when it comes to leading by example.

“Having that leadership that transfers or translates is kind of unique on our team, because as adults, they can keep playing,” said Barry, whose team has won 24 straight games overall. “It is essential.

“It really helps. It sort of teaches the younger players how we do things around here. She is great at that.”

Murphy said she has great memories of her first year coming in with a rookie group that included Ehjae Chan, Sam Matheson, Danielle Haughian and Kelsey Dick. She is still enjoying the game as much as ever now in her ninth year with the team.

Murphy wants to help the members of this year’s team create many more amazing memories. She would love to help the Valkyries win another WWCFL title also to give a nod to the coaches for all the work they’ve put in this season.

“It would be amazing,” said Murphy. “It would be awesome to win with this coaching staff that has worked so hard to kind of get us to where we are.”

The Valkyries are expecting to open the WWCFL playoffs this coming weekend with a Prairie Conference semifinal with the day and time of that contest still to be announced. They will have home-field advantage throughout the post-season including if they reach the WWCFL Championship Game.

Looking beyond this season, Murphy is expecting to continue to play with the Valkyries, but she isn’t sure how many years down the road that will continue for.

“That is a tough question, because it does just get like harder on your body,” said Murphy. “It is tough to say.

Kelsey Murphy (#85) visits some Valkyries alum after a game.

“I think a few, but I don’t know for sure.”

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.