Eagles crush Chiefs, leave no doubt in Super Bowl win

Trump shades Swift to create tabloid fodder

“Donald Trump likes to win.”

Fortunately, that didn’t come into play in Super Bowl LIX on Sunday at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Philadelphia Eagles roared out to leads of 34-0 and 40-6 and hammered the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs 40-22 before 65,719 spectators. The Chiefs scored two touchdowns in the last three minutes of the fourth quarter in “garbage time” to cosmetically make the final score look better.

The contest also made news as Trump became the first sitting President of the United States of America to watch the Super Bowl live in person. In a pre-game interview with Fox, Trump predicted a Chiefs victory after praising the team’s quarterback in Patrick Mahomes and his wife Brittany. Trump was pictured getting on Air Force One more than an hour before the contest concluded.

On the flight to the Super Bowl, Trump said he will announce on Monday that the United States will impose 25 per cent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports including from Canada and Mexico. That got the mainstream news outlets fired up in Canada.

At the Super Bowl, Trump fed the tabloids content. During the Fox broadcast of the game, he was shown during the national anthem to big cheers from the stadium.

On social media channels specifically Platform-X, which is owned by close Trump associate Elon Musk, video was shown during the game of the fans booing music superstar Taylor Swift when she was shown on the facility’s big screen.

For the presidential election held this past November in 2024, Swift endorsed Kamala Harris, who was the Democratic candidate. Swift is also dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

Trump responded on Truth Social to Swift’s endorsement of Harris that he hated Swift and was not a fan of her.

As the Eagles route in the Super Bowl continued, posts circulated on social media of the crowd cheering Trump and booing Swift. Trump shared one of the posts of the duel video of him getting cheered and Swift being booed on Truth Social.

He also put out a post on Truth Social that said, “The only one that had a tougher night than the Kansas City Chiefs was Taylor Swift. She got BOOED out of the Stadium. MAGA is very unforgiving!”

Both social media actions come off as being childish and petty. Trump does like to throw dirt on his perceived enemies.

Trump supporters on Platform-X on the other hand reveled over the Truth Social post and the fact he shared the post of him getting cheered and Swift being booed.

A year ago in the Chiefs 25-22 overtime Super Bowl victory over the San Francisco 49ERS in Las Vegas, Nevada, Swift was the big celebrity star with her relationship with Kelce drawing tonnes of attention. Now, all of that feels like it happened in some other universe.

All of a sudden, there were no conspiracy theories that the NFL officials were making calls to favour the Chiefs in order to make Swift happy.

Actually, there was no way to save the Chiefs on Sunday with favourable calls, if you believe that conspiracy theory. The Eagles were that good.

Philadelphia had the NFL’s top defence during the 2024 regular season giving up just 278.4 total yards per game, and that defensive unit was as good as advertised on Sunday.

In an NFL where it has become increasingly harder to be a physical team due to rule changes, the Eagles defence hammered the Chiefs. Philadelphia’s defensive pressure resulted in six quarterback sacks.

Linebacker Josh Sweat had 2.5 sacks to lead the Eagles, while defensive tackle Milton Williams had a pair of sacks, fellow defensive tackle Jordan Davis had a single sack and linebacker Jalyx Hurt had a half sack.

Rookie defensive back Cooper DeJean returned an interception 38 yards for a touchdown that put the Eagles up 17-0 with just over seven minutes remaining in the second quarter. That play was a huge turning point in the contest. The body language of the Chiefs players and coaches just dropped right down after that play and never recovered for the rest of the game.

Linebacker Zack Baun had a diving interception that set the Eagles up on the Chiefs 14 yard line with 1:45 remaining in the second quarter. Two plays later, Eagles star quarterback Jalen Hurts connected with receiver A.J. Brown on a 12-yard touchdown toss that put the Eagles up 24-0 going into halftime.

In the third quarter, the Eagles pushed their edge out to 27-0 on a 29-yard field goal from kicker Jake Elliott. After forcing a turnover on downs with just under three minutes to play in the frame, Hurts connected with receiver DeVonta Smith on a 46 yard touchdown bomb to increase the Eagles advantage to 34-0.

At that point if the game was a boxing match, the referee would have stopped the fight.

It seemed like the Eagles were channeling the 1985 Chicago Bears, when they hammered the New England Patriots before the era of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick 46-10 in Super Bowl XX. Actually, one was wondering if the Eagles were going to post the first shutout in the history of the Super Bowl and one up the 1985 Bears and the 2000 Baltimore Ravens.

The 2000 Ravens only gave up a kickoff return touchdown in thumping the New York Giants 34-7 in Super Bowl XXXV.

On Sunday, Hurts had his finest hour in the NFL being named the game MVP of his team’s Super Bowl win. He completed 17-of-22 passes for 221 yards and two touchdowns, while throwing one interception. Hurts, who won an NCAA championship with the University of Alabama Crimson Tide Football Team in 2017, ran the ball 11 times for 72 yards and scored the Eagles first major on the “tush push” play.

Eagles superstar running back Saquon Barkley turned heads in 2024 leading the NFL in rushing during regular season running the ball 345 times for 2,005 yards and 13 touchdowns. The Chiefs were focused on stopping Barkley, who ran the ball 25 times for 57 yards. Barkley did come up with six big catches for 40 yards and was overjoyed to get a Super Bowl win on his 28^th birthday.

Elliott made all four of his field goal attempts with a long from 50 yards out. Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni looked like a genius with how well his team played.

Overall, the Eagles were full marks for their impressive win, and they were the night’s biggest story. The Trump shading Swift tabloid moves on social media was a secondary story that is attracting a lot of looks.

Welcome to the new reality where sports and politics mixes with Trump serving a second term as President of the United States. Don’t expect these types of occurrence to go away any time soon.

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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Hilltops have best tradition for graduating players

Players to make walk to field with parents

Matt Wist (#44) stands at attention for the national anthem.

It is one the most heartwarming traditions in Canadian sports for graduating players.

On Sunday at 1 p.m. at Saskatoon Minor Football Field, the venerable Saskatoon Hilltops (7-0) will close their 2023 regular season hosting the Winnipeg Rifles (2-5). While the Hilltops are going to do everything in their power to have a long post-season run, they use their final regular season home game as an opportunity to honour their graduating players.

During a pre-game ceremony, the Hilltops graduating players will be announced one by one and make the walk to the field with their parents. In past years, the parents usually take the field decked out in cool looking team gear.

This season, the Hilltops took the field with a younger squad, but their roster still contains eight graduation players, who are playing out 22-year-old and final seasons of CJFL eligibility. The Hilltops were unsure where they would stand this season as the Prairie Football Conference they play out of went through a great reset, where teams experienced lots of graduations following the 2022 campaign.

Hilltops legendary head coach Tom Sargeant said his squad sits with a 7-0 record this year due largely to the work of the team’s graduating players.

“When we started out the year, we knew we were a young football team,” said Sargeant. “There is only one reason we’re 7-0, and that is the work and the leadership of this coaching staff and our fifth-year players.

LB Jordan Levesque gets a short-yardage carry.

“We always say the mantra is our goal is to win a championship for our fifth year players. They’re the ones who have stepped up and shown the right leadership and the right way to practice and to perform and to get ready for games. They’ve been our best players on game day.

“At the end of the day, they’ve done their job, and now, it is our job to step up and come out and play our best football of the year. I think when we do that good things are going to happen for this blue and gold squad.”

A total of six players from the graduating group were rookies with the Hilltops when they last won the CJFL championship posting a perfect 12-0 overall record in 2019 in linebackers Matt Wist and Wade Keating, defensive back Carter Wingert, running back Boston Davidsen, defensive lineman Craig Torgerson and receiver Evan Ward. Ward left the Hilltops following the 2021 campaign but rejoined the storied CJFL squad about halfway through the current 2023 regular season.

Linebacker Jordan Levesque and offensive lineman Justice Walker joined the Hilltops following the 2019 campaign.

All of these graduating players are still in the CJFL playing with the Hilltops even with navigating their individual journeys around the fact the 2020 campaign was cancelled due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has gripped the world. 

There were all sorts of various restrictions and shutdowns in place when the 2020 season was supposed to happen in order to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Boston Davidsen charges downfield for the Hilltops.

During that time, there were many athletes that decided to move on with the next step of their lives. Some eventually returned to the high level sports they played, when things returned to action as restrictions were lifted.

This year’s group of graduating players are the second last class that had to navigate around how pandemic restrictions affected their CJFL playing careers. When the Hilltops returned to action in 2021, they have played an important role in getting the Hilltops in a position where they could meet their lofty standards of the past that have seen the team win 22 CJFL titles in their history dating back to 1947.

In 2023, they played an even bigger role helping lead a young roster. While the Hilltops ultimately hope their last game comes playing for a CJFL title on November 11, Sunday’s upcoming game against the Rifles provides ample opportunity to salute the graduating players before they ultimately ride off into the sunset.

Taylor Swift fun at End Zone Dinner

Jorgen Hus, left, and Derrick Moncrief react to a Taylor Swift question.

The Saskatoon Hilltops End Zone Dinner usually provides lots of laughs, and the laughs for one moment surrounded a famous development at the professional level.

The End Zone Dinner, which raises money for the Saskatoon Hilltops Scholarship Fund, went on Saturday, September 30 at the main hall in the Gordie Howe Sports Centre building before the Hilltops downed their provincial rivals the Regina Thunder 19-10 at Saskatoon Minor Football Field.

Guest speakers included a pair of alumni from the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders in Al Johns and Carm Carteri along with current Roughriders players in Jorgen Hus and Derrick Moncrief. Johns was a defensive tackle for the Roughriders from 1980 to 1987 and played for the Hilltops in the 1970s. Carteri played linebacker for the Roughriders in 1979, 1980 and 1985, and he had a long run as a colour analyst on Roughriders radio broadcasts that concluded following the 2016 campaign.

Hus is the Roughriders veteran long snapper and he played linebacker with the Hilltops from 2007 to 2009. He helped the Hilltops win a CJFL title in 2007 after graduating from St. Joseph High School.

Moncrief is a veteran linebacker with the Roughriders. He often comes out to Saskatoon to help coach with Saskatoon Minor Football’s Playground To Pros Camp that is held annually in April.

During a question and answer session, Hus and Moncrief were asked if Taylor Swift wasn’t linked with tight end Travis Kelce of the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs which player in the CFL would have the best chance to date her?

The whole room broke out in laughter after the question was asked. Both Hus and Moncrief, who are both married, looked stunned for a short second before breaking out in laughter. They tried to stop laughing but couldn’t keep from chuckling.

They began whispering to each other about who the player might be. They then discussed for a short time that the player had to be a receiver.

Dave Thomas, who was emcee for the dinner, reminded both players that the choice didn’t have to be a teammate.

Hus and Moncrief ultimately settled on naming Roughriders offensive lineman Logan Ferland as being the player in the CFL who would have the best chance to date Swift, if she wasn’t connected with Kelce.

Thunder, Huskies locked in for PFC semi clash, notes

The Thunder look to lock up second place in the PFC.

The Regina Thunder and Edmonton Huskies will play each other in consecutive weeks, but the location for the second encounter is still to be determined.

Going into the final weekend of regular season play for the CJFL’s Prairie Football Conference, the Thunder (5-2) and Huskies (4-3) know they will face each other in a PFC semifinal contest on the opening weekend of the conference playoffs sitting second and third respectively in the conference standings. The location for that contest is still up in the air, because second place in the PFC is still up for grabs.

The Thunder and Huskies close their respective regular season schedules with a head-to-head clash on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Leibel Field in Regina. It is the only regular season meeting between the two squads.

As a result, the winner will lock up second place in the PFC and host the PFC semifinal clash between the two sides. Of course, a Huskies win would mean both teams would have identical 5-3 records, but the Huskies would claim the standings tiebreaker with the head-to-head win.

Along with the battle for second place, a side story to that encounter will see if Thunder star running back Ryland Leichert can hit the 1,000-yard rushing plateau for the season. The 20-year-old has carried the ball 134 times for 892 yards and six touchdowns this season, so he needs 108 yards rushing to hit the 1,000-yard plateau for the campaign.

The match up of who will travel to Saskatoon to face the first place Hilltops (7-0) in the other PFC semifinal isn’t so clear. The Calgary Colts (2-5) sit fourth in the PFC, the Winnipeg Rifles (2-5) are fifth and the Edmonton Wildcats (1-6) are sixth.

The Colts hold the head-to-head standings tiebreaker with the Rifles having won the lone regular season encounter 33-21 between the two sides on Sept. 10 in Calgary.

The Rifles travel to Saskatoon to face the Hilltops (1 p.m., Saskatoon Minor Football Field), and the Colts host the Wildcats at 1 p.m. local time at Shouldice Athletic Park to close the regular season schedules for both those sides.

The Rifles will be eliminated from playoff contention if they lose to the Hilltops. The Wildcats would jump into fourth in the PFC with a win over the Colts and a Rifles loss to the Hilltops. That scenario would leave the Colts, Rifles and Wildcats sitting with 2-6 records, but the Wildcats would advance to the post-season having the best winning percentage in head-to-head games involving those three teams.

The Rifles would make the post-season if they beat the Hilltops on Sunday and the Colts take a loss or a tie in their encounter with the Wildcats on Sunday.

The Colts have the clearest path to the playoffs. They are in if they beat the Wildcats on Sunday.

• Saskatoon Hilltops running back Boston Davidsen leads the PFC win carries (150), rushing yards (1,036) and rushing touchdowns (eight) going into the final weekend of regular season play for the conference. Davidsen has hit the 1,000-yard rushing plateau for the second straight season and needs two more yards rushing to set a new career high.
• Hilltops kicker Teijon Abel-Douglas leads the PFC in scoring with 95 points coming from 21 field goals, four singles and 28 converts going into his team’s final regular season game.
• Hilltops receiver Drake Douglas has 38 catches for 523 yards and three touchdowns heading into the team’s final regular season contest. Douglas’s reception and receiving yardage totals are tops on the team. His receiving yardage total ranks third in the PFC.
• Hilltops middle linebacker and punter Matt Wist leads the PFC in punting average. He has punted the ball 39 times for 1,484 yards for an average of 38.1 yards per kick. His net average of 32.2 yards is also tops in the PFC.
• I was back in the Prince Albert Daily Herald on a couple of fronts with regards to pieces for their WHL preview coverage. I put to together a flashback feature on the 1994-95 Prince Albert Raiders team that came up a win short of going to the CHL’s championship tournament – the Memorial Cup. That piece can be found by clicking right here. I also have a column about the current Raiders having intrigue going into the current 2023-24 campaign. That piece can be found by clicking right here. The locally owned Daily Herald has lots of good content and can be found online at paherald.sk.ca.

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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Reacting peacefully to sports scene is wise in COVID-19 times

The Cougars had 18 players and staff test positive for COVID-19.

There are moments during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic you want to tell some in the sports scene or some fans of the scene to go take a valium or go smoke some medical marijuana.

It seems like any time there is a change with the sports scene that people want to lash out emotionally. It is almost like you get some sort of high by being triggered. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there are lots of opportunities to get triggered by changes in the sports scene.

Those people don’t seem to settle down, step back and think thinks out with a calm mind.

When you look at the sports world, it can be understandable. In the sports world, it seems society loves to see their sports figures be emotional, passionate and show heart. The same goes for the fans.

The emotion, passion and heart show you care about the sport and care about the team you are playing for, work for or cheer for.

What sometimes gets forgotten is sport rewards those who can control their emotion and passion and can conduct themselves in a cerebral and professional manner.

Joe Montana, who built a Pro Football Hall of Fame career playing for the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs, was known by one of his nicknames as “Joe Cool.”

Why was Montana known as “Joe Cool?”

Montana was “Joe Cool,” because no matter how big the stakes were in a game, or what adversities were faced in the contest he was playing, he never lost his cool.

He always shut out the noise and acted in control. He formulated a plan in his mind that this is what you had to do to get things done, and he would go out and execute those things to win the game.

You could find those types of qualities in most of the best athletes like hockey icon Wayne Gretzky and basketball icon Michael Jordan.

A lot of times, you don’t even need to look at the top levels of professional sports to find those qualities.

The Prince Albert Raiders displayed those qualities during the 2018-19 campaign when they finished first overall in the WHL and won the WHL title. As a unit, the players didn’t lose their cool and were focused on what needed to be done in the game they were playing that day.

Provincials in 2021 are mostly no in Man., uncertain for Westman Wildcats.

Even if scrums or fight situations developed and one of the Raiders showed great passion at that time, that player was still in control and knew what he was doing.

Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic that has gripped the world is a different animal. In North America, there have been some sort of restrictions in place to battle COVID-19 for a little over the past eight-and-a-half months.

As new case numbers have spiked throughout November in North America, restrictions have been reintroduced at different levels everywhere.

There have been situations that society has never dealt with as a collective in its history. One of those points came in late March and early April when pretty much all non-essential services in the world were stopped.

The last time the world experienced a pandemic that paralleled what is happening with the current COVID-19 pandemic was the Spanish Flu pandemic that ran from 1918 to 1920. Shutdowns did happen during the Spanish Flu pandemic, but only a handful of people in today’s world were alive back then and most would have been too young to have recollections of the Spanish Flu.

The Spanish Flu pandemic was caused by an H1N1 influenza A virus, and vaccines created by medical science in the current day have kept influenza viruses under control.

Still as a collective, society in the current day doesn’t have experience dealing with something like what the COVID-19 pandemic has presented.

In the sports world, the natural reaction is to act emotionally when a change occurs. At times, people that are lashing out need to step back and really look at what they are reacting to.

They have to ask themselves is it really worth ranting and raving over what they are reacting to or triggered from.

If you are ranting and raving over something immediately, that usually is a sign that you have been triggered.

In the current sports climate, the changes and the breaking news isn’t going to stop coming. That has been true even in the past couple of days.

On Monday, Hockey Manitoba announced all minor hockey provincials for the 2021 have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Those tournaments would have run across the province throughout February and March of 2021.

An opening was still in place to allow provincial leagues to name a provincial champion in Manitoba.

The Acadie-Bathurst Titan and QMJHL are off until Jan. 2021.

On Monday, it was also announced that 18 members of the Mount Royal University Cougars men’s hockey team had tested positive for COVID-19. The positives tests included both players and staff members. The team is in isolation and due to Alberta public health orders, the Cougars won’t be training again until next year.

Also on Monday, the QMJHL announced all league activities are suspended starting on Tuesday and running through to Jan. 3, 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

If that wasn’t enough, Brady Lang of 650 CKOM reported on Monday the City of Saskatoon pulled all hockey nets off outdoor community rinks due to the provincial public health orders that are in place. Those restrictions are currently set to be in place until Dec. 17.

To different degrees, you could find people raging on any of these topics. At the end of the day, does that rage really help anything outside of blowing off steam?

You could also react too far in joyful way when good news appears to occur.

On Tuesday, Curling Canada announced the 2021 Scotties, the Brier, the men’s world curling championship and the Canadian national mixed doubles will all be hosted at the Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, Alta., in a bubble city format. The official dates of these events are still to be announced.

When this bit of news dropped, there were those that acted like life was going to return to normal starting tomorrow.

The Curling Canada announcement was great news, but you do have to take the news knowing that there is a risk those four events still might not happen.

There is also great optimism about the four vaccine candidates that mainstream media outlets have done a number of stories on the past handful of days. The expectation of what might happen in those stories still has to be tempered.

For myself when I hear those vaccine stories, I have moments where I envision everything returning to normal by September of 2021. I realize the game isn’t over and there are still a lot of steps that have to be taken to get to that point.

I don’t try to set a date for those things and try to let it play out as it will play out and react the best I can to the developments.

With all that said, I am not against athletes having a good cry or being upset session, if their season comes to an unexpected end. If they can do that with a friend or teammate and even talk those feelings out with a teammate, that type of action is even better.

The 2019 WHL champion Raiders were cool even in emotional times.

The up and down waves of emotion are going to continue to come during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here is hoping everyone in society can find a way to ride those waves out as evenly as possible.

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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Will the not so long ago old days of sports return?

Could training camps be used to get athletes in shape again?

The Regina Pats walk the Moose Jaw Civic Centre hallway in 2000.

    Remember when athletes went to training camp to get into shape?
    It is possible those days might return.

    Due to society shutting down over the cononavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, elite level athletes haven’t been able to train at their high-level facilities on a regular basis for at least three weeks in most of North America. Often, these athletes train under the watchful eye of a skilled conditioning coach.

    At the moment, it is anyone’s guess when the sports world in the professional and elite amateur levels will return to where they were before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

    Even for the amateur minor little children’s team, the only thing that is certain is uncertainly as to when their minor sports activities will return.

    With everyone trying to self-isolate in their homes, one wonders if the training camps held by various teams will be used to get athletes back in shape.

    In a not too distant past, training camps were held for that exact purpose.

Jason Clermont came from a time when year round training became a norm. 

    If anyone stumbles on the photo of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Len Dawson smoking a cigarette with a soda pop at his feet from Super Bowl I on Jan. 15, 1967, you realize how far elite sport has come.

    Actually at halftimes of NFL games in those days through to the early 1970s, it was common for players to have a cigarette and a cup of coffee at halftime. Halftime was treated like a coffee break at a workplace.

    Even in the late 1980s and early 1990s, players often showed up at training camps in elite sport out of shape. In the WHL in the current day, players all look cut and in shape.

    In the late 1980s and early 1990s, there were only a few players that looked that way.

    Elite sport was still kind of commonly viewed a bit through the lens of being a pastime. It was reserved for the ultra-talents that had a pure knack for those games.

    If you worked full time while playing for an elite level sports team in those days, you could possibly lose your job if you decided to go to compete at a nationals competition, if it conflicted with work or you had already taken sizable amounts of time off.

Teams from the 1970s used to get in shape at training camp.

    The view of elite sports in Canada changed in the middle to the late 1990s, when year round training and off-season programs came into vogue. By the early 2000s, most elite athletes trained year round in their sport.

    Teams in that era would send athletes home with a training program and often hoped they would do it. Coaches would phone to check if their athletes were following the training program.

    Some athletes were starting to work at that time under the guidance of a strength and conditioning coach at an elite training centre.

    The start of training camps were designed to weed out athletes that didn’t do their training programs, and there were those that were weeded out.

    At that point, sport was still different. In hockey, teams didn’t introduce their style of play or work on items like the power play and penalty kill until the regular season started.

    Now, there are orientation camps and development camps in early summer, and players are playing a team’s system during rookie games at main training camps.

    There were still athletes who had bad habits in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Volleyball star Lisa Reynolds, seen here in 2000, smoked cigarettes.

    I believe the statute of limitations passed on this one, but back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Lisa Reynolds, who was a star outside hitter for the University of Regina Cougars women’s team, is the last elite player I remember who had a cigarette smoking habit.

    She played for Canada’s senior national women’s team for a couple of seasons and played professional volleyball for a number of years. Reynolds was one of those all-time great characters, who had character, and was gifted at her sport.

    I remember hanging with her a number of times in a social setting, and she would just light up a cigarette of the blue and proceed to direct a fear of God order at me to not tell her coaches. Due to not seeing Reynolds for at least 15 years, I believe I can get away with telling that tale.

    Elite level athletes in the current day would have a hard time getting away with something like that.
    Under the current climate of the COVID-19 pandemic, athletes at the moment are likely in the training spot they were in the early 2000s, where they follow a program at home that they have been given.

Barret Jackman, seen here in 2000, always arrived to training camp in shape.

    Due to how online and social media technology has evolved, it is possible for these athletes to direction from a strength and conditioning coach online.

    If the shutdown of elite level sports goes for three or four months, you might see a situation where elite level athletes go to training camp to get in shape at some levels in sport like in a not so long ago past era once again.

    That might have to be done, if some of these leagues in elite level sports want to have a season unless a decision is made to shut down for a year.

    Like many facets and areas of life, sports at the elite level are in uncharted waters.

    The possibility is there for what was once old could become new again.

Stars captain Kushniruk commits to Cougars, other notes

Makena Kushniruk is a big catch for the U of Regina Cougars.

    Makena Kushniruk is going to become part of a sister act at the University of Regina.

    On Tuesday, the University of Regina Cougars women’s hockey team announced they signed the star captain of the Saskatoon Stars female midget AAA team. Kushniruk’s older sister, Jadyn, just finished her rookie year with the Cougars this past season.

    Makena recently finished playing her third full season with the Stars, and it was her first campaign with the team where she was captain. As a 16-year-old forward, Makena, who stands 5-foot-4, piled up 10 goals and eight assists appearing in 28 regular season games for the Stars.

    She topped the Stars goals and finished second in team scoring in points.

    On top of playing with the Stars, Makena was a member of the Saskatchewan team that won a silver medal at the National Women’s under-18 hockey championship tournament last November.
    Makena was a 14-year-old underage player in her rookie campaign with the Stars in 2017-18.

Makena Kushniruk has been one of the Stars top players.

    The Stars won the Saskatchewan Female Midget AAA Hockey League title, the Western regional playdown and advanced to the championship game of the Esso Cup female midget AAA national championship tournament in that campaign.

    The Stars fell in a 2-1 heartbreaker to the St. Albert Slash in that year’s Esso Cup held in Bridgewater,N.S.

    Makena had a breakout campaign as a 15-year-old sophomore in 2018-19 piling up 15 goals and 16 assists for 31 points appearing in all of the Stars 28 regular season games. She finished sixth in team scoring on a very deep Stars team.

    The Stars again won the SFMAAAHL title and the Western regional playdown to return to the Esso Cup. Saskatoon finished fourth at that year’s Esso Cup held in Sudbury, Ont.

    Following that 2018-19 campaign, it was safe to say Makena was drawing sizable interest from teams in the National Collegiate Athletic Association ranks. It was big for the Cougars to be able to sign her.

    This past season, Makena had to adjust to the fact most teams focused on checking her, because she was the Stars top returning skater. The Stars were working through a massive turnover on their roster this past season and still posted a 12-14-4 regular season record.

Stars captain Makena Kushniruk always faces the opposition’s best.

    Makena is eligible to play in the midget AAA ranks for one more campaign and is slated to join the Cougars for the start of the 2021-22 campaign.

    Makena, who will turn 17-years-old on Sunday, actually never played midget AAA hockey together with Jadyn. Jadyn, who is a 19-year-old forward, played four seasons for the Prince Albert Northern Bears from 2015-19 piling up 38 goals and 31 assist for 69 points in 110 career regular season games.

    She was a member of the Bears SFMAAAHL championship team in 2016-17 and Western regional playdown winner that appeared in the Esso Cup.

    Jadyn had one goal and two assists skating in 22 regular season games this past season for the Cougars in the U Sports ranks.

    Makena and Jadyn could potentially play three seasons together with the Cougars.

• On Wednesday, Stars 17-year-old forward Reauna Blight committed to join the SAIT Trojans women’s hockey team for the upcoming season in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference ranks. Blight appeared in all the Stars 30 regular season games posting five goals and seven assists to conclude her final campaign of midget AAA eligibility.
• On Tuesday, the Saskatchewan Drag Racing Association announced the 2020 season at the Saskatchewan International Raceway located just south of Saskatoon has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was announced the operations of the Saskatchewan International Raceway had been suspended until further notice as well. The Saskatchewan Drag Racing Association cited the physical health for everybody involved with the track as well as the financial health of their organization as the main reasons for these decisions.
• On Saturday, the six-time defending Canadian Junior Football League champion Saskatoon Hilltops announced they will continue to suspend team operations to a minimum of June 1 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That suspension of team activities was originally put in place on March 19. On Saturday, the Hilltops announced their spring camp set for May 1-3 has been postponed and new dates won’t be decided upon until the current public health crisis is under control. The Hilltops clubhouse will remain closed. The club’s support staff is working with the team’s players to create at home workouts as everyone continues to social isolate.
• The Undertaker, who is one of the most legendary names in professional wrestling, is drawing rave reviews for his performance in a win in a Boneyard Match at Wrestlemania 36. The Undertaker literally buried opponent AJ Styles in the bout. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Wrestlemania was pre-taped to be shown over a two day period tonight and Sunday. After The Undertaker’s match finished, it broke the Internet with positive reviews for a surge of time. The WWE provided a snippet of the match that can be found by clicking right here.
• A year ago Sunday, the Prince Albert Raiders bombed the Saskatoon Blades 6-1 in Game 1 of a best-of-seven WHL Eastern Conference semifinal series at the Art Hauser Centre in Prince Albert. I reposted the post I wrote that night on a Facebook and Twitter to the delight of Raiders fans. That post can be round by clicking right here.
• For most of the day Friday, I went on a binge playing Madden 2008 on the PlayStation 2. For me, it proved to be a perfect distress moment to get away from all the COVID-19 pandemic craziness in the world. I have receiver Calvin Johnson jacked up in the franchise I am using, and it is a fun time to throw him the ball. I didn’t turn on any computer or a phone for a 24-hour period. Hope you all find funs ways to cope in this unprecedented time. Hope you all feel free to find a way to have some fun.

    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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