“Celebrate good times, come on” – Outdoor sports get go ahead in Saskatchewan

Ethan Campbell fires in a pitch for the Sask Five Giants in 2020.

Outdoor door sporting groups in Saskatchewan got to pop the champagne corks, because they found out they are going to play.

On Tuesday, the Government of Saskatchewan announced public health orders around outdoor sporting events will be eased as part of Step One of the province’s Re-Opening Roadmap, which is set to commence this coming Sunday.

Originally, outdoor sports were part of Step Two of the Re-Opening Roadmap. The easing of measures for indoor sports remains in Step Two of the Re-Opening Roadmap.

The current public health orders were brought in to combat the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has gripped the world.

A Government of Saskatchewan release that was issued on Tuesday stated the change was made with regards to outdoor sports due to the lower risk of transmission of COVID-19 in outdoor settings along with how well the vaccination effort for COVID-19 has progressed in the province.

Starting on Sunday, the Government of Saskatchewan said competition and game play for outdoor sports can proceed as long as competition meets a number of requirements. The requirements are similar to when outdoor sporting events were conducted in Saskatchewan from July through to November of 2020.

Participants may not compete if they are feeling unwell.

Players and coaches are encouraged to screen for COVID-19 symptoms prior to arriving to practice or play. The Government of Saskatchewan encourages the use of its self-assessment tool for COVID-19, which can be found by clicking right here.

Jordan Kulbida fires a pitch for the Saskatoon G Force in 2020.

League play is allowed, but tournaments are not permitted.

There is no interprovincial travel. Teams that compete in interprovincial leagues need to contact the Government of Saskatchewan’s Business Response Team before beginning play.

Capacity must comply with public health orders for public outdoor gatherings for each playing surface or game area. Public outdoor gatherings are set to expand to a limit of 150 people on May 30.

Common areas, such as those where there are multiple playing surfaces, must be in compliance with gathering limits in public health orders.

Individual and protective equipment should not be shared. When equipment is shared like helmets or bats, cleaning and disinfecting must occur between each use.

Commonly touched equipment used for game play like game balls in football must be routinely replaced or disinfected during the course of practice or play.

Coaches, officials and players who are not on the field are not required to wear masks outdoors under the public health orders.

There is to be no hand shaking or high-fives.

Spectators are not required to wear masks outdoors. Spectators must remain in designated areas, and spectators not from the same household should maintain two metres of physical distancing.

Hand sanitizer approved by Health Canada or soap and hand washing water stations should be available to participants and spectators.

Action from the Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League in 2020.

There is to be no sharing of water bottles.

Public washrooms, when available, are to be cleaned and disinfected regularly.

Contact information of coaches, officials, and player should be recorded by the home team and maintained in order to assist with contact tracing for 30 days in the case of a confirmed COVID-19 case.

As an overall observation over the last 15 months, outdoor sports were able to be held in Saskatchewan with a lot less disruptions compared to indoor sports.

Even when it came to contact sports like tackle football, outdoor sports for the most part played out according to schedule.

Indoor sports seemed to have a bigger problem when it came to dealing with COVID-19 outbreaks. That likely had a lot to do with the fact most minor hockey rinks in Saskatchewan have ventilation that is similar to the decommissioned ancient Rutherford Rink, which is on the University of Saskatchewan campus.

The glass system that rings on top of the board system in hockey rinks helps trap air molecules on the ice surface.

A number of gymnasiums and indoor sports facilities are old and have poor ventilation too.

Most indoor sports facilities that have been built in Saskatchewan in the past 15 years actually do have much better ventilation, which helps prevent the spread of COVID-19.

When indoor sports get going, they might provide the true test of how well the vaccination effort for COVID-19 has worked.

Action from the Kinsmen Football League in 2020.

Due to how well the outdoor sports seasons went in Saskatchewan in 2020, it makes sense to get them going first. In golf, Saskatchewan was able to crown provincial champions in 2020.

The Sask Five Giants were able to take the Under-18 AAA Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League championship last year too.

Pretty much everyone involved with outdoor sports in Saskatchewan has to be over the moon happy about Tuesday’s announcement.

Here is hoping the upcoming season that will hit outdoor surfaces across Saskatchewan goes well for all.

Racist comments directed to Bear just sad, other notes

"I'm here to stand up to this behaviour... I'm proud of where I come from. I'm proud to be from Ochapowace First Nation. I'm not just doing this for myself. I'm doing this for all people of colour & for the next generation."

Ethan Bear's statement in response to racist comments. pic.twitter.com/3CK6DENnHC

— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) May 26, 2021

The aftermath of the Edmonton Oilers elimination from the NHL playoffs shows how much work needs to be done to counter the idiots in society.

On Monday night or Tuesday morning depending on where you live in Canada, the Oilers dropped a 4-3 triple overtime heartbreaker to the Jets in Winnipeg in Game 4 of a first round NHL playoff series. Kyle Connor netted the winner in marathon match for the Jets.

With the loss, the Oilers were swept in the best-of-seven series 4-0 and eliminated from the NHL playoffs.

Following that loss, some moronic supposed supporters of the Oilers sent racist comments and messages over social media to Oilers defenceman Ethan Bear. Bear, who is of Cree decent, is from the Ochapowace First Nation in Saskatchewan.

Bear’s girlfriend, Lenasia Ned, brought the comments to light with a social media post of her own on Tuesday. The post erupted into an outpouring of support for Bear.

During a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Oilers general manager Ken Holland condemned the behaviour of those who sent the racist comments to Bear.

On Wednesday evening, Bear and Ned put out a message on Oilers social media lines speaking out against the racism they encountered, while also thanking the overflowing messages of support they’ve received.

Ethan Bear raises the Ed Chynoweth Cup as a WHL champ in 2017.

It is sad and unfortunate that this still happens in society. It shows there is still a long way to go in the journey to combat racism.

Bear has played two full seasons and one partial campaign with the Oilers. The 23-year-old has been a great ambassador for the game and role model.

Before joining the Oilers, Bear played one game as a 15-year-old call up and four full seasons with the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds. In his storied career with the Thunderbirds, Bear appeared in 264 regular season games posting 66 goals, 126 assists and plus-50 rating in the plus-minus department.

He played a key part in helping the Thunderbirds win the WHL championship in his final season in the major junior ranks in 2016-17, while also being named the WHL’s top defenceman.

During his time in the WHL, it was common for a huge contingent of people from the Ochapowace First Nation follow Bear around the WHL circuit. You could easily spot Bear’s supporters wearing Thunderbirds jerseys with Bear’s name and #25 adorned on the sweater.

While the racism Bear and Ned encountered over the past couple of days was disappointing, it was uplifting to see the support they’ve received. People from all walks of life have rallied around the rearguard and his girlfriend.

With that noted, racism is still a problem in society. Here is hoping we all strive to try and be more responsible on that front.

• On Tuesday, the Kamloops Blazers announced general manager Matt Bardsley has resigned from the hockey club for personal reasons. Bardsley, who grew up in San Jose, Calif., said in the release that he and his wife and their children have been unable to see their family, who live in the United States, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The decision to leave the Blazers is a family move. Bardsley, who is 50-years-old, became the Blazers general manager on June 1, 2018. The Blazers have posted an 87-54-9-3 regular season record in three seasons with Bardsley as general manager. The Blazers finished in the B.C. Division in each of the past two seasons. Bardsley was the executive of the year for the Western Conference in 2019-20.
• On Tuesday in his Taking Note blog, Gregg Drinnan reported Brandon Wheat Kings director of business operations and sales and sponsorship Rick Dillabough has retired. Dillabough has been with the Wheat Kings since 1989 and served in various capacities with the team over the years handling the bulk of the communications and media relations duties. He was one of the hardest working office staffers on the circuit and arguably the most respected and well-liked. Dillabough will be missed a tonne on the WHL circuit, and all those who know him hope he enjoys the next stage of his life.
• On Wednesday, the Calgary Hitmen announced Dallas Thompson would not be returning as the team’s director of player personnel next season. Thompson had been with the Hitmen for six years.
• Tickets are on sale for the May jackpot for the Saskatchewan Amateur Football Mega 50/50 lottery. The funds from this 50/50 lottery will go to support the CJFL’s Saskatoon Hilltops and Regina Thunder and the WWCFL’s Saskatoon Valkyries and Regina Riot. The draw date will be May 31. Tickets can be purchased by clicking right here, and purchasers must be in Saskatchewan in order to buy tickets.
• Recently, Donna Spencer of The Canadian Press typed out a story that officials from the National Women’s Hockey League and the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association have kept the lines of communication open with each other. With that said, there didn’t seem to be any new enlightenments with regards to professional women’s hockey. The NWHL’s six teams attempted to play a season in a bubble environment in Lake Placid, New York, from Jan. 23 to Feb. 5, but the loose bubble failed as COVID-19 infiltrated teams. The NWHL completed a playoff round March 26 and 27 in Boston, Massachusetts, where the Boston Pride downed the Minnesota Whitecaps 4-3 in the Isobel Cup championship game. The PWHPA is holding a Secret Dream Gap Tour tournament at the moment in Calgary, which started Monday and runs through to this coming Sunday. Spencer’s story about the NWHL interacting with the PWHPA can be found by clicking right here.
• On Wednesday, Hockey Canada announced its provincial and territorial BFL Female Coach of the Year award winner. In Saskatchewan, Brandy West-McMaster of Regina was the high performance award winner, and Stephanie Ferguson of Saskatoon was the community coach winner.

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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Completed summer season huge accomplishment for Sask. baseball, softball

Nothing comes easy for sports in COVID-19 world

A Saskatoon Selects pitcher fires in a pitch.

    Everyone involved with minor baseball and softball in Saskatchewan came away winners in 2020.
    They came away winners because those sports were able to have a summer season. During these times that has the world caught in the grips of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the fact a sports body was able to have a season should be considered a major accomplishment.

    On a cool, crisp and picturesque Thursday night at the diamonds at the Gordie Howe Sports Complex, local leagues played out their final games of the 2020 campaign. With most leagues first hitting the field on July 6, close to two full months of baseball and softball was played in Saskatchewan.

    That is likely far more action than most expected to see in those sports. The games on Thursday were watched by modest groups of spectators that physically spaced apart from each other around the diamonds.

    Teams were able to play for city championships and house league championships. In the case of the Under-18 AAA Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League, they were able to hold a championship game for a circuit that had teams around the province.
    On August 23 at Optimist Park in Regina, the Sask Five Giants from Martensville slipped past the host Regina Athletics 2-0 to capture the Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League crown in a one game showdown.
    The odd league was slated to host post-season games this coming weekend.

A Saskatoon Outlaws pitcher chucks in an off-speed pitch.

    Of course, players, coaches and team staffers were disappointed there were no big provincial or Canadian championship tournaments to go to in 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions.

    Still, it didn’t seem to be lost on anyone that took part in games that it was a good thing they got to play games. In some cases, there might have been a new found appreciation for being able to play games.

    Most of the spectators that usually turned out during the season were friends and family members of the players, but it was still great for them to have something to look forward to during the week and somewhere to go.

    During a normal year, the bulk of the baseball regular seasons are usually played in May and June.
    Teams that play in July and August are some of the few that have won enough to take part in a provincial champion or national championship tournament.

    Considering there was a very real possibility there could be no season at all, what took place from July 6 through to Thursday felt like a welcomed thing that injected some normalcy into life.

    Memories were made during practices and games. For a few hours, players, coaches and staffer were able to get their minds off what was happening in their daily lives.

The Sask Five Giants ran to a Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League title.

    On the field, some great athletic performances took place too. Sometimes one forgets how well these teams in local leagues can play ball.

    Overall, all those involved with minor baseball and softball in Saskatchewan proved it is possible to play sports during a pandemic created by an easily transmitted virus.

    That meant paying attention to extra precautions like no post-game handshakes between teams after game, frequent use of sanitizers and having people stay home who are sick, even if it is just a minor illness.

    The fact minor baseball and softball in Saskatchewan were able to complete campaigns in 2020 helps increase the optimism for other sports it is possible to play during these crazy times.

Hat High retires use of “Mohawks,” “Kwahommies,” other notes

Quinton Slack tears downfield during a 2012 Hat High practice.

    Despite support in Medicine Hat for the monikers, it seemed like it was only time before Medicine Hat High School elected to change the names of its sports teams.

    That time came on Thursday when principal Boris Grisonich announced at a press conference in the school’s gym that Hat High was discontinuing the use of “Mohawks” for its boys teams and “Kwahommies” for its girls teams.

    Of course, Hat High was continuing a trend that has gone on for the last about 20 years with various stops and starts of sports teams at all levels of sports in North America electing to no longer use team nicknames that come from First Nations. The changes were made due to concerns about racism.

    The only program immune from that trend is the Florida State University Seminoles of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. That comes from the fact the Seminole Tribe in Florida has officially sanctioned that post-secondary institution to use the names and images associated with Seminole history.

    In Hat High’s case, Grisonich said the decision to retire the “Mohawks” and “Kwahommies” names had been years in the making. The “Kwahommies” name was developed by spelling “Mohawks” backwards.

    Grisonich said no new name has been picked and the school teams will play under just the Medicine Hat High School name for the 2020-21 campaign and use the institution’s “M” logo.

Grisonich said with what has been going on the world lately it made now a good time to retire the “Mohawks” and “Kwahommies” names.

    In 2020, the world has been caught in the grips of the COVID-19 pandemic and more involved talks around racism with the Black Lives Matter moment that originated in the United States.

The Hat High football team’s defence gets a gang tackle in 2012.

    After the start of the Black Lives Matter moment, the NFL’s Washington franchise decided to drop the name “Redskins” after facing pressure from sponsors. After the change with Washington’s NFL team, the CFL’s community owned Edmonton franchised decided to drop the name “Eskimos.”

    Back in 2015, Suzanne Tripp, who graduated from Hat High in June of that year, had a petition going to try and get the names of Hat High’s sports teams changed. At that time, it was decided to continue with the use of “Mohawks” and “Kwahommies.”

    The Hat High football teams did use the “Redskins” moniker in the 1950s and early 1960s, and few people in Medicine Hat remember the use of that name in the current time. Had “Redskins” still been in use after the 1960s, that name likely would have been changed about a decade or two earlier from the present time.

    With all that noted, the Medicine Hat High School teams when they went by the names “Mohawks” and “Kwahommies” were associated with the characteristics pride, honour and class.

    When you think of the Hat High sports teams, you picture football head coach Quinn Skelton guiding the Green and White to another win. Skelton, who was named the NFL Canada youth coach of the year in 2008, has been the head coach of the school’s football and rugby teams since the 1990-91 season.

    Over the decades, he has had a huge positive impact on his players and also the students at Hat High from his role as a teacher in that school. Very few are held in as high regard amongst the student body at school as Skelton is at Hat High.

Hat High HC Quinn Skelton, left, with Nathan Coehoorn in 2014.

    Alums like Dan Federkeil, who is a former offensive lineman with the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts and the Calgary Stampeders, and Nathan Coehoorn, who is a former receiver with Edmonton’s CFL team, will always be part of Hat High’s storied sports history.

    The goes for Canadian track and field star Sage Watson.

    Memories of students doing the “Cha Cha Slide” during halftimes of football games at the Methanex Bowl will live forever.

    The great memories that have been made at Hat High will never disappear.

    Of course, there has been push back over the name change in Medicine Hat. All one has to do is look at the comments section from social media posts about the name change coming from the Medicine Hat News and CHAT Television media outlets.

    Over time, the hurt feelings will likely fade.

    Hat High will continue to build on its spectacular history, because of the quality people that are inside that institution.

• On Wednesday, Regina sports radio voice Michael Ball said his son Ethan has tested positive for COVID-19. Ethan is a freshman defensive back with the University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks football team and is down in Grand Forks, N.D. The Fighting Hawks play in NCAA’s Division I Football Championship Subdivision. Ethan is a graduate of Regina’s Riffel High School Royals football team. Michael interview Ethan for “The Growing the Game with Ballsy” podcast on Wednesday that can be found by clicking right here.
• On Wednesday, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson revealed he, his wife and two children tested positive for COVID-19. In an Instagram video that lasted 11 minutes and 35 seconds, Johnson said his family is on the other side of the virus and they are no longer contagious. Johnson’s Instagram video can be found by clicking here.
• According to Worldometer at the time this post went live 878,133 people have died so far this year in the world due to the coronavirus. Also this year, Worldometer has reported 1,141,158 people in the world so far this year have died of HIV/AIDS, 727,946 died by suicide, 665,855 died by malaria, 571,650 people have died by water related diseases, 331,539 died by seasonal flu, and 209,820 mothers have died during birth.
• You get the feeling the way Dr. Bonnie Henry, who is B.C.’s provincial health officer, talks that restrictions regarding COVID-19 will like last well into 2021.
• On Wednesday, Dan Barnes of Postmedia reported nine positions were terminated at the CFL head office in Toronto and 20 staff members were furloughed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The departed includes Steve Daniel, who was the league’s senior director of game information and statistics.
• On Wednesday, The Associated Press reported the NCAA plans to furlough its entire staff from its head office in Indianapolis, Indiana, anywhere from three to eight weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The furloughs will take place between Sept. 21 and the end of January of 2021. The NCAA’s Indianapolis office employees about 600 people.
• Way back on August 27, 1980, the Winnipeg Tribune news paper closed after a 90 year run. Patti Dawn Swansson and Gregg Drinnan posted tributes to the late publication on their respective blogs. Swansson’s piece can be found by clicking right here and Drinnan’s piece can be located by clicking right here.
• Back on this past Aug. 27, the City of Saskatoon reopened the Saskatoon Field House fitness and weight room and track and court area.
• On Thursday, Hockey Canada cancelled three events due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They include the National Women’s Under-18 Championship set for Nov. 2-8 in Dawson Creek, B.C., the Canadian Tire Para Hockey Cup set for Dec. 6-12 in Bridgewater, N.S., and the World Junior A Challenge set for Dec. 13-20 in Cornwall, Ont.
• On the good news front, the Saskatoon Hilltops announced they will return to practice next week. Practices for the venerable club, which has won 22 CJFL title, will run from Tuesday to Thursday for six weeks.

View this post on Instagram

WE'RE BACK!!.... as much as you can be during a pandemic. We're starting practices next week - how exciting is that? We've scoured the Saskatchewan Health Authority and Government of Saskatchewan's return to play guidelines and we're confident we meet and exceed all health and safety protocols. These optional practices are our way of keeping our team as unified as possible, and providing the physical and mental health benefits of sport to our athletes. What will our practices look like? Smaller groups, hand sanitizer, little to no contact, hand sanitizer, waivers, temperature checks, hand sanitizer, COVID-19 screening, hand sanitizer, masks, hand sanitizer. If we could hose the guys down with sanitizer every ten minutes, we would. Practices will run Tuesday through Thursday for the next six weeks and we. cannot. wait.

A post shared by Saskatoon Hilltops (@saskatoon_hilltops) on Sep 4, 2020 at 12:36pm PDT

    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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Pro sports Black Lives Matter boycotts should be supported

A Fred VanVleet card.

    Black Lives Matter and it is a good thing boycotts are happening in the professional sports world in North America to support this movement.

    If you watch television news channels or check out social media lines over this past week, it is unfortunately apparent that racism is alive and well most noticeably when it comes to African-Americans in the United States.

    At times, it feels like things are so bad on this front one wonders if society in North America has advanced since the 1960s and the days Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were leading civil rights movement rallies. On another sad note, history records both men were assassinated with Malcolm X and King Jr. dying in 1965 and 1968 respectively.

    In the current day, the unjust deaths of Breonna Taylor in March and George Floyd in May at the hands of police in the states of Kentucky and Minnesota respectively ultimate caused the creation of the Black Lives Matter movement. Taylor and Floyd are both of African-American decent.

    On Sunday in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Jacob Blake, who is also of African-American decent, took seven bullets in the back from police in an incident that was captured on video and circulated by various media agencies. Three of Blake’s sons witnessed the incident as Blake was shot leaning into the driver’s door of his SUV.

    Blake had warrants out of his arrest based on charges of third-degree sexual assault, trespassing and disorderly conduct in connection with domestic abuse, but it is unclear if police were aware of those warrants at the time of the shooting. Those warrants were vacated on Friday.
    On Tuesday, Blake’s father, Jacob Blake Sr., announced that Blake Jr. was paralyzed from the waist down and that doctors do not yet know if it would be permanent.

    Also on that same day, the United States Department of Justice announced there would be an investigation into that shooting and the investigation will look into whether Blake’s civil rights were violated.
    Rusten Sheskey was identified as the police officer as the shooter. He along with Vincent Arenas and Brittany Meronek were all by Friday placed on administrative leave by the Kenosha Police Department because of their involvement in the shooting of Blake.

A Norman Powell card.

    The Blake shooting led to the professional athletes protesting systemic racism and police brutality by boycotting games. The boycotts in the NBA started on Wednesday and were slated to run through to Sunday. Action in the NBA playoffs is set to resume Saturday.

    The WNBA postponed all its games on Wednesday and Thursday.

    A number of MLB games were postponed from Wednesday through Friday. A total of five out of six MLS games were postponed on Wednesday.

    The NHL postponed all its games on Thursday and Friday. The NHL Playoffs are slated to resume on Saturday.

    In the NFL, a number of teams have cancelled practices starting with the Detroit Lions on Tuesday. A total of nine teams cancelled practices on Thursday.

    Tennis star Naomi Osaka pulled out of her Western and Southern Open semifinal match on Thursday in Mason, Ohio, to take a stand for the Black Lives Matter movement.

    Following Osaka’s decision to walk out, the U.S. Tennis Association, Women’s Tennis Association and the men’s ATP Tour announced all semifinal matches set to take place on Thursday would be postponed.

    While those that don’t like the Black Lives Matter movement have argued Blake’s arrest warrants were reason to side with the arresting officers, they totally miss the point.

    The overall bottom line is that in the United States there has been a problem where police services in general in that country have harassed African-Americans who haven’t done anything wrong.

    Over the last three days, numerous stories have been told by African-American professional athletes about the racism they’ve faced in their lives and unjust encounters they have had with the police mostly in the United States.

    Unfortunately, sharing these experiences has brought out some of the worst in the general public. On Thursday, Claire Hanna of CTV Regina produced a story about Jordan Reaves, who is a Canadian, and Chad Geter of the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders navigating racism for supporting the professional sports boycotts.

    On Friday, Roughriders receiver Shaq Evans voiced his disappointment on Twitter about how some in Saskatchewan have put down the Black Lives Matter moment and the professional sports boycotts. He said he wondered if he still wanted to play in the province.

    About three hours after that Twitter stream, Evans put out an apology for potentially offending all the good people in Saskatchewan.

    All three are African-Americans.

Jordan Reaves in action with the Roughriders in 2018.

    Back on Tuesday, guards Fred VanVleet and Norman Powell, who are both African-Americans, of the defending NBA champion Toronto Raptors talked about their frustration with continuing systemic racism and police brutality and talked about boycotting games.

    On Wednesday, The Milwaukee Bucks were the first team to take action when they elected to not take the floor in the NBA bubble at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at the Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, Florida, for Game 5 of their first round NBA playoff series against the Orlando Magic. The rest of the sports boycotts followed.

    The NHL took criticism for not boycotting it playoff games on Wednesday. On Thursday, the NHL players lead the charge in joining the other professional leagues in North America in boycotting games.

    All the players from the four remaining teams in the Western Conference post-season bracket appeared at a press conference in the Edmonton bubble on Thursday. Veteran Vegas Golden Knights right-winger Ryan Reaves, who is Jordan’s older brother, spoke about the importance of including all allies in the Black Lives Matter movement hinting people make realizations at different times depending on their backgrounds.

    “There’s a lot of white athletes in here,” said Reaves. “I think that’s the statement that’s being made now.

    “It’s great that the NBA did this and MLB and the WNBA – they have a lot of black players in those leagues. But for all these athletes in here to take a stand and say, ‘You know what? We see the problem, too, and we stand behind you.’ I hate their guts on the ice, but I couldn’t be more proud of these guys.

    “The statement they’ve made today is something that’s gonna last. These two days isn’t gonna fix anything, but the conversation and the statement that’s been made is very powerful, especially coming from this league.”

Ryan Reaves speaks up for change. pic.twitter.com/xr81Xd9s4c

— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) August 28, 2020

    On the ice, Reaves is one of those tough and hard to play against agitators. He is a player you hate to play against, but he has developed a lot of respect in the NHL with how hard he plays the game.

    That respect was shown early Thursday by reach outs from Tampa Bay Lightning defenceman Kevin Shattenkirk and Vancouver Canucks players asking how Reaves was doing with regards to the racial turmoil. That started the road to the NHL game postponements on Thursday and Friday.

    Besides the athletes speaking out, I remember finding a spoof video on YouTube of the fictional world of Transformers about two or three years ago that had a moment that tried to make comedy of the friction between African-Americans and the police. It wasn’t comfortable to watch.

    In the video, an African-American man happens to show up out of nowhere and stand beside Megatron, who is the leader of the bad guy Transformers, the Decepticons. At this point, there is no battle going on.

Shaq Evans turns after making a catch for the Roughriders in 2019.

    Prowl, who is with the good guy Transformers, the Autobots, and has the ability to change into a police cruiser, immediately blows the African-American man away in an unprovoked attack. All the Autobots look horrified at Prowl, who transforms gets out of Dodge as fast as he can.

    While that video was jarring, it underlines the tension between African-Americans and the police.

    No matter how you cut it, systemic racism and police brutality in the United States is real. Canada also has its faults to with systemic racism.

    While some may disagree, the police in Canada have the reputation of being way more professional than their counterparts in the United States.

    Over the last few days, professional athletes in North America did shake up society with their boycotts. They should be applauded and supported for compelling us to have difficult conversations that need to be had.

Huskies, SMF create options for displaced high school players

Huskies RB Adam Machart (#20) follow at Mattland Riley block.

    One of the recent local feel good stories in Saskatoon goes to the University of Saskatchewan Huskies football team and Saskatoon Minor Football.

    Both programs are doing their best to create opportunities for high school aged players in Saskatoon to continue to improve their skills in the game.

    On August 19, the Saskatoon Secondary Schools Athletic Directorate cancelled high school football for the fall along with cancelling play in high school cross-country running, soccer and volleyball due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

    After the high school football cancellation, the Huskies and Saskatoon Minor Football worked to plan out complementary programming for the displaced high school players that can be conducted under Saskatchewan’s COVID-19 guidelines.

    The Huskies, who play in the U Sports ranks, are running an elite camp that starts this coming Monday and will run through to Thursday. The camp will run on Field #11 north of the Education Building on the U of Saskatchewan campus.

    The players will be divided into offensive and defensive positional groups for the sessions.

    On top of the Huskies camp, Saskatoon Minor Football is opening its North Saskatchewan Academy up to high school students in Grade 10 to 12. Grade 9 students are eligible to play in the Kinsmen Football League, which is run by Saskatoon Minor Football.

    The SMF program will be similar to its annual spring academy with skills and development followed by a league draft and mini games or controlled scrimmages. The SMF camp will run at Saskatoon Minor Football Field.

    If games are played, it will depend on how Saskatchewan’s COVID-19 protocols evolve. There are hopes that games can be played in six-man format.

    The six-man game of tackle football is commonly played by Saskatchewan’s high schools in rural areas.

    Both Huskies and SMF programming are filling up fast.

    Registration for the Huskies camp can be found by clicking right here, and the SMF academy can be found by clicking right here.

Sask Five Giants claim SPBL title

The Sask Five Giants were snagged a league title.

    The Sask Five Giants were able to do what most sports teams haven’t this year – claim a provincial league championship.

    Last Sunday, the Giants, who are based out of Martensville, traveled to Regina and blanked the host Athletics 2-0 in the Under-18 AAA Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League championship game at Optimist Park.

    The Giants scored one run in the top of the second inning and added a key insurance run in the top of the sixth inning.

    Cooper Price went the distance on the mound for the Giants striking out five batters and giving up only three hits. Jesse Lubiniecki took the loss on the hill for the Athletics striking out six batters in six innings of work.

    The Giants advanced to the SPBL final after downing the Diamondbacks in Saskatoon 12-2 in the North Division title game on Aug. 21. The Athletics took the South Division championship game 10-1 over the Regina White Sox on Aug. 21 in Regina.

    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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2020 playoffs Barzal’s time to take NHL spotlight

T’birds grad moves on while Crosby, McDavid, Ovechkin done

Mathew Barzal in action with the Thunderbirds in 2017.

    Could Mathew Barzal be the face of the 2020 NHL post-season?
    The big NHL spotlight appears to be waiting for the 23-year-old centre, who is a graduate of the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds. Barzal has three goals and four assists in nine post-season games helping his New York Islanders advance to a best-of-seven NHL Eastern Conference semifinal series.

    While Barzal and the Islanders will be part of the NHL’s “elite eight” in the post-season, a trio of NHL superstars will not.

    Sidney Crosby and his Pittsburgh Penguins and Connor McDavid and his Edmonton Oilers were both eliminated in the qualifying round of the 2020 NHL post-season, which was expanded to include 24 teams as opposed to 16 clubs due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

    Alexander Ovechkin and his Washington Capitals were punted by Barzal and the Islanders in the official “first” round of the NHL Playoffs that took place after the qualifying round.

A Mathew Barzal card.

    The Islanders took a best-of-seven series between the two sides in five games.

    New York blanked Washington 4-0 in a Game 5 series clinching win in the hub city of Toronto on Thursday.

    In Game 3 last Sunday, Barzal came through with the biggest moment of the series scoring a sick overtime winner to give the Islanders a 2-1 victory in that contest and a 3-0 edge in the series.
    After receiving a smart pass from Jordan Eberle at the Washington blue-line, Barzal jetting into the opposing zone, cut across the face of the Capitals goal, went forehand to backhand and slipped a backhanded shot past Washington star netminder Braden Holtby.

    With Crosby, McDavid and Ovechkin gone, Barzal has the opportunity to be the NHL’s biggest individual star throughout the remainder of the post-season.

    Of course, the Philadelphia Flyers will have a lot to say about that as the Islanders opponent in an Eastern Conference semifinal series. The Flyers are the top seeded team in the conference.

    The two sides will go at it in Game 1 this coming Monday. The Islanders were 35-23-10 in the regular season before it was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Flyers were 41-21-7.

Mathew Barzal gets set to turn up ice with the Thunderbirds in 2017.

    It will be intriguing to watch the extremely talented Barzal. The Coquitlam, B.C., product was a star coming up through all levels of hockey leading into the NHL, which included a four season stay with the WHL’s Thunderbirds.

    After graduating from the Thunderbirds, Barzal, who stands 6-feet and weighs 187 pounds, jumped to the NHL on a full-time basis in the 2017-18 campaign playing in all 82 of the Islanders regular season games piling up 22 goals and 63 assists for 85 points. He captured the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s rookie of the year.

Thunderbirds C Mathew Barzal, left, dekes around a defenceman in 2016.

    Barzal has now played 234 NHL regular season games posting 59 goals and 148 assists for 207 points.

    While putting up impressive offensive numbers, Barzal has gained the reputation of being the team-first superstar.

    He sees team as family and realizes everyone has their role in order for success to happen. To that extent, Barzal has developed a playmaking ability that is second to none.

    It seems like the puck has eyes, when Barzal passes it. He knows he has to be the offensive catalyst in order for his teams to have success, but he knows others have to step up in important jobs when called upon like being shutdown checkers.

Mathew Barzal (#13) takes a draw for the Thunderbirds in 2016.

    The team as family concept was cemented into Barzal during his four seasons with the Thunderbirds. The Thunderbirds won 38 or more games in each regular season Barzal was with that club.

    From 2013 to 2017, Barzal appeared in 202 WHL regular season games piling up 63 goals and 215 assists for 278 points. Night in and night out, Barzal came with a top level effort every time he stepped on to a WHL ice surface.

    Even if he was held off the score sheet, you have to rise out of your seat and applaud Barzal for the effort he gave that night.

Mathew Barzal, centre, gives a cheer after a WHL title win in 2017.

    The Islanders selected Barzal in the first round and 16^th overall in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, and if they wanted to, they could have kept Barzal in the NHL at that time.

    With the Thunderbirds poised to contend for a WHL title and challenge for the Memorial Cup as CHL champions, the Islanders did the right thing in sending Barzal back to junior.

    Along with offensive-defenceman and current Edmonton Oilers blue-liner Ethan Bear, Barzal was part of a special generation in Seattle.
    In 2015-16, the Thunderbirds finished fifth overall in the WHL with a 45-23-4 regular season record. They had their breakout run in the post-season advancing to the WHL Championship Series against the Brandon Wheat Kings.
    Seattle played hard in the 2016 WHL final but fell 4-1 in the best-of-seven set, which saw Brandon win the first three contests of that series in overtime.

Mathew Barzal (#13) gets a trophy as the 2017 WHL playoffs MVP.

    In the Thunderbirds 18 playoff games, Barzal posted five goals and 21 assists for 26 points.

    Barzal, Bear and company built on that experience finishing fourth overall in the WHL in 2016-17 with a 46-20-4-2 record. The Thunderbirds entered the playoffs with a roster that contained 14 skates that played in the 2016 WHL title series including Barzal and Bear.

    Seattle returned to the WHL Championship Series in 2017, and the Thunderbirds won their first league championship taking the best-of-seven set against the Regina Pats 4-2. The Pats topped the WHL’s regular season standings in 2016-17 with a 52-12-7-1 record.

    In 2017, Barzal appeared in 16 post-season games with the Thunderbirds posting seven goals and 18 assists for 25 points. He was named the most valuable player of the WHL playoffs.

    The Thunderbirds advanced to that year’s Memorial Cup tournament in Windsor, Ont., but bowed out of that event after posting an 0-3 round robin record.

Mathew Barzal and the Thunderbirds enjoy their WHL title win in 2017.

    With the Thunderbirds, Barzal saw how a team comes together as a family and can go on long playoff runs. He also saw how teams need players with different skill sets and specialties in order to achieve success.
    He has been in the forefront of the rise of a young Islanders team. Thanks to that young talent, the Islanders were a club that didn’t bat an eye when veteran star centre John Tavares left following the 2017-18 campaign to sign with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

    Tavares and the Maple Leafs bowed out of the NHL post-season in the qualifying round and are forced if they so chose to watch the rest of the NHL playoffs on television.

    If the Islanders are able to even just make the Stanley Cup final, Barzal’s status in the NHL will reach other level.

Sask Five Giants take North Division final

Ethan Campbell fires in a pitch for the Sask Five Giants.

    The Sask Five Giants are tasting baseball playoff success in 2020.

    On Friday, the Under-18 AAA team from Martensville took the North Division title game in the Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League over the Saskatoon Diamondbacks 12-2 in a game that ended after five innings due to the mercy rule at Cairns Field.

    The title game, which was played before 60 spread out spectators, was actually a tight contest until the fifth inning. The Giants were holding a 4-2 lead batting in the top of the fifth inning with two outs.

    The Diamondbacks pitching and defence proceeded to hit a funk, which does happen in minor baseball. Thanks to that development and some timely hits, the Giants scored eight runs with two outs in the top of the fifth to go ahead 12-2.

    The Diamondbacks were unable to score in the bottom of the fifth to extend the game.

    Ethan Campbell went the distance on the hill for the Giants striking out four batters. Carson Hindmarsh threw four and two-third innings and struck out four batters to take the loss on the hill for the Diamondbacks.

    The Giants made the final after downing the Saskatoon Cubs 14-5 in a North Division semifinal encounter earlier in the day Friday at Cairns. The Diamondbacks downed the Northwest Prairie Pirates from Lloydminster 11-1 in a contest that ended after five innings due to the mercy rule in the other North semifinal held earlier in the day on Friday.

    The Giants will travel to Regina to take on the Athletics on Sunday in the Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League championship game at 1 p.m. at Optimist Park.

    The Athletics downed the Regina White Sox 10-1 in the South Division final on Friday in Regina.

Saskatoon fall high school sports cancelled, other notes

    The sports facilities at Saskatoon high schools will remain relatively quiet this fall.

    On Wednesday, the Saskatoon Secondary Schools Athletic Directorate cancelled the fall high school sports of cross-country running, football, soccer and volleyball.

    On Thursday, the Saskatchewan High School Athletic Association cancelled all play in the sport of golf for the fall.

    On Monday, Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools and Saskatoon Public Schools sent out letters to their rental customers that all rentals in school facilities had been cancel up to Dec. 31. That includes rentals for all sports and community groups.

    On top of those developments, the SHSAA pushed back the start date for the practices to start for cross-country running, football and soccer for the school districts that are still running these sports to Sept. 28.

    Cross-country running will have no inter-school competitions.
    Soccer regular season will be allowed to start Oct. 5 and run to Oct. 31. Football can start playing games on Oct. 13 and run to Nov. 14.

    Volleyball teams will be allowed to practice on Oct. 13 and games are slated to run from Oct. 19 to Nov. 14.

    All of these developments came as a response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

    For anyone that was a realist, these cancellations and postponements do not come as a surprise, especially when you see the cancellations and postponements that have come across the sports world due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Shutdowns started happening in North America on March 11.

    The sports groups should be credited with doing their best to try and get their respective sports going. With that noted, it was surprising that there were plans to have any sports associated with a school return to action.

    In Saskatchewan, it seems like you can’t even avoid stories regarding outrage over return to school plans for the entire student population even in a casual way over the past two weeks. If there are big fights going down about wearing masks in classrooms, you are not anywhere close a point that sports can be reactivated in the schools.

    In the comments sections for online stories by mainstream outlets regarding high school sports cancellations in Saskatoon, it common to find remarks from people that sports in schools should be cancelled and athletes and their parents are selfish and spoiled if they want school sports to continue in these pandemic times.

    I believe those comments come from people that are not involved in the sports world, and over the years, the disconnection has increased between people in the sports world and people who are not involved in that world.

    When you world in industries outside of the sports industry, you start realizing there are a large amount of people out there that do not have an interest in the sports world. That forces those in the sports world to constantly sell the values of taking part in sports like learning about teamwork, discipline and social skills.

    On the schools front, it is harder to return sports into action in schools, because all walks of society go to schools. When athletes join teams in sports associations, they are choosing to be part of that association, but those that don’t want to be part of those associations don’t have to be even in a defacto manner which is viewed to happen in schools.

    The cancellations and postponements regarding sports in Saskatchewan high schools will likely continue for a longer stretch here in the future. Athletes better not get their hopes to high about representing their schools in a competitive sports environment in 2020-21 winter sports season.

• The conference semifinal round or the “elite eight” round of the NHL Playoffs is set to start today with the Dallas Stars taking on the Colorado Avalanche (6 p.m. Saskatchewan time, CBC) in the hub city of Edmonton. The NHL post-season was expanded from 16 to 24 teams due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Of the eight teams that remain in the playoffs, the New York Islanders and the Vancouver Canucks are the only that played in the qualifying round that are still alive at this stage of things. The Avalanche, Stars, Vegas Golden Knights, Boston Bruins, Philadelphia Flyers and Tampa Bay Lightning all had byes into the 16-team official “first” round. The NHL is proving sports can be played in a bubble environment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The Montreal Impact are slated to host an MLS game against the Vancouver Whitecaps on Tuesday. The Impact will allow 250 spectators to watch the contest. The Impact, Whitecaps and Toronto FC are locked into playing league games just against each other for the moment due to the border between Canada and the United States being close to non-essential travel.
• Gregg Drinnan did his latest round up about how COVID-19 is wreaking havoc on the sports world in his Taking Note blog on Thursday. His latest piece can be found by clicking right here. Drinnan is also a big advocate for kidney and organ donation, and you will find info about how to become involved on those fronts in his blog as well.
• On Friday, the Saskatchewan Rush announced that Derek Keenan was stepping down as the team’s head coach but will remain with the club holding on to the role of general manager. The 58-year-old joined the Rush franchise as head coach and general manager in 2009, when the team was still in Edmonton. Keenan turned the Rush into a National Lacrosse League powerhouse winning the NLL title in 2015 in Edmonton and 2016 and 2018 in Saskatchewan playing out of the SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon. Keenan is the iconic lacrosse head coach. Jeff McComb was promoted from Rush assistant coach to head coach, former Rush captain Jimmy Quinlan returns to the organization as the assistant coach responsible for offence and JeremyTallevi remains in the role of assistant coach responsible for defence.
• On Tuesday, NHL legend Dale Hawerchuk passed away after a battle with stomach cancer. He is best remembered for his nine season starring at centre for the Winnipeg Jets from 1981 to 1990. Hawerchuk played 16 seasons in the NHL from 1981 to 1997 for the Jets, Buffalo Sabres, St. Louis Blues and Philadelphia Flyers appearing in 1,188 games piling up 518 goals, 891 assists for 1,409 points. Tributes have poured in throughout the hockey world for Hawerchuk. My small Twitter tribute is below.

Sad to hear of Dale Hawerchuk's passing. First athlete I looked up to when I was little. First hero when I was a kid. It was great that meeting him in person as an adult lived up to the hero expectations. #RIPDucky. #Winnipeg. #Jets. #NHL. pic.twitter.com/mquWMl2Ssw

— Darren Steinke (@StanksSports) August 19, 2020

    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.