“Pound the rock!” – Hilltops wise to keep focus on running game

Hilltops RB Corbin Ebben makes a jump cut past a defender.

By tradition, the Saskatoon Hilltops have always strived for balance on offence, but they are synonymous with the power running game in their history.

While the Hilltops overall are having a strong season running the ball, there have been a couple of hiccups that have caused concern. In their 38-13 regular season opening victory at Saskatoon Minor Football Field over the Edmonton Huskies, the Hilltops as a team posted 116 yards rushing coming off 25 carries.

That included rushing touchdowns from quarterback Trey Reider from 41 and six yards out and a one rushing plunge from power running back Corbin Ebben. Ebben topped the team with 60 yards rushing as an individual, but it is rare when the Hilltops don’t have a player record at least 100 yards rushing in a game.

On September 7 taking on the Thunder in Regina at Mosaic Stadium, the Hilltops collected only 78 yards rushing as a team on 26 carries for their fourth regular season outing. Reider recorded the lone major on the ground from five yards out on a scramble out of trouble run.

The Hilltops prevailed 29-15 thanks to Reider’s passing. He completed 17-of-27 passes for 291 yards and two touchdowns, while throwing one interception.

Out of the Hilltops first four contests, they had two outings where their running game wasn’t up to their sturdy form. Following their CJFL championship win last season, the Hilltops graduated star power running back Boston Davidsen, who closed out his junior football career with back-to-back regular season of rushing for 1,000 or more yards.

One had to wonder if the Hilltops running game was taking a step backwards due to the fact Davidsen was no longer with the team.

Last Sunday, the Hilltops did their best to work out their struggles on the ground against the winless Winnipeg Rifles. In a 57-14 romp, the Hilltops as a team ran the ball 34 times for 253 yards and five touchdowns.

Corbin Ebben, left, celebrates scoring a TD for the Hilltops.

Ebben led the way for the Hilltops on the ground carrying the ball 17 times for 132 yards and one touchdown. Saskatoon’s rushing statistics also got a boost in that contest from a 70-yard run by backup fourth-year quarterback Brexton Elias.

The Hilltops running attack looked like it was back in form as the team improved 5-0. They will aim to keep perfecting their work on the ground this coming Sunday as they host the Edmonton Wildcats (0-5) at 1 p.m. at Saskatoon Minor Football Field. The Wildcats need to win to keep their post-season hopes alive.

Ebben currently sits second in the Prairie Football Conference with 470 yards rushing coming off 80 carries. He has reached the end zone on the ground three times.

On Wednesday, Ebben, who is in his third-year of CJFL eligibility, was named the PFC’s offensive player of the week for his efforts in the Hilltops latest victory of the season over the Rifles. On top of his rushing totals, Ebben had one catch for 15 yards against Winnipeg last Sunday. 

On the season, the 20-year-old has caught 10 passes for 102 yards and three touchdowns. He has been named the offensive player of the week for the PFC twice.

Ebben, who stands 6-foot-1 and weighs 205 pounds, is one of the most popular players in the Hilltops dressing room, because he brings a strong work ethic into every practice and game. The graduate of the Delisle Composite High School Rebels nine-a-side football program is really coachable too. He missed time in the second half of the 2023 regular season due to injury, but he made it back for the post-season.

Still, the Hilltops were hoping to get the ball a little more than they did to Ebben in 2023. One wonders if those missed repetitions with the ball by Ebben might have contributed to a slower start on the ground.

Ebben did record his first 100-yard rushing game of the campaign in the Hilltops second regular season contest on August 18, when they downed the Rifles in Winnipeg 47-1. He ran the ball 20 times for 104 yards and one touchdown in that contest.

The Hilltops have always aimed to be 50/50 team on offence, because they are playing football in Canada. When the temperatures get colder at the end of the regular season and through the post-season, the elements often force teams to have success running the ball.

Last season, the snow and cold was only a partial concern for the team. The Hilltops had to win a pair of games in absolute monsoon like rainy conditions.

Corbin Ebben sits second in the PFC with 470 yards rushing.

On September 30, 2023 at Saskatoon Minor Football Field, the Hilltops grinded out a 19-10 victory over the Thunder. In a constant downpour, the Hilltops won by running the ball 40 times for 152 yards.

In the CJFL title game – the Canadian Bowl – played on November 11, 2023 at Starlight Stadium in Langford, B.C., against the Westshore Rebels, the Hilltops again played in rain that came down in Biblical proportions. Saskatoon posted a 17-10 victory for a 23^rd CJFL title in team history. As a team, the Hilltops ran the ball 30 times for 187 yards and one touchdown.

While the weather calls for a mix of sun and could and a high of 20 C for the Hilltops upcoming home clash against the Wildcats, you never know when Mother Nature is going to add a surprise in the contests that follow.

Due to that possibility, the Hilltops are wise to keep their focus on continually improving their game on the ground.

Clark to appear at End Zone Scholarship Dinner, other notes

Dan Clark calls signals for the Roughriders in 2019.

Dan Clark will be the special guest at the Annual Hilltops End Zone Scholarship Dinner set for September 28.

Clark was a star centre for the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders from 2009 to 2022. He was on the Roughriders practice roster in 2009 and 2010 and was on the main roster from 2011 to 2022 appearing in 131 games. During his years on the Roughriders practice roster, Clark was playing for the CJFL’s Regina Thunder.

Clark gained fame catching an eight-yard touchdown pass from legendary Roughriders quarterback Darian Durant in a 37-0 romp over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in a game played at historic Taylor Field on July 21, 2013. Following that contest, Clark and the Roughriders would later win the Grey Cup with a 45-23 victory over the Tigers-Cats on November 24, 2013 at Taylor Field.

In 2019, Clark was the unanimous selection as the Saskatchewan Roughriders Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman. He was also named a CFL all-star.

The Annual Hilltops End Zone Scholarship Dinner will be held in the main hall of the Gordie Howe Sports Centre building located at the south end of Saskatoon Minor Football Field. The doors for the dinner will open at 4:15 p.m. and dinner will be served at 5 p.m.

The presenting sponsors of the event are TCU Financial and SaskTel. It is hosted in conjunction with the Hilltops community partners in the Saskatchewan Roughrider Foundation. The official beverage sponsor is the Crossmount Cider Company.

All proceeds of the event go towards the Saskatoon Hilltop Scholarship Fund.

Single tickets for the event are $100, and a table of eight goes for $725. Ticket purchases include admission to that night’s CJFL regular season contest between the Hilltops and the Regina Thunder set for 7 p.m. at SMF Field. Tickets for the End Zone Dinner can be purchased by clicking right here.

• On Wednesday, Calgary Colts defensive back Cody Anglo was name the PFC’s defensive player of the week for his performance in his team’s 24-16 victory over the visiting Edmonton Huskies at Shouldice Athletic Park. Anglo recorded seven defensive solo tackles, four defensive tackle assists, one special teams solo tackle, two pass knockdowns and one interception.
• On Wednesday, Regina Thunder linebacker Devin Baumann was named the PFC’s special teams player of the week for his performance in his club’s 51-16 victory over the visiting Edmonton Wildcats at Leibel Field. Baumann blocked two punts and recovered one for a touchdown to go along with two special teams tackle assists.
• The Saskatoon Hilltops topped the CJFL’s Top 10 Power Rankings that were released on Thursday. The Regina Thunder were rated fourth, the Calgary Colts placed eighth and the Edmonton Huskies came in at 10^th.
• The Saskatoon Hilltops are wearing decals on the back of their helmets to honour the memory of long time director Jeff Gould. Gould passed away on August 26 at age 73 due to complications following a recent cancer diagnosis. Gould was serving in his 15^th year as a Hilltops director and was the team’s game day convener and was also a vice-president of the PFC. Gould also held roles in the past as the Hilltops manager and team president.
• The Winnipeg Rifles (0-5) need to beat the Calgary Colts (3-2) in order to keep their post-season hopes alive. The two squads meet at 1 p.m. local time on Sunday at Maple Grove Rugby Park in Winnipeg.
• Rob Vanstone, who is the senior journalist and team historian of the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders, put together a fabulous piece on Saskatoon Hilltops power running back Corbin Ebben. The feature goes into Ebben’s beginnings in the sport of football with the Delisle Composite High School Rebels nine-a-side team. That piece can be found by clicking right here.
• Darren Zary, who is outstanding forever sports writer at the Saskatoon StarPhoenix, put together a great emotional piece on legendary Saskatoon Hilltops head coach Tom Sargeant undergoing open-heart, double-bypass surgery this past March. After the surgery, Sargeant successes in being able to return to the Hilltops sidelines for the start of the current campaign. That piece 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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Retirement brings Adolph era of Huskies hockey to a close

U Sports wins leader brought dry humour, honesty

Dave Adolph, centre, makes adjustments from the Huskies bench.

In talking about an injury to one of his players, Dave Adolph decided to show some leg.

Following a playoff win by the University of Saskatchewan Huskies men’s hockey team this past season, Adolph, who is Huskies head coach, was asked in a post-game media scrum about left-winger Collin Shirley leaving the contest early after favouring one of his legs.

The bench boss said his standout player was fine. Adolph proceeded to pull up one of his pant legs to point out the area of the leg Shirley sustained a big bruise to reinforce the skilled forward would be fine from that minor ding.

At times, you almost never knew when the dry humour from Adolph was going to surface. Often, the right situation presented itself to bring it out.

During a Thursday practice this past February, the Huskies were having one of their energetic practices to music, which is a weekly tradition on that day. Adolph is always excited and energetic in a fun way during those sessions.

He would blow his whistle to begin the next drills in that session, and he allowed the players to take control of what was happening on the ice.

Adolph looked like he was going to jump into one of the drills but never did.

Dave Adolph behind the Huskies bench at the Rutherford Rink.

I was able to call him over to the bench to fire off a fun interview question. When Adolph was a defenceman with the Huskies, he helped the Huskies win a national title in 1983 in his fifth and final year of eligibility alongside high scoring captain Willie Desjardins, who is a former NHL bench boss and head coach and general manager of the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers.

I mentioned to Adolph that if the Tigers were having a high energy practice like the one the Huskies were having, Desjardins would be trying to score to prove he still had it.

I asked Adolph why he wasn’t trying to score?

“I scored a hat trick once, and I am good,” said Adolph. “There is no need to over-extend it.”

On another occasion back in 2017, the Huskies advanced to the U Sports title of the University Cup national championship tournament to face the host University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds in Fredericton, N.B.

A reporter asked Adolph, who had already been named the U Sports coach of the year for men’s hockey that season, what it would mean if the Huskies could win that title game.

Adolph responded in a matter of fact tone that it would allow him come back and coach next season.

He often would give jabs to long time Saskatoon StarPhoenix sportswriter Darren Zary, and Zary could dish it right back and those exchanges never became personal. Of course, the two have seemingly known each other forever and those exchanges were always seen as fun at the end of the day and created a memory.

Dave Adolph eyes up the on ice action.

U Sports is set to lose one of its all-time biggest beauties, who happens be the circuit’s all-time leader in career regular season victories for men’s hockey at 488.

On Monday, the Huskies announced Adolph would be retiring from his position effective May 1, 2021. Due to the fact all U Sports hockey action has been cancelled for the 2020-21 campaign due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has gripped the world, the 61-year-old veteran bench boss has already coached his final game with the team.

“After a lot of self-discussion, I’ve decided that now is the right time to step back as the men’s hockey coach,” said Adolph in a release. “Over the last 28 years, the team has accomplished more than I could have imagined, and my family and I are all proud to be members of the Huskie men’s hockey program.”

Overall, Adolph has put in 37 complete seasons with the Huskies men’s hockey team.

He patrolled the blue-line for five seasons. Adolph skated in the 1977-78 campaign, took a season off and returned for four straight campaigns from 1979 to 1983. In total, Adolph appeared in 117 regular season games collecting 10 goals and 34 assists.

The defenceman’s playing days were capped in 1983 by the Huskies winning the U Sports – then known as the CIAU - title game 6-2 over the Concordia University Stingers at the University Cup tournament held in Moncton, N.B.

Following his playing days, Adolph became a teacher at Saskatoon’s Aden Bowman Collegiate and rejoined the Huskies as an assistant coach for five seasons from 1984 to 1989.

The Swift Current, Sask., product then left “The Bridge City” to become the head coach of the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns men’s hockey team for four seasons from 1989 to 1993.

Adolph returned to his alma mater becoming the Huskies head coach before the start of the 1993-94 campaign.

Between his time with the Pronghorns and Huskies, Adolph coached in 1,016 games including action in the U Sports regular season, Canada West Conference playoffs and University Cup tournament collecting 568 wins, 402 losses including extra time setbacks and 46 ties.

The Huskies team picture from their 2016 Canada West title win.

In U Sports regular season action, Adolph has coach in 868 games posting a U Sports career record 488 wins, 334 losses including extra time setbacks and 46 ties.

With just the Huskies, Adolph has coached in 904 games including action in the U Sports regular season, Canada West Conference playoffs, and University Cup tournament collecting 536 wins, 330 losses including extra time setbacks and 38 ties. He was named the Canada West coach of the year for men’s hockey on four occasions.

In U Sports regular season action as Huskies head coach, Adolph has been behind the bench for 756 games posting 456 wins, 262 losses including extra time setbacks and 38 ties.

All those wins were piled up with the Huskies calling the ancient Rutherford Rink and then Merlis Belsher Place home.

After the Huskies missed the post-season in the first two seasons under Adolph’s watch, he has guided the Huskies to their current active streak of making the playoffs for 25 campaigns in a row. Adolph has coached the Huskies to seven Canada West titles and 16 appearances in the U Sports championship tournament - the University Cup.

A quote on Twitter from one of Adolph’s former captains in star offensive-defenceman Jesse Forsberg gives a glimpse into why Adolph was successful.

What a legend! Not an easy gig coaching guys with big egos out of junior. Won’t find a more passionate or loyal guy. Believed in me to grow from an average junior player with a hot temper to an All-Canadian..with a hot temper. Going to be tough to replace. What a career! #3types

— Jesse Forsberg (@jbforsberg) December 7, 2020

Forsberg wrote, “What a legend! Not an easy gig coaching guys with big egos out of junior. Won’t find a more passionate or loyal guy. Believed in me to grow from an average junior player with a hot temper to an All-Canadian with a hot temper. Going to be tough to replace. What a career! #3types.”

Dave Adolph, back row right, focuses on the play on ice.

To be fair, Forsberg might have been a bit too hard in describing what the players were like when they came to the Huskies. What Forsberg’s comment did get at was the managing that Adolph had to do.

The players that came to Adolph out of the junior ranks were guided by a wide variety of coaches like Desjardins, Peter Anholt, Michael Dyck, Marc Habscheid, Don Hay, Lorne Molleken and Brent Sutter.

Players that arrive to a new team after being under the tutelage of those bench bosses have a programmed set idea of what things are supposed to look like when they are going right. Each of those visions will be slightly different from each other.

Adolph was able to mold the commonalities to get everyone to bond and jell together, while dealing with regular university politics too.

All of sudden, mottos like “no one outworks the Dogs” or “we all play the Cody Smuk way” became part of who the players were.

The “we all play the Cody Smuk way” motto came in tribute to hard-working, team-first, glue guy forward Cody Smuk, who passed away from cancer at age 26 in June of 2015. The players aspired to continue to hold those qualities high.

The players also learned pretty quickly that Adolph knows the game of hockey real well too.

Dave Adolph, back row left, keeps cool during a timeout.

It was common to see players that weren’t maybe viewed as professional prospects in junior develop into professional prospects by the end of their time with the Huskies. In a number of cases, those players should have been catching the eye of the NHL, but that will have to go down as the NHL’s loss.

Upon arrival, players learned they had become part of a new family in Huskies hockey that dated back to 1910. For players who had a strong identification with their junior teams like Brennan Bosch and Ryan Holfeld did with the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers and Derek Hulak did with the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades, they learned they could have that same strong identification with the Huskies.

Adolph will always be proud to note the players took care of their school work in the classroom too, which set them up for life after hockey.

Of course, the toughest pill to swallow on the wins and losses front was the fact the Huskies made the U Sports title game three times with Adolph as head coach and fell in all three appearances.

The most heartbreaking was arguably in 2005. The Huskies held a 3-1 lead after 40 minutes and ended up in a 4-3 overtime loss to the host University of Alberta Golden Bears, who are the Huskies “forever rivals,” at the rink once known as the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton, Alta.

Adolph deserved to win at least one U Sports national title as Huskies head coach. The fact that didn’t happen leans more to the lesson that life and sports isn’t fair sometimes.

You can a major number of things right, but the big team goal might still be never achieved.

Molleken as Blades head coach and general manager and Jack Brodsky as Blades owner went through a similar fate in the major junior ranks never being able to win a WHL title or a Memorial Cup title as CHL champions. They both did a large amount of things right and deserved to achieve those big accomplishments in WHL and Memorial Cup titles at least once.

The Huskies team photo from the 2020 Canada West title win.

Adolph did things the right way and had his own dry sense of humour spin on things while doing them. He was one of kind, and the head coach that takes the Huskies men’s hockey team into the era after the COVID-19 pandemic will have monster shoes to fill.

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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The time I psyched myself out interviewing “Mr. Hockey”

A Gordie Howe card from the 1980s.

Till this day, the only time I really psyched myself out for an interview as when I talked to “Mr. Hockey.”

That day came way back in December of 1999, when I was an intern general assignment reporter for the Saskatoon StarPhoenix. I was working with fellow interns Jillian MacPherson and Vanessa Lee compiling a list of what Saskatchewan’s movers and shakers were doing to ring in the new millennium.

The assignment was something each of us worked on between the daily stories we typed out. Between working on daily stories, you phoned some of the most well-known persons in the province and asked what their plan was for New Year’s Eve.

I tracked down a number of person’s from the sports world including Saskatchewan Roughriders greats Don Narcisse and Bob Poley. At that time, I already knew both personally.

 I decided to see if it was possible to track down all-time hockey icon Gordie Howe, who was nicknamed “Mr. Hockey.”

Howe was born just outside of Saskatoon in Floral and grew up in “The Bridge City.”

He has since passed away on June 10, 2016 at age 88.

Through the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings, I got contact info for Howe’s publicist, who set up the interview. The publicist gave me a time for when Howe was to call.

I had never talked to Howe in my life. As the time neared for the phone call, 23-year-old me, who sometimes felt indestructible at that age, started to get nervous.

A Gordie Howe card from the early 1990s.

The whole star stuck thing started to happen and I kept repeating in my head, “Oh my God. I am going to talk to Gordie Howe.”

With Howe having played 32 seasons of professional hockey in the NHL and the defunct WHA from 1946 to 1980, he was looked up to by hockey fans from a number of generations. That included my father, Dan Steinke, who passed away in January of 2004.

A number of my dad’s hockey stories about Howe danced through my head.

Normally when I interview athletes from the sports world including those that have significant profiles, I usually act like I already know them, and I act pretty much like you would see me on the street.

In this case, the star profile got to me.

I kept thinking in my head, “I have to refer to him as Mr. Howe to show respect.”

Howe called at the time the publicist said he would.

When I got on the phone with Howe, I was so nervous. I had to keep from freaking out that I was actually talking to Gordie Howe.

This was the one time I most remember being in awe of the celebrity of a person.

In late November of 1999, Howe had surgery to remove a cancerous growth on his left shin. Since only a handful of weeks had passed since that had happened, I vaguely remember starting the interview making joke about that.

A Gordie Howe card from the 1990s.

I don’t think I knew how to act to that, and I remember being caught off guard.

Whatever I said, Howe chucked and proceeded to give the more serious answer. The way he talked just had the best tone to it that it made you feel all good and tingly inside.

The quote I used from Howe was, “Well, we won’t be doing a heck of a lot of anything. If our grandson is playing on New Year’s, I’ll go watch him play. And that’s Nolan Howe. That’s Mark’s son.

“Nothin concrete. We’re just laid back, like we were in Saskatchewan.”

I remember thanking him for doing the short interview. It felt like I could have actually talked to him for way a lot longer than I did.

I was so awestruck and wanted to be polite about his time that I didn’t. Looking back now, I wish I would have kept the interview going.

I kept that interview tape for some time. It is possible it is still buried with the old interview tapes I have stored away.

I crossed paths with Howe at the 2007 Memorial Cup in Vancouver, B.C., when I was a beat writer covering the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers for the Medicine Hat News. I was so life consumed with covering the Tigers at that event that I didn’t get to talk to Howe.

I met a number of his family members in September of 2016, when the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades hosted a “Thank You, Mr. Hockey Day” for their home opener.

The ashes of Gordie and those of his wife, Colleen Howe, were interred at the base of the Gordie Howe statue that sits outside the SaskTel Centre.

The StarPhoenix from December 31, 1999.

I spent the whole second period of that hockey game visiting with Mark Howe and Morris Lukowich in one of the SaskTel Centre dressing rooms at ice level after a media event held during the first intermission.

I got to visit with Corey Howe and the Saskatoon lady he would later marry in Davis (Parkinson) Howe a couple of times that weekend. Corey was raised in Ohio and relocated to Saskatoon due to his romance with Davis.

All the Howe family members were down to earth and had pretty good senses of humour too. It really made me wish I hadn’t psyched myself out over the phone with Gordie all those years back.

Still, the memory of how awestruck I was during that short phone chat with Gordie in December of 1999 makes me smile and chuckle to this day.

Raiders’ Guhle signs with Les Canadiens, other notes

Kaiden Guhle has signed with the Canadiens.

Kaiden Guhle didn’t have to wait long after the NHL Entry Draft to sign his first contract in the big league.

On Tuesday, the 18-year-old defenceman with the WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders signed a three-year NHL entry-level contract with the Montreal Canadiens. Just two weeks earlier on October 6, the Canadiens selected Guhle in the first round and 16^th overall in the NHL Entry Draft.

The NHL Entry Draft was held via video conference call from the NHL Network Studios in Secaucus, New Jersey, as opposed to being live in an NHL centre due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Last season as a 17-year-old sophomore, Guhle, who stands 6-foot-3 and weighs 184 pounds, appeared in all of the Raiders 64 regular season games piling up 11 goals, 29 assists and a plus-23 rating.

The Sherwood Park, Alta., product appeared in 65 regular season games in 2018-19 as a 16-year-old rookie posting three goals, 14 assists and a plus-17 rating. He focused more on playing a defensive role on a defensive starting six where the other five members were all 19-year-old veterans helping the Raiders with a WHL Championship.

As a blue-liner, Guhle has a special blend of talents very few have.

Back in the 2017 WHL Bantam Draft, the Raiders selected the gifted offensive-defenceman first overall in the first round.

Guhle was one of the two players the Raiders had selected first round in this past NHL Entry Draft and proceeded to sign three-year NHL entry-level contract.

This past Friday, Raiders right-winger Ozzy Wiesblatt signed a three-year NHL entry-level contract with the San Jose Sharks. The Sharks selected Wiesblatt in the first round and 31^st overall in the NHL Entry Draft.

• Nelson Nogier, a graduate of the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades and Red Deer Rebels, resigned with the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets inking a two-year, two-way contract on October 14. The defensive-defenceman has played his four career seasons in the professional ranks in the Jets system. Last season, Nogier spent the entire campaign with the Jets AHL affiliate, the Manitoba Moose, appearing in 58 regular season games collecting one goal, eight assists and 45 minutes in penalties.
• Rugged right-winger and Regina product JC Lipon recently wrote an article in The Park Journal detailing the journey of his hockey career. The Park Journal is a first-person account media platform similar to The Players’ Tribune. Lipon talked about his rise to star status with the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers and how he got shuffled and slotted in the AHL ranks skating in the system of the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets for seven seasons. Lipon is now playing in the KHL with Dinamo Riga. The piece he wrote can be found by clicking right here.
• Kevin Nastiuk, who is a former star goaltender with the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers and was a member of their 2004 WHL Championship team, has started a new goaltender training company called Nastiuk Goaltending. Nastiuk had a lengthy career in the North America’s minor professional ranks and in the professional game in Europe. His goaltender training company website can be found at NastiukGoaltending.com.
• On Monday, Lethbridge Hurricanes general manager Peter Anholt celebrated his 60^th birthday. Since joining the Hurricanes in June of 2014, Anholt has twice won the Lloyd Saunders Memorial Trophy as the WHL’s Executive of the Year including taking that honour for this past season.
• On Monday, Evan Hardy Collegiate Souls football team linebacker Zach Zary committed to joining the University of Saskatchewan Huskies football team. Zary is an athlete who is talented in many sports. When he was a child, he wanted to play one of football, hockey or soccer for the Huskies. Zary’s father, Darren, is a long time ace sportswriter for the Saskatoon StarPhoenix. As good as Darren is as a sportswriter, he is an all-star dad and his ability to be a good father exceeds his abilities as a sportswriter.
• On Wednesday, the University of Calgary Dinos football team announced Bailey Taylor had joined their program as a defensive back. Taylor was a rookie running back with the Saskatoon Hilltops last season, and he helped them win a sixth straight CJFL title.
• On Wednesday, the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association cancelled all its winter championships in 2020-21 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Back in June, the CCAA cancelled all its fall championships and last month the CCAA/Curling Canada championship was cancelled. The CCAA won’t host any national championships for the 2020-21 campaign due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• News surfaced over the last two days that the Boston University Terriers athletics program has paused all in person practices and training due to an increase of COVID-19 cases on campus. The pause will be re-examined next week. The Terriers women’s hockey team include captain and Saskatoon product Nara Elia and Clavet, Sask., product and third-year forward Mackenna Parker. Elia and Parker are graduates of the Saskatoon Stars female under-18 AAA hockey team.

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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