Doug Zywina
Kings host annual spring camp
The Dauphin Kings got a glimpse into the team’s future at its annual spring camp, this past weekend at Credit Union Place.
More than 100 players hit the ice hoping to make an impression with the team’s coaches and scouts.
Kings head coach and general manager Doug Hedley said there were two teams of 2009-born players, who will be eligible for next year’s draft.
“We’re looking for a watch list of players to watch for next season and get more comfortable with the guys that we’re going to draft in 2025,” he said. “It’s great to see those kids out. It was tough, because last year we had three teams. But the MJHL is running one this year at the end of May, so a lot of players decided, because we were going to be there, they would skate there. Still, we had a very good turnout.”
There were also four teams of players born between 2006 and 2008.
“Those kids are a lot of our list kids, a lot of kids that we want to draft this year. So it was really good for us to see them skate. Really good for our scouts to see them skate,” Hedley said. “And then we’ll put our list together after camp of the ‘08s that were here and rate them and rank them and get into a situation where we’re comfortable at the draft.”
Hedley liked what he saw on the ice from the young skaters, noting U.S. scout Andy Kubas brought some players from south of the border to camp.
“We’re really happy with those guys. We’re happy with some of the talent we have in the ‘08, ‘06 group and the ‘07 group from Saskatchewan and Manitoba. So it’s a good mixture of players and there’s some real good skill sets out here,” he said.
Hedley anticipates inviting 10 to 15 players back for the fall camp. He noted there were other players who could not attend the spring camp as they were competing at the Telus Cup U18 national championship with the Brandon Wheat Kings, which lost in the final to a team from Quebec.
There were also other players who could not make it to the spring camp, but will be here in the fall.
Since the season ended, Hedley has been busy getting ready for the spring camp and will now shift his focus to the league’s annual general meeting where the schedule for the 2024-25 season will be set. The draft will take place, June 2.
A new champion was crowned last week when the Winkler Flyers beat the defending champion Steinbach Pistons, 5-4 in overtime, Friday in Winkler.
Hedley said the Flyers were a big, heavy team that played heavy all season.
“It was well deserved. They’re a good team. Probably the heaviest group of forwards in the league. They had a great run. I offer my congratulations,” he said. “It’s always good to see different teams and the parity in the league that different teams are winning championships. I think they’ll represent our league very well.”
Mavericks getting ready for a new season
The Parkland Mavericks have hit the pitch to prepare for the upcoming season.
The Mavericks will play in Rugby Manitoba’s Men’s Division 2, with five other squads. Teams will play 10 games, one home and one away against each of the other five teams.
The Mavericks practiced outside for just the second time last week.
“This week was really the kickoff to the preseason and practicing, working towards the regular season that kickoffs, May 25,” said Mavericks player-coach Shawn Sarkonak.
After Rugby Manitoba failed to schedule any games for the team last year, the provincial organization changed things up to cater to each division’s strengths.
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Games committee leaving a legacy at local high school
The legacy of the 2024 Manitoba Summer Games powered by Manitoba Hydro in Dauphin will include a new rubberized track, as well as a new multi-use athletics pad at the DRCSS.
The announcement was made Friday at the track behind the local high school.
The project will cost $1.1 million, backed by a coalition of funding partners, including the Province of Manitoba, Mountain View School Division, Sport Manitoba, and the Dauphin and District Community Foundation.
Host committee co-chair Carla Wolfenden said the new track will be a huge addition to the community.
“It’s not just a games focus. This project is going to serve our whole region for years to come. Decades. It’s an investment in our youth. And just the benefits that come out of it, there’s so many intangibles. It’s going to be really nice to have,” she said.
Construction is expected to begin in late May and will be completed in time for the summer games.
Besides a new track, there will also be a new 100-foot by 60-foot multi-use pad where the runways for long jump are currently located. It will include new rubberized lanes for long jump, as well as an outdoor basketball court.
Having multiple funding partners was important to make the new track a reality.
“We’ve had support that we’re just so thankful for. And, honestly, it wouldn’t have happened without them. We were happy with just paving the track or doing a new asphalt track. But the support was there and we kept pursuing it and now we can rubberize. It’s kind of like icing on the cake,” Wolfenden said.
The volunteer drive did well at the recent Kin Business Expo, but Wolfenden said there is still a need for more help.
“Our goal is to have 1,000 by the end of May. And we’ll still need more beyond that. So we’re by no means finished recruiting. We’re about a quarter of the way there, maybe,” she said. “We know the support is there. When we talk to people in the street, people are still saying, ‘I want to volunteer, I just don’t know when I can yet.’ We know they’ll come.”
DRCSS Principal Taylor Schmidt feels the school is fortunate to have the summer games committee working with it to upgrade the track.
“It’s in our back yard, literally. So having the opportunity to use such a elite level track to support all of our students. It’s not just for our track team, but for all of our students of our Phys. Ed. programs, all of our sports programs. To be able to have a training facility like this in our back yard, just the opportunity to have it is second to none,” he said.
Having a multi-use pad for long jump and basketball is a welcome addition.
“That was quite nice. The pad out there, it can be used as a multi-surface pad, but looking to create a basketball court, again, in our back yard, for all of our students and for everybody, that was a bonus when they were sharing that with us, as well,” Schmidt said. “It’s going to be a wonderful addition to our whole campus. It’s going to bring people. This facility is going to be able to host major events. The opportunities are endless.”
The summer games will be held, Aug. 11 to 17.
Clippers tuning up for short season
The short high school baseball season is about to get underway, with the Dauphin Clippers aiming for a berth at provincials.
The team began practicing in mid-March and will likely field a roser of 16 players.
Mark Graham will coach the team this year. He said it is a unique opportunity since he hasn’t coached in a while and hasn’t seen any of the players in action.
“So seeing what I’ve seen in the gym so far, we’ve got a fairly young group and a lot of them have played ball at a fairly competitive level. So the young guys have been pretty impressive,” he said. “Mix in a couple of the older guys and it’s a decent crop. But until we get outside, it’s pretty hard to tell too much of what’s going on.”
The Clippers are back in the Prairie West High School Baseball League and will play six games against teams in the North Division.
Find out when the season begins and more in this week's Herald!
Clippers use rugby festival in Brandon as tune up for upcoming season
The Dauphin Clippers boys and girls rugby teams were in Brandon, Saturday for the annual John Keogh Rugby Festival.
The girls won both of their games, beating Crocus Plains, 48-5, and scoring a 72-5 win over Vincent Massey.
A third game was more of a controlled scrimmage between the Crocus Plains rookies and Dauphin rookies. The reason for this, according to Clippers girls coach Shawn Sarkonak, is because Crocus Plains had a late influx of about 15 players.
“And they’re now sitting around 38 (players), so we wanted to make sure that everyone got some quality field time to get some good experiences,” he said.
Overall, it was a good tournament for the Clippers, with Sarkonak noting it was the first time the tournament has been held since 2019 because of the pandemic and adverse weather.
Get the full rundown in this week's Dauphin Herald!
Flooding causes delay in start to golf season at GPCC
The start of the golfing season in Gilbert Plains will be delayed due to flooding.
According to Gilbert Plains Country Club general manager Scott McCallum, there was about 2-1/2 feet of water flooding the course.
“Water was coming in the back door of the clubhouse. We’ve got areas of the clubhouse that were flooded. Our whole maintenance shed, our new hall, that had water in it. And that’s just speaking of the buildings and the equipment, never mind the golf course that has to be repaired,” he said. “I’m not going to downplay the magnitude of this. It’s a daunting task. Sometimes it can get you down, because you work so hard on a small budget to make that golf course as beautiful as we can. And for events like this to happen, it’s definitely difficult.”
Working in the country club’s favour is the dedication of its board of directors, as well as the many volunteers and staff, to making the course look its best.
“The municipality has been absolutely unbelievable in supporting us. The provincial government, for that matter, has been out to see the damages and we’re really hoping they can get behind us and help us with it,” McCallum said. “We’re stepping in the right direction. We’ve just got to execute and get the golfers out on the golf course.”
Clean up will be an ongoing project, McCallum said. The focus right now, he added, is getting the facility open and golfers out on the course.
“But clean up is going to be an ongoing endeavour, for sure. There’s some things that might not affect the golfers that have to be done and those will be put in priority and we’ll deal with that as we go,” he said. “But as of right now, we’re just focusing on trying to get the fairways and the greens and everything cleaned up and ready for the golfers. And, obviously, we’ve got some pretty big icebergs that we’ve got to get rid of off the golf course, as well.”
McCallum said about seven or eight holes have been affected by the flooding. But the goal is still to open the course in early May.
To celebrate the upcoming golf season, a Tee Off to Summer, presented by the Battle For the Belts, will be held, May 4. The evening will feature the Duelling Keys, with prizes and food available.
Tickets are available by calling McCallum at 204-648-7834.
Kin Business Expo proves popular
he Dauphin Kin Club’s annual business expo proved to be a hit with attendees and vendors alike.
Kin Club secretary and expo chair Candice Taylor said there were 103 different vendors this year.
“We had a lot of return vendors, but we also had 20 or 30 new vendors that have never been to the expo before. So it was great to have a variety,” she said, adding the weekend went well. “Everything went really smoothly. We love and appreciate all the vendors that come in and support our community. Without them we wouldn’t be able to have an expo. It was great to see such a good flow of traffic throughout the weekend. The patrons were really great. We never had any issues, so it was wonderful.”
Among the highlights were the Kin Bar, which was something new, as well as children’s entertainer Doodles the Clown.
Overall, Taylor said it was a wonderful weekend.
“It was a lot of hard work. A lot of blood and sweat goes into it. But overall, I’ve had a lot of positive feedback from the vendors and that’s our goal, is to promote our community, promote vendors and have a good sense of community. It was awesome.”
Chamber hosts State of the District
The Parkland Chamber of Commerce hosted its annual State of the District address, Apr. 16, at the Watson Arts Centre.
The meeting was a chance for local municipalities and sponsors a chance to share what was happening in their respective districts.
Speakers included Greg Crisanti of Tim Hortons, Alexander Lavoie of Rural Manitoba Economic Development and Mike Csversko of Fusion Credit Union, as well as Charlene Gulak on behalf of Dauphin MLA Ron Kostyshyn, Jim Manchur, Reeve of the RM of Gilbert Plains, Lyle Morran, Mayor of
Grandview Municipality, Rm of Dauphin Reeve, Ernie Sirski and Robert Brunel, Mayor of the Municipality of Ste. Rose.
Chamber executive director Stephen Chychota said the event went well.
“It was a very full agenda, but we were able to get through it and make sure everyone had time to get back to work or do the networking thing after,” he said. “But it was very good. Really great presentations by the sponsors that were wanting to partner up on this. And then our four municipalities that were able to share some updates today. It was great to hear from them on the developments that they’re having, where things are headed in their municipalities. It just paints a really good picture for what’s happening in the region, which is what this program is all about.”
Summer games in dire need of volunteers
The 2024 Manitoba Summer Games, powered by Manitoba Hydro, are less than four months away, but they are in dire need of volunteers.
Games co-chair Carla Wolfenden said they really need people to start signing up.
“We are getting to be in the time where we’re getting a little worried. I know we’re a last-minute town, but with an event this size and with the sheer number of volunteers that we need, people have to sign up early,” she said. “All of our committees need to have their volunteers, their work force scheduled by the middle of May and as of right now, we are very, very short for volunteers.”
Wolfenden is not surprised people are waiting until the last minute and is confident they will meet the required number needed come August.
“But we need them all to sign up now. We really need to get people signed up. A lot of people say, ‘yeah, I’m going to volunteer.’ But we actually need them to register online, so that our committees can get them scheduled,” she said.
To register, visit the Sport Manitoba website and click on the Manitoba games link under the programs tab at the top of the page. Then simply scroll down and click on the link and fill in the form to register as a volunteer.
Or Google Manitoba Summer Games and it will take you to the summer games page.
“If people aren’t comfortable with doing it on their own, they can go to our games co-ordinator who works at city hall, as they can sign up there,” Wolfenden said, adding they will also have a booth at the Business Expo this weekend.
Other than a need for volunteers, planning for the games is going well.
We have an amazing crew of committee chairs that are paving the way for all the volunteers out there to put on a really good event. Everything is proceeding. We’re now into the really nitty gritty details of planning,” she said.
“Not so much big picture stuff. But now the small details that are going to make or break an event. But it’s going really, really well from that point of view.”
The resurfacing of the track at the high school is expected to begin soon. Other than that, the rest of the facilities just need some fine tuning.
“Just cleaning things up a little. Adding a few things here and there. Polishing. Making sure the soccer and rugby fields are weed free,” Wolfenden said. “We want to put on a good show and make our town look nice and our facilities are the main focus. So we’re looking forward to how they look come August.”
Some sports have already started their qualifying process, while others will take place in the coming months.
“Teams will start being finalized starting in May, again, depending on the sport. But some may not be in until mid-July,” Wolfenden said. “Hopefully, we have some local athletes representing. I know we have some local coaches and officials, but we really are excited to see some local athletes on those teams.”
The host committee will hold its last meeting with all of the provincial sport organizations represented, Apr. 26 and 27.
“Each committee is giving their, not quite final, but progress report on what’s going on and what still has to be done and what the plans are for each of their areas. So there will be 100 people here to hear some presentations,” Wolfenden said.
The Manitoba Summer Games will take place, Aug. 11 to 17.
Minor football program gets a boost from Blue Bombers
The newly-formed Parkland Minor Football Association is getting underway in Dauphin.
Last year, there was a group of players playing in an unofficial capacity, leading parents to start a formal minor football program.
“We wanted to improve the football here in Dauphin and get the kids started before high school, teaching them the fundamentals and basics of football. So that when they’re in Grade 9 and entering high school, they know the jist of it and can become better and stronger players,” said program co-ordinator Shannon Genaille.
The program is for students in Grades 5 to 8. Although there is a registration deadline of Apr. 17, Genaille said they will accept students beyond that date.
“It’s going to be a short season, because we’re done at the end of May. We play against teams from Saskatchewan right now. So we’ll take kids as long as anybody enters. And then we would adjust the registration fees, this year only,” she said. “Just trying to get more kids interested and involved. Boys and girls.”
Practices will be held, Mondays and Wednesdays from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at Kin Field at the Vermillion Park Sportsplex.
“They’re going to be at the rugby field this year because of the Manitoba Summer Games,” Genaille said.
Read more in this week's Dauphin Herald!