The U17 Parkland Vipers hosted a four-team volleyball tournament at Barker School, Saturday, going undefeated in winning the event.

The Vipers scored a 25-13, 20-25 and 15-7 win over the Neepawa Voltage to open the tournament. Then they defeated Club West Smash, 25-11 and 25-16.

The final match of the day saw the Vipers clinch first place in the round-robin tournament with a 25-22, 25-20, 17-25 and 25-23 win over the Rocanville Brash.

Vipers coach Chris Wolfenden said the team learned a lot throughout the tournament, a trend that continues every time they hit the court.

“We’re learning lots every single weekend about just how to overcome the simple parts of the game. They’re hard to master at the top levels, let alone at the bottom levels,” he said. “It’s just a matter of getting our hands on balls and understanding just how to compete all the time, 100 per cent of the time. We’re getting closer.”

Coming off a weekend where they won the consolation at a tournament in Brandon, the team’s confidence, Wolfenden said, is good.

“It’s better than last weekend, for sure. This was really good for us to come and play three solid matches at home in front of fans and parents. I think the girls needed this, because we have three tough tournaments coming up,” he said.

The Vipers will be in Winnipeg this weekend for a tournament hosted by the Bisons, which will be a tough event for the local team.

“We have the potential to beat any of these teams. It just depends on which one of our teams shows up. And that’s what I mean by, if we come out and we compete and compete hard, we can play with anybody. That’s the team I want to see,” he said. “And aggression. It’s just one of those things learning as a young volleyball player that it’s okay to be aggressive and take chances. That’s what the girls are getting better at.”

Following the Bisons tournament, the Vipers will compete for a provincial crown, Apr. 29 and 30, in Brandon.

Kenai Mouck of the Parkland Jr. Rangers gets a shot off against the Moose Mountain Impact of Moosomin, Sask., Saturday, during the Parkland Showcase tournament at Credit Union Place.

The Jr Rangers went on to win the tournament with a 4-2 win over the Manitoba Force of Winkler, on Sunday.

The Impact won the bronze medal with a win over the Wheatland Wild.

Last weekend, the 2013 Parkland Jr. Rangers won their home tournament, beating the Yorkton Jr. Maulers, 9-3 in the final.

The Country Barons of Virden won the B-side with a 4-3 win over the Brandon Ice Kings.

The Jr. Maulers won the 2012 tournament, with a 5-1 win over the Wheat City Wild of Moosomin.

About 100 exhibitors will be on hand for the 32nd Kin Club Business Expo, Saturday and Sunday at the Parkland Recreation Complex.

The exhibitors will be spread throughout Credit Union Place, the curling rink and the walking track, as well as the facility’s hallways.

Expo organizer Daniel Pylypchuk of the Dauphin Kin Club added there is free admission.

“We’ve had free admission for the last little while and we still have people thinking it’s a pay gate. But, no, it’s free admission,” he said, adding there will be 50-50 tickets sold during the event in lieu of a pay gate.

Pylypchuk said there is a large number of new businesses which will be part of the expo this year.

“Everytime I look on Facebook, it’s one of these new businesses, and a couple of the older businesses that have been at the expo the last few years, they’re advertising all over on Facebook, which is great, because it’s not just our club that’s promoting it, but the exhibitors themselves have taken it on. They want to make this, not just a show, but a large event,” he said.

The expo is a fund-raiser for the Kin Club of Dauphin, which will donate the proceeds to groups and organizations around the city.

The expo is open, Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Sunday, from noon to 5 p.m.

Pylypchuk noted one food vendor which has been part of the expo since the start will not be in attendance this year, but two other vendors will take the place of the original vendor.

There will also be a small animal and bird sale, Sunday at the Rotary Arena, with doors opening at noon and the sale starting at 1 p.m.

Because they have the space for it, Pylypchuk said they will take entries for the sale up until sale time.

Ethan Simons belts out an original song during Open Mic Night in the Old Fire Hall at the Watson Arts Centre, Friday.

Each performer was able to do three songs, much to the delight of the everyone in attendance.

The next Open Mic Night takes place, Apr. 28, at 7 p.m.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Auditorium in Dauphin hosted the 34th annual Gun and Hobby Show, Saturday and Sunday.

There was plenty for the public to see as they browsed the many tables offering collectibles for sale or trade.

Do you have any old photos or videos lying around the house and you don’t know what to do with them? Have you ever considered getting them digitized to make it easier to share them with family members?

Sasha Golding of Silver Frame Productions can help as she offers digitizing services to preserve your photo and video memories.

“Pretty much any type of photos or videos, I can help with organizing them, downsizing a little bit if they have a multitude of albums, for example. And then digitizing, which is typically scanning photos or converting old movie tapes or reels to a digital format,” she said.

There are a few reasons for doing this, Golding said, the most important of which is to have backup.

Tapes will deteriorate over time, she said, or photos and videos can be lost in the case of a fire.

“So, in my opinion, the number one reason to digitize and go through this process with an old collection of family photos would be to have a backup,” she said. “Once they’re digital, you can save a copy somewhere else and you can always recreate that if you need to.”

It is also a great way to have your memories organized, Golding said, which makes it easier to share with your family. A lot of the older formats of videos, for example, cannot be played on today’s equipment and finding a working VCR is a challenge.

“You certainly can’t find projectors very easily anymore and if you do, they’re not very gentle on films,” Golding said. “Converting videos, for example, to a digital format means you can easily watch them on a memory stick, computer, TV, an iPad, anything like that.”

Once photos are digitized, they can be shared with the entire family.

In 2012, Golding wanted a job which allowed her the flexibility to spend more time with her children, while getting out of the typical nine-to-five grind.

“And to something that I really enjoyed more,” she added.

When Golding first started, she thought she would simply be creating slide shows for people.

“I thought they would bring me everything digital and ready to go and I would just make the slide show,” she said.

Instead, people would bring Golding their old shoeboxes, scrapbooks or photo albums and tell her which photos they wanted used.

“And so my first step would have to be to digitize those so I could do something with them,” she said, adding people would also bring her a stack of VHS tapes.

Over the next year or two, Golding realized there were more people than she thought that needed help organizing and preserving their memories before anything could be done with them.

“So over the next few years, it evolved into a business where, I was still doing slide shows for people, but also doing a lot of the scanning work, as well, and converting,” she said. “From there, it turned into sort of the opposite. I was still doing some slide shows and keepsake work for people. But now It’s a lot more help with organizing and preserving and helping them share.”

Converting video tapes is done in real time. If a VHS tape is two hours in length, then it runs for two hours and is recorded on a computer.

“So there’s no way to speed that up,” Golding said. “Likewise, if there’s a 400-foot eight-millimetre film reel, in real time, the scanning is half an hour, but then there is some work afterwards to do the editing.”

Originally a home-based business, Golding moved Silver Frame Productions to its current location at 107A Main Street N., last fall.

“It has been absolutely great,” Golding said. “It’s right on Main Street, of course. It’s definitely a larger space, which lets me have more equipment. But more importantly, it’s a lot more accessible. It’s nice and bright. It’s been a really positive move, for sure.”

The business has been growing steadily, Golding said. The pandemic resulted in people going through their old photo albums or videos.

“I think a lot of people started realizing passing memories through generations and stories through generations is really important,” she said. “Over the last couple of years, the business has been growing because a lot more people are coming in.”

Some people, Golding said, aren’t aware of what the options are when it comes to preserving their photos or videos.

“So when they find out that there is somebody that’s a photo manager and has training in this, they’re relieved,” she said, adding people often don’t know where to start, which is something she can help with. “I can help them decide whether they want to tackle a project themselves or have help with it, or a combination of both. Sometimes people don’t have the time or the interest or computer skills or the equipment to actually do the digitizing. But they like the organizing part,” Golding said, adding other people just want to hand everything over and let her do the work, while other will scan the photos themselves and leave the videos to her.

Golding can digitize any size of negative, any size of slides, any type of photos of any age.

“Sometimes we get old photos from the 1800s in here,” she said, adding she has a wide range of equipment to handle photos or videos in any condition. “I invested a couple of years ago in a very, very specialized $10,000 scanner for digitizing old super 8 and eight-millimetre films. A lot of people don’t know that old films can be scanned and so we’re now doing a lot more of those this past year,” Golding said. “It’s really, really nice to be able to hand someone back their films from the ‘50s that they have never seen and they’re a child in them. And they’ve never seen that footage before.”

The technology, Golding said, has changed over the years. It used to be that people would use an everyday, photocopier scanner to try to scan photos.

“But now, we have a rapid scanner that scans the front and the back of the photo in the same pass and very quickly,” she said, adding thousands of photos can be scanned in a day at the good quality and the film scanning technology is much different, as well.

The company’s website can be found at silverframeproductions.ca and Golding is also on Facebook and Instagram. The business hours are Tuesday to Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Golding will also take appointments on Mondays.

“I’m really excited to be downtown now. I think that more businesses are opening and bringing people downtown is really important to me, as well,” she said. “Having an accessible store front ow where people can just drop in is really nice.”

Golding has one part time person working with her, but she hopes to add more staff as the business grows.

Golding appreciates when people support small businesses in the Parkland.

“As a small business owner myself, I know that when customers bring me their photos and videos, I’m not shipping them out to get digitized, which is what a lot of larger businesses do that do this business,” she said. “Here, nothing is shipped out. I do the work here. There is no risk of your things being lost. I’m here to answer questions, to help people with their tech help if they need. So when people help support small local businesses like this, it makes such a difference. It keeps money in the community, which then we can turn around and donate to local organizations and fund-raisers.”

People are sometimes surprised at the quality of work Golding is able to produce, receiving a lot of positive comments from her customers.

“People seem to really appreciate sitting face-to-face in the shop talking about their photos and explaining why they’re important to them and knowing that they’re going to be taken care of really well here, handled carefully. I think people appreciate that,” she said, adding everything is kept private and confidentiality is important to her.

“Those memories are going to be treated with respect. That’s really, really important to me. It’s a lot of trust that people place when they bring their, sometimes very private memories, and knowing that they can trust me with those here is really important to me,” Golding said.

The Manitoba Junior Hockey League will crown a new champion after the Dauphin Kings were eliminated from the McMunn and Yates Building Supplies Turnbull Cup Playoffs by the Swan Valley Stampeders.

Swan Valley clinched the series with a 4-1 win in game six, Apr. 4, in Dauphin, winning the series four-games-to-two.

Swan Valley built a 2-1 lead after the opening period and sealed the win with two in the third.

Kings head coach and general manager Doug Hedley felt after the Kings won game five in double overtime in Swan River, Apr. 1, that they would be the team that would come out hungry for victory.

“I thought if anything, after that game in Swan we would be the ones jumping out and they would chase the game. Instead we chased the game right off the hop,” he said. “We weren’t sharp. We weren’t on our toes. We weren’t doing things we’ve done for the previous five. Even in some of those games that we lost in the first five games, we were better.”

The Kings, Hedley said, did not get much of a forecheck going in game six.

“It happens at this time of year. It all comes down to will and fire in the belly. If you start thinking about what you’re doing when the season is over, the focus is lost. Give Swan credit. They did a hell of a job,” he said.

Hedley pointed out the Kings did not win a single game on home ice, with both victories coming in Swan River.

“I really feel bad because the fans deserve better. Our fans here, they didn’t see a win in the playoffs. Of course, we had a lot of people in Swan, but at the same time, you’ve got to protect our home ice. We should be getting breaks. On our ice, we should be getting bounces and breaks because we’re out working the opposition, not getting outworked,” he said. “I give Swan credit. They outworked us tonight.”

Trailing 2-1 in the third period, the Kings could not get anything going offensively, managing just three shots compared to Swan Valley’s 14.

That lack of urgency and desperation proved costly.

“It’s frustrating. Now the 20-year-olds are in there and they’re crying. Their junior A career is over and the rest of the guys in there see that. It’s one of those things when it’s final, it’s ended. It’s just done,” Hedley said. “It comes down to they were hungrier than we were tonight, for some reason. Bottom line is, when you get in the playoffs like that, it’s got to come from the room. You know the little things, the simple things you’ve got to do well. Tonight, I don’t think we were as good as we have been.”

The Kings were inconsistent over the course of the season. Some nights they played like they were the best team in the league. Other nights, they didn’t.

Hedley pointed out the Kings were not counting on losing players from last season such as Nick Braun and Luke Morris, who would have been top six forwards this season.

“Those are guys that we counted on being back and part of that nucleus. When you lose that kind of culture, we ended up putting some bandaids here and there,” he said. “Getting Smitty (Mason Smith), getting Brooksy (Jakob Brooks), Gougher (Mathew Gough), getting Hansy (Deepkaran Hans), I thought Hans was one of our best players in the series. He never stopped working. He cared. And when you care, good things happen. I just don’t know if we had enough guys with the passion and the fire in the belly. And it was like that all year.”

With only a handful of players returning from last year’s championship team, Hedley knew it would be a tough season.

“When you lose that many guys, it’s tough. And it’s sure not an excuse, because we played well. We beat Portage four times this year. So we were capable of being one of the best teams in this league, but you have to do it at the right time,” he said, adding the team could have quit in Swan River in game five, but they didn’t. “They wanted to win. We outplayed them in Swan. We outchanced them and outplayed them. That’s why tonight is so frustrating, because we haven’t won a game on home ice and our fans deserve better,” Hedley said.

Looking ahead to next season, the team looks good on the back end, as they only lose defenceman Owen Wareham and goaltender Dmytri Kubritskyi.

With Cole Sheffield and Marko Belak eligible to return and the signing of two goaltending prospects, there will be quite the battle between the pipes next season.

Up front, the Kings return the likes of local products Rylan Gibbs and Carter Zalischuk, as well as Logan Walker, Aaron Neal, Alex Senf, Myles Yearwood, Blake Boudreau and Ethan Williment.

Connor Picard and Riley Borody, both of whom were traded early in the season, will also return to the fold as they were sent out on loan.

“And we’ve got some real good U18 kids coming in. It’s a really exciting future coming up, for sure,” Hedley said. “And probably the next year or two, there will be more Parkland and Dauphin kids on the team than ever been in a while.”

The Kings will host their annual spring prospects camp, Apr. 28 to 30, with more than 120 players already registered.

An identification camp will be held, June 23 to 25, in Minneapolis, Minn., for American-born players.

With the season over, Hedley wishes to thank the fans for their support over the course of the season.

“It’s disappointing when you don’t get it done,” he said.

The Parkland Vipers U14 teams hosted a 12-team tournament over the weekend.

The Vipers Team 1 finished second in its pool, winning four of its five matches, with the only loss coming at the hands of the Westman Wave.

The Vipers began the playoffs with a quarterfinal match against Vipers Team 2, winning by scores of 25-13 and 25-9.

In the semifinals, Team 1 came up against the Swan Valley Smash and advanced to the final with a 25-17 and 25-16 win.

The final was a rematch with the Wave. This time around, the Vipers came out on top, 26-24 and 25-20 to win the tournament title.

Team 1 coach Blair Delamare was most proud of the way the team worked together throughout the tournament.

“Every single person had something positive that they added to the team,” she said. “They really put it together and worked together as a team this weekend.”

The Vipers, Delamare added, improved over the course of the weekend, noting they beat the Wave in the final after losing to them in the round-robin.

“We got a second chance to play them in the final and we learned from our mistakes in the first game and then put it all together for the final,” she said.

The team has improved since the start of the season, Delamare said, adding they played at the 14U level last year as 13-year-olds.

“We had some struggles, but it was definitely a learning experience. They’re right where they need to be. There’s always room for improvement, but they’re doing really good,” she said.

Team 1 won the consolation in its previous tournament, which did not sit well with the girls.

“They didn’t like that. So they worked much harder this weekend and proved that they can be in the finals and even win it. So that was great,” Delamare said.

The Vipers will be in Winnipeg this weekend for a tournament hosted by the Bisons.

Team 2 finished third in its pool after the round-robin, winning two matches, splitting two and losing one.

After the loss to Team 1 in the quarterfinals, Team 2 dropped a match to the Spurs, 20-25 and 9-25.

This left Team 2 to play for seventh place against the Cats Gold 13U team, with the Vipers coming out on top.

Dauphin Kings board member Lindsey Kyle presented the team’s Most Valuable Player Award to defenceman Owen Wareham, Apr. 6.

Wareham also won the Joe Dawson Memorial Award as Best Defenceman Award. Defenceman Anthony Bax was recognized, winning the Dauphin Herald Outstanding Character Award, as well as Most Valuable Playoff Performer Award.

Forward Logan Walker won the Bill and June Atta Boy Award, as well as the Dave Seeley Memorial Award for Community Involvement.

Other award winners were Jakob Brook and Mathew Gough, sharing the Steve “Boomer” Hawrysh Award as Most Gentlemanly Player; Carter Zalischuk, who won the Ernie Hlady Memorial Award as the Most Popular Player On and Off the Ice; Aidan Brook and Aaron Neal, who shared the Barry Trotz Award as Best Defensive Player; Nicholas Hatton, who won the Dauphin Minor Hockey Award as Rookie of the Year; Nolan Wickham and Ethan Williment, who shared the Dave Snitka Memorial Award as Most Improved Player; and Jayden Harris, who won the Johnny Kay Memorial Award as Most Inspirational Player. Gough also won the Dauphin Kings Top Scorer Award, while the Top Three-star Awards went to first star Cole Sheffield, second star Alex Senf and third star Mason Smith.