The Clippers football team played its first home game of the Rural Manitoba Football League season, keeping the game close before the Interlake Thunder pulled away in the second half of a 32-0 win.

The defence kept Interlake at bay for much of the first half as the Thunder only led 12-0 at halftime.

Colton Miner led the defence with seven tackles, while Lars Gudbjartson, Taylor Adcock and Blake Thacker had five each and Gudbjartson added a sack.

The Clippers struggled offensively, with quarterback Cody Zurba going 0-8 in passing.

Will Miner led the ground game with 62 yards on 19 carries. Tristan Fidierchuk had 25 yards on eight touches.

Dauphin could only muster 87 yards of total offence.

The Clippers will look to right the ship when they host the Parkwest Outlaws, Friday at 4:30 p.m.

Volleyball

The Dauphin Clippers varsity boys volleyball team saw their first action of the season, competing in the Brandon University Varsity Boys Tournament, Friday and Saturday.

Dauphin opened the tournament with a 25-22 and 24-26 split with Margaret Barbour Collegiate of The Pas and followed this up with another split, this time 24-26 and 28-26 with Neepawa.

The Clippers then faced Neelin, losing 16-25 and 15-25, and followed with a 21-25 and 22-25 loss to Weyburn.

A 24-26 and 25-21 split with Fort Richmond of Winnipeg left the Clippers in sixth place in their pool, dropping them to the C-side of the draw, where they faced Roblin’s Goose Lake Raiders in the quarterfinals, winning the match, 25-20, 20-25 and 15-12.

In the semifinals, Dauphin met another Parkland team, Ebb and Flow, scoring a 25-21 and 25-18 win to advance to the final, where they beat Margaret Barbour, 20-25, 26-24 and 15-11.

The Clippers varsity girls were in Selkirk for the Varsity Girls Royal Rumble Invitational, Friday and Saturday.

The Clippers lost all three matches in the round-robin, losing 25-15, 17-25 and 8-15 to Garden City, 17-25 and 23-25 to Vincent Massey of Winnipeg, and 14-25 and 21-25 to Jeanne-Sauve of Winnipeg.

This put Dauphin in the consolation draw, where they faced River East, scoring a 25-23 and 25-19 win.

In the semifinals, Dauphin lost to Dakota, 25-15, 12-25 and 12-15, leaving the Clippers to play for 11th place against Garden City. Dauphin finished 12th after a 23-25, 25-16 and 14-16 loss.

Although he won his weight class at the recent Western Canadian Powerlifting Championships, Riley Bertrand felt he could have done better.

Originally from Ste. Rose, Bertrand had a squat of 265-kg or 584 pounds, a bench press of 162.5-kg or 358 pounds and a deadlift of 292.5-kg or 645 pounds at the event held in Brandon, Aug. 10 to 13.

His overall weight of 720-kg or 1,587 pounds tied him with another competitor, but his overall score of 94.43 was enough to capture the gold in the 93-kg weight class, finishing .22 points ahead of the runner-up.

Bertrand was pleased he won, but he admitted he didn’t do as well as he had hoped.

“I only got my first squat. My second squat I got called on depth and then I overcorrected on my third. And then that put me in a hole going into the rest of the competition, trying to make up that ground that I lost,” he said. “So I was happy I came away with the win, but definitely not the performance I was hoping for.”

In preparing for the event, Bertrand did his usual training regimen, which included lots of heavy lifting in each of the three disciplines.

“I felt really good going into the competition. No injuries or anything. But it just wasn’t my day,” he said.

Bertrand is now eyeing competing at provincials in February or he may wait until nationals next September.

In the meantime, Bertrand plans to continue training, building more muscle to continue competing in his current weight class.

“I just finally moved up to 93-kg this year, so I’m still trying to fill it out properly with enough muscle mass,” he said.

Bertrand now lives in Winnipeg and teaches Grades 4 and 5 in Beausejour. His students, he said, think it’s pretty cool that he competes in powerlifting.

“There was a writeup about me in the Brandon Sun, after the competition, so they think I’m famous,” he said.

A local motorcycle enthusiast won the Best in Colour Award at this year’s Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

Trevor Wasylyshen was the first Canadian to win the award at the annual Dave Perewitz Show.

“The Perewitz paint show is one of the most prestigious shows in Sturgis. We took down a bike that we’ve been rebuilding since the COVID lockdowns and this bike plays at the same level as the top, top, top builders in the industry,” he said. “It’s a full 32-inch layframe road glide.”

Fifty bikes were entered in the show, which only has three awards - Best in Colour, Best Use of Graphics and People’s Choice - with Wasylyshen placing second in the People’s Choice.

“We showed up late, too, so that could have played a factor in voting. A lot of the voting was done through the cell phones,” he said.

Wasylyshen admits he was blown away by his win.

“We go down there annually hoping to win something. It’s just a very cool experience. I’ve looked up to a lot of the guys in the industry over the years and we’ve become more than just acquaintances. I talk to these guys on a daily basis and everyone was very happy for me, not only for myself, but for the guys that helped me at home here building the bike. So it was a really cool experience,” he said.

Wasylyshen had help from two friends locally and another friend from Lockport who did the paint job.

Von Knobb Kustom Paint, Wasylyshen said, is one of the best in Canada and the two have been friends for years.

“We got the first paint job from him and he’s done every bike for me since,” he said.

Wasylyshen hopes to defend his title next year with another bike that is being built for the 2024 show.

“This bike is now going to stay as a show piece for myself,” he said.

Wasylyshen thanks everyone who has supported him over the years.

“Even if names aren’t mentioned, family and friends that have stuck by my side through a lot of the crap. There’s a lot of tension when it comes up close to the show,” he said. “It’s not a local Friday or Saturday night bike meet. These are guys that are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to basically prove themselves. It’s a big ordeal. It’s definitely a huge accomplishment.”

Wasylyshen said his bike was just featured on Street Biker Magazine.

“It’s pretty cool,” he said.

A former Dauphin resident now going to school in the United Kingdom is making her mark in the fashion world.

Amelia Rempel is originally from Portage and moved to Dauphin, last year.

When she was 15, Rempel entered the cosplay community, meeting a lot of people who are creative in that industry. One friend she met attends the University of the Arts London (UAL).

“So I did some research on the University of the Arts London and found out it’s the top art school in the world for undergraduates, so for bachelor degrees. And for something that I want to get into, I thought that was perfect,” she said.

About three years ago, Rempel moved to London with her mother for business.

“And when I was out there, just the atmosphere and the people and how they prioritize creativity a lot, which is something you don’t really see here in Canada. The museums are free, there’s more creative expression out there rather than here in Canada,” she said. “Don’t get me wrong. I love Canada, but it’s moreso forests and wilderness rather than architecture and museums.”

While doing her research into UAL, Rempel decided to apply to the school, never thinking she would get accepted.

“I just did it for fun. But I ended up getting in. They only have a 22 per cent acceptance rate, so I’m really, really lucky to have been accepted into their courses,” she said, adding she is currently studying costume design, having just completed her foundation year at UAL at Camberwell College. “That’s basically like University 1. And then I applied to Wimbledon, which is the top costume design school in England. So I applied and I got in,” Rempel said.

Using missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada as her inspiration, Rempel designed a dress called The Wanderer, which was on display in Dauphin at a Meet the Artist event, Aug. 24, at the Métis Community Centre.

The Wanderer, Rempel said, was based off the myth of Melmoth, a character created by author Sarah Perry.

“It’s a myth about a person who is cursed by immortality and is cursed to forever walk the earth alone. And so The Wanderer I based off of that is an Indigenous woman who wears the dress,” she said. “And the dress is covered in articles that I found off the Internet of women that have gone missing and has their names and their ages and their stories and who they wanted to be. The Wanderer witnesses these tragedies of these women that are murdered or killed and raped and she takes on their stories, so they can pass on into their second life, essentially, without the burden of that. And her dress, as she walks across Canada, her dress gets heavier and heavier, because even as we speak, there are women going missing. There are women being taken. We, as a country, need to stand up against this.”

For their final major project, Rempel said, students were encouraged to push themselves out of their comfort zones.

“And I don’t like speaking about politics. It makes me very, very nervous. But it was an issue close to my heart because I grew up around an Indigenous tribe back in Portage, the Ojibwe, and we were close friends with the Chief, Donny Smoke,” she said.

So as she grew up, Rempel was invited to powwows and being around the Ojibwe culture.

“I thought it was so beautiful and I wanted to introduce that culture to the people in London. But as I delved deeper, I found out a lot of people didn’t know about residential schools,” she said. “They didn’t even know they existed. Didn’t know that the last one didn’t close until 1996. Didn’t know that women are still going missing to this day just because of their skin colour. And this was an issue I need to talk about, because I didn’t even know about missing women until last year.”

As someone who grew up in Canada who did not know about the missing women, Rempel feels it is important that people speak about the tragedies that are still ongoing.

So Rempel designed the dress, which drew rave reviews from people in London, many of whom thought Canada was a sort of utopia, a perfect place where nothing goes wrong.

“They don’t know the mass cultural genocide that happened just a couple decades ago. They didn’t know that people are still recovering from that. It didn’t happen a long time ago,” she said. “There are still residential school survivors that can share their story, that lived through that trauma. And to find out that they’re still trying to find all of their children now. It really changed their view of Canada. Not in a bad way, but it’s like, I guess every country has it’s flaws.”

But the issue needs to be talked about, Rempel said, adding what has happened needs to be acknowledged and we need to heal as a country, rather than just ignoring it.

The dress was on display at the Camberwell College of Arts at Wilson Road, which is the foundation school, for about a week.

Rempel was then one of eight students chosen to present her final major project on display at the Camberwell College of the Arts with other all the bachelor students.

“So it was on display for about a month, there. So about two million people would have seen it, because if you look at the statistics, lots of people go because UAL is a top art school. So you have producers and you have different companies coming in to scout out students,” she said.

To have that many people view her dress was a big surprise for Rempel. She knew it would be on display at her school, but she originally wanted to give the dress as a gift.

“Because I knew that an issue like this, a movement like this was so important to the Indigenous and Métis people. And so I wanted to give it as a gift,” she said. “And for them to give me gifts like this in return, too, to put it on display and to speak at conferences about gender-based violence, I am so grateful that they’re giving me this opportunity to speak about it. I just felt like I’ve been welcomed into the Métis community with open arms, because I am Métis myself, but when I was making the dress, a lot of people told me that I was white passing. They continuously reminded me that I looked white, so therefore I am white.”

But when she returned to Canada, Rempel was told that it doesn’t matter that she looked white, she was Métis by blood.

“And to be welcomed like that, it was really heartwarming,” she said.

The dress was purchased by the Manitoba Métis Federation, and itwill be on display at the Heritage Museum in Winnipeg next summer.

Rempel has returned to London for her second year, her first towards her bachelor degree. Her goal for this year is to push herself out of her comfort zone even more.

“This project, when I did push myself out of my comfort zone, it did cause me a lot of anxiety. But the end result was beautiful. And to see how it brought the community here in Dauphin, they invited me in like that, I want to do that more. I don’t want to be scared to do what my heart tells me to do, because this entire project, it was something that was close to my heart and I wanted to speak about it, but I was told not to. But I’m glad that I didn’t listen” she said.

It’s come down to crunch time for the Dauphin Kings.

Coming off a pair of losses in which they perhaps deserved a better fate, the team’s coaching staff has cut down the roster to 27 players, two of whom are currently injured.

Kings head coach and general manager Doug Hedley said the team played well in a 6-0 loss to the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League’s Melville Millionaires, Friday in Dauphin.

“Obviously, the rush defence wasn’t there, but I thought our energy and compete (was). We actually had more puck possession that them. We had more opportunities from the prime scoring areas,” he said. “It was just one of those games where every time they seemed to come down, we made a mistake and it went in the net. I liked the effort. Obviously, it’s a lot easier making decisions in the exhibition season when you’re losing than if you win every game. I think it’s a great evaluation tool.”

On Saturday, the Kings traveled south to face the Oil Capitals in Virden, losing 9-4.

Following the two games over the weekend, the Kings made some cuts, getting down to 27 players.

Defenceman Marco Bodnarski and forward Rylan Gage are battling injuries.

The team has been working on its defensive zone systems, as well as the forecheck in the neutral zone and will be reinforcing those in the lead-up to Friday’s season opener against the Swan Valley Stampeders.

“And try to get four solid lines to take the ice on Friday night and the backend, goaltending, just solidify everything and get some special team work going. We want to get off to a good start, so the first 10 games of the season can be very important,” Hedley said.

Some team bonding things are planned for this week to help the players become familiar with each other.

After Friday’s home opener, the Kings are on the road for the first time, Sunday, when the play the OCN Blizzard, Sunday.

Friday’s game gets underway at 7:30 p.m.

The Parkland Rangers hit the ice for training camp, last week, before heading south to Souris for the annual preseason tournament hosted by the Southwest Cougars over the weekend.

Thirty-one players, including six goaltenders, attended this year’s camp, which head coach Tyler Carefoot said was competitive.

“There’s a couple of kids from the high school team came out for some conditioning and ended up challenging our guys that were there to make the team. So overall, I was pleased with camp,” he said.

In Souris, the Rangers played three games, beginning Friday, with a 6-3 loss to the Yellowhead Chiefs.

On Saturday, Parkland began the day with a 5-1 loss to the Brandon Wheat Kings, followed by a 6-1 setback at the hands of the Eastman Selects later in the day.

Carefoot noted the team is already battling injuries, with defenceman Sam Swanton out with a separated shoulder and forward Cade Legaarden dealing with back issues.

So with 23 players making the trip to Souris, Carefoot was able to ice the same lineup for all three games, while giving his three goalies equal playing time.

“It gave me an opportunity to put guys in different situations to challenge that way, so it worked out pretty good,” he said.

Despite the losses, Carefoot was pleased with the team’s play.

“I thought, overall, for some players, they were new to U18, so they were just getting adjusted to the different pace,” he said. “But, honest to goodness, I thought we got better every period. The scores looked like blowouts, but a lot of those goals were power-play goals. So we went without playing our systems. That is stuff we’ll be able to work on as we prepare for the season,” he said. “So all in all, we actually fared much better than I was anticipating.”

With no more preseason games scheduled, Carefoot will take the next two weeks to teach the players the systems ahead of the season opener, slated for Sept. 29 against Yellowhead.

“There’s so much to teach and so much for these kids to learn, so taking the next four to six practices might be a good thing,” he said.

With the focus shifting to the season opener, Carefoot is looking forward to it.

“Most importantly for this group, I want families that want to part of the Parkland Rangers family. And I think we have that. I’m excited about our goaltending, although we still have three goalies in camp,” he said, adding there have been a few surprises, such as the play of forwards Ethan Carnegie,

Cam Sarna and defencemen Ryder Gardner and Nathan Miller, who all played well in the three games in Souris.

While Chase Glover has a spot secured in goal as a second-year player, a decision will have to be made between Ethen Myhre and Owen Martyniuk, who split the first two games.

“That’s a decision that’s not going to be made lightly, so we’re going to have to take some time with it. So we’ll probably need the next four to six practices to do so,” Carefoot said.

The Dauphin Clippers JV girls volleyball team won its first tournament of the season, capturing the title at the Elton Sabres JV Invitational, Friday and Saturday.

The Clippers finished second in their pool, opening with a 23-25 and 17-25 loss to the Gilbert Plains Trojans.

Dauphin rebounded to beat the Glenboro Panthers, 25-10 and 25-6, then defeated the Hamiota Huskies, 25-24 and 25-12, before clinching second place with a 25-7 and 25-14 win over the Carberry Cougars.

The Clippers began their march to the tournament title with a 25-18 and 25-16 win over the host Sabres, then defeated the Prairie Mountain Predators, 25-14 and 25-15 in the semifinals.

The final was an all-Parkland affair as the Clippers got a measure of revenge over the Trojans, beating the Gilbert Plains squad, 25-22 and 25-18.

The Trojans’ march to the final began with a 25-14 and 25-7 win over Hamiota in pool play.

After beating Dauphin in the round-robin, Gilbert Plains split with Carberry, 21-25 and 25-13, before beating Glenboro, 25-11 and 25-11, clinching first place in their pool.

In the quarterfinals, the Trojans beat Hamiota, 25-23 and 25-21, and reached the final with a 19-25, 29-27 and 16-14 win over Carberry in the semifinals, setting the stage for the rematch with Dauphin in the final.

Second straight loss on the gridiron

The Dauphin Clippers played well in their second game of the Rural Manitoba Football League season, Saturday, but fell short in a 36-28 loss to the Southwest Sabres in Souris.

Clippers manager Jeff Michasiw said the team played “lights out”, but fell victim to a pair of speedy Southwest players.

“They have a couple of fast players that got the ball outside and were able to beat us on the outside. So they took one back on a touchdown on that,” he said. “And then Souris had two plays where their receivers made juggling catches. Our cornerback was in the right spot. He swatted the ball, but they just made really athletic plays and were able to catch the ball. And they scored on both those plays.”

Despite falling to 0-2 on the young season, the Clippers are continuing to improve with each game, he said.

“We’re seeing improvement with game after game, so we’re not worried about the season yet,” Michasiw said.

Among things the team needs to work on is simple execution of the small things that make a team successful.

“The defence had three or four takeaways. They held them good for most of the game. Souris was, at times, struggling to get any offence going. So it’s just a full 60 minutes that we have to put in,” Michasiw said.

The Clippers will host the Interlake Thunder, Friday at 4:30 p.m.

“I don’t have too much information on how Interlake is playing right now. But the coaches are going to get to work and we’re going to come up with a game plan and hopefully, get our first W at home,” Michasiw said.

Prior to the game, there will be some presentations made to the team.

Obsolete Brewing Company hosted its grand opening, Saturday, for an appreciative crowd.

The day included entertainment by Kyle Nault, Marc Clement and Ethan Drory, as well as a bouncy castle and Mariachi Mexican Tacos and Cantina food truck.

The company offers 16 beer options, two beer cocktails and four non-alcoholic beverages.