AS I SEE IT COLUMN: Southeastern Manitoba’s time to shine in sports

It’s been a highly successful time for teams and athletes from southeastern Manitoba.

Here’s a brief summary of the excellent news (with apologies to teams and athletes I might be missing).

Ste. Anne’s Larocque family helps Canada win gold at world ball hockey championships

Big-time congratulations to Ste. Anne’s Jocelyn Larocque, her sister Chantal and her dad Andy as the Larocque family extraordinaire helped lead Canada to a gold medal last week at the International Street and Ball Hockey Federation (ISBHF) Women’s Legends World Ball Hockey Championships in Czechia.

Jocelyn Larocque is a living legend in ice hockey, what with her Olympic gold and World Championship titles. She is also a world-class ball hockey player and now coach, as she was behind the bench for Team Canada, who went undefeated in the tournament.

Jocelyn’s sister Chantal Fritzsche led the tournament in scoring with 3 goals and 8 assists, which earned her All-Star Forward honours.

Their dad Andy, who was head coach for Team Canada when his daughters won gold at the 2023 ISBHF World Championships, was behind the bench with Jocelyn for Team Canada in this year’s championships. The team beat the host nation Czechia 4-1in the gold medal game.

Carillon Sultans three-peat as provincial junior baseball champions

Any time a team from southeastern Manitoba can beat teams from Winnipeg to win a provincial title, it’s a very big deal. To do it three times in a row is a massive deal. Those accolades – and many more – belong to the Carillon Sultans for their dominant performance in the best-of-five provincial finals, winning all three games over the Elmwood Giants via the mercy rule.

In the championship clinching game, the Sultans captured the Darryl Steen trophy as champions of the Manitoba Junior Baseball League thanks to 12-2 win at A.D. Penner Park.

I was fortunate to play on a junior fastball team in the mid 80’s – the A&W Pacers – that won back-to-back provincial titles so I know two-thirds of the joy the Sultans are feeling as the best junior team in the province.

After winning the bronze medal (which our Pacers also did at the nationals) at last year’s national’s, the Sultans now travel to Windsor, Ontario for the Canadian U22 national championships.

Individual kudos to Sultan’s Cedric Lagasse, who was named the MJBL Most Valuable Player at the provincial championships, for the third consecutive year. Incredibly, Lagasse has a perfect 5-0 record when pitching in championship final games.

Go get ‘em boys!

Steinbach’s Doug Penner wins provincial mid-amateur golf championship

In the final round of Golf Manitoba’s Mid-Amateur Championships at Quarry Oaks, Doug Penner shot a seven-under 65 to win by a pair of strokes.

Shooting a round in the 60’s at Quarry Oaks anytime is a fantastic accomplishment. To shoot 65 with the pressure of a provincial title on the line, when you start the final round four shots back of the tournament leader, is the stuff of which dreams are made.

It’s a great story all on its own, but makes Penner’s provincial championship even sweeter is that his seven-year-old son Liam was his caddy. According to dad, son Liam was a huge help reading putts and calming dad down in pressure-packed situations.

Another fantastic sporting family story from our corner of the province.

Well done everyone!