La Broquerie hosts top high school golfers

Ty Brewster just missed out on a top finish at the Manitoba High Schools Athletic Association golf provincials, hosted in La Broquerie Sept. 25.

The Steinbach Regional Secondary School grade 12 student finished with a round of 71 on the day, good for third place. He was just one scoring hole away from Vincent Massey’s (Brandon) Hunter Oakden, who entered his final hole of the round down a stroke on the scoreboard, but eagled on command on the par five 18th to win the individual event.

Carman’s Makenzie Bartlett was the top finished for the girls event, ending with an 81.

St. Paul’s High School (total of 219) won the boys team event by four strokes and Balmoral Hall ran away with the girls event. Their total of 266 was 36 ahead of second-place Birtle.

SRSS Sabres find win column despite sloppy play

The varsity Steinbach Regional Secondary School Sabres didn’t make it look easy, but came away with their first victory of the year in the Winnipeg High School Football League.

The Sabres held off Crocus Plains 21-16 to move to 1-2 on the season Sept. 25 at A.D. Penner Park.

“It’s tier 1 football, there isn’t a bad team,” head coach Stephen Fedus said after the game, noting the Plainsmen have been playing at the top level in the province for three seasons now.

“(Crocus Plains) has been getting better every year. They play hard and they play tough. Our kids matched that today and we earned a win, so that is good. The kids can celebrate that.”

SRSS receivers commit to University of Manitoba

Two of the first three high school players to commit to the University of Manitoba Bisons this season hail from Steinbach, as receivers Ben Webster and Parker Mantie will be joining the brown and gold next season.

Both players boast great size and skill for the receiver position, standing well over six feet tall. Both also suited up for the province at this summer’s Canada Cup, and were regular targets for Team Manitoba quarterbacks.

“They’re very well-rounded and that’s what has drawn interest in them,” SRSS head coach Stephen Fedus, who was on the provincial team’s coaching staff, said.

“Their ability to block, their ability to run their ability play special teams, their ability to catch and be receivers, their ability to be in on short-yardage situations, they’ve both played offensive line when we’ve had injuries. They’re that level of athlete.”

Carillon Sports Second Shots: September 24th edition

Featuring an SRSS/Landmark girls high school soccer game Sept. 16, a Springfield Sabres football game in the city Sept. 17 and MJHL home openers in Niverville and Steinbach Sept. 18/19.

Portage Islanders leave SEMHL for a season

There will be one fewer team playing in the South East Manitoba Hockey League this season.

The league announced the Portage Islanders will be taking a one-year leave of absence this season, setting up an eight-team loop for the SEMHL’s 75th anniversary season.

The Springfield Winterhawks based out of Oakbank, Ile des Chenes North Stars and Red River Wild based out of St Jean, are all returning to play in the league.

A league meeting earlier in September also set out the schedule and playoff format for the upcoming season. Teams will play a 17-game regular season with all eight franchises playing in the first round of the playoffs.

MJHL hires long-time broadcaster Munz

A familiar face and voice to Manitoba hockey fans will be patrolling rinks across the province this winter, as the Manitoba Junior Hockey League announced they had hired Brian Munz to be their manager of league development.

Munz worked as a broadcaster for the Winnipeg Jets and was previously the play-by-play announcer for the Manitoba Moose. He was the director of communications for the Winnipeg Ice Western Hockey League franchise before they moved and also runs communications for Golf Manitoba.

“My life’s been hockey for 30-plus years at all different levels,” Munz said before the start of an MJHL game in Niverville Sept. 18.

“Getting a chance to get back to my roots and support (league commissioner Kevin Saurette) and (marketing and partnerships director Erik Swar) and the teams across the league is something I’m really excited for.”

SPORTS FLASHBACK 2002: Couple returns to Penticton for Ironman triathlon

Most couples may celebrate the anniversary of their first meeting or date with a special dinner or outing. For teachers Dale Sawatzky and Shannon Townley-Mckay, competing in triathlons is a lifestyle, and having met at the Penticton Ironman Triathlon as spectators in 2001, it was only natural they would return to B.C. for their honeymoon in 2002.

After completing the famed Ironman Triathlon in 2000, Sawatzky returned to Penticton last August as a spectator and to register for the 2002 event.

After spending several days at Penticton, he boarded a shuttle bus for the 1½ hour bus ride to Kelowna, to catch a flight home. That is where Dale and Shannon first met. Shannon was also in Penticton as a spectator and to register in person for the 2002 race, as well.

A shuttle bus is usually just a short ride, but in this case it was just long enough for the two teachers from neighboring provinces to strike a chord.

AS I SEE IT COLUMN: The NHL must ban Alex Ovechkin

In 2022 when Russia illegally invaded Ukraine, some hockey commentators were calling for the NHL to ban Washington Capital’s star Alexander Ovechkin.

While other Russian players in the NHL sought to position themselves as being against the war, even in opaque, indirect ways, Ovechkin never did.

He is buddy-buddy with Russian president Vladmir Putin, possibly the only person on earth who is a worse human being than fake Christian and convicted felon Donald Trump. Ovechkin and Putin chum around and play charity hockey games together. (Go look online for clips of Putin playing hockey. When he has the puck the opposing defensemen part like Moses at the Red Sea and the goaltender lets Putin score in the way a parent lets a young child score. It’s beyond embarrassing, or at least it should be.)

In Russia’s recently completed elections, Ovechkin showed up in Putin’s campaign ads. The NHL’s leading scorer was actively promoting someone convincingly accused of being a war criminal.

MJHL NOTES: Winnipeg Monarchs bringing in brand new staff

The Winnipeg Monarchs are hoping this is the year they take the leap into competitiveness.

The team, which joined the Manitoba Junior Hockey League in 2020 under the nickname of “Freeze,” rebranded last season. Across their five full seasons in the league, they’ve never finished better than 12th in the league standings, with last year’s 11 wins a new franchise-best mark.

The Monarchs, which play out of the Hockey for All Centre in Winnipeg, have a brand new staff this season, with Riley Dudar taking over as head coach and general manager. Zach Franko, who led the program behind the bench in 2025/2026, is now with Swift Current in the Western Hockey League as an assistant coach.

“It was a crazy off-season, but I’m having a lot of fun so far doing it,” Dudar said after their season-opener against Niverville..

MJHL NOTES: Youthful Flyers expect to improve across the season

The Winkler Flyers are hoping to improve after an unusual down season by their standards in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League.

The Flyers finished fourth in the East Division, their worst finish since the COVID-19 pandemic, and were swept in the first round of the playoffs by Niverville.

Head coach and general manager Matt Melo is in his third season with the Flyers and anticipates his team growing throughout the year.

“We’re a young group, I think we’re a strong group, but certainly there’s lots to clean up,” Melo said following a pair of defeats to Steinbach over the weekend to open their season.

Providence women ranked in nation-wide top 10

The Providence Pilots women’s soccer team continued their winning ways with a bang, improving to 4-0-0 on the season with a pair of strong victories at home Sept. 19/20.

The Pilots opened the weekend with a demolition of the Assiniboine Cougars 11-0, before defeating St Boniface 2-0 the next day. Six different Providence players scored in the 11-0 win.

The women’s team were ranked 10th in the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association rankings released Sept. 22.

On the men’s side, the Pilots found the win column for the first time this season, beating Assiboine 6-0 thanks to a two-goal performance from Ronnie Gibson.

SRSS Sabres drop to 0-2 on the season

The Steinbach Regional Sabres varsity football team went to Brandon Sept. 18, but couldn’t come back with a win.

The Sabres fell 20-7 in a hard-fought contest, as a late fumble on a third and short play with the visitors down just six points dooming any chances of a comeback attempt.

“The game was sloppy for both teams,” program coordinator Jamie Peters said in his game recap, citing some mental mistakes throughout the game as the reason for the loss.

“The field was soft, the balls were wet, the cameras didn’t work, and it was back to old-fashioned, smash-mouth backyard football. Unfortunately, the Sabres were unable to match the physicality of the Vikings.”

CARILLON SPORTS SECOND SHOTS: September 17th edition

Featuring Eastman Selects AAA training camp, a Hanover Kickers game in Winnipeg, the SRSS Sabres football home opener, Providence Pilots soccer games in Otterburne and the final pre-season game for Niverville and Steinbach in the MJHL.

CCAA men’s soccer nationals coming to Brandon

The wait will be much shorter than last time for the Brandon University Bobcats to host another national championship.

Less than 18 months after BU welcomed the top U Sports men’s volleyball teams in the country to the Wheat City and ran the table to their first national title, the Bobcats men’s soccer team was named host of the 2027 Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association championship on Thursday.

It’s BU’s third national tournament, after staging the 2016 women’s volleyball one. It’s just the third time Manitoba has hosted a CCAA national championship after Niverville welcomed men’s and women’s volleyball in 2024 and 2025 respectively.

“This is an incredible opportunity. It gives us more motivation and fire as a team to improve as a group, work harder on those off-the-field things, scouting, preparing,” said Bobcats head coach Diego Rodriguez Jr., who helped BU win its first Manitoba Colleges Athletic Conference title as a player in 2019, and defend the crown in 2021, becoming the first MCAC team to attend nationals.

Steinbach Pistons bolster line-up with blockbuster trade

One of the Manitoba Hockey League’s best young talents is coming back to the province, and he’ll be wearing Pistons blue.

Steinbach traded the rights to 2007-born forward Noah Paulsen and future considerations for Rohan Guevarra and Griffin Krone Sept. 9.

Guevarra, who was also born in 2007, was on pace for an MVP-season when he left the MJHL for B.C. last season. He had 27 points in just 13 games before the move.

“He’s one of those players, if you’re an offensive guy, you want to play with,” Steinbach head coach and general manager Paul Dyck said.