The Virden Oilers have already begun their SWBL baseball season with a game in Souris this past Wednesday versus the Cardinals ,with their next game going tonight in Elkhorn
against the Expos. The diamond is quickly taking shape and looks greener now with all the rain we've had while the dugouts are about half completed.
Manager Dez Koop andcoaches Brett Braybrook and Kerry Sawyer are very satisfied, not only with the number of players who have come out, but with their level of skill as well.
The team has had an excellent response for support from the town council and community businesses as over 60 sponsors have already committed to help out the first year team
financially, which will be used to acquire the many things that are needed such as new uniforms, a sound system and equipment.
There has been a minor schedule change, the Oilers first home game will now be on Monday, June 8 against the Boissevain Centennials with their next home matches still set forJune 10, 12 and 14.
The Golden Bears' baseball season came to an abrupt end when the Reston Tigers defeated them in zone play this week. The Tigers then lost out to the powerful Boissevain Broncos, but not before
giving them a very strong game. The Broncos will now represent Zone 9 at the provincials being held in Baldur.
In front of a boisterous sell-out hometown crowd, not to mention a national TV audience, the Portage Terriers won the RBC Cup, emblematic of junior "A" supremacy in Canada. With
a very strong local flavour in their line up, Virden's Landon Peel and Elkhorn's Brett Orr and the Bowles twins, Shawn and Brad, the team's year long best laid plan came to fruition
as they proved to the nation that they were indeed the best team in the land, hands down. Congrats, they'll remember this for the rest of their lives.
The last time a Manitoba team won this national championship was 41 years ago, way back in 1974 when the Selkirk Steelers won it all. Trivia time, what Manitoba team won it before that date?
Bryn Chyzyk will have a new head coach when he returns to the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks as his former bench boss, Dave Hakstol, has been named the coach of
the Philadelphia Flyers.
The announcement came as a surprise to many as not too many university coaches make the big jump right straight into the NHL, but GM Ron Hextall must
feel he can do the job.
Now maybe his job is on the line.
The NHL playoffs are down to their final four teams and, in reality, any one of the remaining teams are quite capable of winning it all, but I have to go with the Lightning and the Ducks. With the
kind of success they have enjoyed over the past few seasons, one should know better not to bet against the Hawks with Toews and Kane in the line up but Anaheim's big boys look
too strong and powerful.
As far as the other series goes, goalie Ben Bishop looks unbeatable as Tampa Bay is looking better all the time.
You know you have way too much money (and not enough common sense) when you start planning to build a huge tennis stadium, now wait for this...underwater.
Some very wealthy Middle East "fools" are seriously contemplating one off the coast of Dubai. What will they come up with next?
Trivia answer, the Portage Terriers, oddlyenough, in 1973. I remember them well.
Until next time....
