May 10, 2010.pdf - Watrous Heritage Centre

6 • MONDAY, MAY 10, 2010 THE WATROUS MANITOU
Sports and Recreation
THE POINT
On your marks, Winston
High School’s track
and field gets set to take
off this week in Watrous.
Cross your fingers and
your toes that good
weather will prevail.
Much like last week,
snow decided to join the
athletes and teachers
last year as they tried
desperately to brave the
elements. It was a strange
sight, students trying
to compete in events in
their gear while wind and
snowflakes tried to ruin
the parade. It seems like it is always hit and miss with
track.
So, in an effort to secure better weather for the event,
the solution I have come up with is to hold it the same
time as the Watrous and Manitou Beach Fun Run Auto
Show and Shine.
Talk about perfect timing on organizer Jason
Lindgren’s part as he somehow manages to get perfect
picture days every year and knock on wood for that to
continue. While it obviously does not work to hold track
and field so late in the year after school is finished, it is
the best solution I could think of to avoid the crummy
weather.
For those who qualify at the meet, pre-districts will
take part May 18 and districts hit the track May 25.
Also getting into the swing of things is ball. There
are local teams competing in various age groups with
some in city leagues. Clubs will be playing games in
town and for the avid ball fan or supportive grandparent,
there is nothing like catching a game with a handful
of sunflower seeds during a nice evening.
Moving to the frozen pond, Halakamania ran wild
into the beginning of round two in the NHL playoffs.
The ‘Cinderella’ team of this year’s playoffs, the Montreal
Canadiens, just continue to keep ticking courtesy
of netminder Jaroslav Halak. However, Pittsburgh
tender Marc-Andre Fleury stole a page out of Halak’s
book in game three, stone-walling Montreal.
On the other side of the country, Vancouver also
came out of the gates flying but the ‘Hawks kept
Roberto Luongo and the team at bay in game two and
managed to claw back into the series. Both Canadian
series in the second round have been a roller coaster of
emotions for respective fans.
For me, my heart and my stress level have gotten
quite the break after the Flames were ousted before the
playoffs even began. In that regard it has been nice to
get some sleep at night, but I would take even less sleep
than I get now to see them in the playoffs. Like the saying
that has been all too familiar for other fans - namely
ones who put on the blue and white and the blue and
gold: there is always next year!
But I guess after the ‘Riders came oh so close, Team
Canada lost at the world juniors and Canada won gold
in the men’s hockey at the Olympics in thrilling fashion,
the break is probably a good thing.
Switching gears, I have to ask, would you consider
watersliding a sport
I sure do and got to enjoy one of my favourite pasttimes
a couple of weekends ago as we celebrated my
wife’s birthday. The last time I went watersliding was
quite a while ago, so I was eager to meet up with a ‘long
lost friend.’
That friend happens to ‘live’ at the Sheraton in Saskatoon.
It was definitely a good time and brought back
memories as a kid sliding down the waterslide with
precision and speed. Of course when we were younger
it was all about who could make it down the fastest
without getting pounded on and who could stay in the
pool the longest.
On one of the runs down, I caught up to my sister-inlaw
who, upon seeing this object hurling towards her,
screamed her head off. Needless to say, her head and my
knee met each other so after that, a cautious approach
was taken by one of us, at least briefly.
I first want to clarify for those reading who are involved
with waterslide supervision, I obeyed the rules,
at least to the best of my knowledge.
Alright, now that I settled that matter, once we
finished up I came back to the table to find my shirt had
taken a swim of its own. Of course, it was aided by my
sister-in-law Stephanie who felt it needed to be cleaned.
After she thought she had gotten the upper hand, we all
proceeded to leave for the night. Steph, not paying attention
to what was going on got a little ‘too close’ to the
edge of the pool and ‘somehow’ fell in, towel and all.
So for those of you who said no when I asked the
question of whether watersliding is a sport, I think I
may have made a case for it. An Olympic sport Prob-
AFTER
See page 7: THE POINT AFTER
Watrous Xtreme season a success
submitted by Trudi Riach,
Watrous
A group of nine young
girls joined together in
December to form the first
club volleyball team for
Watrous. Although the
majority of the girls were
13 years old, they played at
the 14U level to challenge
their playing skills.
Sask Volleyball allows
each team to play a maximum
of five tournaments
throughout the club year
in order to qualify for the
provincial championship.
The Xtreme team achieved
great success at these tour-
By Daniel Bushman
TWM
With a growing population in and around the area
and more and more events taking place at the Watrous
Sportsgrounds, people will soon be able to park it for a
while.
Watrous recreation director Trevor Ouellette said
after some discussion, a new park is being constructed
to help accommodate families using the sportsgrounds.
So far, “we went over a few site proposals to see which
would be the best way to go. We have a preliminary
budget drawn up and generally we want to make it a
park atmosphere.”
Watrous Xtreme club
has nine players, seven
from Watrous: Morgan
Amendt, Maddison
Croshaw, Kyla Fidelack,
Hayli Riach, Holly Mc-
Grath, Alexa Westby, and
Jensen Lewis, as well as
Kayla Dieno of Young, and
Celine Selby from Weyburn.
They are coached by
Bill and Trudi Riach.
The girls are participating
in Western Canadian
Championships the weekend
of May 6 to 9 in Saskatoon
at the Saskatoon
Kinsmen Henry Ruys Soccer
Centre in Saskatoon.
Idea of new park a home run
Double donations
naments, usually qualifying
in the top half of the
play-off structures, coming
up against the best
teams in the tournament.
The team came away with
third place hardware from
the Yorkton tournament.
The biggest highlight
of the season so far has
been the Saskatchewan
Provincial Volleyball
Championships in Saskatoon
the weekend of
Apr. 16 to 18. After coming
out first in one of the
five pools, the team was
pooled with all the top
teams from these pools.
The future playground to be located in the sports grounds
received a generous boost. On behalf of Centennial Ford,
Earl Amendt Jr. and Michelle Amendt donate $2,500, while
Don Campbell and Gerald Merrifield present a cheque for
$500 on behalf of Mainline Motors to recreation director
Trevor Ouellette. As of last week $8,200 had been raised.
-TWM photos by Daniel Bushman
In a second round-robin
pool, Watrous Xtreme
came out first. That put us
into the playoff structure
on Sunday. After three
hard fought matches, all
going the full three sets,
the Xtreme was off to the
gold medal game. The first
set was an evenly-matched
game, in which the Xtreme
fell 29-27. The second set
went to the Regina club
with Watrous winning the
silver medal in the Tier 2
division. It was a very long
and tiring weekend, with
the team playing 23 games
of volleyball in two days!
The playground area, which will be north of the curling
rink, will consist of an area about 50’ x 50’ and will
contain a large ‘toy’, benches, trees and in the future a
sheltered gazebo.
Sportsground playground committee member Terri
Amendt said in order to have the park, “This will require
significant funds, but already many generous donations
have been made by local businesses.”
The committee is looking to get $32,000 in total for
the project, which includes all the accessories that come
with it.
While Ouellette and the committee are aware of the
park on the outskirts of the sportsgrounds, he said they
made the decision to build the new area for two main reasons.
“The existing playground north of diamond four is
not the greatest location because kids have to leave the
sportsgrounds and the equipment is long overdue to be
replaced.
See page 7: PARK IT
Extreme
dreams
In its first year, the
Watrous Xtreme club
has made some noise,
including making it to
provincials. The squad
has nine players: (back
row) Hayli Riach, Kayla
Dieno of Young, Alexa
Westby, Morgan Amendt;
(middle) Holly McGrath,
Maddison Croshaw,
Jensen Lewis; (front) Kyla
Fidelack and Celine Selby
of Weyburn. They
are coached by
Bill and Trudi Riach.
-photo submitted