“Try your best and you can win”

Grant Hrehirchuk is a 15-year-old Grade 9 student at River East Collegiate.

“School is good,” Grant said. “My favourite class is science.”

Grant loves sports. He plays hockey, soccer, baseball, and basketball.

“I am most focused on hockey and it is my favourite sport, too,” he said. “I like to do my goal cellies. I play forward because I like to score. Coach Halle in hockey is the best. Coach Faith at soccer is great, too. I like when she does the warm up. I hope to keep playing all the sports I love to play.”

Feeling the soccer love

Two high school soccer teams — one in southeast Winnipeg and the other in the West End — have been kicking up a storm recently.

That’s because the Manitoba High Schools Athletic Association’s AAAA provincial soccer championships were held on the first weekend of June.

In the girls’ championship game, Centre scolaire Léo-Rémillard beat Kelvin High School 5-2, while Daniel McIntyre Collegiate Institute defeated West Kildonan Collegiate 2-1 in the boys’ championship game.

It’s the second year in a row the Renards have brought home the championship banner in the girls’ category. And the fact it was also a finalist two seasons ago is a testament to the legacy everyone involved with the team is creating.

Harbour View in review

I was picking up some auto parts for my kid’s car the other day in sunny Transcona, and while driving home along Springfield Road, I saw the gate for Harbour View Golf Course. I have fond memories of attending many weddings and a few retirement parties in the Icelandic themed social facilities. However, I had never golfed the course that surrounds the facilities and the adjacent man-made lake. Since I had time on my hands this day, I decided it was as good a day as any.

While parking, I noticed an ATCO trailer in the lot. A foreboding sign of what I would experience later. There was no one in the trailer, and no signage, so I continued down the path. Passing the lawn bowling green on the right, I noticed the fenced off remains of the aforementioned social buildings. Time has not been kind to these buildings, and basement design flaws have allowed the fake lake to do what water often does to buildings. Flooding and mould concerns have condemned the lot and they are now slated for demolition. As I walked along the fence line, I noticed another small building on top of a small hill with a sign for #1 tee. I thought this was the club house. It was not. I was told by the starter to go back to the condemned fence line, and go to a little building on the edge that was not within the fence’s perimeter. This turned out to be the clubhouse. I asked if the washroom was close, and the attendant said no. He then directed be to some portable facilities back down the path by the parking lot. Joy. If you have trouble walking a full game, this course may not be for you, as there are no motorized carts available, and the course does have some small elevation changes.

Returning to the starter for the second time, I noticed some of this course’s additional, if few, amenities. There is a mini-put course, a driving range, and a practice green. All of these surround the first tee. After the starter cleared me, I was off. This course is a par 3 course, and the first hole is 100 metres of simple, straightaway golf. It is too bad, from a teaching point of view; if you are out there with someone learning the game, this would be a great second or third hole to practice on and let other players play through. The second hole is simple in design as well, but it is almost double the length. Some challenge comes on hole three, as the fairway and green elevate from the tee. Hole four, the day I played it, had an interesting hill with a sand trap on top partially obscuring the base of the green. Right of the green is an abnormally large grassed embankment that if you sliced into, your ball would likely roll right back onto the green.

The fifth hole is the shortest, and it is a downhill roll. Watch your club selection, as you can easily overdrive the green, and water finally shows up as a behind-the-dance-floor hazard. I found most of the greens had some damage here and there, but the damage of this hole was very noticeable. The walk to hole six is very picturesque, and there’s lots of local geese in residence enhancing your views of the waters.

Olympiens bring home softball bronze

The Collège Jeanne-Sauvé Olympiens won the bronze medal at the Manitoba High School Athletics Association’s provincial softball championship on June 6, defeating Vincent Massey (Brandon) 3-2.

The Olympiens beat Hamiota 8-3 to advance to the semifinals, where the team lost 10-0 to the eventual champion Stonewall team. Olympiens Linnae Johnson and Brooklyn Millroy were also named to the provincial all-star team.

Local football players get a taste of the big leagues

Two Winnipeg Rifles hope their Canadian Football League training camp experience with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers will have them locked and loaded for the 2026 Canadian Junior Football League season. Linebacker Cohen McCluskey and receiver Jarome Penner earned the coveted invitations with strong junior performances in 2025.

Penner was a First Team All-Canadian in 2025, thanks to 40 receptions for 794 yards and three touchdowns in eight games. Despite missing three games, McCluskey registered 26 tackles, one sack and one interception. He holds the Rifles record with three interceptions in a 2024 game.

“The off-season was about two months shorter because Bomber camp starts in May rather than Rifles starting in July, so I had to shorten up all my training blocks,” Penner, a Dakota Collegiate alumnus, explained. “I focused mainly on transferring my strength into speed and power and being more efficient.”

“I was told by (head coach) Geordie (Wilson) this offseason to be ready because it might be happening, so I trained all offseason after recovering from my shoulder injury just on my own,” McCluskey added.

A look at Manitoba’s best soccer teams

Over the next five-plus weeks, the FIFA World Cup will be front and centre in the sports world. Forty-eight teams will play 104 matches in the international competition being played in Canada, USA and Mexico. For most of the world, it’s a football championship. For North Americans, the sport is soccer.

In this week’s column, let’s first deal with the terminology for the world’s most popular sport. Both terms are correct with soccer first used in Great Britain as a shortening for association football. Rugby football was called rugger. In the United States, a sport called gridiron football combined elements from association football and rugby. That’s the sport Americans and Canadians now call football. When a Winnipeg team won its first Grey Cup in 1935, the team now called the Blue Bombers was officially the Winnipeg Rugby Football Club.

Now seems to be an appropriate time for Memories of Sport to remember our province’s best soccer teams. In 1999, the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame inducted its first soccer team, the 1954 Army Navy Air Force Scottish. The ANAF squad won the provincial title by beating United Weston and Germania, then defeated Port Arthur United and Hamilton British Imperials to reach the national championship. In the best-of-three series against Vancouver North Shore United, Scottish won the first game 3-2. In the second match, 22-year-old keeper Walter Norget led Scottish to a 3-0 victory. Centre Jimmy Pines and centre-half George James, who had played in the First Division in Scotland, were the leaders of the eleven.

In 2004, when the HOF held its first special veterans induction, five teams from the past were recognized. In 1913, the Norwood Wanderers Football Club from St. Boniface won the first Dominion of Canada (national) championship beating teams from Montreal, Toronto, and Fort William. The Wanderers repeated the next season in the four-team Challenge Cup tournament. In 1915, Winnipeg Scottish beat the eastern rep Toronto Lancashire to bring the title to our province for the third straight year. The teams first played to a 0-0 draw before Scottish won the second match 6-1. George Mair and Charles Forsyth both scored twice and William Corrie and Jock Anderson added singles.

J.H. Bruns student stays focused on the pitch

Alessa Guzzi is a 15-year-old Grade 9 student at J.H. Bruns Collegiate.

“School is good,” Guzzi said. “I have great grades and great friends. My favourite class is science. I am very interested in biology.”

Alessa has always been very active and locked on to her favourite sport since a very young age.

“I have been fully focused on soccer since I started playing when I was three,” she said. “I started playing club soccer at U9 at Bonivital Soccer Club.”

Glenlawn wins big at high school pickleball championships

Two pairs of Glenlawn students recently served up success at the Pickleball Manitoba high school championships.

On May 14 at The Picklr Winnipeg South (262 Commerce Dr.), the pairing of Carlos Mendez and Jayden Lalla won gold in the boys’ doubles category. In girls’ doubles, Jessie DeCraene and Addisyn Courchaine won silver.

In the competitive divisions, there were 29 pairings in the boys category, 25 in the girls, and 10 in the mixed doubles.

“It feels good,” Mendez, 17 said. “We’ve been working really hard and going every week to play pickleball.”

Pirates capture flag football title

The Grant Park Pirates are the champions of the Winnipeg High School Football League’s inaugural boys flag football season. J.H. Bruns Broncos were the runner-up.

Launched in conjunction with the Manitoba High Schools Athletic Association, Football Manitoba, and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, the inaugural season featured teams from seven schools across Winnipeg.

According to league commissioner Jeffrey Bannon, next year the league is looking to expand, including rural schools, a co-ed division, and more, with a goal of having over 2,000 kids playing.

“The longer term goal is to amalgamate with the Blue Bombers Girls league to create one super High School Flag Football League across the province,” Bannon said. “Everyone is working together to ensure everyone who wants to play can and it’s a joy to watch, especially those playing for the first time.”

Club volleyball champs crowned

Volleyball Manitoba held its 2026 club volleyball championship tournaments on four successive weekends from mid-April through the beginning of May.

On the weekend of April 17 to 19, the 14U boys and girls tournaments were held in Winnipeg and Niverville. The winners were:

14U girls – 1) Jr. Bisons Gold; 2) WinMan Storm; 3) WinMan Waves.

14U boys – 1) WinMan Bolts; 2) WinMan Ice; 3) Jr. Pilots.

For a guy who says he’s not a fanatic…

The Canadian Oxford Dictionary defines a fan as “a devotee or admirer of a particular activity, performer, etc.” with the example “hockey fan.’ It adds that it’s an abbreviation of fanatic. The first definition of fanatic is “a person filled with excessive and often misguided enthusiasm for something.” A second, informal definition of fanatic is “a person devoted to a hobby, pastime, sport, etc., and the example used is “curling fanatic.”

Despite following, playing and reporting on sports for much of my life, I would never define myself as a fan, let alone a fanatic. Perhaps the closest I came was during the early years of the WHA Winnipeg Jets, when I shared season tickets with a group of friends and admired the play of the Hot Line of Bobby Hull, Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson.

You won’t see me at a Jets game dressed in white like the fanatics who participate in playoff White Outs to support their team. I follow the adage that white is not to be worn before the May long weekend or after Labour Day.

On May 19, a new book titled Big Fan was released with the subtitle Two Friends, 82,490 Miles, and the Wild, Wonderful Sports We Love. The authors are television writer, producer and director Michael Schur, the winner of three Primetime Emmy Awards, and sports journalist Joe Posnanski, who was twice named the best sports columnist in America by the Associated Press sports editors.

En garde!

When Jasper Fosty was asked how it felt to bring the gold medal in cadet men’s sabre at the Canadian national fencing championship in Quebec City earlier this month, he didn’t miss a beat.

“It was an unreal feeling,” said the Grade 10 Kildonan-East Collegiate student. “It took a little while to sink in. I took off my mask, walked over to my coach. I was smiling a little, and he said, ‘You’re the national champion!’ Then it felt real.”

Fosty started fencing in 2021. An only child whose parents work throughout the summer, he first picked up the sabre at summer camp and quickly found an affinity for the sport.

“I felt like a natural at it,” Fosty, 15, said. “Within the first year I was on the provincial team.”

Sports news in brief – week of May 20, 2026

Lawn bowling season kicks off

Bowls Manitoba will host its third annual season-opening fours tournament at 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 23 at the Dakota Lawn Bowling Centre, 1212 Dakota St.

Played on an artificial green, the tournament will bring together club members with former provincial champions and other leading players.

Clubs from Brandon, Gimli and Winnipeg, including Tuxedo, St. John’s, Norwood and St. James, have each provided two teams of three players. To make a foursome, each team will be assigned a skip who has competed at the provincial and/or national level. Games will be 10 ends, with each player delivering two bowls. All teams are guaranteed three games.

A pleasant round in the valley

I try to focus on rural nine-hole courses in this space. Last fall, while closing down the cottage at Pelican Lake, the weather was almost summer-like – 20 degrees, clear skies, and no wind. A call for a break from closing-up duty led me to one of my two favourite childhood golf courses (the first being Roland).

While playing, I noticed that holes 4 and 5 had had some recent modifications – which is a good excuse to write about the course. So, at the south end of Pelican Lake lies Pleasant Valley Golf Club.

The club is surrounded by a busy cottage area. There is a small clubhouse and restaurant, and a small driving net to warm up in. There is a large practice green, and a very large fleet of motorized golf carts. This impressive fleet allows the club to host many tournaments throughout the season. In 2009, Pleasant Valley course was being picked as one of Canada’s best public courses by Score magazine.

These days, Pleasant Valley is an 18-hole course, having expanded into the valley face decades ago. The back nine is a story in its own right, but the first nine still draws players from all over Manitoba for folks wanting challenging play. Today, I will discuss just the front nine.

Budding catcher loves playing ball

Lincoln Jeter Bowie is an eight-year-old Grade 2 student at École Springfield Heights School and an aspiring baseball player.

“I am mostly focused on baseball. Like all the other sports I like, it is fun and it gives me good exercise,” he said. “I used to play for the Elmwood Giants, now I am playing for the Gateway Flyers. Our coaches are really good, and I like our team. We have a good group of players.”

“I have played all the positions in baseball. My favourite position though is backcatcher,” he said, then went on to explain why.

“I like how the whole game is in front of you and how I am involved on every pitch. I like the relationship between the catcher and the pitcher. I also like the different defensive things I do as a backcatcher,” he said.