Stretching for success

Growing up, 16-year-old Manon Lambert split her time athletically between hip-hop dance and soccer. But now she is pretty much focused on soccer and plays for Bonivital Soccer Club.

“I love soccer. It’s physical. It’s exciting and it’s challenging,” she said. “It demands a lot of time and energy, but the payoff is worth it.

“I play defence, mostly centre back but sometimes fullback. There is nothing like sticking a good tackle or blocking a hard shot,” she added, which must make her coaches happy.

Speaking of coaches, Manon had nothing but good things to say about hers.

Off to the skate races

Blades flashed fast and furious at Canada Life Centre on Feb. 18.

That evening, hundreds of students from 17 elementary schools in Winnipeg School Division took part in the division’s 105th annual skate races, held this year in the downtown NHL rink.

“The goal of this event is to promote physical activity, healthy living, and positive sport behaviours,” said Alyson Gysel, WSD divisional physical and health education support teacher. “Building on what students learn in class, this extra-curricular opportunity allows them to explore skating as a lifelong activity.”

This year, approximately 375 students in Grades 3 to 6 took part.

Getting kids in the ring

The North End Community Renewal Corporation (NECRC) is pairing up with the North End Boxing Club after-school program for a knock-out of a collaborative pop-up on Feb. 18, the second in a planned series of similar events with the aim to introduce more youth in the area to affordable, accessible sports and recreation.

The project is a direct result of the hard work put in by Mary Alagao, sports co-ordinator at NECRC, who said she is personally invested in creating sporting opportunities for kids in the area.

“It’s hard for kids to get into sports in the area,” she said. “(The neighbourhood is) low-income, with a higher crime-rate … Kids need things to do to get them out of crime.”

“I had experience growing up and being in sports,” the North End resident continued, adding that although her own experience doesn’t exactly compare to many others in the area and what she continues to see today, she credits it as a constant positive influence during her upbringing.

Blazing a trail

Sunthaya Chea is blazing her own trail in the local taekwondo community.

Since last September, the 10-year-old has been taking classes at Elite Taekwondo in St. Vital, following in the footsteps of her two older sisters.

But there’s one significant thing different about Sunthaya’s journey — she’s hard of hearing and takes her classes with an American Sign Language interpreter nearby. The interpreter is made possible through funding from KidSport Manitoba and the Manitoba Deaf Sports Association.

Julius Bañares, Elite Taekwondo’s owner, explained that Chea’s mom, Florence Dumaguing, approached him about her daughter taking lessons. He said he hadn’t experienced having a hard-of-hearing student in 30 years of teaching the sport and was happy to give it a try.

Giants stand tall this season

The Elmwood Giants varsity boys basketball team is living up to its name this season.

In Winnipeg Tier 2 league play, the Giants were undefeated at press time, leading to the team being ranked the top AAA boys varsity team in the province.

“Coming into the season, we had a pretty young team,” coach Patrick Gadsby said, adding that the bulk of this year’s roster are Grade 11 players, with some Grade 12 and Grade 10 players in the mix as well.

“So far, they’ve been able to answer the call as far as showing a bit of progression and understanding the moment. They’re still young, so you get nerves and lack that veteran experience.”

A great, big football family

A Windsor Park-based football team has an extra 25,000 reasons to be cheerful.

The Falcons Football Club, based on Maginot Street, was recently named one of three Canadian recipients of an NFL Forward Pass grant.

The Falcons will receive a $25,000 donation from NFL Canada to help expand access to the sport and remove financial barriers.

Coaches, players, and community members were invited to nominate their programs and share how the funding would help them grow football locally.

Annual Skate the Oval deemed a success

The 2026 edition of Skate the Oval, organized by Speed Skating Manitoba, was held Feb. 1 at Cindy Klassen Recreation Complex, 999 Sargent Ave.

The annual, volunteer-run event was split into two parts – a fundraising initiative for the speed skating association and an accessible introduction to the sport for newbies, kids and adults alike. It raised $2,000 for the Children’s Hospital Foundation of Manitoba.

Speed Skating Manitoba organizes several events and programs throughout the winter. For more information, visit speedskatingmb.ca

An Olympic upset made in Winnipeg

The name Jimmy Foster might not be familiar to many Manitoba sports fans. He did, however, play the major role in one of the biggest upsets in Olympic hockey history in 1936 – when Great Britain won gold.

Hockey historians will know that the Winnipeg Falcons captured the gold medals in the first Olympic hockey competition in 1920. In the next three Winter Olympics, Canada continued to be the best in the world. In 1924, Canada was represented by the Toronto Granites, who had won the Allan Cup, emblematic of the Canadian senior championship the previous two seasons. In 1928, the rep was the Toronto Varsity Grads, and the Winnipeg Hockey Club, a.k.a. the Winnipegs, was on top of the world in 1932. Both were Allan Cup champions. The Winnipegs lineup included future Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame members Bill Cockburn, Vic Lindquist, Walter Monson and Romeo Rivers.

A goaltender, Foster was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and came to Winnipeg with his family when he was six. Beginning in 1922-23, he played three seasons of junior for the Argonauts and the University of Manitoba and then senior with several teams, including the Winnipegs and the Elmwood Millionaires. Foster moved east for the 1931-32 season and helped the Moncton Hawks win back-to-back Allan Cups in 1933 and 1934. English hockey then came calling and Foster joined the Richmond Hawks in London. His coach in Moncton and England was Percy Nicklin, whose son Jeff won the Grey Cup with the Blue Bombers in 1935 and 1939.

The 1936 Winter Olympics were held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, with 15 countries competing in hockey from Feb. 6–16. Due to players either moving away or being unavailable, the 1935 Allan Cup champion Halifax Wolverines could not represent Canada, so the runner-up Port Arthur Bear Cats were selected as the replacement. The Port Arthur squad was bolstered with players from other Canadian teams plus former Bear Cat Jim Haggarty, who was playing in England for the Wembley Canadians.

Making a splash

The Manitoba Water Polo Association is encouraging youngsters across the province to dip their toes in the water and try the sport for what might be the first time.

The association is preparing to hold an introductory water polo program at Elmwood Kildonans Pool (909 Concordia Ave.), which will consist of a series of Monday sessions on Feb. 23, March 2, 9 and 16 from 6:45 to 7:45 p.m.

The program is aimed at young people in grades 5 to 12 who’d like to play water polo. All skill levels are welcome, and no previous water polo experience is required.

The only requirement is that participants, who will be divided by skill level, must be able to swim safely in the pool’s deep end.

Playoff magic just around the bend

It’s fully February now, and that means it’s nearly playoff time for the Manitoba Women’s Junior Hockey League.

With only a handful of games remaining, long-standing schedule maker and play-by-play announcer Michael Gerl believes it’s still anyone’s league to win.

“We’ve had one of the most competitive regular seasons I’ve ever seen,” said Gerl, who also sits on the executive and has been involved with the MWJHL for 15 years. “It’s going to be wild, with the new playoff format. We’ve had a lot of one-goal games, lots of comebacks, two-goal games with the goalie pulled. I’ve never seen it this close this late.”

The Western Predators held the top spot in the eight-team league at press time, with a 17-4-3 record, good for 37 points, while Polar Ice were in second with 33 points and a 15-5-3 record, and the Prairie Blaze weren’t far off in third, with a 13-5-4 record and 30 points in only 22 games.

Royal Knights charging towards playoffs

With only a month left in the Manitoba Major Junior Hockey League regular season, the River East Royal Knights are a lock for a playoff berth.

“I’m very happy with the team,” said Barry Bonni, longtime president of the team. “We have a chance to win every game. We certainly don’t, but we always have a chance. For the most part, even if we don’t win, it’s a very close game. It’s a fun season, and a fun team to watch.”

Once the playoffs begin, Bonni knows anything can happen, with the Royal Knights hoping to bring home a league championshipfor the first time in 25 years.

“I would never say we wouldn’t have a chance. But I know it won’t be easy. If we can get through the first round, I’d be very happy,” said Bonni, now in his 44th year with the club. “We’ve shown we can win against anybody, but we can also lose to anybody. Sometimes you just don’t match up great against certain teams.”

In the house

Charleswood Curling Club has become the new official home of the Manitoba Curling Hall of Fame and Museum, which has set up shop in the building’s second floor.

The organization was established in 1987 to “procure, preserve and promote the rich history of curling in Manitoba and to honour the outstanding accomplishments of curlers, builders, curler/builders and teams”. Today it boasts a collection of over 40,000 artifacts — everything from lapel pins to on-ice measuring sticks to club and team jackets — dating all the way back to the 1880s, when curling became an organized sport in Manitoba.

The museum was originally located in the former Hudson’s Bay Company building on Portage Avenue. When the department store closed in 2020, the artifacts there were wrapped up and kept with the entire museum archive inside a storage unit at the Canada Games Sport for Life Centre.

“From a very practical perspective, a museum space is very expensive,” said Resby Coutts, treasurer of the Manitoba Curling Hall of Fame and Museum’s board of directors. “(But) we always had a dream that we would have a museum space again.”

Trojans ‘rise to the occasion’

The Vincent Massey Collegiate varsity girls basketball team has been a slam dunk so far this season.

The Trojans boasted a 6-0 record at press time, and stood second in the Winnipeg Tier 1 regular-season standings with 12 points — just two below the Sisler Spartans, who had played one more game. (The teams were scheduled to meet on Feb. 9, after our publication deadline.) With just four games left in divisional play, the Trojans and head coach Stacy Hawash are looking forward to playoff action in their drive to repeat as provincial AAAA varsity girls’ champions.

“This group of girls is coming together quite well,” Hawash said.“We have a mixture of both Grade 11s and 12s that can definitely be a part of our starting lineup. So, we are relying on both groups. Our main leadership does come from our 12s, but our 11s are definitely stepping in and doing their job and taking a great role in where our team is going this year.”

High school teams look different year to year, as players graduate at the end of every season, but Hawash, a phys-ed teacher at the school, feels the Trojans have a healthy balance. Each player shines in her own way, and the girls love basketball, she added.

A young baller with big dreams

Kai Abelardo Wagner is a 10-year-old Grade 5 student at Arthur E. Wright School in The Maples, and he is also a multi-talented athlete.

“I play football, volleyball, and basketball,” he told me. “I am focused mostly on football because it is fun and competitive. I really enjoy making new friends on the teams I play for. Right now, I am playing flag football. I play receiver. In tackle football I play running back.

“I like these positions because I get the ball,” Kai explained. “Playing offense is fun and I like scoring touchdowns. My coaches are really good (and) I have great teammates in both tackle and flag football; we have good guys on both teams. They are fun to play with. My head coach, Jesse, introduced me to football and helped me join the Nomads Football Club. My best friend is J.J., and he is the quarterback on my flag and tackle teams.”

Kai lives in north Winnipeg with his dad Trent, mom Maricel, brothers Cade and Ashton, and sister Ava.