Out & About

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/12/2010 (5424 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

North Winnipeg Nomads took home most of the silverware at the Manitoba Midget Football League’s awards night banquet at the Norwood Hotel, Nov.24.

Nomads tailback Tyson Haines, who led the league in both rushing and scoring won the President’s Award as MVP. His team downed the St. Vital Mustangs 33-25 at Canad Inns Stadium on Oct.30 to take the midget title. It was the first win for the Nomads since 2006. They were finalists two years ago. The offensive player of the year was Nomads quarterback Justin Klaprat and top lineman honours went to Samuel Grant, also from the North Winnipeg squad.

In addition, former Nomads player Len McKay is currently attending the University of Manitoba after being the recipient of the Gary Stroppa Memorial Award and $500 toward post secondary education. Stroppa is a former Nomads coach who succumbed to kidney and liver failure in 2005.

Collin Morris, past president of the Nomads and currently vice-president of the midget program said, “this is a good story from the North End of Winnipeg.”

Haines, who would like to go on to play junior football, said, “I didn’t expect to win the MVP award but I did expect our team to win the championship. We have been working very hard this year.”

Mustang Donovan Gregoire was named top defensive player for 2010 and teammate Cameron Penner took special teams honours. Dylan Floyde of the Fort Garry Lions was named rookie of the year.

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T&C were among the small crowd that attended the Canadian Sport Film Festival showing of Pond Hockey at the Manitoba Museum on Nov. 26.

Being a Canadian group, we expected that the focus would be on outdoor hockey in Canada. Instead, the filmmakers focused on the massive outdoor hockey tournament held each winter in Minneapolis. The teams play four-on-four with no goalies. The goal is a wooden structure about eight inches high with openings at each end where a player must deposit the puck to score. This keeps the puck on the ice.

Many pro and college players including Wayne Gretzky and Atlanta defenceman Dustin Byfuglien were interviewed about their memories of playing without coaches and rules on lakes, rivers and ponds.

Former Charleswood Hawks all-star defenceman Jeff Van Norman and his father Murray enjoyed the film.  Jeff told T&C that he is an advocate of kids learning to play the game in an unstructured environment. He plans to get a copy of Pond Hockey to show to the parents of the youth team he coaches.

The 2011 US Pond Hockey Championship is slated for Jan. 21-23 on Lake Nokomis in the Twin Cities.