Windspeaker Sports Briefs - April 2013

Hockey talent sought

Officials with the television program Hit The Ice have put out a call for Aboriginal male teenage hockey players who wish to be part of the second season of the series.

As they did a year ago, Hit The Ice officials will be scouting players at this year’s National Aboriginal Hockey Championships (NAHC). This year’s Canadian tournament, which will be held in Kahnawake, Que., begins April 28 and continues until May 4.
Many of those who shine at the 2013 tourney will be invited to take part in the upcoming season of filming for the show, which is broadcast on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network.

Those who do not compete at the NAHC, still have a chance though to be part of the series. That’s because series officials will once again be accepting virtual tryouts. Application forms can be downloaded from the series Web site located at www.hittheice.tv.  The virtual tryout is open to Aboriginal players ages 16 to 18. A video of the applicant playing hockey must also be included.

The inaugural season of the series featured 13 half-hour episodes. The series follows the trials and tribulations of 20 Aboriginal players who are put through a vigorous two-week training camp led by former National Hockey League player and coach John Chabot.

Winners announced

Manitoba’s top Aboriginal athletes, coaches and volunteers for 2012 have been announced.

All of the recipients, revealed in early March, were chosen by officials with the Manitoba Aboriginal Sports and Recreation Council.

Winnipeg’s Skyler Boulanger and Logan Thacker of Ochre River were selected as the top Aboriginal female and male athletes, respectively.

Boulanger starred with her high school basketball team, the University of Winnipeg Collegiate, this past year. She led the club to an undefeated season, which ended with a provincial AAA championship.

Thacker won his award for his efforts with the Dauphin Regional Comprehensive Secondary School football squad. He was a captain for the team, which won its league championship. Thacker also played for his school’s basketball and volleyball clubs.

As for the Aboriginal coaching awards, they were won by Kelly Chinchilla of Winnipeg and Brandon’s Gavin Young. Chinchilla has coached the Anishinabe Pride, a juvenile girls’ (players ages 16 to 18) basketball team the past two years. The club competes in the Winnipeg Minor Basketball Association.

Young was certainly busy during the past year as he was on the coaching staff of five different teams. He coached the basketball, football and 8-on-8 football teams at Vincent Massey High School. And he also served as a coach with a pair of community football teams, the under-16 Team Westman and the Westman Wolverines’ major squad.

Winnipeg’s Jackie Anderson and Dennis Park of Selkirk were honoured as the top volunteers of the year. Anderson started the Anishinabe Pride basketball program in 2006 with a single team. Last year the organization had seven clubs operating.

Anderson also helped run weekly youth development basketball camps this past year. About 60 youths attended those weekly camps, which ran from January through June.

Park was honoured for his longtime involvement with the Lord Selkirk Minor Hockey Association and with Hockey Winnipeg. Park was also selected as an officer with Hockey Winnipeg last year. He serves as the vice-president responsible for programming for those players ages 12 and under.

New name forthcoming

One of Canada’s newest sports franchises caused a controversy several months before its first scheduled game.

That’s because officials with an Ottawa expansion team in the National Basketball League of Canada announced in late February that the club’s moniker would be TomaHawks.

After receiving plenty of flak that the name was racist and offensive to Aboriginals, team owner Gus Takkale revealed just a day later that the franchise would not be called TomaHawks.

Takkale said the name TomaHawks was not chosen because of an Aboriginal tool. Instead, he thought the name was catchy as it described a tomahawk dunk, a type of slam dunk utilized in the sport. The team’s original logo consisted of a basketball with wings, which was symbolic of a flying hawk.
Takkale was uncertain when the club would announce its new name. The Canadian league is finishing off its second season now. Its regular season campaign runs from November through March. With the addition of the Ottawa franchise, the Canadian hoops league will now have nine entrants for the 2013-14 season.
The existing teams in the league, which was founded in 2011, are the Oshawa Power, London Lightning, Windsor Express, Montreal Jazz, Halifax Rainmen, Moncton Miracles, Saint John Mill Rats and Summerside Storm.