Courtesy of sjhl.ca

The SJHL Board of Governors are pleased to announce they have agreed to a new two-year contract extension with Commissioner Bill Chow.

“The SJHL Board of Governors agreed to extend the contract” stated Chairmen of the Board Rick Shultz of Chow.

The new deal will keep Chow in position for the 21-22 and 22-23 SJHL seasons.

“Over the past 10 seasons Bill has been able to lead the SJHL through unprecedented times” stated Shultz.

The SJHL is on the verge of coming out of Covid-19.  Along with Bill, the Board of Governors and the teams, the SJHL is looking forward to getting back on the ice for the 21-22 season.

With Covid restrictions lifting in Saskatchewan, the Phantom Lake Golf course will once again be offering junior lessons.

Cost is $20.00 for 4 lessons.

You can sign up in age groups for each half hour lesson.

The lessons will take place on July the 10th and 11th and the 17th and 18th.

Call the Pro- Shop to register at 306-688-5555.

Parents are urged to attend.

The Flin Flon Bombers want to thank everybody who contributed to a very successful boat draw which wrapped up on Tuesday.

The draw was completely sold out and congratulations to Greg Friesen who had the winning ticket no. 1687.

The fundraising efforts continue with a new 50/50 draw, which the hockey club announced earlier today.

The draw will be done online and tickets are 1 for $5.00, 10 for $10.00 and 60 for $20.00.

Draw  date is Monday August the 2nd at 6:30.

Must be a Manitoba resident or physically in Manitoba to purchase tickets.

You can find the link on the Bomber website or their facebook page.

Congratulations to former Flin Flon Bomber Assistant Coach Gary Childerhose who has landed back in the SJHL.

Childerhose is the new Assistant Coach with his home town Battleford Stars and brings a lot of experience to his new post.

Gary spent three seasons in the SJHL as a player between 2007 and 2010 with the Melfort Mustangs before moving on to play college hockey for 4 seasons for Geneso.

2014,  was the year that Childerhose would arrive in Flin Flon where he spent 5 seasons behind the Bomber bench.

He was extremely popular with the players, fans and sponsors and developed a very good reputation right across the SJHL.

Childerhose landed the Head Coach and GM position in Kindersley in 2019 but had to step down due to personal reasons. 

The Battleford Stars are thrilled to have Gary join their program and Head Coach and GM of the Stars, Brayden Klimosko had this to say on social media.

"He is a local guy that has had lots of success in the SJHL with being an assistant in Flin Flon. He has a wealth of experience for moving players on to the next level including 17 players getting Div 1 NCAA scholarships. I am excited to learn from Garry and it should be a great partnership.” Brayden Klimosko Head coach/Gm

Courtesy Of Flin Flon Minor Hockey

Joie Simon- winner of the Hockey Manitoba George Allard Memorial Scholarship

Joie is from Flin Flon and played this past season for the Yellowhead Chiefs Female U18 AAA. Joie is an outstanding student who has maintained an academic average of 96 per cent or higher during her four years at Hapnot Collegiate. Joie moved six hours away from home so she could play in the Yellowhead region for the U18 AAA Chiefs. This speaks to her level of commitment, adaptability and dedication to the sport as well as her personal goals. She was voted captain of the team and has always been a caring teammate. In addition to playing high level hockey, Joie contributed regularly to school programs and volunteered at local sporting events. Joie has applied to attend the University of Saskatchewan this coming fall.

Blake Alexander- winner of the Norman Regional Hockey Association Male Official's Bursary.

Blake will be attending Humber College in Toronto, Ontario in the fall in the Professional Golf Management program.

Congratulations Blake for all your dedication and hard work both in school and on the ice! FFMHA wishes you good luck next year !!

Lauren Fox- Winner of the Kenneth R Stiles Memorial Scholarship.

The scholarships are awarded annually to members of the Hockey Canada Officiating Program to help offset the cost of post-secondary education, supporting their efforts to reach their university or college goals, and to reward their interest in mentoring the next generation of officials.

Lauren currently attends the University of Alberta and is a former official of the FFMH system and was one of the top officials who was called upon in lots of different events and levels.

The OCN Blizzard have rescheduled their prospect camp for the weekend of July the 23rd to the 26th at the Gateway Arena in Winnipeg.

Due to Covid 19 restrictions the Blizzard will limiting the number of players they can have on the ice at one time.

You must register by Thursday July the 10th by filling out out the application on the OCN Blizzard website.

Then e-mail it to keane5@mymts.net. Cost to register is $160.00

The first ice session is Friday July the 23rd in the afternoon. Players are guaranteed 4 one hour ice sessions involving practise and games.

This is open to players born between 2002 and 2006 and any questions can be directed to Head Coach and GM Billy Keane at 204-250-5565 or keane5@mymts.net.

Flin Flon Minor Hockey is very much looking forward to getting back on the ice this fall and are looking for rep team coach's for the 2021-22 season.

Coach's will be needed for the U-11, U-13, U-15 and U-18  A teams.

If you are interested,  you must complete the attached coaching application on the Flin Flon Minor Hockey website by Sunday June the 27th.

E-mail it to technicaldirectorffmh@gmail.com

Flin Flon Minor Hockey is offering a new program for any kids that would like to try hockey for the first time.

It is open to kids 6 to 10 and is called the first shift program in conjunction with the Winnipeg Jets.

This program is focussed on fun and designed to help your child fall in love with the game of hockey.

For $229.00 you will get 6 on ice sessions, head to toe equipment including skates, personalized equipment fitting and education and special experiences offered by the Winnipeg Jets. 

There will be eight sessions offered for FFMH and they will take place at the Creighton Sportex beginning October the 24th.

You can register at firstshift.ca.

Football fans in Canada have a reason to get excited again as the Canadien Football League will make it's return later this summer.

The league confirmed earlier this week that it's board of governors had voted to resume play on August the 5th., getting back on the field for the first time since the 2019 Grey Cup game.

They didn't play any games in 2020 because of Covid 19.

The league's first game will be a re-match of the last Grey Cup game played between the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Hamilton Tiger Cats with the Bombers winning 33 to 12.

This was the Blue Bombers first Grey Cup Championship since 1990.

There will be no exhibition games this year.

The newly renamed Edmonton Elks will play their first game Aug. 7 hosting the Ottawa Redblacks. All four East Division teams will play the first two weeks of the season in Western Canada as some West Division clubs are expected to be able to host fans sooner and in greater numbers as the season gets underway.

The '21 schedule will also feature the traditional Labour Day matchups. The Redblacks will host the Montreal Alouettes on Sept. 3 while Winnipeg will visit the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Sept. 5

The Toronto Argonauts will battle the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Edmonton Elks will play the Calgary Stampeders to round out the weekend on Monday September the 6th.

It has been a tough go on local sports the last couple of years due to Covid and hit the Creighton Kodiak football team especially  hard.

The Kodiaks had locked up another Northern Saskatchewan Football Championship in 2019 and looked poised to have a powerhouse going into 2020.

As we all know,  Covid hit and it would over take the world and devastate local sports everywhere  not to mention take away the Kodiaks chance's  at repeating as Northern Saskatchewan Football Champions.

There does appear to be a light at the end of the tunnell and the Northern Saskatchewan Football League will return this fall.

5 players will not get the opportunity to put the Kodiak jersey on again as they have age'd out and will graduate on Friday.

Congratulations to Blake Alexander, Austin McLean, Aidan Collard, Brady Carmichael and Kiara Straile whjo were all big parts of the Kodiak program the last few years.

Head Coach and GM of the Kodiaks Ryan Karakochuk says these players will be recognized on Friday for their contributions.

It was a successful return to the mat for Flin Flon's Carson Lee who picked up a Silver medal at the Pan American games in Mexico. This is the second time that he has captured Silver at this event.

Lee has had to wait 15 months to get back into competition due to Covid.

Carson was competing in the 79 KG and helped Canada finish third in the team standings.

Unfortunately,  the event in Italy has been cancelled due to low numbers so now he is off to Michigan to train.

Next up will be the World Championships in Russia in August as Carson winds down his career as a Junior before he ages out.

You can support Carson by donating to his go fund me page on social media. Anyone who donates will have their name added to his City Of Flin Flon flag that he takes with him to all his competitions.

As Covid restrictions continue to lift in Saskatchewan, the Phantom Lake Golf Club is ready for their first big event of the year.

The Trout Festival Golf Tournament will take place on Saturday July the 3rd with tee times starting at 9.

This is open to all players including Seniors, Ladies, Men and Juniors with a limit of 72 players.

Entry fee is $60.00 and includes prizes and dinner.

There will also be a long drive and closest to the hole competition.

Book your spot by calling the Pro-Shop at 306-688-5555.

More details are being released from the SJHL Coach's meetings which took place this past weekend in Nipawin.

It has been a long process due to Covid, losing a season and a half, but with a lot of work, patience and deication from the 12 teams it looks like the SJHL will make a healthy return.

The league announced thay will be back on the ice for September the 24th to kick off their regular season.

Things will look normal just like they did before Covid with a 56 game schedule highlighted by the SJHL Showcase and the MJHL/SJHL Showcase in Winnipeg.

The board of directors and the league coach's will be meeting soon to put together this year's schedule.

Here is a complete list of all the important dates for the 2021-22 season courtesy of sjhl.ca

• Sept 24^th– Start date of SJHL regular season
• Oct 4, 5, 6 – SJHL Showcase in Warman
• Dec 19^th – Start of Christmas break
• Dec 27^th – Return from Christmas
• Jan 25^th and 26^th – SJHL/MJHL Showcase in Winnipeg.
• March 4^th – Regular season ends
• March 11th – First round of playoffs begins
• March 25^th – Second round of playoffs begin
• April 8^th – Saskatchewan Jr Hockey League Finals
• April 29^th – ANAVET Cup starts
• May 20^th – Centennial Cup begins in Estevan

Summer is here and it is time to enjoy some fishing on the best fresh water lakes any where in the world.

The Trout Festival is pleased to announce that the Month Long Fishing Derby will start this Thursday.

It is a Walleye event this year and you can enter for $30.00 by picking up a fishing kit at the Gateway, Gas Bar and Rubi's Outdoors.

The Fishing Kit will include rules, fish handling guide and measuring tape.

You will need a valid Manitoba license to claim prizes.

The Youth event is back for anybody 16 and under and will cost $10.00.

Submit your Walleye photos by June the 29th at midnight and measuring tape must be shown in the photo to flinflontroutfestival.com.

Main Event Prize is $1,500.00 and the complete list can be seen on the trout festival website.

Flin Flon Minor Hockey held their AGM last night by googlemeet.

Darrin Mansell, the FFMH President chaired the meeting and thanked the board who worked very hard behind the scene relaying information to parents that kept changing due to Covid 19.

Mansell also reported that FFMH was accepted for the NHL First Shifts Program with more details to come.  The Town Of Creighton has also agreed to put in the ice a month early so they can start their season a month early.

They feel with the early start they may be able to attract more kids this year.

The treasurer's full report will be posted on their website, but they did report there was a drop in registration due to the uncertainty of Covid. All players that were registered received refunds.

FFMH received two grants from Sport Saskatchewan and a Covid grant which gave them over $6,000.00. Fees will stay the same as last year.

The meeting concluded with elections for board positions.

President- Darrin Mansell

Vice- vacant

Treasurer- Tavia Alexander

Registrar- Joy Tetlock

Communications- Courtney Biberdorf

Referee In Chief- Dennis Zboril

Female Co-ordinator- Dennis Zboril

Technical Director- Corey Thompson

Goalie Co-ordinator- Dawn Hlady

Ice Scheduler- Tanner Brough

U-9 Co-ordinator- Jon Cooper

The U-7. U-11, U-13, U-15 and U-18 Co-ordinator positions are all vacant and if you are interested in any of the positions you can contact Flin Flon Minor Hockey.

The SJHL coach's got together in Nipawin this past weekend to put a plan together  and discuss how they could get back on track after Covid 19.

One of the topics of discussion was the different Showcases including the annual SJHL/MJHL Showcase.

It has been made official that the annual SJHL/MJHL showcase will return January the 25th and 26th, 2022 at the Seven Oaks Sportsplex in Winnipeg.

There will be three teams representing each league with the top 60 players from both the SJHL and MJHL. Players will range in ages 16 to 20 and will be selected  by the league coach's.

Each team will play two games.

The Showcase has been extremely popular with the fans and has garnered a lot of attention from the NHL, NCAA, Major Junior and University programs from all over North America.

Mike Reagan, the Head Coach and GM of the Flin Flon Bombers  was our guest on this past Tuesday's Norman Sportsline Program.

Reagan talked about a lot of happenings with the hockey club including their recent signings, extension of contracts and the up coming league  meetings in Nipawin.

The meetings will be in person and they are starting today with lots of hurdles for the league to sort out including scheduling, the bantam draft, showcases and when to start training camps.

You can hear the complete interview with Mike right here. https://soundcloud.com/102-9-cfar-podcasts

The Phantom Lake Soccer Club season remains in limbo even though the Saskatchewan government is starting to lift restrictions concerning outdoor sports.

The local soccer club did confirm to me today that as long as the Manitoba government has sports locked down they would not be able to start their season.

They are a Manitoba operating association and follow the guidelines of the MSA which is not permitting any kids in Manitoba to get back on the field at this time.

If the Manitoba government does loosen restrictions in the next few weeks , a decision will be made on going ahead with a season.