Tisdale hosts awards night to honour local individuals and teams

Music

The first group was the Tisdale & District Strings, which featured nine students and two instructors.

Rhesa Petersen, who lives on an acreage near Nipawin, won the 2022 Conservatory Canada Medal for Excellence for the Theory 3 complete exam.

Abigail Summach, 11, won the 2022 Conservatory Canada Medal for Excellence for Level 2 Voice Contemporary Idioms.

Jennifer Summach, a 13-year-old who resides near Bjorkdale, won the 2022 Conservatory Canada Medal for Excellence for Grade 5 Classical Violin and the 2022 Conservatory Canada Medal for Excellence for Grade 4 Classical Voice.

Sefryn Larsen, an 11-year-old near Aylsham, won the 2022 Conservatory Canada Medal for Excellence for Grade 3 Classical Violin.

Tori Baerg, 15, won the 2022 Conservatory Canada Medal for Excellence for Grade 6 Classical Voice.

Grayson Larsen, 13, won the 2022 Conservatory Canada Medal for Excellence for Grade 3 Classical Piano.

Alison Summach, 9, won the 2022 Conservatory Canada Medal for Excellence for Grade 1 Classical Violin and the 2022 Neil King Award for Strings (the highest mark in Canada).

Mackenzie Thesen, a 12-year-old from Carrot River High School, won the 2022 Conservatory Canada Medal for Excellence for Grade 2 Classical Violin.

And, Kacie Wilson, a 12-year-old at Archerwill School, won the 2022 Conservatory Canada Medal for Excellence for Grade 2 Classical Voice.

Their Instructors included Rebecca Hankins-Vopni and Alicia Vopni-Summach.

Track and Field

Milo Ernst won a provincial title in the U11, 150-meter outdoor track and field meet in Saskatoon at the Solestice Classic Provincial Championships.

Milo Ernst (Ben Tompkins/northeastNOW)

Ernst also competed in the 60-meter, placing second and in the 600-meter, placing seventh.

This was his first year competing in track and field.

He qualified for provincials by placing top in his age group at regionals in Melfort on June 7.

He is the 2022 Saskatchewan Solestice U11 150-meter Provincial Champion.

Football

Team Saskatchewan U18 Football: Tyson Schwanke and Riley Hobbins won a gold medal in the Team Saskatchewan U18 Football Canada Cup National Championship.

Riley Hobbins and Tyson Schwanke (Ben Tompkins/northeastNOW)

Hobbins was the offensive coordinator for Team Sask U18 Male Football.

He graduated from LP Miller in Nipawin and then went on to play football for both the Regina Thunder and Saskatoon Hilltops.

Hobbins started coaching football in 2012 at Mount Royal in Saskatoon, then moved to Porcupine Plain to teach and coach there until 2018.

He started teaching and coaching in Tisdale at Tisdale Middle & Secondary School (TMSS) in 2019 and is currently the offensive coordinator for the Tornados.

Hobbins has coached with Team Sask U18 since 2015 where he started as the assistant QB coach, then moved up to be the QB coach, and this past year was promoted to be the offensive coordinator for Team Sask.

He has been a part of one bronze medal team and two silver medal teams, and for the past three years, Team Sask has won the gold medal at the Football Canada Cup.

As for Schwanke, he was one of only 40 players in the whole province to be selected to Team Sask and one of only 7 offensive linemen.

“The growth in his game and specifically his leadership was very evident when he came back to Tisdale to play for the Tornados, as he was the player who made sure the rest of the O-Line was on the same page and doing what they were supposed to be doing during games and practices,” said Hobbins regarding Schwanke.

“Tyson is a great role model for the younger players in Tisdale to look up to and understand what it takes to become a good football player and a great person. I am very thankful that I was able to share in the success of winning a National Championship with him at the U18 Canada Cup.”

Moosomin Generals: “Football has often been thought of as a boys’ sport, but due to the strength and determination of many young women, the popularity of female football is growing,” said Thibault.

“One of these trailblazers is Tilka Chapman.”

Tilka Chapman (Ben Tompkins/northeastNOW)

Last year, Chapman was invited to play on the Moosomin Generals U18 Girls Football team for their 2021 fall football season.

She and her family travelled weekly to the southeastern corner of Saskatchewan for her to participate in their league.

Chapman and the Moosomin Generals had a strong season, undefeated in regular season play. She often played both offence and defence to help her team see such success.

On October 31, 2021, With a 26-18 win over Yorkton, the Moosomin Generals captured the first-ever Prairie Girls Football League U18 Championship.

That same fall Chapman also played with the Tisdale Tornados who had a successful season making it to Provincial Semifinals.

She went on to be recruited to play with the Regina Riot ladies’ football team for their spring 2022 season.

Chapman and another fellow, female, Tisdale football player, Shayden Magnus, were then selected to play on the U18 Team Sask for the women’s 2022 Canada Cup, where they earned a silver medal.

“Tilka continues to be a great ambassador for women in football,” added Thibault.

Team Saskatchewan Football: Landon Thibault battled on the field for six years playing for the Tisdale Tornadoes Football Club primarily as a receiver.

In his graduating year, his team was undefeated in league play and made it all the way to the semi-finals in provincials before being defeated by Delisle.

He and Kolton Knutson had the opportunity to try out for the Team Saskatchewan 9 A-side Football Team in May 2022 and were two of 30 players who made the team.

Landon Thibault and Kolton Knutson (Ben Tompkins/northeastNOW)

The group competed in the Challenge Cup against Manitoba in Melville where they pulled off a 24-16 victory.

Thibault decided to pursue football following high school and signed with the Saskatoon Hilltops in the Canadian Junior Football League (CJFL).

As for Knutson, he is 18 years old and graduated from Tisdale.

He has been playing football for 7 years and this past season, he played in the Canadian Junior Football League (CJFL) for the Chilliwack Valley Huskers as one of their offensive linemen.

Softball

The North Central Riverdogs competed in the 2022 Provincial B Championship winning gold by beating Saskatoon Selects in a best-of-three series, two games to zero.

Local players Ashlyn Simoneau, Keeley Becker, Arianne Pollon and Assistant Coach, Rob Pollon were part of this team, which consisted of players from Tisdale, Porcupine Plain, Humboldt and Watrous.

Members of the North Central Riverdogs (Submitted photo/Lesley Thibault)

Rob Pollon has been coaching softball for 13 years.

He has helped coach two provincial championships with the Riverdogs and has a bronze medal from the 2018 provincials, as well as having coached at the 2018 Western Canadian Championship.

Keeley Becker has been playing ball for 7 years.

Some of her accomplishments include 2017 – U14C Provincial Champions, 2018 – U14B Provincial Bronze medalist, and 2019 – U16B Western Canadians Competitor.

Arianne Pollon has been playing softball for 13 years.

She has played in both Tisdale and the Melfort Spirit programs and this year’s Provincial Championship was her 2nd championship with the Riverdogs.

She also has a provincial bronze medal from 2018 and competed at Westerns that same year.

She has participated in the Softball Saskatchewan High-Performance Program, the U13 District Showcase and has also attended Tommy Douglas Softball Academy for 2 years.

She also played on the 222’s travel team in 2022 where the team travelled to Sacramento, California and Atlanta, Georgia.

She currently has a Softball Scholarship, studying in Oshawa, at Durham College and just finished her 1st season on the Durham Lords softball team where they won silver in the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association and came in fourth at the Canadian College Softball National Championship.

This is Ashlyn Simoneau’s 15th year of playing softball.

Some of her accomplishments include 2015 – U12 Zone 8 Showcase Competitor; 2017 – U14C Provincial Champion; 2019 – U16W Western Canadians Competitor; and 2022 – U19B Provincial Champion

Simoneau has continued her love of softball as a coach.

Some of her coaching accomplishments include 2021- U14B Provincial Champion and 2022 – U15B Provincial Bronze Medallist.

Slo-pitch

The North East Stars team was established in 2016.

Co-Captains Kandace Little and Kody Dzurka along with Manager Becky Dzurka selected a dozen or so players from Tisdale and the surrounding area to start playing in some competitive co-ed slo-pitch tournaments hosted around Saskatchewan.

Members of the North East Stars Slo-pitch team (Ben Tompkins/northeastNOW)

In 2017 they entered the SPN Provincial Tournament held in Saskatoon each fall and began attending some NSA Qualifier tournaments.

The team was fairly successful in these tournaments and on more than one occasion, had won, or placed high enough to qualify for the NSA World Series National tournament hosted in Kamloops BC.

After winning a Prince Albert NSA qualifier event in June of 2021, the team decided to begin plans to attend Nationals in September 2022.

14 team members committed to the event.

The team went 5 and 0 over the next 3 days in round-robin play to place as a top seed heading into playoffs.

Playoffs began Sunday where the team won their way to the semi-final match against another undefeated team from Saskatoon named Redrum.

They suffered their first loss at the hands of Redrum and dropped to the bottom of the playoff bracket.

The NE Stars were now faced with the challenge of winning their way back to the championship game.

After an unheard-of, low-scoring slo-pitch game of 5-2, they went on to have another victory.

This meant they were in the championship game, to again face Redrum and have to beat them twice in back-to-back games to secure the national title.

In game one, the Stars were the visiting team and went into the bottom of the last inning with a two-run cushion.

Redrum was able to plate one run, but couldn’t get past the solid defence of the Stars and they won with a score of 19-18.

Game two now favoured the Stars as they were the home team in a “winner-take-all final.

The Stars put the hammer down and fought their way to a victory to win the championship title and be named the 2022 NSA World Series National Champions.

Team members are Nathan Sunderland, Cindy Kuchmy, Kandace Little, Chelsea Joa, Cassie Smith, Ben Hamelin, Karissa Little, Brett Armstrong, Shane Magnus, Scott Heisler, Becky Dzurka, Kody Dzurka, Reece Dzurka, and Calder Smith.

Hockey

Connor Hvidston is the middle son of Brad Hvidston and Shawna Doucette and was born in Saskatoon while the family was living in Spiritwood.

At age 4 Connor and his family moved to Tisdale where he began his hockey career.

Connor Hvidston (Submiited photo/Lesley Thibault)

Connor would play many years in the Tisdale hockey program and has many great memories of his times there.

He moved to Yorkton at the age of 15 to play Midget AAA for the Yorkton Maulers where he would lead the Maulers in scoring for the next 2 seasons and was named their MVP in each of those seasons.

Connor was drafted by the Swift Current Broncos in the WHL and in the 2021-2022 season he was named the Rookie of the Year for the Broncos.

Although the Broncos would finish one point out of the playoff picture that season, he didn’t have much time to dwell on the negative.

On Saturday the Broncos found out they were out of the playoffs, on Sunday Connor would receive a phone call from Hockey Canada informing him that he had been selected to Team Canada for the upcoming U18 World Hockey Championships and on Monday morning he was on a plane to Germany to compete for his country.

After a strong showing at the World Championships Connor received more good news on July 8th as he heard his name called on national TV as he had been drafted to the Anaheim Ducks in the NHL.

–

Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter @BenTompkins_8

by Ben Tompkins

Tisdale hosts awards night to honour local individuals and teams

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