It's day one of the Provincial High School Badminton Championships at Sport Manitoba in downtown Winnipeg. All junior varsity round robin matches in singles, doubles and mixed doubles will be played today along with one session of varsity round robin. Representing Zone 13 in the Junior Varsity competition are Sarah Dupuis (Gabrielle Roy) and Isabelle Unger (Steinbach Christian) in girls singles; Tyler Evason (Gabrielle Roy) and Andrew Park (Steinbach Christian) in boys singles; Lola Bradley & Raquel Long (Pinawa) and Alexi Legal & Jessie Rivard (Pointe des Chenes) in girls doubles; Maxime Harvey & Raphael Raharijaona (Real Berard) and Kyle Vachon & Sebastian Verrier (Gabrielle Roy) in boys doubles and Paige Paciorka & Trey Ducharme (Ste. Anne) and Nathalie Delaquis & Kiel LaRochelle, (Gabrielle Roy) in mixed doubles. Zone 13 Varsity competitors include Brooklyn Driedger (Steinbach Regional) and Olivia Reimer (Lorette) in girls singles; Grayson Friesen (Steinbach Regional) and Gideon Hamstra (Steinbach Christian) in boys singles; Sarah Koslowsky & Liyu Reimer (Steinbach Christian) and Damarah Juba & Makenna Nilsson (Lac du Bonnet) in girls doubles; Jack Champagne & Easton Gaffray (Lac du Bonnet) and Lachlan Cuthbert & Jaedys Dancyt (Lac du Bonnet) in boys doubles and Vada Andrelunas & Noah Basshus (Lac du Bonnet) and Drew Gauthier & Alayna Boulet (Lac du Bonnet) in mixed doubles.


The Winnipeg Ice are the Western Hockey League's Eastern Conference champions. Briley Wood scored the go-ahead goal 6:19 into the third period as Winnipeg shaded the Blades 3-2 in Saskatoon. Connor McClennon had the other two goals for the Ice who swept the best-of-seven conference final in four straight. Winnipeg will meet either the Kamloops Blazers or Seattle Thunderbirds in the WHL final. The Thunderbirds lead the Western Conference final two games to one. 


Wyatt Bongiovanni scored a power play goal 4:53 into overtime to lift Manitoba past the Admirals 3-2 in Milwaukee. Alex Limoges and Jeff Malott scored in regulation for the Moose who lead the American Hockey League's best-of-five Central Division semifinal two games to one. 


The Winnipeg Blue Bombers announced the signing of two American players in kicker Marc Orozco and offensive lineman Chris Ivy, and Canadian linebacker Robbie Lowes. Orozco comes to the Blue Bombers after a collegiate career with Grambling State (2014-18) and two seasons with the Albany Empire of the National Arena League. Orozco, who can placekick and punt, finished his days at Grambling with an 87.9 field-goal percentage after hitting on 51 of 58 attempts while connecting on 96.8 percent of his converts. He was named an All-Southwest Athletic Conference First Team and a BOXTOROW All-American in 2017. Ivy played 35 games over three years (2017-19) with the University of Tulsa Golden Hurricanes and three games this season with the Tulsa Oilers of the Indoor Football League before committing to the Blue Bombers. Lowes was originally drafted by Winnipeg in the fourth round, 34th overall in the 2021 CFL Draft. The Regina native played two games for the Blue Bombers in 2021, and suffered a season ending injury during training camp in 2022.  Lowes started all eight Canada West games in 2019 for the Regina Rams. He finished third on the team with a total of 35 tackles (29 solo, 12 assisted) and added an interception, a fumble recovery, two forced fumbles, and two blocked kicks.

pistons_2023The Pistons are 2022-23 Turnbull Cup champions

The Steinbach Pistons are Manitoba Junior Hockey League champions for the third time. Head coach Paul Dyck will join Clayton Dreger on the Pistons Report which airs Thursdays at 5:15 p.m. on AM 1250 Radio.