Brandon University’s volleyball coaches will be tasked this season with doing some of their best work yet.

The Bobcats open Canada West conference play against a pair of perennial powerhouse programs from Trinity Western University, and both BU squads have long roads ahead to get where they want to be.

For coach Lee Carter’s women’s volleyball team this is an exciting season with the Canadian Interuniversity Sport championship coming to the Healthy Living Centre in March. But with the other Canada West coaches ranking the Bobcats right in the middle of the conference — seventh out of 13 teams — Carter and his charges have a lot of work to do to prove they’re more than an average team.

They still have time to get there, though, and Carter has said he’s willing to take some lumps during the regular season to get the team where they need to be next spring. If the Bobcats can come together and emerge as a true contender at nationals, it will be a crowning achievement for a coach who has enjoyed plenty of regular-season success, but is still looking for his big playoff breakthrough, not to mention a good building block for a team that looks to remain competitive beyond this season.

It’s been a long time since the Brandon Wheat Kings went into a Western Hockey League season with expectations like these.

After finishing first overall in the WHL last season before falling to the Kelowna Rockets in four straight games in the league final, it’s a common belief around here that nothing but a championship will do this season. Certainly that’s what many fans want, the Canadian Hockey League has Brandon first overall in its pre-season rankings and, even if they’re hesitant to say it publicly, one gets the impression the players feel the same way. Even head coach/GM/owner Kelly McCrimmon’s decision to turn down an NHL opportunity with the Toronto Maple Leafs showed that he is all-in for this season as he attempts to add an elusive Ed Chynoweth Cup title to his list of WHL accomplishments.

The anticipation is unlike anything I’ve seen since I started covering the team on a regular basis for the Sun in 2007. Even going into the 2009-10 season, when the Wheat Kings were guaranteed a spot in the Memorial Cup as the hosts, the general consensus was that the team was still a few moves away from being a true Cup contender. (For the record Brandon was fourth in the 2009 pre-season rankings.)

This year’s Wheat Kings appear to be very close to championship calibre already, even with the possiblity they could lose three point-a-game forwards from last season by the time they settle their import and overage situations. To be sure, there are some issues to clear up, but with Brandon’s young stars stepping into their prime as junior hockey players and Ivan Provorov — who makes the Wheat Kings a different team when he’s on the ice — back in the fold, anything is possible for this team. Expected, even.

In terms of recognition for his coaching efforts, Gord Paddock is overshadowed by his brothers.

His older brother, John, is well-known to even casual fans, a former NHL bench boss who was the Western Hockey League’s coach of the year with the Regina Pats last season. Younger brother Russ was also a well-decorated coach before giving up his whistle to serve as Brandon University’s athletic director, having been named the Canada West conference coach of the year in 2010 in recognition of his success with the BU’s men’s volleyball team.

Last week, Gord got a well-deserved turn in the spotlight, guiding the Oak River Dodgers to their first Manitoba Senior Baseball League title, following up a regular-season pennant with a five-game win over the Brandon Marlins in the championship final.

Gord Paddock’s commitment is well-known to those around him. When John’s Pats were taking on the Brandon Wheat Kings in this year’s WHL playoffs and he was being interviewed about his induction in the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame, the Regina coach spoke highly of the family’s other coaches — sister Rhonda is a well-regarded high-school coach as well. He praised “Gordie” not only for his coaching, but his work around the community as well, saying he wasn’t sure where Oak River would be without him. And it’s not the first time the eldest of the Paddock siblings has spoken glowingly of his brother, unsolicited, during interviews.

It’s already been a remarkable year for Westman athletes internationally.

Curlers Braden Calvert and Lois Fowler have both skipped teams to world titles, with Calvert leading his Winnipeg-based foursome to the junior title in Estonia, while Fowler and longtime teammate Maureen Bonar helped their senior women’s squad to the crown in Russia.

Minnedosa-born Brandon resident Isabela Onyshko has continued her rise in the gymnastics world, topping the podium in an event in Slovenia, while Brandon’s Amanda Thornborough continues to solidify herself as a key member for Canada’s women’s rugby program, starting for the national 15s team in the Super Series currently taking place in Alberta. Archer Tyler Wilson of Birtle has represented his country at the world youth championships, Brandon hockey coach Dwayne Gylywoychuk won a gold medal as an assistant with the Canadian national women’s team and slider Cassie Hawrysh shook off a disappointing campaign in skeleton to post her best finishes of the year and place third in the Intercontinental Cup circuit.

As we head into the second half of 2015, Westman athletes will once again step into the international spotlight this summer, with the highlight being the Pan American Games later this month in Toronto.

As it played out, the decision on the Toronto Maple Leafs’ recent bid to lure away the Brandon Wheat Kings’ boss turned out to be quintessential Kelly McCrimmon.

When many prognosticators had the Wheat Kings’ head coach, general manager and owner ready to jump to the National Hockey League, McCrimmon did the unexpected, opting to keep his loyalties right here with the junior club that has been his passion for so long. As media and public speculation swirled, McCrimmon, true to form, did his own due diligence behind the scenes and came up with his own path.

That doggedness and ability to go against the flow when he believes he is right is part of what makes McCrimmon so good at what he does.

Considered a master of the trade in the Western Hockey League, McCrimmon’s moves don’t always pay off, but more often than not they do, and it’s one of the reasons the Wheat Kings have been one of the WHL’s most consistent franchises.

There may not be two sports more dependent on teamwork than soccer and football.

Both require a wide range of players performing their own tasks but still working in unison to turn potential chaos into success.

With the Brandon Youth Soccer Association and Westman Youth Football Association both looking for permanent homes, perhaps it’s time for both organizations to take a page from the playbook and team up in an effort to bring Brandon some facilities that will serve the city well for years to come. Entries in the Kraft Project Play contest have been submitted on behalf of both organizations. The $250,000 top prize would be a good foundation for youth soccer, which is in dire need of a replacement for the frequently flooded Optimist Park. Since Optimist was last playable, soccer teams have been forced to play on overtaxed school fields, which are unable to handle the wear and tear put on them during the busy spring season. Youth football is played at Crocus Plains, with the organization forced to keep its equipment in storage containers and game and practice times subject to cancellation if the fields aren’t up to the burden.

There is a growing number of examples of combined facilities in Canada. In these pages last week, columnist Shaun Cameron pointed to the Methanex Bowl, which has opened up Medicine Hat, Alta., to hosting notable football and soccer events. In recent years, Regina has made a significant investment in Leibel Field, an artificial turf facility for both soccer and football. Another entry in the Project Play contest is the planned Access Event Centre in Morden, which would feature 12 soccer pitches and a football field.

For a textbook example of the importance of discerning between the reporting of facts and speculation, look no further than the ongoing saga of Kelly McCrimmon and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The National Hockey League team and the Brandon Wheat Kings owner/general manager/head coach have been linked ever since new Leafs coach Mike Babcock name-dropped McCrimmon in his introductory news conference. The rumour mill really began to churn when TSN analyst Bob McKenzie reported that the Maple Leafs had interviewed McCrimmon for a management position. His assertion was backed by others, including McKenzie’s TSN associate Darren Dreger, who went a step farther by declaring resolutely that the NHL team had offered McCrimmon a job and were waiting for a response. Dreger also reported that McCrimmon had spoken to Ryan McGill about potentially becoming his successor on the Brandon bench.

When it comes to the NHL, McKenzie and Dreger are as plugged-in as anyone in the media, and if they say these things have happened I believe them. While it’s always best to take information that comes from unnamed sources with a grain — or a whole shaker — of salt, they’re not ones to throw around such declarations lightly.

Where this story gained a life of its own was when observers such as Dreger provided their opinions on whether McCrimmon would join the Leafs. It didn’t take long for an opinion or two to blow up into premature reports that the deal was as good as done.

Gord Kaluzniak figures it was high time for his 1973-74 Selkirk Steelers to pass the torch to another Manitoba Junior Hockey League team.

The Portage Terriers’ victory in the RBC Cup on Sunday ended a 41-year drought for the MJHL at the Canadian Junior A hockey championship. Kaluzniak and his brother Garry, both now Brandonites, were key players for the Steelers when they won the MJHL’s last national title.

“It was great to see somebody win it from Manitoba and it was great to see some of the Brandon guys or the local guys that were involved in it,” Gord Kaluzniak, 58, said. “It’s hard to believe we could go that long without winning it.”

Garry and Gord Kaluzniak were 1-2 in team scoring for the ’73-74 Steelers, with younger brother Gord scoring the clinching goal in overtime of Game 7 as Selkirk beat the Smiths Falls Bears 1-0 to win the Centennial Cup, as it was known then. It was Manitoba’s second straight national title, with the Terriers having won it the year before.

It’s hard to draw any encouragement from being on the wrong end of a playoff sweep.

That’s why a remarkable Brandon  Wheat Kings’ campaign, one that included the Western Hockey League’s best regular-season record and a trip to the Ed Chynoweth Cup championship final, is hard to digest for those who have followed the team all season long.

On paper and based on their performances on the ice leading up to the series, the Brandon-Kelowna final was a dream matchup that should have been much closer than the Rockets’ four-game victory would indicate. In a way it was as the Wheat Kings came from two goals down to tie each of the first two games and the decisive contest was tied 0-0 going into the third period. But like a championship team does, the Rockets found a way to get the key goals when they were needed the most.

Compounding the frustration for the losing side was that the Wheat Kings never seemed able to play up to their potential in the final. Many of the nagging pitfalls that appeared from time to time throughout the club’s splendid 53-11-4-4 regular season reared up again in the final: shots that may have led to rebounds and ugly goals were passed up in favour of extra passes that often failed to find their mark, sometimes leading to chances the other way; the Wheat Kings spent too much time in their own zone, failing to contain playoff MVP Leon Draisaitl and his frequent linemates, Nick Merkley and Rourke Chartier, as that talented trio scored 11 of Kelowna’s 17 goals in the series; goaltender Jordan Papirny, who played virtually every minute of his 78 starts this season, made some big saves, but overall couldn’t maintain his fine level of play from earlier in the playoffs.

There are so many things that draw us into the world of sports.

Sports can inspire us; they can unite us. Watch carefully enough with an open mind and the seemingly random events that take place on a sheet of ice or a field can even teach us a few things too.

We’re wowed by professionals at the top of their game, making astounding feats look easy, and our hearts are warmed by watching our kids, with smiles on their faces, playing purely for the joy of it.

Or maybe we just want to kick back and relax for a couple of hours and take our minds off the rest of the world.