Janzen, Magnusson BU’s athletes of month

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/03/2025 (247 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Kenadie Janzen has never seen the Manitoba Colleges Athletic Conference women’s futsal trophy change hands.

She’s ready to lead the charge to change.

The veteran soccer and futsal star led the Brandon University Bobcats to the best record by one point over the five-time defending champion St. Boniface Les Rouges in the eight-game regular season, which wrapped up on Saturday.

On Wednesday, she was named BU’s female athlete of the month along with Blake Magnusson on the men’s side.

It would have been tough to pinpoint a true top player for the Bobcats by reading scoresheets alone, but make no mistake who’s orchestrating their red-hot offence.

“I’ve been able to be more of a playmaker than necessarily the one getting all the goals,” Janzen said. “I feel like I definitely contribute to other players getting them, which I’m beyond happy with because at the end of the day that’s helping our team win.

“We were able to play so much more as a team. If you look at how we played futsal three years ago compared to this year, it’s so much more of a passing and movement game as opposed to a dribbling and movement game.”

While outdoor soccer feels like the primary game for MCAC players, Janzen said she feels more comfortable in the five-on-five indoor game, played on basketball courts.

The speed of the game and pressure to make touches with defenders always less than a metre away make for an environment in which the Saskatoon native thrives.

“I came from an academy that focused a lot on small-sided play,” Janzen said. “Being a midfielder, that’s a lot of how our game works already and coming as that as my background.

“I feel like outdoors I almost panic having too much time, when I play futsal, I definitely feel a lot more comfortable on the ball.”

The Bobcats split their season series with the No. 2 seed Les Rouges, winning 3-1 and falling 3-0.

They tied the third-seed Providence Pilots 4-4, then edged them 8-7 in the regular-season finale.

And they swept their semifinal opponent, the Assiniboine College Cougars, 9-3 and 11-3.

It will be AC’s first-ever futsal post-season match and it has home-court advantage on March 15 at 3 p.m.

“The Cougars definitely have a better line this year and definitely took a lot of teams by surprise, not just us,” Janzen said.

“What helped us with that is always having our own game plan and not playing based off who our opponent is.”

The Pilots and Les Rouges play on March 15 at 5 p.m. The men’s semifinal between the Bobcats and top-ranked Les Rouges kicks off the day at 11 a.m., followed by the Cougars and No. 2 Canadian Mennonite University Blazers at 1 p.m.

MAGNUSSON OFF TO

UNCERTAIN FUTURE

Magnusson’s last game as a Bobcat may have been a lowlight, falling 101-90 to the Trinity Western Spartans as the team failed to win a playoff game for the first time in his career.

But he claimed his consolation prize as a first-time athlete of the month on Wednesday.

“It’s nice, I appreciate it,” he said. “I wouldn’t be here without all my teammates, coaches and everybody at the university for helping me get to this point.”

Not many people expected the six-foot-eight Gimli native to find his way onto a U Sports court for meaningful minutes in a tough Canada West conference.

He moved to Brandon in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and stuck around to train after the season was cancelled that year. Magnusson spent the summer training with some of the top players and skills coaches in the province that summer, opening his eyes to how much work he had ahead of him.

He played 7.6 minutes per game his rookie year and dipped to just 3.9 the following season.

In 2024-25, he had career-highs of 13.8 minutes and 3.5 points per game, shooting 33 per cent from three-point range.

“My biggest goal coming out of high school was, ‘I want to play at this level’ and it was, ‘Prove it,’” he said.

“A lot of people said I wouldn’t be able to do it and I was able to accomplish more than just getting to this level. When I signed here, I didn’t have a spot on the team, I still had to earn it.

“I did that and can go home at the end of the day proud of that.”

He plans to head back home and work at a golf course, potentially try to join the Canadian Professional Golf Association as a club pro, and maybe even use his final year of eligibility to switch sports and play football, given his impressive mobility for a 285-pound forward.

For now, he’s soaking in his last few months with a program that will always mean a lot to him.

“It’s the last times with this group of guys, thinking about the groups we’ve had prior,” he said. “The biggest thing I’m going to take away from here is having so many meaningful friendships.”

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com

» Instagram: @thomasfriesen5