Champions abound in Westman in 2024

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This article was published 28/12/2024 (338 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

League championships and provincial and national events were back on the sports calendar for Westman teams in 2024.

Several squads had sensational seasons and made their case to be included among Westman’s best.

Here are this year’s finalists, listed alphabetically, for the Brandon Sun’s Mike Jones Award for team of the year, named after the former Sun sports editor.

• Boissevain Centennials

The Centennials kept rolling this summer, winning their third consecutive championship in the South West Baseball League. Remarkably, Boissevain has gotten younger during its reign, with an infusion of teenagers entering the lineup. They went a league-leading 14-2 in the regular season and 6-1 in the playoffs.

• Brandon Racquetball Club

Led by coach and elite racquetballer Kurtis Cullen, the Brandon Racquetball Club had no shortage of big-time accomplishments. Leyton Gouldie, Oren Gouldie and Kaitlyn Couckuyt all won national gold medals in their respective divisions while Cullen took bronze in the men’s open singles event. The Brandonites represented Canada at junior worlds in Guatemala.

• Brandon University women’s soccer

After claiming their first Manitoba Colleges Athletic Conference women’s soccer title since 2017 in 2023, the Bobcats defended in a thrilling 2-1 final over the Providence Pilots. Final four MVP Josie Black made the game-sealing penalty kick save late in the second half to send a team playing under its fourth head coach in five years back to nationals.

• U18 AAA Brandon Wheat Kings

The Wheat Kings had a historic regular season in the Manitoba U18 AAA Hockey League, going an incredible 43-0-1-0 and then reeling off nine straight wins in the playoffs to earn the league title. An overtime goal by Brady Turko gave them a 1-0 victory over the Saskatoon Blazers in the western regional, vaulting them to the Telus Cup. They subsequently went 4-3 at the national championship, falling in the final to Cantonniers de Magog after losing star forward Jaxon Jacobson to injury early in the game.

• Brandon Volleyball Club 17U boys

A group of Westman boys threw the status quo out the window. The Brandon Volleyball Club 17-and-under team knocked off all the powerhouse Winnipeg clubs en route to the program’s first 17U provincial gold medal. The best players from the Winman and 204 squads they defeated have played the “If you can’t beat them, join up” card, forming one powerhouse team for the upcoming season, to ensure the team from Neelin, Vincent Massey, Crocus Plains and a few small rural schools doesn’t repeat this season.

• Dauphin Clippers girls rugby

A changing of the guard has taken place in the provincial girls rugby scene. Once dominated by the Minnedosa Chancellors and Rivers Rams, the Dauphin Clippers cemented themselves as the team to beat. Dauphin thoroughly dominated the 15s season in the spring, outscoring opponents 438-0 en route to the provincial title. They dropped one game in the Westman High School Rugby sevens season but crushed the Rams 33-0 on the final day to go 11-1 and bring the banner home.

• U15 AAA Brandon Wheat Kings

The Wheat Kings won their third consecutive championship in the Winnipeg U15 AAA Hockey League with a 6-3 victory over the Eastman Selects in Landmark in March to sweep the best-of-seven final. They finished the 32-game regular season with 29 wins, two losses and one tie and had 10 wins and an overtime loss in the playoffs while outscoring their opponents 49-23.

• U15 AA Brandon Wheat Kings

The Winnipeg U15 AA Hockey League champions finished in first with a stellar record of 25-3-0-0, averaging nearly five goals a game with 133 while allowing an average of less than 1.5 per game with 37. In the playoffs, they faced elimination three times in the quarterfinals and semifinals and earned a shutout each time, then swept Railcats Black in the final.

• Massey JV girls 100-m squad

Winning gold never gets old for the Hoad twins and Jordan Woloski. The Vincent Massey Vikings foursome of Tessa and Chelsey Hoad, Woloski and newcomer Kylie Strutt, repeated as junior varsity girls’ 4×100 metre relay gold medallists at the Manitoba High School Athletic Association’s track and field provincials in Winnipeg. They posted a time of 52.46 seconds to beat St. Mary’s Academy by .32 seconds.

• Neelin AAA VB boys provincial champions

The Spartans entered the season as the defending AAA provincial champs, with most of their lineup also part of the BVC gold-medal squad. They only lost to one AAA team all year, beating most of the top AAAA schools and avenging their loss to the Garden Valley Zodiacs in an exciting provincial final. MVP Junior Martine and all-stars Owen Falk and Kal-El Wilson pushed them to a 2-1 triumph as the senior-heavy lineup capped their high school volleyball careers with yet another banner to hang at Neelin.

• Vincent Massey girls volleyball

The Vikings knocked on the door year after year, but in 2024 they just kicked it down, running away with their first-ever AAAA provincial girls volleyball championship. Led by AAAA player of the year and tournament MVP Jersey Hansen-Young, Massey held the No. 1 ranking all season, then survived a five-set thriller over Steinbach in the semifinals before defeating Jeanne-Sauve 3-1 in front of a raucous crowd in Winnipeg. Sophomore Hannah McGregor and right side Zoe Price were named touranment all-stars.

• U15 Westman Magic

The under-15 Westman Magic finished third in the regular season with a record of 10-6, but topped the first-place Eastman Wildcats 5-4 in the final of Softball Manitoba’s U15 AAA provincial championship in July at Winnipeg’s Ray Fennel Park. It was the fourth provincial final for some of the girls but their first title. In mid-August at nationals in Chateauguay, Que, they went 2-4.

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