Jaster moving on after eight years in Brandon

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/09/2019 (2482 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was a little more than eight years ago that I came to Brandon to work at the Sun knowing very little about the community.

As someone who was raised in Saskatchewan and Alberta and graduated from the University of Regina, I was well aware of the Wheat Kings being perennial contenders in the Western Hockey League and the rivalry between the U of R Cougars and Brandon University Bobcats, especially on the basketball court. I had heard stories of how difficult it was for opposing teams to play in the old BU gym and was looking forward to seeing it for myself.

It didn’t matter though, I couldn’t wait to work for a daily newspaper and in sports, something that I have loved my entire life.

My first assignment was covering a high school football game between the Neelin Spartans and St. Paul’s Crusaders, and I remember arriving at the field to see the local team dressed in green and white and, as someone who grew up as a Saskatchewan Roughriders fan, thinking to myself “this is going to be a good move.” It turns out Dylan Minshull ran for 242 yards on 32 carries that day to lead Neelin to a 26-18 victory.

Despite having positive thoughts after my first assignment, what I didn’t know at the time was how vibrant of a sports community exists, not only in the Wheat City, but in all of southwest Manitoba. Looking back on it now, it may have been a good thing to be naive.

Although it was overwhelming during my first year as a reporter here, it also kept me on my toes. I didn’t always know what I was going to be covering on any given day and it made me a better person and reporter by going out and doing stories on so many different things.

It also helped me build so many positive relationships during those years that became even more important as I eventually moved on to become sports editor in 2015, a position I never thought I would aspire to so quickly.

It’s those relationships that has made that last week so emotional with people reaching out to say how much I’ll be missed and wishing me good luck as I packed up my belongings to leave southwest Manitoba and return home to Regina to begin a new chapter in my life.

As touched as I have been by the comments and gestures from the community, the thing that has stood out most to me is people saying how much I did for the community. It stands out because I don’t feel like I did that much for the community. All I did was play in a few curling leagues and bonspiels and volunteer at a few events. I wasn’t part of services groups and didn’t get involved in the arts scene like I would have preferred because I didn’t feel like it would work well with my schedule.

Instead I put so much time and effort into my job, and tried to give every story a proper amount of time and respect (although I’ll admit that some were pretty rushed). I took a lot of pride in telling stories from this community, and building on the Sun’s reputation for having some of the best amateur sports coverage in the province, especially for things like amateur hockey and baseball as well as high school and university sports. I always knew there were some stories we couldn’t get to because of how busy we were, and felt a bit of regret but knew there were limitations to what we could accomplish.

I look back and know how much fun it was to cover the Bobcats men’s volleyball team at nationals in 2013 and a pair of Briers, including the first one involving a Westman-based team in more than 20 years 2012 or the first one to be played in Brandon in more than 30 years back in March. There was a sense of pride in guiding the coverage from behind the scenes of the first ever U Sports championship held at BU.

And who can forget this March when my colleagues Perry Bergson and Thomas Friesen and I somehow managed to cover the Brier in Brandon, the Bobcats’ run to a conference title on home court and the Wheat Kings’ push for a playoff spot at the tail end of their season all at the same time in addition to other high school and minor sports. I’m still not sure how we did what we did that month.

Some of the coolest stories were profile pieces, talking about people’s lives. One that stands out was what I expected to be a simple commitment story for Victor St. Pierre-Laviolette, someone who I had dealt with during his high school and junior football days, joining the University of Manitoba Bisons football team. It turned into him opening up about the obstacles he’s overcome in his life to get there and how he wants to inspire the next generation of kids, not just by his career path but by becoming a teacher and directly impacting their lives. To me, those stories are just as important, if not more so, than ones on teams winning championships.

While I’m proud of a lot of what was accomplished here, to me it was just me doing my job and being supported by a strong team. I never thought I was doing anything more than that.

I’ve recently been told by multiple people that I was wrong and did so much more without realizing it.

Of course, any legacy I leave behind (whether I realize what I did or not) could not have happened with the work of others, including past Sun sports editors like James Shewaga and Rob Henderson, as well as the team that I had here in Bergson, Friesen, Nathan Liewicki and others who helped out along the way.

One thing that I have learned here is that not only are there so many different sports going on in this area of the province, but every single organization, both big and small, has at least one strong person leading the charge and pushing for that sport’s growth. Not only are they trying to get more people to join their sport, but they also try to host large events, and Westman has shown how great of a host it is. Having an abundance of these people truly is a blessing for the community and something it should appreciate.

I have dealt with so many of those people, and there are too many to list, so I want to say thank you to all who keep the sports community thriving.

Finally, I would like to thank you, our readers, for words of encouragement and criticism throughout the years. I was always working hard to provide you with a product that you would find interesting, represent the area well and that you would be proud of. I hope I accomplished that.

While I will miss the people of this community and telling their stories, I’m confident that the Sun and its current and future staff will continue to do just that. A lot of good people work here and are trying to keep Westman residents informed of what is happening and build the community. I hope you continue to support them.

Thank you so much Brandon and southwest Manitoba. It’s been a lot more fun than I could have imagined when I moved here all those years ago. You gave me so many great memories and I will always have a soft spot for this community and its people in my heart for the rest of my life.

» sports@brandonsun.com