The sport of badminton took centre stage at Nellie McClung Collegiate last week as on Tuesday afternoon fifty-one young athletes from grades 7 & 8 from NMC, St. Claude and Cartwright took part in a badminton tourney on the schools three courts. 146 games were played throughout the day, and one of the highlights of the afternoon included a number of draws for various prizes generously donated by Nellie McClung Junior Achievement 2009 and the Manitoba Badminton Association. Winning a one-week badminton summer camp at either the Winter Club or Wildwood Club in Winnipeg was Sam Plante of NMC and the winners of the two racquets donated by the Junior Achievement 2009 group was Kenton Collins of NMC and Colin Dupasquier of St. Claude. Tournament winners included… In singles action: Haley Nakonechny (NMC) who defeated Julien Leduc (St. Claude) by scores of 15-5, 15-2. In 3rd place was Lauryn Keen of NMC who defeated Bryce Spence of St. Claude by scores of 23-21, 15-5. In doubles action: Carlee Milljour & Shania McCallum of NMC won the title defeating Connor Roy & James Mondry (St. Claude) by scores of 15-8 and 15-13, with 3rd place going to Greg Bruneau & Tyler Philippot of St. Claude beat Sam Plante & Kenton Collins of NMC by scores of 16-14, 15-8. Thanks to Mr. Nak for running a top-notch tournament!
In Sr. badminton action, matches have been held in Manitou and Notre Dame over the last several weeks with all Stingers players are doing very well as the “regular season” winds down. In girl’s singles, Rae Nakonechny stands in first place with a record of 7 wins, 0 losses. In boy’s single, Chris Seymour presently has a record of 6 wins and 3 losses; in girl’s doubles Dayle Sanders& Josee Plante have a 7 win, 3 loss record; and in boy’s doubles Riley Hiebert & Brett Seymour have a 4 win, 2 loss record. This past week play resumed in Treherne for Rae, Riley and Brett and in St. Claude for Chris, Dayle and Josee. The top four teams in each event automatically make it to the Zone 6 tournament in Notre Dame this Thursday (any team not making it to the zone tournament can battle for one of two wildcard spots on April 26 in Swan Lake). The top two finishers from Zone will move on to provincials in Winnipeg on May 8 & 9 at Maples Collegiate.
Stingers fastball and baseball teams have also begun practicing as they prepare to open up their season in the next week. Dwight & Justin Crawfrod will coach the boy’s 10-player contingent and hope to make a return appearance in the Zone 6 championship, while Grant Caldwell & Melissa Pearce’s 12-player contingent hope to make it back to the final after failing to qualify last season. Both teams enter the season with high expectations however, with the fastball team getting back to their usual three-tournament schedule (Portage, Winkler, Dauphin) after last seasons disappointing result. The boy’s season opener goes tonight on the road vs. Cartwright/Baldur, while the girls were scheduled to play Miami at home in exhibition play last night. The girl’s season opener is Monday May 3rd as NMC hosts the Glenboro Panthers with game time at 5:00 pm.
Buzz notes: Congratulations to Joannah Creith, Regina Schiller, Melissa Thompson, Maria Neufeld and Shelley Giesbrecht whose business “Fruitie Tootie” participated in the provincial “Junior Achievement” competition in Brandon last Thursday…NMC held an “Earth Day” last week where the school attempted to do without electricity for the day. It was a good day of environmental awareness as both students and teachers found out just how dependent we are on electrical devices such as lights, photocopiers, computers, dvd’s etc…the team of Eric Harms, Brett Seymour, Riley Hiebert and Mr. Caldwell defeated the team of Chris Seymour, Dylan Sanders, Paul Thorleifson and Brooks Keen 10-5 to win the Sr. intramural floor hockey championship last week…this week is a busy week at the Collegiate as the Asham Stompers are here today, with a MADD presentation in the gym on Friday…Finally, Grad 2010 only two months away!!!
