The Saskatchewan Roughriders settled for the title of Grey Cup finalists for the second straight year, losing 21-18 to the Montreal Alouettes on Sunday. Like them or not, you have to give full marks to the coaching staff that, somehow, reached a group of players that were teetering on quitting about six weeks ago. The defense shored up their leaky run stopping game, and while the special teams were a liability all season, I felt Ken Miller (and, maybe Jim Daley too) did the best he could after place kicker Luca Congi was lost for the season. If you want to nitpick, you can say the fake punt on 3rd and 2 was the difference in the game, and you might be right. But, the Riders were stifled all evening on offense. Perhaps a bigger aspect of the game was that the Riders passed up the chance at two field goals in the 40-49 yard range because that had no faith in their kickers.
Immediately after the Riders lost the Grey Cup, I headed over to see what the keyboard courage folks were saying. Keyboard courage people are those that post anonymously or with another name on a public message board. It's a good thing they don't leave names there because they would be embarrassed to attach their names to some of the comments. The bottom line is that the Riders were defeated by the Als. They didn't lose, they didn't blow it. They just weren't the better team. Tip your hat to Montreal and move on to next year.
Now that the Riders are done, we can focus our local sports attention more towards the Yorkton Terriers. As good as the Terriers are right now, I only see them continuing to get better as this year moves along and into next season. With Devin Peters in goal and a defense anchored by the likes of Blaine Tendler, Davis Vandane, Devon McMullen, Kelly Leismeister, and Kurtis Decker; the Terriers are just not going to give up many goals. Three of those five blueliners also bring excellent offensive talents to the table to go with four or five really gifted forwards. Looking ahead to next year, Vandane, McMullen, Leismeister will all return on defense. I'm not convinced we've seen the last of Austin Bourhis in a Terrier uni either. Robbie Ciolfi, Clarke Breitkreuz, Zak Majkowski, Kyle McLeod, and Brent Struble are all expected back up front. Frankly, Don Chesney and Trent Cassan deserve an A+ for reshaping the on-ice product on this team and I wouldn't be surprised to see a Yorkton-Humboldt league final this year and next.
Municipal taxes are going up a bit this year, and I have no problem with that as long as the services provided are, at least, status quo. One thing I would like to see, however, is a WiFi internet connection at all leisure service areas. Some evenings, I'm at the Gallagher Centre for upwards of three hours just watching my kids go through swimming lessons and/or soccer practice. I wouldn't mind being able to surf for fun or maybe get some work done via email with my Ipod. The connection would be so much better than the painful cell signal.
The National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women is on December 6th. Yorkton Partnership Against Violence will host a candlelight vigil on December 11th at 2 p.m. at Sacred Heart High School. Guest speakers for the day include Cathy Kaip, from Regina. Cathy was a stalking victim for 36 years. As a citizen of this country, I am offended that this woman had to deal with stalking for so long. Her courage and tenacity to stand up to the system should be applauded, while the people that write the rules to our system, should be forced to endure a stalking even for a single week.
A second miscarriage of justice example this week comes in the form of another study conducted to analyze the salaries of native chiefs across our country. The average in tax free income is close to $110 000 a year. One New Brunswick based chief was given $978 468 in salary and honorarium. I am 100% in favor of alleviating some of the hardship faced by native people in Canada, but the first thing that has to be done is close the loopholes that allow their leaders to make more than the Prime Minister!
Nice person mentions this week to Mick McGeough, Bill McDougall, Dr. Gerry Rooney, Glenn Hall, Dr. Terry Henning, and Jonathan Robert.
