January
•The Boston Pizza Royals PeeWee ‘AA’ team captures their home tournament Jan. 9, edging the Dryden Paper Kings 4-3 in overtime in the final.
•The Gillons’ Sharks took home their Atom ‘A’ tournament title Jan. 23 with a 7-2 thumping of the West End Bruins in the final.
•Steve Arpin was voted the Canadian Racer Competing at the Highest Level of International Competition in the “Inside Track” racing magazine’s readers’ choice awards.
•Clayton Fugate finished in first in the 100m cross-country ski event, while Terri-Ann Caul earned a pair of firsts in 100m and 200m snowshoeing races, at the Ontario Special Olympic Winter Games in Thunder Bay from Jan. 22-24.
•Jenna Enge of Devlin, who played second for Tracy Horgan’s Sudbury rink, finished third at the Ontario Scotties Tournament of Hearts playdowns in Thornhill, losing in the semi-finals to Krista McCarville of Thunder Bay.
•The Border Skating Club won the Sunset Country regional skating competition’s Don Wilton Memorial Trophy for the most points accumulated during the event, which ran from Jan. 28-30.
•The Fort Frances Canadians Midget ‘AA’ team captured the tournament title in Grand Forks, N.D. for the second-straight year.
In their 5-3 win over Duluth in the final on Jan. 30, Brandon Sinclair led the way with a hat trick.
February
•Devlin native Mike Badiuk, who played third on Cody Johnson’s rink out of Thunder Bay, represented Northern Ontario at the M&M Meat Shops Canadian junior curling championships in Calgary, but finished out of the playoffs with a 5-7 record.
•Bryan Bonot of Stratton and Ken McKinnon of Fort Frances just missed out on making the playoffs at the Northern Ontario Masters playdowns in Kakabeka Falls on Feb. 3-6.
•The Emo Canucks won the ‘A’-side championship at an Atom tournament in Atikokan on Feb. 6 with a 2-1 overtime win over the Thunder Bay Kiwanis in the final.
•Tim Nordin’s rink from Stratton competed at the Northern Ontario men’s curling championship in Thunder Bay, but ended up finishing with a 3-8 record.
Mike Badiuk of Devlin also competed at the playdowns, playing lead for John Salo’s Geraldton rink, and narrowly missed out on the playoffs with a 6-5 showing.
•Steve Arpin made his first start of the season in the ARCA Series curtain-raiser at Daytona on Feb. 12, but was knocked out of the race during a multi-car pileup in the late going.
•Donovan Taylor led the Aquanauts during the Boston Pizza Winter Chill Invitational meet here Feb. 11-13, capturing the overall gold medal in the boys’ 15-and-over division.
Katja Sutherland finished in a tie for first overall in the girls’ 15-and-over age group.
•The Rolling Lake Lightning became the first local team to win the Atom division crown in the Fort Frances Girls’ Hockey Novice and Atom tournament here Feb. 13 after blanking the Emo Penguins 4-0 in the final.
•Donovan Taylor became the first local swimmer to earn a national medal at the Speedo Eastern National Championships in London, Ont. on Feb. 18-20, placing first in the 200m I.M. and second in the 400m I.M.
•Fort Frances Lakers’ forwards Blake Boaz and Tyler Stevenson were named the SIJHL’s best defensive forward and most sportsmanlike players awards for the 2010/11 season, while head coach and general manager Wayne Strachan took home coach-of-the-year honours.
•The Muskie girls’ rink, skipped by Tirzah Keffer, captured the Fort Frances Curling Club’s annual ladies’ bonspiel Feb. 20 after an 8-2 win over Tammy Lamb in the final.
•The Muskie senior boys’ basketball team captured the NorWOSSA crown Feb. 22 with a 50-23 victory over the Kenora Broncos, but then lost the best-of-three NWOSSAA showdown in two-straight games the following weekend to the Superior Gryphons.
•Local rinks skipped by Judy LaBelle and Roz Broman both fell short in their quests to represent Northern Ontario at the Canadian senior curling championships during the provincial playdowns held here Feb. 24-27.
Eric Harnden (Sault Ste. Marie) and Barbara Ward (Thunder Bay) took home the men’s and women’s crowns, respectively.
•The Muskie senior girls’ volleyball squad fell short in its quest to qualify for the all-Ontarios as they were swept by the St. Ignatius Falcons in the NWOSSAA final here Feb. 25-26.
•Donovan Taylor and Adam Stromberg both came away with medals at the 2011 Short Course Provincial Championships in Nepean (near Ottawa) on Feb. 25-27, with Taylor winning gold, silver, and bronze medals while Stromberg snagged a silver and a bronze.
March
•The Muskie girls’ hockey team was eliminated from NorWOSSA title contention March 1 after losing 6-1 to the Dryden Eagles in the final game of their best-of-three semi-final series.
•Donovan Taylor became the first Fort High swimmer to win a gold medal at OFSAA, finishing first in the 200m I.M. final March 2 in Etobicoke.
•The Muskie boys’ hockey team won NorWOSSA gold in two-straight games over the Kenora Broncos, with Tyler Mosbeck scoring the title-clinching goal in overtime on March 6.
•The Rainy River Community College Voyageurs women’s hockey team won its third national title in four years, downing the West Chester (Penn.) Golden Rams 8-1 in the ACHA Division II title game March 13 in Kalamazoo, Mich.
•Emo native Luke Judson, captain of the Belleville Bulls, suffered a concussion in a game against the Sudbury Wolves on March 19 and was forced to miss his first-round OHL playoffs series against the Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors.
(Judson has since recovered from his injury, and has 22 points in 32 games for the Bulls this season going into the holiday break as the squad battles for top spot in a very tight Eastern Conference race).
•The Muskie boys’ hockey team has a disappointing showing at the OFSAA ‘AAA/AAAA’ championships in Toronto from March 22-24, going winless during the four-game round-robin portion.
•The Muskie boys’ rink, skipped by Isaac Keffer, earned silver medal at the OFSAA curling championships March 26 in Thunder Bay, falling 5-2 to Tyler Sagan’s foursome from St. James (Guelph) in the final.
•Adam Bolen captured his first Fort Frances Curling Club’s men’s bonspiel title March 26 thanks to a 8-3 win over Greg Gustafson in the ‘A’ final.
•The Fort Frances Lakers’ season ended March 28 with a 4-1 loss to the Dryden Ice Dogs in Game 6 of their best-of-seven semi-final series.
April
•Local goalie Mark Loveday, who is attending Shattuck-St. Mary’s, received an invite to the USHL combine, which took place Aug. 4-7 in Chicago.
•For the first time since 2001, the Muskies captured the local men’s basketball league title, earning a 65-45 win over Boston Pizza in the final April 6.
•In his freshman year with the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs, Joe Basaraba became a national men’s hockey champion as the Bulldogs took home the NCAA Division I title in a 3-2 overtime thriller against the Michigan Wolverines in St. Paul.
•Maury Nielson’s rink from Stratton took part in the Dominion Club Championships provincial playdowns in Sault Ste. Marie on April 8-9, but failed to advance to the nationals after finishing with a 1-4 record.
•The Fort Frances Thunderhawks reached the semi-finals of the 2011 Allan Cup, which took place in Kenora from April 11-15, where they lost 7-2 to the Bentley Generals (Alberta).
• Donovan Taylor and Adam Stromberg each earned five gold medals at the Division III provincial team championships in Thunder Bay on April 15-17.
•Local hockey player Mitch Cain signed an official letter of intent to attend Bemidji State University in the fall (in 12 games this season, Cain has a goal and four assists for the Beavers).
•The Muskie senior boys’ badminton doubles tandem of Robert Stevens and Spencer Pearce went a perfect 5-0 to capture the NWOSSAA title in Marathon on April 20.
•Local competitor Luke Skaarup took home the title in the first-ever Fort Frances “Strongman” competition held April 28 at the Memorial Sports Centre in conjunction with the Fort Frances Chamber of Commerce’s annual Home & Leisure Show.
•Local MMA fan Trevor Fitzgerald put the UFC welterweight championship belt on Canada’s own Georges St-Pierre during the UFC 129 event at Rogers Centre in Toronto on April 29 after asking UFC president Dana White if he could do so during a fan expo the previous day.
May
•After his Portage Terriers won the Anavet Cup on April 24, local forward Kyle Turgeon took part in the Royal Bank Cup Junior ‘A’ national championship in Camrose, Alta. from May 1-5, but his team missed out on the playoffs with a 1-3 record.
•In an announcement made on The Speed Channel on May 3, Steve Arpin revealed he and Turner Motorsports had hooked up for a five-race deal in the Camping World Truck Series, with sponsorship from Mike’s Hard Lemonade.
•A pair of local hockey players were drafted May 7 during the OHL’s priority selection. Jordan Larson was taken in the 12th round by the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds while Colton Spicer went a round later by the Sudbury Wolves.
•Emo native Terry Carmody won his first-ever MMA bout May 7 in Duluth, defeating Minnesota-based fighter Richard Ojala in a middleweight bout during the Fearless Fighting Championship 8 event.
Carmody would lose a second bout in Walker, Mn. in August to Jacob Juvland.
•The Muskie senior boys’ badminton duo of Robert Stevens and Spencer Pearce took part at the OFSAA championships in Aurora on May 12-13, but end up falling short of the gold with a 1-2 record.
•The Muskie boys’ soccer team earn a berth to the all-Ontarios thanks to a 1-0 win over the host Kenora Broncos in the NorWOSSA final May 25, but end up going winless at the OFSAA tournament in Windsor.
•The grandfather-and-grandson tandem of Rod Woodgate and Dylan Swire captured the 10th-annual Emo Walleye Classic on May 28, with a two-day total of 19.67 pounds.
June
•Justin Anderson and Chelsea Hill earned the Fort High male and female athletes of the year awards during the Muskies’ annual athletic awards banquet June 8 at the Townshend Theatre.
•Steve Arpin made his Truck Series debut June 10 at the Texas Motor Speedway, where he started in fourth place and led a few laps early before getting caught up in a late-race tangle that led to a 23rd-place finish.
• Longtime local hockey volunteer Jim Fowler was honoured with the Western Zone volunteer award at the general meeting for Hockey Northwestern Ontario in Thunder Bay.
July
•Steve Arpin finished 12th at a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at the Kentucky Speedway, in what proved to be his best result during his five-race stint for Turner Motorsports.
•Jeff Gustafson and his girlfriend, August Collinson, of Kenora set a two-day total weight record July 9 at the “Castin’ for Cash” bass tournament on Lake Despair, hauling in 32.46 pounds over the weekend.
•Joe Basaraba attended a development camp for the Florida Panthers in Coral Springs, Fla. from July 12-15.
(A third-round selection for the Panthers in the 2010 NHL entry draft, Basaraba currently is in his sophomore season at Minnesota-Duluth, where he has three goals and four assists in 17 games).
• In what was a remarkable finish to the 2011 Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship on July 23, Richard Rud and Jon Austin of International Falls, along with the Thunder Bay-based tandem of Glenn Leroux and Trevor Zimak, finished tied atop the leaderboard with identical three-day total weights of 52.42 pounds.
•Also taking part in the FFCBC was Winnipeg Jets’ defenceman Dustin Byfuglien, who finished in 24th place in the third division with partner Josh Meyers of International Falls.
August
•The Borderland Soccer League crowned its season champs Aug. 11, with Al’s Racquet Stringing taking the women’s crown and Manitou Forest Products hoisting the men’s trophy.
•After winning the first nine feature races in the WISSOTA Modified division at the Emo Speedway, Gavin Paull saw his streak end Aug. 13 at the hands of Winnipeg driver Ward Imrie.
•Luke Skaarup captured trophies in consecutive days Aug. 13-14, taking first-place honours at events in Winkler, Man. and Saskatoon.
•Scott Messner (Street Stocks), Matt DePiero (WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds), and Joey Galloway (WISSOTA Modifieds) captured the Rea Memorial Trophy in their respective classes during the annual Emo Fair races on Aug. 19-21.
•The Kenora-based tandem of Jeff Gustafson and Scott Dingwall reeled in their third International Falls Bass Championship crown Aug. 26-27 with a record-setting, two-day total of 31.44 pounds.
•Terry Gill and Chad Hanson captured their fourth Morson Bass International crown Aug. 27-28 with a two-day total of 18.23 pounds.
•The Borderland Racing Association crowned its season champs Aug. 27 in the final points paying races of the season, with Don Bowman (Street Stocks), Christopher Leek (WISSOTA Midwest Modified), and Gavin Paul (WISSOTA Modifieds) clinching their respective crowns.
•The Sight & Sound Wolves won their third-straight Rainy River District Fastball League title Aug. 30 at VanJura Stadium here, thumping thumping Beef’s Warriors, the regular-season front-runners, 14-2 in the title game.
September
•The Fort Freakshow roller derby team put up a valiant effort in their home bout at the ’52 Canadians Arena on Sept. 3, but fell short to the Angry Beavers from Thunder Bay by a score of 167-125.
•Tyson Morrisseau, a 13-year-old from Couchiching, was accepted into the Hank Haney International Junior Golf Academy in Hilton Head Island, S.C., which has set him up to become the first-ever First Nations’ person to attend the program.
•Luke Skaarup set a Canadian record for the heaviest atlas stone loaded (454 pounds) en route to a third-place finish at the Dubreuilville Pro Strongman Challenge on Sept. 9-11.
•Bryan Gustafson of Fort Frances and Darrin Bohonis of Winnipeg led wire-to-wire to capture the 15th-annual “Bassin’ for Bucks” tournament in Sioux Narrows on Sept. 9-11 with a three-day total weight of 55.91 pounds.
•In his final start of the season, Steve Arpin became the first Canadian driver in 12 years to start on the pole in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series on Sept. 16 at the Chicagoland Speedway, where he set a track record time around the 1.5-mile oval of 30.768 seconds at a speed of 175.507 m.p.h.
Unfortunately for Arpin, he was unable to parlay hist first-ever pole into a strong finish, finishing the race in 16th place.
•Local squasher Anika Alexander moved to Winnipeg to further her development in the sport (the 14-year-old is attending Vincent Massey High School in the sports and arts program).
•Jason and Oliver Gibbins captured their fourth Rainy River Walleye Tournament title on Sept. 23-24, thanks to a two-day total weight of 22.96 pounds.
•Local golfer Christin Thompson fell short in her bid to make it onto the LPGA tour at a tournament in Venice, Fla. on Sept. 30, where she failed to make the cut out of the second stage of Q-school.
October
•Local resident Gary Beck, and the rest of the 1974-75 NAIA national championship hockey team, were inducted into the inaugural sports Hall of Fame class at the College of St. Scholastica on Oct. 14.
•The Muskies’ girls hockey team went unbeaten in their home tournament Oct. 21-23, edging the Kenora Broncos 3-2 in the final.
•Donovan Taylor led the Aquanauts in the Boston Pizza Fall Frolic Invitational at the Memorial Sports Centre on Oct. 21-23, winning the high-point trophy in the boys’ 15-and-over age group thanks to eight first-place finishes.
•For the first time since joining the Winnipeg High School Football League in 2001, the fifth-ranked Muskies won a playoff game—beating the St. Norbert Celtics 15-8 in the Currie Division quarter-finals Oct. 27 at Canad Inns Stadium.
•The Muskie boys’ hockey team started their season on a winning note Oct. 29 in Dryden, hammering Transcona 7-1 to capture a pre-season tournament.
November
•Fort Frances native Ryan Faragher earned WCHA rookie-of-the-week honours Nov. 1 after helping the St. Cloud State Huskies defeat the North Dakota Fighting Sioux the previous weekend (going into the Christmas break, the freshman goalie has a 5-7-3 record and a 2.91 GAA).
•Lakers’ forward Jordan Larson was named the SIJHL player-of-the-month for October on Nov. 2 after compiling a league-best 31 points in 16 games (heading into the holidays, the 16-year-old rookie from Fort Frances led the entire league in scoring with 50 points in 34 games).
•Larson cracked the Team West roster for the CJHL’s prospect games in Langley, B.C. on Nov. 12-13, where he scored a goal in each of the two games.
•The Cinderella run for the Muskie football team ended Nov. 4 as they fell to the eventual Currie Division champion Sisler ‘A’ Spartans 40-7 in the semi-finals (offensive lineman Jamon Leonard and defensive back Braden Webb later were named to the Currie Division all-star team).
•Donovan Taylor signed a letter of intent Nov. 8 to attend the University of Indiana next fall, where he will be competing for the Hoosiers’ swim program.
•The Muskie junior girls’ basketball team captured the NorWOSSA title Nov. 10 in Dryden thanks to a 28-4 thumping of the Kenora Broncos in the final.
•The Fort Frances PeeWee ‘AA’ Canadians took first place at a tournament in Dryden on Nov. 13, knocking off the host Paper Kings.
December
•Local bowler Lyle Dolph, 17, qualified for the Youth Challenge Nationals in Winnipeg next March thanks to a first-place showing at the provincial roll-offs Dec. 3 in Sudbury.
•Local snowmobile racer Curtis Boivin was involved in a horrific accident during the season-opening race for the Canadian Power Toboggan Championship on Dec. 4 in Beausejour, Man. (Boivin is still in hospital in Winnipeg, where he remains in a medically-induced coma).
•The Muskie senior boys’ basketball team began its season with a perfect 4-0 record and a first-place showing in the McDonald’s Tip-Off Tournament at Fort High on Dec. 8-10.
•The Emo Bolts PeeWee girls’ team won their home tournament Dec. 11, edging the Lakewood Tire Eagles (Fort Frances) 2-1 in overtime in the final.
