Award winning weekend

The Watrous Manitou received seven awards from the Saskatchewan Weekly Newspaper Association's awards banquet in Regina Apr. 21. The paper took home a first in best overall newspaper for circulation up to 1,999. Also at the awards, I got first overall for best colour photo, second for best wildlife photo (the same one that was entered in for colour photo), second for a story I did on family farming, third along with my editor Nicole on photo essay which were pictures from Relay for Life in Watrous. Nicole also received awards for editorial of the year and columnist of the year. I also took home a fourth in photographer of the year. Overall, it was an awesome time and felt very blessed to be win a first this year!! Here is a picture with my wonderful wife and also the picture that won the award :)

Riders extend Durant and Best

From Riderville.com - Saskatchewan Roughrider General Manager Brendan Taman announced today the team has agreed to terms with quarterback Darian Durant and offensive lineman Chris Best to contract extensions. The contracts will keep Durant and Best with the club through the 2014 season. Financial details were not released.
Durant (5’11 – 214) is entering his seventh season with the Green & White after joining the team in 2006. The 29-year-old South Carolina native earned the Riders starting quarterback job in the 2009 season and currently sits third on the club’s All-Time record list in passing attempts (1,824), completions (1,107) and passing yards (14,679). The University of North Carolina graduate also sits fourth on the All-Time record list with 74 career touchdown passes.
“We’re extremely happy to have come to an agreement on terms with Darian,” stated G.M Brendan Taman. “The CFL is a quarterback driven league, and Darian has proven he can lead this team. This extension allows us to move forward with Darian as our starting quarterback and achieve the ultimate goal of bringing another Grey Cup back to Saskatchewan.”
Best (6’4 – 315) originally joined the Riders after being selected by the club in the first round (4th overall) of the 2005 CFL Draft and is entering his sixth season with the Roughriders. The 29-year-old Calgary native has been the Riders starting right guard since the 2009 season, and was the Rider’s nominee for Most Outstanding offensive lineman during the 2011 season. 
“Chris is one of the best up and coming offensive lineman in the league,” said Taman. “He had a great season last year and keeping him under contract for the future was big priority for us.”

More from Canalta

Here are some more pictures from the Canalta Cup in Humboldt - the Broncos would go on to win in six games but I had a great time helping out with Access 7 for Games 1,2, and 5.

Canalta Cup - Humboldt vs Weyburn

I had the opportunity to help out with Access 7's province-wide broadcast of the SJHL finals - the Canalta Cup. Doing on-ice interviews for games one and two along with the first intermission features of the head coaches for game two was a thrill. Nerves aside it was a blast to get the chance to head on to the ice and talk with some of the best junior players in the game right now. Here are some pictures from mainly game two thanks to my dad :)  It has also been a pretty cool year so far for me as I have had the chance to work in all three types of media - print - reporting and snapping pictures for The Watrous Manitou (my job); radio - three games of play by play and one colour for CK750/CJVR of LLHL regular season action; television - two games of on-ice interviews for Access 7 for the Canalta Cup finals with another for game five. A blessing for me and an awesome experience.