THE BATTLEFORDS — Athletes have been preparing for months and tryouts are being completed and teams assembled for the various sports that will be part of the Saskatchewan Summer Games in Lloydminster, July 21-27.
The summer games are broken up into two separate sections of competition encompassing more than 2,000 athletes, coaches and officials. Upwards of 1,100 community volunteers will be part of the week’s success story.
Rivers West Sports District, which includes North Battleford and area participants, will be sending several local athletes for competition in various sports.
Baseball has announced its roster and includes Rhett Cawood from North Battleford. Wilkie’s Keegan Schell is also part of the roster. Six athletes from Maidstone made the Summer Games Baseball roster: Kaiden Benkendorf, Cruz Harrison, Noah Perkins, Ean Alsager and Mason Makin. Macklin will be represented by Darian Lower. Battleford resident Corban Zavianos is also on this game's roster. There is one Rosetown athlete, Cale Morris, and one Eston athlete, Joel Thoppilan.
Coaches for the team will be TJ Aviianos from Battleford, Brett Harrison from Battleford and Jason Schell from Wilkie. Team manager is Karena Alsager from Maidstone.
The Rivers West District male basketball squad includes athletes: Sawyer Greenan, Meadow Lake; Conner Kennedy, Cochin; Alexander Mercredi, Lloydminster; Dion Myette, Justin Nunez and James Sutherland, North Battleford; Max Neudorf, Eston; Declan Rohatyn and Raef Woods, Lloydminster; and Kolby Albert, Battleford; along with coach Denzyl Gopher and manager Sarah Wolfe.
The female basketball team will be coached by Jeremy and Cherie Wagner of Unity, while the athletes representing Team Rivers West will be Unity’s Ella Brebner and Myah Wagner, along with Brylee Carter, Addysyn Hansen, Ezri Vidal and Chelsey Munro from Meadow Lake, Harper Fauchon of Battleford; Nicole Gartner of Lloydminster and two Maidstone girls – Casey Johner and Ellie Kraft.
One Battleford athlete is part of the beach volleyball competition, Sienne Sommerfeld. Other team members for this sport are Adam Treptow, Meadow Lake; Rowan Cyr, Logan Weninger and Kane Cyr, Lloydminster; Graysen Burnouf, Turtleford; Eloise Benoit, Chauvin; Cameryn Larre, St. Walburg; along with coaches Matt Peck of Lloydminster and Denna Gibb of Chauvin.
Softball will be part of the Summer Games competition. Team Rivers West includes several Maidstone athletes: Rosie Carson, Parker Fritz, Makayla Graham, Charley Harrison and Georgie Rutley. Ryker Slabaida of North Battleford along with Zaya Bothner of Kindersley, Samantha Cowie of Macklin, Tayler Foursha of Rosetown, Alynne Hein of Neilburg, Jaidyn Mackrell of Unity, Camryn Mckinley of Biggar, and Brynlee Weber of Edam will round out the playing roster. Coaches are Jolyne Harrison from Maidstone and Tania Hauser from Lashburn. Heidi Chant of Maidstone will serve as manager.
Unity’s Joey Carrier will serve as manager for athlete Greta Bobbee of Kindersley competing in Special Olympics bocce for Team Rivers West, with coach Maureen Dobbin from Kindersley.
Two Battleford athletes, Aaron Cherney and Alexander Kramm, will be competing on the male swim team along with fellow athletes Brandon Friesen, Oscar Minogue and Petrus Strydom, Elrose; Jasper Omusula, Meadow Lake; and Jude Merrifield, Rosetown.
Battleford’s Mike Kramm will manage the female swim team for Rivers West which includes North Battleford athlete Katelyn Louko along with Breanna Velasco of Kindersley; Chloe de Montarnal, Fin Frey and Jemma Greening of Edam; Heimarie Strydom and Jana Duvenage of Elrose; and Thea Burgess of Meadow Lake. Lyne DeMontarnal from Edam and Krista Omusula from Meadow Lake will serve as coaches.
The female volleyball roster for Team Rivers West includes two North Battleford athletes, Layla Russel and Andie Gerein, along with North Battleford coach, Anna Atcheynum who will share coaching duties with Cory Gratton of Lloydminster. Other female volleyball athletes include Kenzie McGillivray, Provost; Paige Brown, Katie Smith, Abbie Redden, Elizabeth Garchinski, Cody Gratton and Blakely Gervai, Lloydminster; Brooke Wicks, Maidstone; Adyson Krauss, Kitscoty; and Ezri Vidal, Meadow Lake.
The male volleyball roster has not been made available yet but Dustin Treptow and Trent Marsh are listed as coaches.
The rosters for archery and athletics are not yet finalized, as with canoe/kayak and golf. Male and female soccer rosters were not listed on the Rivers West website however the male soccer coach is listed as Ali Beloud while Kat Huxley will serve as the female soccer coach. Tennis and triathlon have not yet finalized their rosters either.
Wheelchair basketball has not yet named their roster or their coach for the games.
Participating sports July 21 to 24 will include archery, canoe/kayak, golf, soccer (male), softball (female), Special Olympics – bocce, swimming, tennis and volleyball (male and female). The second half of the games will include the sports of athletics, baseball (male), basketball (male and female), beach volleyball (male and female), soccer (female), triathlon and wheelchair basketball.
Summer Games athletes will get to experience staying in the athletes’ village while competing against other athletes from across the province. Special opening and closing ceremonies also give participants a chance to be celebrated and acknowledged as Teams Rivers West. Many athletes go on to excel in their sport and compete in Canada Games, university sports or other high-performance teams.
www.riverswest.ca will include details on the games as they draw closer, as well as https://saskgames.ca/summer will include results and updates as the games proceed. Both of these organizations also have social media pages where you can find the latest news and updates on events and athletes.
