Local athlete, Megan Pinette joined the Murillo Mudhens ladies’ fastball in their gold medal win at the Western Canadian Championships in Winnipeg Aug. 5-8.
The team went 4-2 in the round robin with wins against Saskatchewan’s Erical Jr. Eclipse, B.C.s Victoria Kaos, the Calgary Rage and Alberta’s Strathmore Magic while dropping two games to the host Manitoba Thunder and Saskatchewan’s Northwest Vipers.
The team met up with the Magic again in the finals, beating them in a 4-1 decision and earning top spot at the tournament.
Pinette is currently playing short stop for the DQ Brazier Bunch in the Dryden Ladies’ Fastball finals against the A&W Devils.
DQ took game one in the best-of-three series.

While first place winner, Louise Gauthier managed to bring in a 6.65lbs walleye during the Ice Dogs fishing derby, it was the only big fish of the tournament.
Second place weight , captured by Ken Gauthier, was only 1.68lbs and Kelly McNally came in third with 1.18lbs.
With six tagged fish released into Wabigoon Lake, five prizes were available, including Ice Dogs tickets and other sponsored prizes.
One fish held the $50,000 tag but no tagged fish were caught.
Despite the cold, rainy weather, the one-day, first annual tournament attracted a few dozens fishermen who braved the wind and rain for most of the day.
Above: Lyn Knapton, left, and Lorie Clarkson hold up their lone fish for the day.
Right: Ice Dogs’ executive president Ted Lake presents tournament and biggest fish of the day winner, Louise Gauthier with a fishing package for her big walleye and top weight of the day.
Proceeds from the fishing tournament went to the Dryden  Ice Dogs.

Groundwork has started once again at the new soccer complex in north Dryden as a fourth soccer field will be added to the park.
The fourth field is just one more step in the process of creating a large soccer complex, complete with full size, smaller and practice fields and hopefully lights and a building in the near future.
With a growing number of both kids and adults becoming involved in the sport, one field at Sandy Beach wasn’t going to cut it anymore. Now, with three full size fields in north Dryden, the need for some practice fields is a must for both the youth league and travel teams.
“The field is 140 m long by 70 m wide with the idea of having the young U11s there; we’ll go across and make some small fields and if we need a full size field, then we have room for a full size field.”
Raposo adds that the field will be used not only for games but for all the practices held at the fields, including the U10, U12 and U14 travel teams that practice all summer long.
Dryden Youth Soccer has been fundraising for the past few years to help with the cost of the new fields and has received Trillium grants to help cover the cost.
The land has been leveled behind the south soccer field and the topsoil and seed are now in place, with hopes that by next summer, the field will be ready to use.
The next step at the complex will hopefully be adding a building to offer protection from the elements as well as storage for the soccer complex.
Raposo adds that with Sioux Lookout as part of the men’s and women’s league as well as shelter whether it’s raining or hot outside, the need for a building is increasing all the time.

The 2010 Winnipeg High School Football League schedule has been posted and the Dryden Eagles football team will see some new faces on the field this fall season.
The team has been bumped up to the AA division as more teams get added to the 32-team league. While they will face off against familiar teams such as Murdoch MacKay, they will be seeing new teams from Steinbach and Maples.
Coach Todd Zilkalns says the team moved up because of their season last year but with many top players moving on, new talent will have to fill some big shoes.
“We have a big team in terms of numbers but very few of them are senior kids and very few of them have any long-term football experience. We have a lot of talent but they are young, Grade nines and 10s but that’ll be good down the road.”
With only a month left before the season starts, the Eagles will start gearing up for their exhibition game against the Kenora Beaver Brae Broncos on Sept. 2 then go again for round two in their first official game of the season on Sept. 10.
Murdoch MacKay will travel to the Harry McMaster Field for the Dryden Eagles homecoming on Friday, Sept. 17 with the kick-off at 4 p.m.
The team heads back to Winnipeg on Thursday, Sept. 23 to take on Miles Mac and Friday, Oct. 1 to compete against Maples.
The Eagles will host Steinbach Friday, Oct. 8 and Kildonan East on Friday, Oct. 22. Their final regular season away game will take place against West Kildonan Thursday, Oct. 14.
Zilkalns adds the new students will get lots of experience this season and build a future for the Eagles team.
“We don’t know for sure what we’re getting into but we’re going to be realistic and see if we can win a couple of games and get all the young guys lots of experience and I think this year will build the future for us next year so I don’t think a title is necessarily in our hopes but we’ll start small and build.”

With the sound of the bell by Town Crier, Daniel Richer, 150 runners took off from the Dryden Memorial Arena for the Centennial road race on Sunday, Aug. 8 at 8 a.m. Participants could run the 10 km, 10 miles, or 5 km courses, set at intervals starting down Sandy Beach Rd. The results are as follows: Wheelchair 10 mile race – Chester Draper with a time of 52:48; 10 mile run – male: Phillip Lovenuk 1:09:02, female: Tina Bryant 1:23:25; 10 km run – male: Jack McMaster 46:49, female: Katelyn Morgan of Red Lake, 55:17; 5 km run – male: Kyle Reid 28:15, female: Nicole Valiquette 21:30.

There was lots of action at the Sandy Beach Ball Diamonds on Monday, Aug. 9 as the ladies’ fastball league enters the semi-final round while the men’s slopitch starts their finals.
The ladies’ fastball league started their best-of-three semi-finals with the Swingers facing the DQ Brazier Bunch and the Thompson Paint Shop Angels taking on the A&W Devils.
With a close came in the first few innings, DQ managed to pull away from the Swingers for the 8-3 win and the advantage going into game two.
The Devils struggled in their game one semi-final against the Angels, falling 21-1.
Hagens Heroes was all over the Wolfpack in game one of the the men’s slopitch final as they finished with a 27-17 win.
All six teams will continue their series on Wednesday, Aug. 11 at Sandy Beach for round two of their playoff rounds.