Your first lesson? Stop lusting after teacher

Soccer facility gets $750K from province for upgrades

With Winnipeg’s first professional women’s team waiting in the wings, the province is spending $750,000 to upgrade the Ralph Cantafio Soccer Complex.

The funding will help replace the outdoor field pitch and lighting system to ensure it can host high-level sporting events, the province said at a press confererence Friday at the south Winnipeg facility.

Earlier this month, it was announced Winnipeg will be the seventh franchise in the Northern Super League with the as yet unnamed team co-founded by former national team player Desiree Scott and longtime coach Rob Gale.

While there has been no official announcement, it’s presumed the team will play at the complex, which currently seats about 2,000.

E-scooter knocks senior onto sidewalk as he gets off bus

A Winnipeg man was thrown onto the pavement and injured after being struck by an electric scooter after stepping off a Winnipeg Transit bus Monday afternoon, an incident he hopes will push the city to take a closer look at sidewalk safety.

Carillon bats dominate in MJBL Final opener

The Manitoba Junior Baseball League has a familiar match-up in the finals. The best-of-five series this year features the Carillon Sultans taking on the Elmwood Giants for the third consecutive year.

The Sultans, based out of Steinbach, have won the past two championships and cruised to first place in the regular season in their attempt to round out a three-peat.

The best-of-five series kicked off in Steinbach at A.D. Penner Park on Friday night, with Carillon’s offence the difference, as they racked up 13 hits and in a 15-5 mercy rule victory as darkness fell on the diamond.

The Sultans took a 7-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning but let Elmwood back into the game when they got within two in the top of the fifth. Carillon responded by hitting around in the bottom half, scoring six runs and sealing the victory.

Cross Lake pro blueliner walks away from sport he loves to live and work in northern community he loves even more

CROSS LAKE — It’s a hot, hazy Tuesday evening in northern Manitoba, and Jericho Blacksmith and his buddies are gathered inside a baseball dugout.

There isn’t a glove or bat in sight.

Instead, the young men are engaged in a loud, good-natured race to see who can get blackout drunk the fastest, passing around bottles and cans purchased from the local vendor, which had just been restocked when the weekly truck rolled into town earlier that day.

“Honestly, everything can be pretty brutal around here,” says the 26-year-old lifelong resident, pointing to isolation, a lack of opportunity and relentless boredom.

Selfie part of investigation into Grant Park football coach

A selfie of a high school football coach grinning beside a Free Press front-page story about the investigation into his professional conduct has become part of the case.

Doug Kovacs, a resource teacher at Grant Park High School who runs the Pirates football program, was put on leave in the spring.

The Winnipeg School Division employee is the subject of an investigation into allegations that athletes on his AAAA varsity team engaged in hazing that led to at least one player getting injured last year.

The Free Press has learned that on July 8 — the day it was revealed in print that Manitoba’s teacher commissioner had launched a third-party probe — a photo of Kovacs posing with a newspaper began circulating in the football community.

Firefighter accused of violating protection order jailed for past harassment

A Winnipeg firefighter accused of violating a protection order this week has been jailed two times in the past decade for criminally harassing two different women, court records show.

In each case, Christopher Goethals was allowed to return to his job with the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service.

Goethals, 59, was arrested July 21 after breaching a protection order requiring he not come within 200 metres of a named protected person, police said.

Police allege Goethals was in full uniform and on “modified duties” driving a WFPS fleet vehicle at the time of the offence.