Park City rivalry in Price Division
Three Transcona schools competing in same WHSHL division for first time
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This article was published 29/10/2021 (1768 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The Winnipeg High School Hockey League’s Price Division will feature plenty of Park City action this season.
For the first time, all three men’s high school hockey teams from Transcona will be competing in the same division. Murdoch MacKay, Transcona Collegiate, and Collège Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau join Leo Remillard, John Taylor, Pinawa, Fort Richmond and Collège Louis-Riel in the league’s third tier division.
“All the kids played hockey together growing up, they all know each other,” said Transcona Collegiate head coach Jamie McCreedy. But on the ice they’re enemies. The kids have all marked the calendar.”
While all three schools have never been in the same division, often two of the three have found themselves in the same division.
“I’m excited for those rivalry games,” said Matt Laden, captain of the Murdoch MacKay hockey team. “It pumps the guys up, hearing there were two Transcona teams in our division. We know those games will mean a lot more than just standings.”
On Oct. 27, neighbouring schools Murdoch MacKay and CPET went head to head for the first of many Park City matchups. Murdoch won the game 7-2.
“You hold your stick a little higher, work a little harder when you play your friends,” Stephen Grégoire, CPET hockey coach, told The Herald. “They’ve grown up with all these kids for the most part, so it’s cool to see that competitive edge.”
Following the match, Murdoch MacKay had a 2-2 record, good for six points, while CPET had a 0-3-0 record. Meanwhile, leading up to an Oct. 29 tilt against Collège Louis-Riel, Transcona Collegiate was 0-2-0 in two games played.
Like many other high school hockey teams, there will be plenty of growing pains as the season goes on, with so many players having missed out on last season, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. The teams from the Park City are no exception.
Transcona Collegiate’s has four Grade 12 players, three of whom have been with the team since Grade 9. The rest of the roster is mostly Grade 10s, with a few Grade 9 players, who have never played hockey with hitting involved.
“We have a lot of new hockey players who haven’t played high level hockey, some of them have never played hitting,” McCreedy said. “It’s refreshing, though.”
Having a young core to build around has its advantages, as well.
“Every kid who steps on that ice is proud to be there, they’ve got their chest puffed out,” McCreedy said. “They’ll do whatever they can to help the team win. They have the opportunity and I think they’ll make the best of it.
Murdoch’s team features a roster with over 10 Grade 10 players.
“The main thing for us is growth, to improve and get stronger,” Daniel McDonald, Murdoch’s head coach, told The Herald. “We want everyone to develop and work on skills on the ice as much as possible while having fun and taking it game by game.”
“We have a really hardworking team that really wants to grow together,” said Laden, one of three returning Grade 12 players for Murdoch, who had a team leading 13 points at press time. “We all want to improve as players but also do good as a team. We’re all willing to help each other.”
Meanwhile, CPET’s roster features only one returning player, captain Brodie Kotzer, and includes four Grade 9 players.
“It’s an awesome group of kids, but now it’s getting the rust off and getting back to basics,” Grégoire said. “Some of these guys have never played hitting hockey before, so that’s a big change, making sure to be physical when you need to and not get hurt.”
On Nov. 8, CPET will play Transcona Collegiate, and on Nov. 18, Murdoch and Transcona Collegiate will meet for the first time this season. All the Transcona teams home games are played at East End Arena.
“With the fans here in the Transcona division, essentially, it’s gonna be a ton of fun,” Grégoire said.
Sheldon Birnie is the managing editor of the Free Press Community Review. Email him at sheldon.birnie@freepress.mb.ca or call him at 204-697-7112
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‘We are Murdoch’
With the return of high school sports, Murdoch MacKay Collegiate’s sports teams will remain nicknameless going forward.
In the summer of 2020, following a push from students, the school dropped its “Clansmen” nickname.
“We’ve been doing lots of social justice work with our students. Overall, they wanted to see themselves represented, to feel like they’re part of the school,” explained principal Brian Straub.
“The ‘Clansmen’ name was in reference to Scottish clansmen, but when they hear that name, that’s not the first image that came to mind. The students wanted to be belonging, and they felt that was a barrier.”
Going forward, teams from the Transcona school will simply be referred to as Murdoch MacKay.
– Birnie
Sheldon Birnie is the managing editor of the Free Press Community Review. Email him at sheldon.birnie@freepress.mb.ca or call him at 204-697-7112
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
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