Carlton lifts the 5A football provincial championship for the first time in school history. (Logan Lehmann/paNOW Staff)

By Logan Lehmann

Year in Review

From the ice to the court: P.A.’s top sports stories of 2024

Dec 25, 2024 | 10:00 AM

It was a busy year for sports in Prince Albert.

As the calendar flips to 2025, let’s take a look back at some of the memorable sports moments in our community from 2024:

P.A. community icon, Bruce Vance, succumbs to cancer at 63

The sporting world in P.A. suffered a great loss this past year, losing Bruce Vance to cancer at 63 years old.

Vance was most known for his time as the Prince Albert Raiders’ Director of Marketing and Business Manager for 14 years, where he brought major upgrades to the Art Hauser Centre and some big-name sporting events to the city, like a World Junior pre-tournament game in 2010 and the ADT Challenge Cup in 2008.

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He also managed the Mann-Northway Northern Bears from 2011-2015 and coached with P.A. Minor Softball for many years, among the countless other things he’s done for the city both in and out of sports.

He was inducted into the Prince Albert Sports Hall of Fame in 2016 and inducted onto the Raiders Wall of Honour in 2023.

Bruce Vance was known for his time with the Prince Albert Raiders, Mann-Northway Northern Bears, City Hall, and other various groups and organizations. (File photo/paNOW Staff)

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Prince Albert Predators Western Canadian champions

It was a year that the Prince Albert Predators lacrosse club won’t soon forget, let alone at all.

The team crowned themselves Kings of Western Canada over the summer which capped off a flawless season, not losing a single game all year and finishing at a perfect 21-0 across all games played.

Additionally, the team claimed their second straight provincial title en route to their Western win, while they also claimed multiple BOB Awards, including head coach Lucas Wells winning Best Coach, Brayden Rieger winning Top Male Athlete, and the Predators as a whole winning Best Sports Team.

The Predators outscored their opponents 82-30 during the entire Western Canadian tournament. Five members of the Prince Albert Predators received individual honours. (Prince Albert Raiders Lacrosse Team/Facebook)

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Softball World Cup Qualifiers a sneak peak to main event

In July, the city welcomed six of the best nations for the Men’s Softball World Cup Group B Qualifiers.

Teams competed for two spots at next year’s Men’s Softball World Cup in Prince Albert. Argentina and New Zealand punched their ticket to the tournament. Israel, Hong Kong, and Singapore were the other participating countries, while Canada will return as the hosts.

Two other qualifying tournaments also took place in 2024 in Hermosillo, Mexico and Oklahoma City, USA. In Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Australia secured their spots while in O.K.C., the United States and Japan did the same. Venezuela, who participated in Mexico, also got in as a wildcard team as they finished with the best record out of all the teams across the three qualifying tournaments.

The 2025 Men’s Softball World Cup is slated for July 8-13 in Prince Albert.

Argentina and New Zealand will be back in Prince Albert next year for the Men’s Softball World Cup. (WBSC)

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Zablocki shines on the ice

2024 was the most memorable yet for Stryker Zablocki.

From donning the maple leaf to winning championships, the Prince Albert-born goal scorer has proven herself worthy as one of the best in the world at her age.

She began the year with a bronze medal in Switzerland playing with Team Canada at the U18 Women’s World Hockey Championships, finishing the tournament with two goals and five assists in six games.

Her dominance continued in league play with the Regina Rebels in U18 AAA, finishing the regular season with 65 points (40G-25A), 17 more than second place despite playing three fewer games. She guided her team through the playoffs to Regina’s second consecutive provincial championship and subsequent Esso Cup berth. Following a third-place finish at the 2023 tournament, Zablocki and the Rebels managed gold in 2024 to clinch Regina’s first National title.

Despite being eligible to return to Regina this season, she opted to take her talents south of the border where she is finishing her Grade 12 year playing at the U19 AAA level for the Bishop Kearney Selects in New York.

Most recently, she was named to Team Canada for the U18 Women’s World Hockey Championships once again, this time in Vantaa, Finland. That tournament is scheduled to be played from Jan. 4-12.

Zablocki follows the play at the 2024 Esso Cup during a contest against Quebec’s L’Intrépide de l’Outaouais. (Hockey Canada/Sophie Isaac)

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Carlton wins 5A football provincial championship for first time

For the first time in school history, the Carlton Crusaders crowned themselves provincial champions in football.

The team defeated Saskatoon’s Bishop James Mahoney Saints in a 35-34 nail-biter at SMF Field, capping off an undefeated season for the Crusaders.

“For me, it’s 18 years in the making and for the school, it’s 50 years in the making,” said head coach Lindsay Strachan following the win. “To be a part of that little piece of history and to have these guys be the ones who did it together, it’s amazing what they did today.”

Carlton also captured their first North Sask. Football League title en route to their provincial win, as the Cru ended the season at a perfect 8-0.

Carlton poses with their new hardware after winning 5A provincials in November. (Logan Lehmann/paNOW Staff)

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Teachers’ strike cancels HOOPLA

Saskatchewan’s high school provincial basketball tournaments were a no-go this year as teachers across the province hit the picket lines in an attempt to force the province to expand contract talks to include class size and complexity measures.

One-day strikes began in mid-January and were not resolved until June. The strikes forced multiple school day cancellations where they also did not partake in extracurriculars, effectively cancelling the HOOPLA tournaments province-wide.

Because of this, student-athletes across the province held walkouts and protests, including here in Prince Albert where the Carlton Sr. Boys team held a silent protest by not talking to teachers until the union talked to the provincial government.

Despite the cancellation of the main tournament, a makeshift one-day tournament was held in Moose Jaw during the same weekend with only a fraction of the teams competing.

Teachers on strike in Prince Albert in January. (Nigel Maxwell/paNOW Staff)

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Northern Bears win Canadian Crown tournament

The Mann-Northway Northern Bears claimed gold at a prestigious tournament earlier this season.

Back in October, the Bears were in Devon, Alberta for the 2024 Canadian Crown tournament. There, they were joined by 11 other teams from across Western Canada and prevailed over the Swift Current Wildcats in the finals, 2-1 in overtime.

A pair of Bears finished the tournament in the top five for scoring. Jersie Andersen finished second with nine points (6G-3A) and Aliya Clarke finished tied for third with seven (1G-6A).

The Mann Northway Northern Bears are the 2024-25 Canadian Cup champions. (Facebook/Northern Bears)

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Max Clunie Field, Harry Jerome Track get a facelift

After what was a year of work, the renovations of Max Clunie Field and Harry Jerome Track finally crossed the finish line.

Work on the facilities began in October 2023 and wrapped up a year later with a grand opening of the new track and football field on Oct. 10 ahead of an exhibition football contest between Carlton and Saskatoon’s Centennial Collegiate.

The renovation work was originally slated to finish at the end of August, but major rain delays in June sidelined construction crews for three weeks. The entire project cost $3.7 million.

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Howe drafted into NHL and signs with Pittsburgh

A local hockey player became even closer to achieving his NHL dream this year.

Prince Albert’s Tanner Howe has had a year to remember when this past summer, he became a teammate of one of his lifelong idols.

Howe heard his name called at the 2024 NHL Draft in Las Vegas, going 46th overall to the Pittsburgh Penguins. A month later, he put pen to paper with the storied NHL franchise, signing a three-year entry-level contract.

He was also named Prince Albert’s 2024 Sportsman of the Year.

“When you get a local kid who does very well in the regional level and gets drafted in the NHL by Pittsburgh in the second round makes it a very easy choice for us to select him,” said Jared Devers, Kinsmen Club Committee chairman for the 2024 event. “We’re sure he’s going to go on to continue to do great things.”

Last month, Howe was dealt from the Regina Pats to the Calgary Hitmen in a blockbuster trade and, more recently, was named to Team Canada for the 2025 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship in Ottawa.

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loganc.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com