Name: Amanda Schnell Position: D Year: 4th

Name: Leanne Kisil Position: F Year: 4th

Kisil in black, Schnell in red

January 15

Well it’s about that time again for me to start writing a little something for our blog. Thanks Schnelly for flying solo last week, I was still in holiday mode and wasn’t quite ready to write anything. That’s ok you just owe me big now!

I’d like to start off with more details about our scavenger hunt last Monday. We had the day off from practice and coach Rempel decided to have a team building activity that involved some form of physical activity. The point of the activity was to split up into small groups and collect different items all around campus. Some of the items included things like; a picture of our groups with a farm animal, a big fish, business cards from a few people around campus and a pair of male boxer shorts. But the best item on the scavenger hunt list was the picture of MVP football player Mike Howard…that went over well! As Schnelly mentioned last week, all of us are very competitive. So rewarding the winning group with a paid dinner at the end of the year did not go over so well. In other words, not so much “Team Building!” Yeah I missed out on most of the scavenger hunt but caught the end and our team’s maybe a little too competitive. But hey, at least there were no punches thrown when Jon announced the winner (cause that only happens on the weekend, right Chantal)!

Miss Stacey Corfield, you are my hero. She stopped all of the 22 shots on Friday night, made some big saves and kept us going in the game. I love our goaltenders!

Addie Miles had quite the Friday night, scoring two goals and almost scoring her third for a “hattie.” But she just couldn’t put that third one in. Maybe she should just try harder next time hey Schnelly? Or she could ask Ross for some advice… Just kidding, she had a great weekend and some pretty goals. Way to go Ads! Rempel always tells the defence to “get their shots through,” and Schnelly did just that. She also happened to score a goal in the process. How did you feel about that one Schnell? I’m not gonna lie, I was pretty pumped…but I still think Amy McQuiod’s “Oh my God, did I score?” celebration beats us all this weekend. Love yah Amy, but you really need to work on that, and I suggest you get started this week at practice.

I’m really excited for this weekend because one, we’re sitting in a great position right now, tied for first with the Alberta Pandas and two, these next two games are going to be our biggest ones this year. I’ve been waiting a long time to be in the position we are in and I can’t wait to see what happens this weekend. Now I’m not really superstitious but I’m still not going to say what I would really like to happen…I’ll just say, I hope we come back from Edmonton with smiling faces!

January 11

Well it’s been awhile since our last blog, but both Kisil and I decided to take a break from our computers over Christmas. So sorry for not writing but they do call it Christmas BREAK for a reason. Kisil has decided to write in the following blog. So, I’m on my own for this one.

Anyways on to better things like this past weekends games against UBC. Both our goalies had solid performances stopping everything that came their way and recorded the first every back-to-back shutout in team history. Ross, however, was definitely the all-star of the weekend with a hat trick on Friday and three points on Saturday.

This week Jon (head coach Jon Rempel) organized a scavenger hunt for us, which really brought out the competitive side in all of us.

Tuesday’s workout was hard but then again it’s been awhile since we’ve had team workout. I think bosu balls may be out of our workouts for the next little while or at least Sas’s. I thought that exercise was supposed to help build ankle strength not bust your ankle. Maybe she wasn’t doing it properly (just kidding Sas). But really take care of yourself; you won’t let this keep you down for too long.

This weekend against U of Saskatchewan should be once again another battle. All of our games against them have always been close and I don’t see this changing anytime soon. However I think we’re up for the challenge and will be ready to go come Friday night.

Any comments or feeback please Email: bison_sports@umanitoba.ca

November 26

It’s about 3:30 am right now, we’re on our way to Winnipeg (coming from Saskatoon) and I’m looking outside and see nothing but flat open field. It really is a beautiful sight. I SHOULD be sleeping, but unfortunately I CAN’T. So I figured this would be a great time to begin writing the blog so I can express my bitterness towards the nine hour bus ride.

Over the past four years that I’ve been here, I don’t think I’ve ever liked playing in Saskatoon. When we leave Saskatoon at 11 p.m. we don’t arrive in Winnipeg until 7 a.m. Personally, I never sleep well on the bus and I usually spend most of Sunday catching up on my sleep. Which means, there isn’t much homework getting done. It usually takes me a couple of days to get back into my normal sleeping routine and I think I’m speaking on behalf of all the girls when I say that.

I hate the sound of the rickety bathroom door that keeps me awake. Then there are the continuous random swerves that make me feel like I’m going to fall off of the bed. Yes I said “bed.” We were lucky enough to get a bus where all of the seats fold into bunk beds. I couldn’t bring myself to sleep on the bottom bunk because I’ve never liked the bottom bunk and I especially don’t like the idea of sleeping on the bottom bunk on a bus. You never know how secure the top is!!

(Signing off for now, I will finish the rest of the blog later on during the day.)

Now, during these long bus trips, we have a great opportunity to get to know our teammates a little better. However, some of the things you find out aren’t always good. This weekend, I had the pleasure of finding out that Schnelly is a Snorer! I know you might not believe it Schnell, but you snore, and you snore LOUD!!

At one point (about 4:30) all I wanted to do was throw my pillow at Schnelly and tell her to be quiet. Instead, I just turned my music up louder and tried to get some sleep. I think by then, I was so tired that I finally fell asleep.

Alright, enough about the crummy bus ride, I’ll hand it over to Schnelly to continue with the hockey side of things!

Just to clarify it’s hard not to snore when you’ve been sick for a week and can’t breathe! Also you shouldn’t complain too much about my snoring when you took up half my bunk, you GIANT!!!

Anyways, enough complaining already, at least we had the bus to go home in and not the ghetto school bus we were driving around in on Friday. So Saskatoon isn’t as safe as we thought and the people there aren’t too smart either (or at least the guy who tried to steal our bus wasn’t). That’s right, our bus got broken into on Thursday night! Some guy busted the window, somehow started the bus but couldn’t figure out how to turn the parking break off. Of course, this was a good thing, because all of our equipment was still on the bus. (I wonder if we would’ve gotten all brand new equipment?…that could’ve been fun!) So Friday we ended up having to take a school bus because our bus was getting repaired.

As for the hockey side of things, I’d like to start off by giving a shout out to (Chantal) Larocque who had a stellar weekend. Scoring two goals on Friday night and the game winner in the shoot out, she definitely earned the hard hat. Also, the hard hat was given to Corn, (Stacey Corfield) on Saturday who had a solid weekend and didn’t let anything by her in the shootout. The team played well both games, and as I predicted Saskatchewan didn’t do us any favours and made us work hard for both wins.

Looking forward to this weekend, we have a short week of practices before we head to Regina for our last two games before the break. Oh goody, another bus ride! Haha! These games should be a battle for us as well because Regina has always been one of our biggest rivals. We always have to have play big games against them and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

Talk to you next week!

Any comments or feeback please Email: bison_sports@umanitoba.ca

November 20

A lot of the girls used our bye weekend to go home and visit family and friends, while other’s got in some quality time away from the rink. However coming off the bye weekend always means a hard week of practice to work off what fun we might have had over the weekend. And this year is no exception, Jon (head coach Jon Rempel) had a hard practice for us this Monday and I don’t think he’ll be letting up from now until Christmas break.

Heading into the last two weekends before Christmas, we play Saskatoon and then Regina, both on the road. Who makes this schedule anyways? Two back-to-back road trips to Saskatchewan (O’ Rourke’s gonna have to invest in a mask soon. I don’t know if she’ll be able to handle the smell of the bus for two weekends in a row).

Saskatoon has been doing us a lot of favors lately (by beating Alberta and then sweeping Regina) but I don’t think they’ll be so nice this weekend. They’ve been playing well and we’d be wise not to take them lightly. We’ll have to play two strong games this weekend in order to come up on top and I think the girls should be rested up and ready to battle it out both Friday and Saturday night. Taking both games would put us in a good position and with the first half almost finished. I’ll take all the points we can get!

Any comments or feeback please Email: bison_sports@umanitoba.ca

November 15

First off, just like to apologize for not writing a blog last week. Both Schnelly and I were very busy with school and didn’t get around to writing one. Also, we didn’t want to write a blog after losing…we were a little upset. We want to finish off on a positive note as our bye weekend approaches.

I’d like to start off by pointing out that fact that our expectations have changed since last year. Last year I would have been content with, if not excited, about splitting with Alberta and Regina. However, things are different now and splitting with these teams ended our seven game winning streak (a task which our team has never accomplished until now). Instead of focusing on the fact that we lost both Saturday’s games the past two weekends, I’d rather focus on the positives. Good call Schnelly! Like the fact that our team is having a great season, being 8-2-0 is not too shabby of a record.

After the loss on Saturday, I was pretty upset, but a friend of mine reminded me that we are still in a great position. We’re tied for first in Canada West and we’re currently ranked third in CIS. We gave Alberta their first losing streak in a long time and we have the fewest goals against in the league (good work Corn and Hoogie). So even though we’re heading into this bye-week on a loss I would like to stay positive and think about what we have accomplished so far this season. However I’m sure we will use these losses to help us prepare for our next league games against Saskatchewan and Regina.

I think sometimes, when expectations get higher it’s easy to forget about the little accomplishments that a team made. Let’s not forget that we’re tied for first!!

Moving on to this weekend….BYE weekend! Sometimes spending almost every day with someone can become very long and annoying. The little things can turn into big things, and people may get sick of each other. I think that’s why the league came up with the “bye” weekend.

It’s very important for the girls to have a weekend to themselves. Hanging out with other friends, family, significant others, or even by themselves. Possibly catching up on all the school they’ve fallen behind on. Personally, I’m going to do something other than playing hockey and watch a little football. How about yourself Schnelly?

I’ll be catching up with some of my friends I’ve neglected over the past few months and cheering on some of our other Bisons teams this weekend. Have fun this weekend girls!

Any comments or feeback please Email: bison_sports@umanitoba.ca

October 31

This weekend we travelled to Vancouver to play UBC. As soon as we took off from Winnipeg, we knew this year’s trip would be better than the last. First of all, flying in and over looking Vancouver city, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. It was the first sunny day that we have EVER seen. Second, without any delays, our equipment made it to Vancouver, and the bus was there to pick us up on time. (we didn’t have to take taxis this time). Our accommodations were a step up from last year (staying at the Holiday Inn downtown vs. some motel in the middle of nowhere). This time around, the drinking water wasn’t contaminated from sewage water and we were able to drink.

Vancouver is always a tough place for us to play. Coach Rempel always likes to remind us that it’s a “business” trip and to avoid all distractions while were in the big city. This can be very tough for some to overcome because most of the girls on our team are small town country girls and have never been exposed to the likes of Van City. There are a few differences from the Peg, Starbucks and Sushi at almost every corner and some great entertainment for under $10.25. It is hard not to get distracted by the random man hanging outside next to a XXX store, chugging on a beer while he tries to hail a cab. Also, another man who yelled out explicit words, because he was trying to steal another man’s paper. Some of the girls were lucky enough to experience the best Borat impression, while eating dinner Saturday night. Unfortunately, I wasn’t there to see it, but I heard he was wearing a purple Speedo. You have to expect things like this while in Vancouver especially since it was Halloween weekend.

Despite the fact that we had some distractions this weekend we were able to pull off two big wins and get four points for the weekend. The heavy lifter awards were given to Kiss (Kisil) and Fou (Danielle Fouillard).They both gave a little extra this weekend (gotta play well for the boyfriends’ parents, hey Kiss.). Yep…too bad they couldn’t make it out more often!

Our first game was similar to last week’s first game, up by three and held on for the win. I know in the end all that really matters is the win, however, I think we need to work on putting teams away and not giving them a chance to get back into the game. The score should have been more like 6-0.

During the warm-up in our second game we had a stroke of bad luck (like they say, things happen in threes!) Spiegs forgot how to skate, and caused a three-player pile up. Schnelly and I tripped over the red line causing us to slide to UBC’s side of the ice. A little embarrassing, I’d say.

During practice this week I think we need to work on our breakaways. We had at least four and we didn’t score on any of them.

Next up is our biggest rivalry, University of Regina. Game time is 7 pm on Friday, November 2 and Saturday, November 3 at Max Bell Arena.

Any comments or feeback please Email: bison_sports@umanitoba.ca

October 15

This weekend we played two exhibition games against Robert Morris College and Balmoral Hall. Friday night we played Robert Morris and beat them 6-0. The girls played really strong and unselfish all night, I saw some really nice passing which generated a lot of offense for us and contributed to us out shooting them 54-10. Tammy Brade got the heavy lifter award for scoring not one but two short handed goals.

The heavy lifter award is an acknowledgement from head coach Jon Rempel for an overall solid game in the form of a yellow construction hat covered in bison stickers. This idea was based on our team’s motto, “Nothing is heavy, when everyone lifts.” Which represents our ongoing team effort. While our special teams continued to shine all night with three of our six goals coming from the power play.

Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for our second game of the weekend against Balmoral Hall. Things just weren’t going our way and we lost 2-0. Honestly, I think it was even harder to watch.

After we got over the fact that we lost, we decided to continue on with our planned schedule. Like I said last time, the “infamous rookie party.” This was a very special night! This year’s theme…. “80’s Beauty Pageant!” Our rookies looked very hot in their pageant attire (just a bit of an overstatement…possibly some sarcasm!) They were great sports about dressing up and also participating in a scavenger hunt, driving all around Winnipeg looking for certain items. We only make them do the scavenger hunt for one reason and that is so other people can get a little chuckle.

We definitely have a very talented group of rookies this year and they all wanted to show off their talents. Some of us were fortunate enough to see them show what they got at the dance off at the O.C. I still can’t get over Chantal D.’s crazy feet thing! Let’s just say we’ve got a great group of hockey players with an amazing amount of dancing skills. To those of you who missed it, I’m sure you’ll see lots of pictures on Facebook real soon.

Any comments or feeback please Email: bison_sports@umanitoba.ca

October 10

Another hockey season has started and Miss Amanda Schnell (a.k.a Schnelly) and I have decided to do the blogs this year. However, for this one, I’m writing solo.