FRONTIER GAMES TABLE TENNIS TITLES TRAVEL FAR & WIDE:

Manitoba’s Frontier School Division is the largest school division in the world in terms of geographic size.  It spans from the East of our Province from Falcon Lake up to James Bay and across the top of our Province to Lynn Lake, Leaf Rapids etc.

Every year, starting in the fall, seven sports are contested in each of the 40 plus schools which are divided into 5 regions; table tennis is one of the seven.  Then, in early winter, the top 2 table tennis boys and girls from each school travel to their Regional Finals.  From here, the top ten boys and ten girls travel to either Norway House or Cranberry Portage each Feb./ March to contest the Divisional Finals.  Usually, a representative of the MTTA travels to the event to act as referee, deliver impromptu coaching/ skills clinics etc.  However, this year we were unable to field a representative so the event was conducted by Darren Cable and Tracy Wheeler-Anderson of Cranberry Portage Elementary School.  They did a fine job I am told!  Results have been processed that count towards Manitoba Rankings which are used by our Provincial Team Coaches to select athletes for events such as the Canada Winter Games etc.  These rankings are also valuable for the seeding of players for events such as the Manitoba Indigenous Winter Games and the Manitoba Summer Games.  Ratings and Rankings for all Manitoba players can be found on the MTTA website link at www.mtta.ca or by going to www.ctta.ca and following the links to Ratings/ Rankings.

Four categories were contested this year.  Gold, silver and bronze winners were as follows:

GIRLS 15 YEARS:

GOLD:  Jade Campbell, Frontier Collegiate Institute, Cranberry
            Portage

SILVER:  Megan McIvor, Mel Johnson School, Wabowden

BRONZE:  Joselyn Monias, Wannipigow School

BOYS 15 YEARS:

GOLD:  Russell Dano, Waterhen School

SILVER:  Marvin Spence, South Indian Lake

BRONZE:  Clinton Clarke, Lynn Lake

GIRLS 14 YEARS:

GOLD:  Brittney Catcheway, Skownan

SILVER:  Destinee Everette, Beren’s River School

BRONZE:  Kate Beardy, Gillam

BOYS 14 YEARS:

GOLD:  Stuart Monias, Wannipigow

SILVER:  Rene Bighetty, Lynn Lake

BRONZE:  Trent Hill, Rorketon School

Congratulations to all athletes and thanks to Heather Lowe from the Frontier School Division for all of her hard work in co-coordinating these Games.  A reminder to all teachers/ coaches that the MTTA have a brand new, very exciting program for teaching table tennis in the schools.  The program is called the “TOPS:  Table Tennis In Schools Program.”  The manual is outstanding and schools can purchase equipment from brand name companies for drastically reduced prices.