Thomas Friesen

1 week ago | brandonsun.com | Thomas Friesen

Kylee Peake was named one of the top college volleyball players in the country this year. That made it easy for Assiniboine College to announce the Binscarth product as the Cougars female athlete of the year on Friday evening during the college’s student achievement celebration, along with male athlete of the year Gerardo Alas. “It’s pretty awesome,” Peake said.

1 week ago | brandonsun.com | Thomas Friesen

SOURIS — Regardless of how far Emily Tuttosi goes in rugby, it’s not a one-way journey. The Souris native has spent seven seasons in the United Kingdom playing professionally, first with the Loughborough Lighting and now with the Exeter Chiefs. She not only cracked the Team Canada roster for the 2021 Women’s Rugby World Cup — played in 2022 due to COVID-19 — but led the squad in scoring as it reached the medal rounds for the first time since 2014.

2 weeks ago | brandonsun.com | Thomas Friesen

SOURIS — Gracelyn Schroeder breaks out in laughter during the most physical drill you’ll see at a high school practice, maybe outside of wrestling. Wrestling’s basically what the Souris Sabres sophomore and her teammates did on Wednesday. The instructions were simple. One player lays on the ground, the other lays on top of them and does whatever it takes to keep them down.

2 weeks ago | brandonsun.com | Thomas Friesen

SOURIS — It didn’t take much for the Souris Sabres rugby program to exceed George Vorster’s expectations. He thought he was leaving the game — his greatest passion — behind when his family bought a farm near the western Manitoba town and moved from Port Elizabeth, just about the southernmost point of South Africa. Four years later, he has one more chance to guide the Sabres to a provincial title. “I didn’t think there would be rugby at all, to be honest.

2 weeks ago | brandonsun.com | Thomas Friesen

Kai Gaudet may have thought he was taking his talents to the big city four years ago. This time, he’s sure of it. The setter from MacGregor — a town 90 kilometres east of Brandon with a population of about 1,000 — started playing for the Brandon Volleyball Club after the COVID-19 pandemic. Now he’s heading to Toronto to play for the Seneca College Sting of the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association. “From MacGregor to Toronto is a big one,” Gaudet said.