Some of the best athletes in Prince Albert will be honoured later this month at the annual Kinsmen Sportsman Dinner.
The event will take place in the Ches Leach Lounge on October 26. The guest speaker will be Jeremy Roenick, who is being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in November.
Kinsmen event chair Jared Devers says Roenick is somebody the Kinsmen Club has been interested in having speak before and he is ecstatic he was able to attend this year.
“We’ve always been trying to get him, but dates haven’t worked out and this year he’s getting inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in November. It was extra special that he was able to come this year for us. We’re all excited to hear what he is going to say because he is a controversial guy. He’s not going to beat around the bush. He’s going to say it how it is and it’s going to be a really exciting night.”
Abby Wasutyk is taking home the Female Athlete of the Year honours. She is currently attending the National Excellence Program (NEP) in Richmond, British Columbia. Wasutyk also competed for Canada at the Norceca U19 Girls’ Continental Championships in Tegucigalpa, Honduras in July.
All winners were nominated for their respective awards. Devers says Wasutyk’s resume in the past year made her more than deserving of the award.
“For Abby winning, just the fact that she’s competed nationally and internationally, being one of the top ranked level players in the whole country and going to select tournaments down in Honduras and with Team Canada and finishing with silver, made it a little bit easier to select her as the winner.”
For the Male Athlete of the Year, Tanner Howe will take home the award. Howe spent last season as the captain of the WHL’s Regina Pats posting 28 goals and 29 assists in 68 games. He heard his name called at the 2024 NHL Draft, being selected 46th overall by the Pittsburgh Penguins
“It’s good to have a local kid do well, especially in a sport that everybody’s fairly familiar with in hockey.” Devers explained. “Being the captain of the Regina Pats, getting drafted in the second round for a chance to play for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Two years ago, when he played with (Connor) Bedard, he put up great numbers. He did good numbers by himself last year, without having an elite player with him. It gives credit to his hard work and his effort and hopefully all goes well for Tanner, even though he’s playing for the Raiders nemesis in the Regina Pats.”
The 2024 Kinsmen Dinner is being hosted earlier than last year, when the event was held on January 20. Devers says the event was pushed back last year because the Kinsmen didn’t want to schedule the event too close to the night when the Raiders retired Dan Hodgson’s number 16.
“We didn’t want to conflict with their event honoring him. We bumped our event back to January and then we found that it’s easier for people to attend our event in October. There’s less chance of having delays with our guest speakers, with flight details of bad weather in October compared to January. We went back to the October date for that reason.”
Funds from the 2024 Kinsmen Sportsman Dinner will be donated towards the new recreation centre.
sports@paherald.sk.ca
