The Prince Albert Sports Hall of Fame will have eight new inductees when they meet for their annual banquet on May 2.
Hall of Fame officials unveiled the 2026 graduating class at the Ches Leach Lounge on Friday morning. The list includes sprinter Katelyn Lehner, racquetball player Joel Mihilewicz, multi-sport athlete Leah (Guidinger) Tyree, former Prince Albert Minto coach Tim Leonard, longtime basketball and volleyball coach Randy Emmerson, longtime organizer, fundraiser, and volunteer Carol Soles, and businessman Rusty Clunie, who helped found and build the Prince Albert River Riders football program, and was pivotal in the success of several local infrastructure improvement efforts, like the Friday Night Lights campaign.
“I think this particular class is a testament to both the diversity of the sporting community in Prince Albert, and the success of the sporting community in Prince Albert,” Prince Albert Sports Hall of Fame president Barry Mihilewicz said.
“It’s a community effort, and this community has produced some amazing athletes, builders, people who’ve served the community, or sports organizations.”
Joining those seven athletes, coaches, and builders are the 2013-14 Prince Albert Mintos, who won the 2014 Telus Cup in three-overtime thriller over the Chateauguay Grenadiers. Ken Morrison coached the Mintos that season. The roster included leading scorer Teal Sobkowicz, who would later go on to star for the Melfort Mustangs, and goaltender Connor Ingram, who is currently with the Edmonton Oilers.
The World Cup of Softball Host Committee was also named Sports Organization of the Year.
Mihilewicz said recognizing the efforts of local athletes, coaches, builders, and teams provides inspiration for the next generation.
“I think people are inspired to do great things by seeing how other people have done great things before, and that fits every category,” he explained.
“If you talk to the athletes, they’ll all tell you that somebody along the way inspired them to go on and become a world class athlete. I think if you talk to the coaches in the sports Hall of Fame, and coaches in general, you’ll find that somebody inspired them. Somebody came along and said, ‘hey, why don’t you do this’ and a lot of them go on and do really great things….
“Then the builders, or the meritorious service people, … those people help create the facilities, and then the sports organizations, well, without them, you need the organizations to get together to establish some sort of stability and structure and create the environment where these other people can excel.”
The 2026 inductee class is a large one, but Mihilewicz said they would like to have had even more nominees. He said there were several individuals in the 2026 class who would have been inducted much sooner if someone had stepped forward to nominate them.
“I think there’s still a lot of very, very deserving people, and sometimes they just don’t get nominated because people don’t think of it, you know, or you think of it now … and then that doesn’t get done,” he said.
All inductees will be recognized at the Prince Albert Sports Hall of Fame banquest on May 2 at the Ches Leach Lounge. For tickets, contact Jody Boulet at pashof@citypa.com.
The Daily Herald will have profiles on each inductee in the lead-up to the awards banquet.
@kerr_jas • jason.kerr@paherald.sk.ca
