Onyemata Selected in both NFL and CFL DrafT
National Bank Challenger Tennis Tournament Headed to Winnipeg
Winnipeg’ s Hunt to Coach Five Teams at World Roller Hockey
Onyemata Selected in both NFL and CFL DrafT
David Onyemata by Jason Halstead
University of Manitoba Bisons head coach Brian Dobie’ s greatest project, a young man from Lagos, Nigeria, who had never played a down of American football before he showed up at Dobie’ s office door five years ago, was selected by the New Orleans Saints in the fourth round( 120th overall) of the 2016 NFL Draft. David Onyemata, featured in our cover story in the April issue of SportslIfe Magazine, is a 6-foot-4, 310-pound DL, who held his own“ pro day” at the University of Manitoba for more than 20 NFL scouts. After working out, some scouts believed he could be taken as high as the late second round. As it turned out, he became the first Bisons player ever selected in the NFL Draft, late in the fourth round. Interestingly, the Saints traded the 152nd pick and a 2017 fifth-round selection to move up to take Onyemata at 120th-overall. A week later, Onyemata was selected by the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the fourth round( 35th overall). It was a good choice by the Riders who, like most experts, believe Onyemata will eventually return to the CFL at some point in his career.
National Bank Challenger Tennis Tournament Headed to Winnipeg
National Bank Challenger
Canada’ s second largest professional tennis tournament, the National Bank Challenger will be held from July 9-18 at the Winnipeg Lawn Tennis Club on 761 North Drive. It’ s a Women’ s and Men’ s combined tour event that includes the Women’ s $ 25,000 Challenger Tour level 2 event( players ranked 80 – 700 in the world will compete) and the Men’ s $ 75,000 Challenger Tour level 2 event( players ranked 60 – 500 in the world will compete). The Men’ s event has been upgraded from a level 3 Futures $ 15,000 category. The International Tennis Federation( ITF), Tennis Canada, Women’ s Tennis Association( WTA) and Associated Tennis Professionals( ATP) have all sanctioned event. Countries represented include: Canada, England, Scotland, Germany, Poland, Croatia, Italy, Belgium, France, Spain, China, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Republic of South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, USA and Ecuador. There will be at least 110 competitors and 10-20 Canadians. Should be a great week.
Winnipeg’ s Hunt to Coach Five Teams at World Roller Hockey
The hardest working man in Roller Hockey has even more responsibility. Michael Hunt, the man who is bringing Roller Hockey back to Winnipeg with his brother, Frank Hunt, will coach five teams at the upcoming World Roller Hockey Championships in Hawaii in June. He’ ll be the head coach of the U-19 Team Italy boys and the U-18 Team Hawaii. He will be the assistant coach of Team Italy’ s Senior Women’ s club, Team Hawaii’ s Senior men’ s team and Team Hawaii’ s U-16 boys squad. Meanwhile, five players from the Winnipeg Roller Hockey League have been named to Team Canada in three divisions – Darin Gentes, Kerry Ross and Hunt himself will play on Team Canada’ s Masters team; Alec Masse will play Jr. Boys and Emily Masse will play Jr. Girls.“ Yes, they are brother and sister,” said Hunt. In the meantime, there are 12 more players on the short list for six teams – Senior Men: Reggie Goodfellow, Mitch Law and Stephane Catellier. U-23 Men: Brandon Craig, Jason Dubnya and Cam Hunt. Senior Men: Tyler Pchajeck. U-23: Mathew Gunhouse and Dustin Ziemanski. U-18: Cody Dinardo. U-16: Jayce Peters and U-14 Bryce Allary.
Michael Hunt with Team Rink Ratz
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