KW Oil Kings 5th Annual Awards Banquet was held Friday, April 7 in the Kipling Community Centre. In attendance were players, spouses, coaches, managers, executive members, family members and fans of both the Oil Kings and Saskatchewan Roughriders as well as CKRM's Perry Nyhus.
Leading up to this year's banquet was something very rare in Kipling. Rod Pedersen's Sports Cage was live from Kipling Community Centre from 4:00 to 6:00 with guests Scott Schultz, Mike Stackhouse and Kipling's very own Brendan McGuire.
As guests started arriving in the beautifully decorated hall in KW Oil Kings colors they had a chance to view many of the silent and live auction items including many signed jerseys, coats, hats and mugs.
The evening continued with a tasty prime rib supper with all the trimmings catered by The Paperclip Cottage to a crowd of approximately 200 guests.
Following the supper, emcee Mike Stackhouse began the second part of the evening introducing the first guest speaker Scott Schultz, defensive tackle with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, who retired in 2009. Schultz spoke on the history of his career and what he's up to now. He was a colorful character, full of jokes and a great story teller talking about some of the great plays from past Rider games and told memorable stories of his Rider teammates.
"As you can tell I'm a talker," says Shultzy! "That was okay 'cause the audience liked his stories and more than once gave him a standing ovation.
"I believe in community involvement...I've been out to many schools to speak about community involvement."
Mike Stackhouse announced door prize winners throughout the evening and then carried on with announcing the individual award winners which were voted on by the players.
Award for Top Scorer went to Jonas Thomson who was unable to attend. Award was sponsored by Norm's Place.
Leggett Stores sponsored the award for Most Improved Player which went to Derek Bachert, presented by Ron Zepick.
Receiving the next award was James Gallagher, award for Heart and Soul, sponsored by Source Embroidery. The award was presented by Mike Stackhouse.
Accepting the award for Top Forward was Logan Dew. Award was sponsored by Young's Equipment and presented by Niven Bachert.
Award for Top Defenceman went to Drew Schiller. Presenting the award, on behalf of the Blackstock Family, was Linus Blackstock.
Most Dedicated Player award, sponsored by Andres Truck & Trailer, was presented to Austin Vargo by Jayson Kinchen.
The final award of the evening, Most Valuable Player for the 2016/2017 Triangle Hockey League season went to Logan Dew, accepting his second award of the evening. This award was sponsored by Andres Trucking and presented by Jayson Kinchen.
Rod Pedersen took the mic next and states "I get to see Kipling for the first time ever." Pedersen travels all across this province speaking at various functions like the one in Kipling.
"I did the Ram dinner just last week," he says and adds ìI like to spread the word of the Riders!"
Pedersen also relayed many stories of many of the Rider players and reminisced about many of the games, talked about coaches. Once again fantastic stories were told from the farm kid from Milestone, SK.
Pedersen ended his story telling with ìWe go to the Grey Cup...finally!"
Auctioneer Rhett Parks, with help from spotters Gordon Kish and Austin Vargo started up the bidding on the live auction items including a signed Ryan Getzlaf World Cup of Hockey jersey which was sold for $1600 and a signed Scott Schultz Saskatchewan Roughrider jersey went for $1700.
Silent auction items included a couple of bar fridges, one in KW Oil Kings designs and the other in Young's Equipment logos.
The 50/50 winner Jamey Feil donated his $435.00 winnings back to the team.
"We want everyone to leave with a good feeling,î Glen Vargo, manager of the KW Oil Kings, commented ìwe want to do this every year."
"The team was very pleased with the turnout for the evening and the support from within and outside the community," comments Austin Vargo.
At press time we didn't have a dollar figure for profits made at this year's event.
"At this time, we are still evaluating our roster, but the plan is to improve on this year's team. We hope to see as many players back from this season as we feel we have a very good core group and are only a few pieces away from competing for a league championship," adds Vargo.
It takes time and effort for the players to make a senior hockey team.
Looking forward to seeing you all next hockey season! Go KW Oil Kings!
