Team Saskatchewan Battle to Win for Crystal Heisler

By Suki Chhoeun
Athlete Initiative 

(Photo Credits, Regina Leader-Post)

While some of spend our time battling the mornings rush hour traffic or battling our everyday fears, Crystal McGregor (Heisler) has spent the last two years fighting her own battle, cancer.

On Saturday, April 19th, 2014, the Battle of the Border All-Star Charity game was played at the University of Regina (CKHS), in support of Ex-Cougar, Crystal McGregor.  On Saturday evening, with great support from the communities of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, we raised close to $4,000 towards Crystal's cancer treatments through donations and game admission.

While celebrating charity and competition in Battle of the Border 2014, old rivalries were dug  from the ground that have tethered between Manitoba and Saskatchewan for the last few decades in CIS sport. Saturday night's game was an attest to the dynamic and special relationship that Manitoba and Saskatchewan has for one another that have carried through.

The collection of all-stars were members of many spectacular university teams, including the  University of Regina, Saskatchewan, Winnipeg, Manitoba and Brandon.  Many of these athletes have won numerous bronze and silver medals, but most notably speaking, two athletes who were in uniform on Saturday night have accomplished CIS gold medals and were also named player of the year Nan Copp winners during their CIS playing career; ex-Cougar, Cymone Bernauer (Bouchard) and ex-Bison Anne Smith.  Bernauer was a teammate to McGregor while Smith played against McGregor during her career.

After four quarters of exciting and dynamic offensive and defensive efforts from both teams, Team Saskatchewan closed this years battle with a win over Team Manitoba with a final score of 97-78. While team Saskatchewan can hold onto bragging rights for the next year, Team Manitoba has a year to prepare for the next Battle of the Border in Regina that is set for next April 2015.
Award winners of the evening include:

• MVP- Cymone Bernauer (Bouchard)
• SASK player of the game - Lara Ludwig (Schmidt)
• MB player of the game - Anne Smith
• Defensive player of the game - Gabby Gheyssen
• Sportsmanship - Randie Gibson

Athlete Initiative would like to graciously thank all the donations we received for Crystal; and our sponsors who helped make this charitable event possible.

Our gold sponsors: Evelyn MacIver of Ride Time Winnipeg, Curt Veil & Kevin Van of Pacesetter Homes of Qualico, Lindsay deLeeuw of Canadian Pride Jewellery and Marylou Gibson of Trailer Wizards.  We would also like to recognize our silver sponsors who contributed, University of Regina and Dorothy Hill of Hotel Saskatchewan of Radisson who lodged Team Manitoba for the weekend.  Thank you to both provincial sport organizations for their ongoing support of the event, Adam Wedlake of Basketball Manitoba and Greg Lucas of Basketball Saskatchewan.

Thank you to all the volunteers, Team Manitoba and Team Saskatchewan for lacing up and suiting up to play for Crystal McGregor.

Thank you to both Manitoba and Saskatchewan communities for all the support toward Crystal McGregor.  We ask everyone to continue to pray each day for Crystal as we believe in the power of miracles.

Suki Chhoeun, Athlete Initiative
suki@athleteinitiative.com


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