Sports
Portage la Prairie is home to the Portage Terriers ice hockey team, who play in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League, and the Central Plains Capitals ice hockey team, who play in the Manitoba Midget 'AAA' Hockey League. Both teams play in the Portage Credit Union Centre. Portage la Prairie is the home of NHL player Arron Asham, who has played for the Montreal Canadiens, New York Islanders, New Jersey Devils, Philadelphia Flyers Pittsburgh Penguins, and currently plays for the New York Rangers.
Portage's old Centennial Arena also shared hosting duties of the 1999 World Junior Hockey Championships with Winnipeg and Selkirk...one arena located in the old Centennial Arena is now being used by ringette and hockey teams, respectively, which provides these teams with extra ice time/practice time when the PCU Centre is occupied.
Scenes of the hockey movie "Goon" and "The Don Cherry Story" were filmed in the Portage Credit Union Centre.
The Uniroyal/Goodrich World Junior Curling Championships were held at the Portage Curling Club in 1990. Canadian women skiped by then Cathy Overton, won bronze. The Portage Curling Club has also played host to the National Senior and Mixed Championships in Curling. It was also a longtime stop on the World Curling Tour hosting the McCain Super Spiel West drawing curling celebrities such as Jeff Stoughton, Vic Peters, Kerry Burtnyk, Ron Howard, Wayne Middaugh, Ed Werenich and others.
Portage is represented in the Manitoba Major Soccer League by the Portage Aeros in the MMSL Second Division and by the Portage United in the MMSL Fourth Division. The Portage Blaze Women's Soccer Club plays in the Second Division of the Winnipeg Women's Soccer League. Their home fields are located in the Republic of Manitobah Park in the south-east corner of the city. The park has a dozen different sized soccer pitches, many baseball/softball diamonds and a rugby pitch.
Portage used to be a popular stop on the Great Western Manitoba Harnass Racing circuit, but in 2009 the ½ mile horse race track and stands were removed to make way for the Portage Credit Union Centre, a new community centre with two arenas (one the new home of the Terriers) and a water park. The former horse race stands were known as the Pan-Am Stadium and played host to baseball during the Winnipeg Pan-Am Games in 1967.
Portage la Prairie also has a large amount of youth sports. Hockey, soccer and baseball have youth sports leagues within the city. Football is played in the Winnipeg Youth Football League with many teams of varying ages using the name Portage Pitbulls. Basketball is also played in Winnipeg in both the Rising Stars League and various community clubs. Also there is a healthy competition between the 4 junior high schools in sports such as basketball, volleyball and curling. The local high school, Portage Collegiate Institute, fields boys' and girls' teams in the Manitoba High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) in sports such as curling, hockey, basketball, football, volleyball, soccer, track & field, cross country running, badminton and others.
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Famous quotes containing the word sports:
“There be some sports are painful, and their labor
Delight in them sets off. Some kinds of baseness
Are nobly undergone, and most poor matters
Point to rich ends.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The whole idea of image is so confused. On the one hand, Madison Avenue is worried about the image of the players in a tennis tour. On the other hand, sports events are often sponsored by the makers of junk food, beer, and cigarettes. What’s the message when an athlete who works at keeping her body fit is sponsored by a sugar-filled snack that does more harm than good?”
—Martina Navratilova (b. 1956)
“Come, my Celia, let us prove
While we may the sports of love;
Time will not be ours forever,
He at length our good will sever.”
—Ben Jonson (1572–1637)