Latest news with #TomWalls
Winnipeg Free Press
11-08-2025
- Sport
- Winnipeg Free Press
Under the Monday night lights
The Springfield Collegiate Sabres are wasting no time kicking off their 2025 football season next week. As soon as the clock strikes midnight on Monday, Aug. 18, the Sabres — a high school team from Oakbank competing in the Winnipeg High School Football League — will take to the field for their first practice of the year under the lights of the Oakbank Community Centre. The unique tradition, known as midnight practice, was introduced to the team by head coach Tom Walls back in 2022. SUPPLIED This will be the fourth season the Springfield Collegiate Sabres kick off the high school football season with a midnight practice. The tradition was introduced by head coach Tom Walls back in 2022. SUPPLIED This will be the fourth season the Springfield Collegiate Sabres kick off the high school football season with a midnight practice. The tradition was introduced by head coach Tom Walls back in 2022. 'Football is a difficult sport,' said Walls. 'Not everybody gets to touch the ball. There's a whole lot of sacrifice that goes into it. So if you're going to run a program that attracts kids to do things that are inherently uncomfortable, you have to do things that are different or keep it relevant every year, and every year we try to do something brand new and different. And this year was the year to bring back the midnight practice again.' The concept originated in American college basketball, where teams would open their season with a midnight practice on the earliest day the NCAA allowed training to start. Midnight practices or 'Midnight Madness' has since spread to other sports and grown into a major community event for the teams that participate. Walls says there is excitement about coming out in the middle of the night to practice in an unconventional way. However, organizing an event so late has its challenges and can sometimes be inconvenient, with parents driving out late, some coaches pulling all-nighters, and making sure the surrounding community is not being disrupted. 'Because it's hard, it helps make the process of playing on this team more meaningful,' said Walls. 'And the kids don't always realize it at the moment, but the more you are willing to sacrifice for something, the more meaningful that thing will become to you.' 'Oakbank is a small town. (Springfield Collegiate) is a very small school… you start creating experiences that these boys will remember when they're old men, including having a professional player come out at midnight and work with them.'– Sabres head coach Tom Walls Fans, families, alumni and local supporters are invited to attend and cheer on the team as they celebrate the beginning of the season for the Sabres football squad, who will also be joined by special guest coach Brandon Alexander of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. 'It adds another expertise in another layer of — I'm going to say specialness — to their experience of playing football here,' said Walls. 'Oakbank is a small town. (Springfield Collegiate) is a very small school. That actually has been our strength over the years because we have a group of kids and we have a group of adults who genuinely like being around each other. And when you do that, you start creating experiences that these boys will remember when they're old men, including having a professional player come out at midnight and work with them.' Alexander, a veteran defensive back with the Bombers, will be present to coach, mentor and share insights with the Sabres about the mindset and work ethic needed at the professional level. NICK IWANYSHYN / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES Winnipeg Blue Bombers guest coach Brandon Alexander will be the special guest at this year's Springfield Sabres' midnight practice. NICK IWANYSHYN / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES Winnipeg Blue Bombers guest coach Brandon Alexander will be the special guest at this year's Springfield Sabres' midnight practice. 'Aside from the surface things, which would be becoming better at their game, I would like them to see the example of people who love the sport and are willing to be inconvenienced to teach the sport,' said Walls on what he wants his team to learn from Alexander. The Springfield Collegiate football team is relatively new, having launched in 2019 under Walls' coaching, and has since grown to 47 players on the roster from a school of just 560 students. The team is coming off their most successful season yet in the top division of the WHSFL, despite a loss to a strong St. Paul's High School team in the playoffs. Along with regular practices, the team holds character and leadership Zoom calls every week to help develop players beyond the game. They also give back through year-round community service, running food drives, item drives for Ukrainian newcomers and those displaced by wildfires, organizing litter cleanups, and volunteering to clean the local fire hall. 'Kids today won't tell you this, but more now than ever, they want to belong to something bigger than just playing video games in a basement.'– Tom Walls 'The feedback that we get from teams like the (Winnipeg) Rifles or the East Side Eagles major teams, or even now the University of Manitoba, is they say the kids that come out of Oakbank are wonderfully coachable and very good citizens,' said Walls. 'Some of them are good football players, but those other two things — being coachable and being a good citizen — that's kind of the goal of the program, aside from just being able to block and tackle.' 'The work that we're doing is creating something that kids today want to be a part of. Kids today won't tell you this, but more now than ever, they want to belong to something bigger than just playing video games in a basement.' The midnight practice will kick off what the Sabres aim to be another strong year, starting in the dark in August and ending hopefully with the shine of a trophy at the high school football finals in November.
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
KIRO 7 Investigates: License plate readers going in on SR-167
A KIRO 7 investigation revealed drivers on State Route 167 are now just months away from having their license plates recorded in the HOT Lanes. Like it or not, those license plate readers are beginning to go up! For 17 long years, drivers without a Good-To-Go pass were driving in the HOT lanes on State Route 167 for free, likely costing the state's taxpayers millions. Hardly anyone knew until KIRO 7 reported it nearly two weeks ago. That is about to change. The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) says the work started 20 days ago, and there are at least five more months to go. But they are already beginning to pop up. License plate readers have long been missing from State Route 167. 'Right, they're just now putting cameras up, we've seen,' Tom Walls from Eatonville. Indeed, the state has not been able to read license plates on this highway between Renton and Sumner since it installed HOT toll lanes back in 2008. So, for 17 years, drivers without the Good-to-Go transponder could drive in the HOT lanes for free. It was news to us when we learned about it nearly two weeks ago during an interview with Carl See, Deputy Director of the Washington State Transportation Commission. He was asked if there is an estimate of how much the state is losing because of that. 'I'd have to refer you to WSDOT on that to talk about those kinds of things,' See told us March 18. 'But it certainly is a problem with evasion or leakage, however you want to talk about that.' Yet, a spokesman for WSDOT's tolling division later insisted that the state lost no money without the new technology. That same official emailed Monday that they are in line with their schedule and will do some testing before going live. They could go live 'as early as the fall.' Tom Walls was asked if he was surprised. 'Nothing surprises me,' Walls said. 'And what about now?' he was asked. 'It doesn't surprise me because they figure out a way to get more money out of us,' he said. 'Well, if they're maintaining the highways, they're maintaining the roads,' said Julia Singh, Federal Way. 'I think a little toll doesn't hurt.' 'I think tollings are great,' said Joe 'Superfly' Superfisky from Bothell. 'It works everywhere else in the country, like back east and stuff. But it has to be fair. It has to be right,' he said. The state is apparently trying to make it right. As it happens, WSDOT is holding its quarterly virtual meeting on Thursday at noon. You will need to sign up if you'd like to weigh in on the changes coming to SR 167.
