From Jay Onrait and Dan O'Toole to the bigwigs at head office, TSN left the Energy City on Thursday thoroughly impressed.
Onrait and O'Toole gushed about Estevan's hospitality, ranging from places they visited to get footage to their meals.
When they weren't filming for SportsCentre, the TSN contingent was welcomed with open arms by the residents and businesses of Estevan.
They raved about the entire experience, whether it was eating pizza at local restaurants, attending a private barbecue or letting loose a little and shutting down a certain bar on Wednesday night.
Onrait even asked to get a tour of Spectra Place earlier that evening, with no cameras around, because he simply wanted to see it.
Between the local committee and TSN's managers, the two days were well-planned, with no shortage of interesting events or places for the anchors to take in.
Immediately following the broadcast on Thursday, TSN's stage manager got an e-mail from the head office in Toronto saying that Estevan was the best stop in the three-year history of the tour.
That the endorsement came from people detached from the local organizers, rather than someone on-site, carries a little more weight and makes it seem genuine.
Make no mistake, the good impressions went both ways.
Aside from the thrill of being live across Canada from downtown Estevan, Onrait and O'Toole went beyond the call of duty with their pre-broadcast antics.
After spending an entire day going from one place to another and being swarmed with people, you couldn't blame the duo if they wanted to spend the afternoon relaxing in their bus before doing SportsCentre.
But no. They spent nearly an hour pumping up the crowd before the broadcast, putting on a virtual rock concert with tunes including Bon Jovi's Living On a Prayer, Journey's Don't Stop Believing, Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline and several others.
Onrait had people in stitches with his dancing and facial expressions, and all the energy he put into it resulted in him sweating through his suit jacket.
You think you'd ever catch Chris Berman or Stuart Scott carrying on like that?
It was a celebration Estevan sorely needed and produced memories that will last a lifetime.
How Onrait had the energy to rock out like that and then host a live, one-hour show across the country is a mystery.
As if that wasn't enough, he and O'Toole then spent time signing autographs followed by an appearance on Rod Pedersen's Sports Cage program.
Then they hopped on a bus to MacGregor, Man., so they could do it all over again.
I don't know how they did it, but Estevan can be grateful that they did.
Josh Lewis can be reached by phone at 634-2654, by e-mail at [email protected], on Twitter at twitter.com/joshlewis306 or on his Bruins blog at bruinbanter.blogspot.com. Odds are he'll still be on YouTube watching Onrait serenade his fans in Estevan.
