Putting together a column going over highlights in the local sports community from the past 12 months can sometimes be a bit of a challenge. What to pick, what to feature, what to highlight.
That certainly wasn’t the case looking back at 2024.
No, all one had to do was go back and check out all the national and provincial championships that were won in Canada’s Most Notorious City over the last year, and man, there were a lot of ‘em -- including arguably the biggest win in the community’s history.
So here’s a look at the top five moments from Moose Jaw sports over the last year, with plenty of titles to celebrate
5. Moose Jaw hosts Hoopla, play for three medals
The end of the 2025 Saskatchewan High Schools Athletic Association basketball season was a strange one. With the Saskatchewan Teacher’s Federation job action playing havoc with the playoff picture, it appeared the provincial basketball championship extravaganza known as Hoopla -- which was to be hosted in Moose Jaw -- would be cancelled. And in the end, that happened, but a compromise was reached, with a one-day tournament taking place and teams playing for medals based on their seeding.
That turned out well for local teams.
The Central Cyclones would go on to win 4A boys gold over the Peacock Toilers, Peacock claimed 4A girls gold over the Central Cyclones and 麻豆传媒AV Hill played in the bronze medal game but lost to Osler VCA.
Most importantly, teams from throughout the province had a chance to play, and that was the biggest win of all.
4. Moose Jaw teams dominate Softball Sask provincials
It’s hard to describe just how good of a season it was for Moose Jaw Minor Girls Fastball at the provincial level -- past years had seen local teams succeed, but never quite like this.
Five different teams covering four separate age categories would either win their respective provincial title or advance to nationals thanks to a successful showing at provincials.
The U13 A Ice had the most success of all, winning provincials and advancing to Western Canadians, where they’d also win gold. The top two U15 divisions were all Moose Jaw, with the Ice winning A provincials and reaching the medal round at Canadians and the B Ice claiming their own provincial crown.
It was much the same for the U19 A Ice, who qualified for nationals and would also reach the medal round. And in the U11 A division, the 麻豆传媒AV provincial championship would turn into an all Moose Jaw final, as both local entries played for gold on home soil.
A heck of a season, with plenty of potential for even more in coming campaigns.
3. Saskatchewan wins second-straight Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship
When Curling Canada announced that Moose Jaw be hosting back-to-back Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championships way back in the spring of 2021, little did folks know just how good things would turn out for the host team from Saskatchewan.
Skip Gil Dash, third Marie Wright, second Moose Gibson and lead Sheryl Pederson -- the latter three all from Moose Jaw -- would go on to win the province’s second-straight national title on local soil this past March, defeating Newfoundland’s Doug Dean 7-6 in an extra end in the gold medal game.
The Canadian title was the fifth for perennial national team members Dash and Wright, while Gibson won his fourth and Pederson her first.
The national tournament was also great for the growth of the game in Saskatchewan, with new players aiming to join the national champions in continuing the winning legacy.
2. Moose Jaw Miller Express go on run in WCBL playoffs
The Western Canadian Baseball League is a strange animal when it comes to the post-season, where diminished rosters combined with rapid fire games and short series mean that if a team gets hot, they can do a lot of damage.
The Mioose Jaw Miller Express were that team in 2024.
The Express had the definition of a middling season, finishing 26-29 and in fourth place in the East Division. That mattered little once playoffs started, as they’d upset the first-place Regina Red Sox in two games and then took down the expansion Saskatoon Berries in three games to return to the WCBL Final for the second time in the last three years.
There, the Express faced the powerhouse Okotoks Dawgs, eventually forcing a third and deciding game that they’d lose on a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning.
An incredible run, and one that has fans excited for the 2025 season in a few months time.
1. Moose Jaw Warriors win Western Hockey League championship
There’s only one thing that could top this list.
In their 40th year of competition in the Western Hockey League, the Moose Jaw Warriors finally won it all, claiming their first-ever Ed Chynoweth Cup with a four-game sweep of the Portland Winterhawks.
The talent-stacked team -- featuring four members of Team Canada from the World Junior Hockey Championship -- posted a 44-21-0-3 for the second-best mark in the Eastern Conference in the regular season.
They’d go on to sweep the Brandon Wheat Kings in the first round before downing Swift Current in five games in the second, setting up a Conference championship showdown against the Saskatoon Blades.
That would go down as the greatest best-of-seven series in WHL history, with six of the seven games going to overtime, including Game 7, which the Warriors would win in Saskatoon.
The WHL Final wasn’t nearly as dramatic, and the Warriors would finish things off on home ice with a 4-2 win over the Winterhawks in front of 4,732 fans.
Things didn’t go as well at the Memorial Cup, where they’d go 1-2 in the round robin and fall in the semifinal, but that did little to dampen what was far and away the greatest season in Moose Jaw Warriors history.
