On Saturday March 16th, 2024, the Bears held their Year End Banquet and Awards Night, and the girls arrived dressed for success. The banquet started out with a welcoming speech from our Master of Ceremonies, Al Dyer and a meal from Shananigan's Bistro, as usual they provided an outstanding buffet.

Even though our record of wins and losses isn’t a measure of the season success. The young female athletes continued to show their dedication through excellent play, dedication to improvement on and off the ice . These young athletes have not quit, demonstrated their grit and passion they have for the game, they have done their best and they have represented themselves, their families, billet families and the organization in the most outstanding way possible.

To our graduating players on behalf of the organization thank you for your leadership, dedication, hard work, cheerfulness, and willingness to go above and beyond for the team. We are very proud of the 4 (Bree Purcell, Tristyn Endicott, Julia Cey, and Maci Nowosad) who are continuing their careers in post secondary hockey, but we also wanted to commend Raelyn Vezeau on her dedication to the Bears. We hope you continue to lead and work hard, as you aspire to be a great teacher and continue your involvement in some capacity to grow the game of hockey. To all of our seniors we hope you continue with this years tenacity in future endeavors and welcome to the Alumni role.

We would like to acknowledge and thank our sponsors who have stepped up the plate and gone above and beyond to help provide the best experience possible for our players and families. Mark Ripley and the Mann-Northway Auto Group who jumped on board this year in the best way possible. They did so much behind the scenes, and we are very grateful. Ranger Moving returned this year as one of our major sponsors and provided us with some fantastic support not only financially but with gifts for our players. Lake Country Co-op also came on board as our new helmet sponsors. We will continue to acknowledge many other sponsors, as we did throughout our season in our programs, on our website and in our yearbook. Thank you to both large and small sponsors that contribute to ensure we had the resources we needed for out team.

We would like to recognize and thank our coaches and support staff. Steve, Doan, Colton, Darren, Mark, and Christina who have worked very hard and contributed to a great year. Thank you to Maury for providing the music and announcements for our games. We can't thank Vince enough for providing us at home live streams on YouTube of all our games. We have an amazing group of volunteers who work in our penalty box, sell 50/50, assist with our special events and display their dedication by showing up for all the games.

We would also like to extend our sincere thanks to the billet families who welcomed our out-of-town players with open arms and did a great job of giving them a terrific home away from home. Many of our players are away from home for the first-time attending school with all the stresses of a new community, we thank you for doing your part and making them feel welcome.

Among the many special events we had this year from a successful Alumni Night, Billet/Family Appreciation Night, Playing against the Special O Floor Hockey Team, Lighting of the Christmas Tree, Adopting a Senior, Cookie Challenge, Teddy Bear Toss/Donation, Clothing Drive, Hockey Day in Saskatchewan, Give a Little Life Day, Prince Albert Exhibition Parade, taking part of This Girl Can, and plentiful volunteering the community, the success of the Team Bruce 3rd Jersey game was one of our highlights. Everyone that took part should be proud of the money that was raised for the Boreal Health Foundation and the Cancer Foundation of Saskatchewan. Thanks to Bruce and Liane Vance for spearheading it, to Gord Broda and Signature Developments for their incredible financial commitment and to Mark Riley and Mann Northway Auto Group for the behind the scene support.

Even though the Mann-Northway Northern Bears 23-24 hockey season is done, there are a few players that still have hockey to play. We would like to wish Kinley Brassard, Jordyn Fidler, Nikita Krayetski and Bree Purcell good luck as they have made the final roster and will be representing the Bears in Grand Prairie in the National Aboriginal Hockey Championship May 5th-11th, 2024. Along with the players mentioned above, Annika Neufeldt, Addison Davidge, Ella Clarke, Arlise Schmalz and Zayda Summach are moving on to the Top 80 Female U18 Sask First Tournament which will be held April 12-14th in Balgonie, SK.

Determining the award winners this year was extremely difficult as there were many deserving candidates. This is a testament to the hard working, never give up team we had. Presenting our awards to the players is the Northern Bears Board President Laurie Huet.  This year award winners are listed below.