New winter sport on the rise in Saskatoon

There is a new winter sport starting to gain some traction in Saskatoon.

Yukigassen is a Japanese game that combines elements of dodgeball, paintball, capture the flag and snowball fights.

“The game starts off seven people on each side and one of the ways you can win is by getting the other team out by hitting everyone with a snowball,” said Ashleigh Mattern, co-owner of Play Sask Sports.

“But another way you can win is by running over into the other side of the court and grabbing the flag out of the ground. But that is rather tricky because you have to do that without getting hit by a snowball.”

According to Mattern, Yukigassen has been on Play Sask Sport’s radar since Tourism Saskatoon held a tournament a few years ago. Since then, they have been trying to grow the game in the city.

“Right now we are trying to get people just to come out and have a snowball fight or play some Yukigassen just to get some education out there,” she said.

“Our goal this year has changed a little bit from what we had last year and we just wanted to put some free events out there that people could come to and try the sport.”

They use a public Facebook group to organize times and locations they will be holding events. However, they haven’t had a chance yet this year to play due to the less than ideal weather for making snowballs.

“The challenge partly is the weather and I think its one of the reasons why it maybe hasn’t been more popular in Saskatchewan, because if you want to make a snowball you have to have pretty specific conditions,” said Mattern.

“Essentially there has to be enough snow first of all, then the temperature needs to be about minus one to plus one, or around there. So it is a pretty narrow window, and so that’s what we are kind of waiting for.”

Mattern encourages anyone who is looking for something new to do during the winter, to join their Facebook group and join in on the fun when they get a chance to go out.

“It is a lot of fun, we have even had some people out who generally don’t play sports but they enjoy playing Yukigassen just because I think it’s a little bit different. And also when you are cooped up inside all winter it’s nice to get outside and run around,” she said.

“There is a lot of laughter and good times and something about throwing snowballs is very satisfying and it kind of brings back your childhood a little bit.”