CTV News Kitchener’s top sports stories of the year

CTV News Kitchener's top stories of 2025.

Mini hockey star in the making from Waterloo, Ont. goes viral

His skates might have been small, but a little hockey hero from Waterloo, Ont. made a big impact on social media this year.

CTV News Kitchener caught up with two-year-old Connor ‘MacDangles’ in January. The pint-sized player had hundreds of thousands of views on his videos and had even garnered the attention of some NHL teams.

Connor was named after two hockey superstars – Connor McDavid and Connor Bedard. But if you ask him who his favourite player is, he’ll tell you, “Connon McDavid!”

His parents started posting videos on social media after the two-year-old’s moves and natural ability caught the eye of local skaters.

“My wife, she posted a couple of videos on TikTok and Instagram, just kind of as a joke because he was getting so much attention at the public rinks and then they kind of just blew up and they got a lot of views,” Cam MacMillan said.

Some of those hundreds of thousands of views included accounts belonging to NHL franchises.

“We’ve had the Pittsburgh Penguins reach out, the Florida Panthers, Vancouver Canucks asking him when his draft is going to be,” MacMillan said.

Connor is also learning new skills along the way.

“I mean we’re working on stick handling but he’s already starting to move the puck on the ice, as you might see, but one step at a time.”

The family said they’ll continue to support his passion for hockey.

“At the end of the day, as long as he’s enjoying what he’s doing, it’s for the best,” said MacMillan.

Connor won’t be eligible for the draft until 2040.

Will Riley of Kitchener, Ont. selected in first round of NBA draft

Before he was a Washington Wizard, Will Riley was just kid with big dreams from Kitchener, Ont.

Riley, 19, was chosen 21st overall by the Utah Jazz at the NBA draft in June. He never ended up suiting up for Utah, as he was traded shortly after to the Washington Wizards.

“Utah wanted to take Washington’s pick at the 18th overall because they were going after a player named Walter Clayton Jr.,” explained TSN’s Wesley Cheng. “Utah was willing to give up additional draft assets in order to trade up. Washington happily accepted.”

Riley attended both Grand River Collegiate Institute in Kitchener and Preston High School in Cambridge. He also played with the K-W Vipers basketball club. He eventually moved to the Phelps School in Malvern, Pennsylvania where he continued as a standout on the hardwood. Riley went on to the NCAA and the University of Illinois, where he played one season for the Illinois Fighting Illini. During those 35 matches, he averaged 12.6 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.2 assists.

Riley is only the 22nd Canadian since 2011 to be drafted by the NBA in the first round.

“He is all in on being as good as he can be,” said Trey Morin, his former coach at the Phelps School. “He had a goal, and he had a dream. And he was able to realize that last night, which a lot of kids can’t do. Now he’s got new goals and new dreams and I’m sure he’ll attack those with as much vigor as he did these ones.”

Riley was also the second basketball player from Kitchener to play for the NBA. Jamal Murray was drafted by the Denver Nuggets in 2016 and still plays for the team. Like Riley, he is also a former student of Grand River Collegiate Institute.

Riley’s parents, Tracy and Ray, were with him when his name was called during the draft.

“The whole experience at the table was a little nerve wracking, but Will handled himself well and kept the whole table calm,” Tracy recalled. “He kept reaching out and grabbing my hand through the process and just telling me to breath. It was an unbelievable experience.”

Both Tracy and Ray praised the people in Waterloo Region who helped Riley develop his basketball skills.

“It’s so nice Will had coaches that believed in him,” Tracy said. “He’s driven, and he plays basketball every single day. He’s getting 1,500 to 2,000 shots a day. The kid’s relentless when it comes to this sport.”

“When it comes to the coaches and the accolades they have for Will, I’m not surprised,” added Ray. “Like Tracy said, he is driven. He’s just a nice kid and just wants to get better.”

Elmira’s Brady Martin watches from home as he’s picked 5th overall in NHL draft

Riley wasn’t the only one called up to the big leagues this year.

While many eyes were on the 2025 NHL Draft in June, there was an extra special viewing party held in Elmira.

Brady Martin heard his name called 5th overall in round one of the draft, while surrounded by loved ones at his family farm. They watched the event on a big screen TV held aloft by a tractor.

“I knew in my heart, and he knew, that he would be placed in the best spot for him,” said his mother, Sheryl.

Martin, 19, was snapped up by the Nashville Predators after spending the last two OHL seasons as a centre with the Soo Greyhounds. He played in 57 games throughout the 2024-2025 season, with a total of 33 goals and 39 assists. Martin was also voted ‘Hardest Worker’ in the Western Conference Final in a poll by OHL coaches. Before the Greyhounds, he played for the Waterloo Wolves AAA team.

His hockey dream did not start in an arena, however, but in the heart of the Region of Waterloo’s farm country.

“The kids would skate on this back pond here every winter,” Sheryl said, referring to their property. “His challenge for a couple summers was to see how quickly he could scale that rope [we hung to this tree]. So, that was fun. Just farm kid stuff.”

In the off season, Martin still helps out with the animals and does other chores on the farm.

Hearing his name called out in the draft was an emotional moment for the tight-knit family.

But, Sheryl added, it was also about remembering and honouring their roots.

“His brother’s like, ‘Doesn’t matter you’re drafted to the NHL, you’re still doing chores tomorrow morning, right?’” Sheryl said. “Everything is just real here. My focus was to make my kids good human beings and if they were good hockey players, that was just the bonus.”

On Oct. 22, after three NHL appearances, the Predators returned him the Greyhounds.

Then, in December, he made Team Canada’s training camp roster, where he’ll be competing to represent his country at the IIHF World Junior Championships.

Guelph golfers get all-star treatment

A trio of golfers from the University of Guelph had quite the year.

Liam Fischer, Beck Ljungberg and Caleb Patry, affectionately known as ‘The Ontario Boys,’ first made headlines in March after they went to The Players Championship in Florida. It all started on March 15, when Caleb Patry saw one of the social media accounts he follows was offering free tickets to the final day of the event.

“I sent a DM [direct message] to Ryan French, because I saw he had tickets available for the Players,” Patry later told CTV News. “I texted the team group chat and asked if anyone was interested in going. Then, right away, [my friends] Beck and Liam were in. Two hours later we hit the road and were off to Florida.”

The group left Guelph, Ont. around 2:30 p.m. Saturday, knowing the final round started the following morning. The trio planned on heading straight south, but they were missing some crucial documents.

“I realized I don’t have my passport,” Liam Fischer explained.

It turned out, none of them had their passports.

Patry’s girlfriend then drove down from Kingston to deliver his, while the group had to make stops in Thornhill and Burlington, before finally heading for the Canada-U.S. border.

After French sent the tickets, he shared their road trip story online. It quickly gained traction in the golfing world, even getting the attention of professional golfer Joel Dahmen.

“Dahmen was the first one to reach out that we heard of,” Patry said. “He referred to us as the ‘Ontario Boys.’ We felt like, from that point on, we kind of had to represent for Ontario.”

When the group arrived in Florida, they purchased golf shirts and customized them with “Ontario Boys” written in marker.

Next, came parking. Since they hadn’t pre-planned any parking for the championship, the trio was forced to run about three miles in the rain to make the first tee – where they got a warm welcome.

“As soon as we walked in the Players Championship, literally as we were scanning our tickets from the gate, someone was like, ‘Oh my God, you guys made the trip!’” Fischer recalled. “We all looked at each other like, ‘Wow, people know the story and know who we are.’”

Their story gained even more online traction and other golf groups reached out.

The Ontario Boys were invited to play two rounds at Hammock Beach on Monday, then the TGL event at the Sofi Centre.

Once the group got to the TGL event, the Ontario Boys were given the VIP treatment, were interviewed by ESPN and handed all the merchandise they could handle. They also met some of the pro golfers, including Rory McIlroy.

Before heading home, the trio received another invite to play 18 holes at TPC Sawgrass, but on the Dye’s Valley course.

“It was an unreal experience,” Ljungberg recalled. “It’s really hard to put into words. But what a road trip and what an adventure it was.”

For most, that would be the end of the story, but not for the Ontario Boys.

In April, they travelled to the Augusta National in Georgia for the first days of the 2025 Masters Tournament.

When the three golfers returned from their first trip in March, they said the only thing that could make it better was a trip to the Masters. Luckily for them, it caught the attention of a professional golfer from Listowel, Ont. – Corey Conners.

“We believe it to be Corey’s wife saw us on TV or saw our story somehow and mentioned it to Corey. That got Corey engaged to reach out to Ryan French to try to get us down to the Masters. So, that’s what we believe the story is. We’re not too sure,” Ljungberg said.

Despite not knowing all the details, the Ontario Boys said Conners gave them tickets for Monday and Tuesday and even paid for them to stay in Georgia.

“We feel that we probably had one of the best experiences just a regular patron can have at the Masters. We just loved every second of it,” Fischer said.

The group loaded into Patry’s SUV again and took turns driving on the way down, but they did have to stop so Fischer could write an exam.

“We pulled over to like, a Hilton or something. Luckily enough, the front desk person said we could use this room. I sat in there, wrote my exam. The boys got some McDonald’s,” Fischer said.

The group played two rounds of golf in Charlotte, North Carolina on the way down, before arriving at The Masters. They met John Daly along the way, attended a Golf Canada event and, of course, made sure to thank Conners.

“We were sitting kind of close and he’s like, ‘Oh, hey boys, you want to come grab a photo?’ Then we took a photo with all the Canadians in front of 3,000 people behind us, and they’re all like, ‘What just happened?‘” Fischer said.

This time, however, the University of Guelph supplied the three golfers with more official “Ontario Boys” shirts.

“There was actually a professor that helped create those for them, that saw the story and loved it. It was a combination of the Gryphon brand, along with their story on it,” said Scott McRoberts, the director of athletics at U of G.

Along with the memories that will last a lifetime, the Ontario Boys also picked up some memorabilia.

“I think the coolest thing that we got down there, and I think it’s pretty popular – I think all three of us got it – was the flag. Of course, we’re hoping to get it signed by Corey, because he’s going to win this year. That would be pretty cool to have that. But we’re not going to ask the guy for a signature when he’s taking photos and doing all this stuff for us,” Ljungberg said.

Unfortunately, Connors did not win The Masters. Rory McIlroy did.

Music teacher from Guelph performs at World Series opening game

As Toronto Blue Jays fever swept the country during their World Series run in October, a music teacher from Guelph got a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Eric Froats, who taught at Centennial Collegiate Vocational Institute for more than 11 years, was selected to serve as a section leader during a visual presentation that accompanied Pharrell Williams’ pre-show performance at Game 1 in Toronto.

When a casting call was circulated by a production company seeking volunteers, Froats jumped at the opportunity.

“What they wanted was our marching and movement experience, knowing how big a step is supposed to be, how to make a straight line so we could kind of guide the volunteers.”

Froats, a former U.S. Marine sergeant with more than 30 years of marching drumming experience, described it as an eye-opening experience.

“I found a good sense of pride in it,” he said. “Every stadium performance I’ve done before, those people were there to silently listen to you. Whereas this was an energy to get everybody excited.”

Froats called the preparation process intense as it required him to take a few days off work, as well as time away from his family.

“They had the software mapping out the Canadian flag and the American flag, and that’s kind of how we got the raw bones of what that would look like,” he explained. “I didn’t see my whole family. I came home when they were asleep, and I left up before they woke up.”

But Froats would do it all over again.

“It went down exactly the way we intended it,” he said. “People online seem happy about it.”

Froats said one of his main takeaways was the knowledge he gained, specifically about larger productions. It’s something the teacher plans to apply to his own lessons moving forward.