A Portage la Prairie man is the new board chair of Sport Manitoba.

The provincial government announced Tuesday the appointment of five new Sport Manitoba board members. Dave Patsack of Portage la Prairie was appointed board chair.

Patsack, 61, has a lengthy resume of involvement with various sports and sporting events. He was chair of the 2015 RBC Cup host committee, chair of two Safeway Select Curling tournaments in Portage la Prairie, is an honorary life member of CurlManitoba and a past president at the Portage Golf Club.

“I was very honoured to be asked to do it and excited,” Patsack says. “I've always interested in sports, and not only one sport, sports in general. This was an opportunity to work with something I have a large interest in and I'm looking forward to the job.”

Patsack was contacted by Sport, Culture and Heritage Minister Rochelle Squires and offered the position recently. He decided to take on the role because of a love of sport. Patsack has only had preliminary meetings, and looks forward to learning more about the organization.

“I know Sport Manitoba is in the process of opening up the Sports for Life building which is going to be a huge addition to the sport community in Manitoba,” he says. “There are a lot of ongoing things to work out, obviously budget and finance are always big areas of concern. And, of course, expanding sport in general to the population.”

Patsack says he will look to ensure Sport Manitoba has superior reach and engages athletes from border-to-border across Manitoba.

“The majority of the population (of Manitoba) is in Winnipeg without a doubt. But I think sport really expands throughout the whole province,” he explains. “We've got highly skilled athletes from one end of the province to another.”

“Hopefully I can be a representative for everybody.”

Beverley Edmondson, a past program director at CFRY radio, was named vice-chair. Edmondson is the lead instructor in the Radio and Television Broadcasting Program at Herzing College. Other new appointments include Desiree Scott, Dennis Thiessen and Carter Chen.

Sport Manitoba was incorporated in 1996, following the merger of the province’s Sport Directorate and the Manitoba Sport Federation to implement the province’s policy on sport, the province's news release explains.