activealumni2004

a ctivealumni in touch

with

you

Published annually for the alumni and friends of the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation

2004

New Saville Sports Centre set to attract worldclass competition ith the skirl of bagpipes, the throwing of the ceremonial first rock and the first serve on one of its indoor tennis courts, the Saville Sports Centre was officially launched as Edmonton’s newest sports facility on February 28 2004.

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The Centre’s top-notch curling and tennis amenities are already attracting plenty of attention from competitive leagues and tournament organizers.

“For 15 years we’ve had the vision to build a facility like this,” says Dr. Mike Mahon, Dean, Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation, which will operate the new sports complex. “Our intent is that the Saville Sports Centre is there to fulfill the needs of recreational and competitive curlers and tennis players alike. But it is part of our business mandate to market this facility — today the most

Cutting the ribbon to the new Saville Sports Centre (l to R) Larry Gradeski, MLA Mary O’Neill, Moe Wolff (aide de camp), Bruce Saville, Dr. Mike Mahon, Lt. Governor Lois Hole, John Barry, U of A president Dr. Rod Fraser, Kevin Martin and Mayor Bill Smith. technologically advanced facility of its kind in Canada — to attract top-level competitive leagues, and national and international competition to the facility.”

Dignitaries at the opening included Lieutenant Governor Lois Hole, Mayor Bill Smith, university president Dr. Rod Fraser, St. Albert MLA Mary O’Neill and Bruce Saville, who gave the honour of throwing the first rock to his longtime friend and fellow curler Larry Gradeski.

The $7 million facility began construction in May 2003 and was completed on time and on budget in December last year. The first curlers took to the ice for the first bonspiel on January 2nd 2004. The Centre will be widely used for academic classes for students in physical education and recreation, and education.

Ceremonial first rock: Kevin Martin, Larry Gradeski and Mike Mahon do the honours

The Centre was made possible with a $2 million infusion from Bruce Saville, Edmonton businessman and philanthropist. Saville is an ardent curling fan.

“I wanted to give something back to the community where I made my career,” he says.

Continued on page 3

University of Alberta

Message from the Dean his year we finally saw the culmination of a 15-year dream — the Saville Sports Centre at South Campus was officially opened in February this year. This represents a phenomenal effort, lobbying, fundraising — and plenty of nail biting — as the project vision went through numerous ups and downs. Thanks to our donor, Bruce Saville, a businessman of extraordinary vigour and generosity, who donated $1.8 million to this $7 million complex, we were able to get the project underway.

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I hope you’ll come out and enjoy this wonderful indoor tennis, gymnasium and curling addition to our facilities.

It’s our wish — our mandate, really — to continue to grow and build excellent facilities to enrich our students’ experience during their time with us, to constantly improve and increase our program offerings in these facilities geared to children, youth, and adults, to continue to provide scholarships to deserving students, and to be able to attract and retain the country’s finest academics and coaches.

It’s not an easy task. Seeking to keep costs low while providing quality programs is a big challenge and affects every aspect of our Faculty, from the hiring and retaining of excellent faculty to teach our students, to the provision of scholarships, the upkeep of existing facilities and the building of new ones.

a ctivealumni Active Alumni is published annually for the alumni and friends of the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation. Comments, questions, suggestions for stories are welcomed. Please contact

Jane Hurly, communications strategist Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation W1-34 Van Vliet Centre University of Alberta Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2H9 Ph: 780-492-6821; fax: 780-492-1008 Email: jane.hurly@ualberta.ca www.physedandrec.ualberta.ca Publication Mail Agreement No. 40063741 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation, University of Alberta, W1-34 Van Vliet Centre Edmonton AB T6G 2H9

Your support of the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation has never been more important to us. The success of each generation of graduates from our Faculty is inexorably linked to the success — and support — of the generation of graduates that went before them. When you support the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation you help to seed the next generation of first-class physical educators, sport scientists, kinesiologists and recreationists — and the athletes of tomorrow.

In a country only now coming to grips with the reality of sedentary, overindulged lifestyles, the graduates of our Faculty will play an increasingly critical role in helping Canadians live healthier, happier lives.

Thank you to all of our corporate sponsors, our alumni, our professors emeriti, faculty and staff who support our tradition of excellence in this outstanding profession. You are helping us to continue to build on our rich heritage for the benefit of future generations.

Please enjoy this edition of Active Alumni, 2004 Mike Mahon, Dean

2 University of Alberta

Message from your alumni representative, Wendy Andrews s your Faculty representative on Alumni Council I promote the role of the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation on campus. I’m also chair of the Student Life Committee for the Alumni Council where we work to ensure that students feel part of the University community. To this end we have completed a strategic plan on the quality of student life and are now making recommendations. The Council is also sponsoring a Zero Year Reunion — a first! — to celebrate current graduating students and welcome them as new members of the Alumni Association.

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We have a very effective Athletic Alumni Association called the Green and Gold Society. We have never had an Academic Alumni Association in the Faculty, and this is the year to make that happen. I am working closely with Dean Mike Mahon, Bob Kinasewich and Chuck Moser in the Faculty’s development office to have an interim executive in place prior to Reunion Weekend.

We need a more effective way to keep you informed about events happening in the Faculty, such as the opening of new facilities like the Saville Sports Centre,

keep you in touch with the latest research projects, invite you to mentor undergraduates, share your work experiences with students, invite you to Pandas and Bears games and our annual Sports Wall of Fame Fundraising Dinner! We need your ideas on developing other fund raising activities, whether through a class donation on your 25th Anniversary or an endowment.

The possibilities are endless.

To kick-start the Academic Alumni Association, we need class reps for each of the graduating years. If you are interested in being involved as a class rep or would like more information on the Academic Alumni Association, please contact the Faculty at 492-3893. If you are interested in serving on the interim executive of the Association and setting its direction contact me right away at 780-481-3105 or by email at mii@shaw.ca.

I look forward to hearing from you and hope to see you at Reunion Weekend this year! ■

New Saville Sports Centre… con’t from page 1 Features of the Centre include eight indoor tennis courts, 10 curling sheets built to international ice widths, a multipurpose gymnasium, marked for basketball, volleyball, badminton, floor hockey and soccer, 600m2 of undeveloped space earmarked for a future fitness centre, club locker rooms, steam rooms and hot tubs, an upstairs lounge with close-circuit television, and bar and dining facilities “This Centre represents an exciting addition to the University’s sport and recreation facilities that will enrich the lives of our students and our community by encouraging the enjoyment of, and participation in, sports and recreational activities. That’s in line with the federal and provincial governments’ health mandates, with The City of Edmonton’s ActivEdmonton initiative and our own Senate’s mandate to make this the healthiest campus in Canada,” said Dr. Mahon.

“The Saville Sports Centre is an important addition to the University’s facilities in promoting the University of Alberta and the City of Edmonton as choice venues for world-class curling and tennis events,” said Dr. Roderick Fraser. “I expect the Saville Sports Centre to quickly make its mark in Alberta and in Canada as a premiere recreation and competitive sport facility.” ■

3 University of Alberta

Faculty’s grads dominate Hockey Alberta’s Red Deer ranks Pictured at Hockey Alberta are (l to r) Sandra Pysklywyc, Brad Robbins, Tim Leer, Barb Marsh and Kevin Macrae Absent: Shawn Bullock and Scott Robinson

ed Deer, Alberta is a hive of grads from the Faculty! The contingent of seven physical education, recreation administration and recreation and leisure studies grads dominates Hockey Alberta’s staff of 15. Graduation years range from 1999 to 2002, with degrees in physical education, recreation administration, and recreation and leisure studies.

Female development coordinator, Barb Marsh (nee Lofstrand) (BA Rec Admin ‘90) has been with Hockey Alberta for six years. The Alberta Winter Games, Hockey Canada Skills Academy and the Under 18 Program of Excellence are also part of Marsh’s job at Hockey Alberta.

Inline hockey coordinator, Shawn Bullock (BA Rec Admin 1999) is the driving force behind inline programs in this province. In addition to inline hockey, Bullock oversees the Arctic Winter Games and the Chevy Safe and Fun program. Bullock, who hails from Wainwright, has worked at Hockey Alberta for four years.

The most recent addition to Hockey Alberta is Sandra Pysklywyc (BARLS ‘01), who spent two years working at the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation following graduation. As the communications coordinator, she is responsible for media relations, sponsorship, community relations and communications at Hockey Alberta.

Tim Leer (BPE 1996) is senior coordinator, leadership development and is responsible for the Program of Excellence (U-17 Male) and instructor recruitment and leadership. ‘Leersy,’ as his colleagues know him, has been with the organization for just over seven years.

Brad Robbins (BPE 1999), the pride of Stettler and manager of operations has been with Hockey Alberta for five years.

Robbins is responsible for game and conduct management, interpretation of rules and regulations as well as overall hockey operations.

Eckville native, Kevin Macrae (BPE ‘02) is Hockey Alberta’s coordinator of male athlete development. He administers the Alberta Cup, Under 16 Camp, the Source for Sports Play SMART Jamborees and the Super Skills Challenge. Macrae has been with Hockey Alberta for a year and a half.

Senior manager, Scott Robinson (BPE 1991) has been with Hockey Alberta for 12 years. Robinson is currently responsible for hockey development, strategic planning and marketing, and sponsorships at Hockey Alberta, as well as liaising with Alberta Sport, Recreation, Parks and Wildlife Foundation. ■

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Play Around the World — Thai Fundraiser May 16th

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elp our students bring the joy of play and physical activity to disadvantaged Thai children in orphanages, refugee camps, schools and special project organisations this summer.

Come to a Thai feast with catering by The King and I Thai Cuisine of Edmonton.

Silent and live auctions. Thai dance demonstration.

Sunday, May 16th at 17h00 Saville Sports Centre, 6501 – 115th Street, Edmonton Tickets: Students $20; Adults $30 (Tax receipt: $10 for Student ticket; $20 for Adult ticket) For tickets contact Carol McNeil – carol.mcneil@ualberta.ca or Jane Vallentyne – jane.vallentyne@ualberta.ca VISA, MasterCard, cheque or cash welcome.

4 University of Alberta

Neuroscience grad student is U of A’s first Rhodes Scholar since 1993

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ven muscle cells have their secrets. Ask Marcie Reinhart, a Master’s student in neuroscience in the Faculty and the University of Alberta’s first recipient of a Rhodes Scholarship in 11 years!

Reinhart’s research with supervisor Dr. Ted Putman involves studying muscle cells in vitro (cell cultures) to determine what happens at the molecular level inside the muscles that causes them to change and to adapt to external stimuli, such as physical activity.

“I’m looking at what pathways are being turned on and turned off and which molecules are transducing signals to other molecules to eventually cause complete changes in the muscle structure and metabolic capacity,” says Reinhart.

It’s the type of research she sees having wide applications in medicine, athletics — even space travel! “There are medical applications related to muscular diseases — in degenerative diseases you see a lot of changes in muscle metabolism and fibre twitch type. There are applications in athletics, exercise and even space flight where the body experiences many alterations resulting from prolonged periods of weightlessness.”

Physiology has always been a passion. “I always enjoyed reading books about how the body works,” says Reinhart,

a biathlete who’s won gold, silver and bronze medals on the provincial and national biathlon teams and competed in the World University Games. “What I really liked about biology class was learning how the kidneys function or how the heart works and I “There are medical realised early on that applications related I wanted to study to muscular diseases physiology.” That — in degenerative interest, coupled with diseases you see a lot lifelong involvement of changes in muscle in a wide variety of metabolism and fibre sports including twitch type. There rugby, ringette, are applications in volleyball and softball athletics, exercise while growing up, and even space led to a degree in the flight where the medical sciences. But body experiences it was her love of many alterations sport that determined resulting from her move to graduate prolonged periods studies in Physical of weightlessness.”

Education and Recreation. “I really didn’t want to become a doctor,” she explains of the switch. “I realised, being an athlete and living a healthy lifestyle, I’d get frustrated with people who didn’t take very good care of themselves and became constantly ill as a result!”

At Oxford University, Reinhart will continue her studies in physiology for her doctorate. As for the future, Reinhart says it’s wide open! “If I really enjoy research, I’ll look for a post-doctoral position back in North America, or perhaps somewhere else in the world . Being a student is a great opportunity to experience different countries and cultures and I would like to do more of that. But if I don’t stay in research, there are still endless hallways of open doors that I can see...” ■

5 University of Alberta

Faculty Retirements Career highlights

Guy Swinnerton

1973-1977: Director and Principal Lecturer in Land-Use Studies: established a new program in Natural Resources and Rural Economy (Land Use and Environmental Studies) at Seale Hayne Agricultural College (now part of the University of Plymouth), Devon, England.

Outdoor adventures with grandchildren beckon

1988-1993: Chair/Director, Department/Division of Recreation and Leisure Studies, Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation, University of Alberta.

1995-2000: Academic Representative to the Special Places 2000: Alberta’s Natural Heritage Provincial Coordinating Committee. This committee was responsible for directing the completion of a representative protected areas system for the Province of Alberta.

1995-1996: Member of the Scientific Review Committee (SRC) to the Federal Government’s Banff-Bow Valley Study. The Banff-Bow Valley Study was a landmark report that has had a lasting impact on the management of Canada’s national parks.

1996: Received the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation’s (University of Alberta) Award of Merit for Outstanding Teaching for 19951996.

1999- continuing: Member of the International Task Force on Protected Landscapes, World Commission on Protected Areas, World Conservation Union (IUCN).

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Teaching his two children, daughter Siân and son Gareth, and seeing them both graduate (Siân in 1997; Gareth in 2001) with BA Degrees in Recreation and Leisure Studies, with a focus on Recreation/Leisure Environments and Heritage Resources.

by Wanda Vivequin

his summer retiring professor Guy Swinnerton hopes to carry on something of a family tradition when he takes his first grandchild canoeing. “I took my own son canoeing and camping before he was one year old and think this might have had something to do with how he grew up enjoying the outdoors so much,” Swinnerton says.

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Family, friends, travel and enjoying the luxury of time to sit down and listen to the sounds of nature are top of the list of retirement plans for Swinnerton, who joined the University of Alberta in 1978. “My wife, Nonie, and I have friends, relatives, and research colleagues all over the world to visit,” he says.

He would also like to spend more time closer to home at Elk Island National Park, Hastings Lake and the Beaver Hills where he has for many years been on management and advisory boards and worked as a volunteer steward for Alberta Parks and Protected Areas’ Natural Areas program. Swinnerton will continue to serve on the Science Advisory Committee to Elk Island National Park and the Beaver Hills Initiative Coordinating Committee.

“There has never really been a hard line between my work and the rest of my life because they are things I would have been doing in my spare time anyway,” he says. “This has been a real privilege,” he adds.

Painting is a latent interest for Swinnerton. “Before I went to university I had taken up fine arts and this is something I want to get back to.”

Tracing his family history is another big project the Welsh-born professor wants to tackle. “There is a Swinnerton Society that has traced our family back to 1086 but on my mother’s side there is still a lot to discover,” he says.

Guy Swinnerton says he is especially proud of being part of the paradigm shift away from a “lock it up” national park mentality. “It’s really exciting to have been an influential part of an international movement away from these traditional models, to more open minded approaches that acknowledge the ecological and heritage importance of lived-in landscapes and the historical interaction between people and their landscapes.” he says. He will remain as a member of the World Commission on Protected Areas’ International Task Force on Protected Landscapes as part of this involvement.

Until the end of June 2006, Swinnerton, who has been awarded Professor Emeritus status, will continue to teach part time but says he is looking forward to more time for home renovations, gardening, and sitting on the deck in the early morning drinking coffee and listening to nature. ■

University of Alberta

Faculty Retirements Sandy O’Brien Cousins New activities for everactive, ever-curious ‘retiree’

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ountain biking through the Edmonton River Valley last summer, Sandy O’Brien Cousins nearly severed her carotid artery. “It was close, so close,” she says touching a scar on her neck where the branch nearly impaled her.

The incident happened while out with the “Dirt Girls,” a local womens’ mountain biking club of which she is proudly the oldest member! “Its not so much that I want to be seen as a role model for younger women but simply to learn how to ride with some technical skill and enjoy all that this sport has to offer,” she says.

“In my retirement I want to age disgracefully, to play, have fun and at the same time stay healthy,” she says with a laugh.

Proudly wearing a tracksuit emblazoned with the Edmonton World Masters’ Games 2005 logo Cousins, who is a world authority on aging and exercise, says her first priority for retirement is getting into tip-top shape. She has already entered the Masters Games cycling events and if she “survives” mountain biking on the first day of competition, will participate in road racing as well.

For Sandy (nee Hartley), a former Olympic gymnast who represented Canada in the 1960s, leaving the U of A after 33 years will be a huge change in lifestyle. “This job has been all consuming and it’s going to take ages to unravel everything,” she says, referring to the immense amount of data collected in her studies on exercise and aging.

“I made up the term Exercise Gerontology as my field of study and feel that the faculty has benefited; by bringing the issues of exercise and aging into the public arena I have made an important contribution that I am proud of,” she says.

Cousins will teach part time for the next year, but by the end of 2005 expects to be virtually free of all her academic commitments. “I really believe there is something more left in me. I am not sure exactly what I will be doing next but I still have a passion to make the world a better place,” she says. “One of the things definitely on the list is travel, such as cycle touring. “I’d go in the Tour de France if they had a women’s 55+ category,” she adds.

by Wanda Vivequin

Career highlights 1968: Represented Canada in gymnastics at the Mexico Olympics.

1971-1986: Coached the Pandas’ gymnastics team to many National wins.

1978: Directed the Commonwealth Games competition in women’s gymnastics.

1983, 1998, 1999: Published three books, and since 1991 at the end of doctoral studies, 36 peer-reviewed scientific papers, 24 book chapters or articles, 2 video productions, 82 research presentations, 72 public presentations (many on being ABLE or Aging Better with a Little Exercise).

1999: Primary author of Health Canada’s Physical Activity Guide for Older Adults — over a million copies distributed nation-wide.

2002: Competed in cycling in the World Masters’ Games in Melbourne Australia 2003: Invited researcher in Japan, Brazil and Australia presenting her work on selftalk and other cognitive barriers to older adult physical activity.

“I think success is being paid to do something you love and in this sense I think that yes I have been successful. I love the work and got paid well to do it!”

“As an Olympian from Vancouver, skeptics said I wouldn’t stay more than a year in Edmonton. I am still here after 33 years and loving every minute. I think I might still be good at something else and will retire to find out what that is,” she says. ■

7 University of Alberta

Faculty Retirements Career highlights 1976: Director of volleyball competition at the Olympic Games in Montreal, Quebec.

1976: Government of Alberta Achievement Award for Excellence in Sport Administartion 1977: Sport Canada Queen’s Service Jubilee Medal for worthy and devoted service to amateur sport.

1978: Established the annual Jasper Volleyball Camp that continues to this day.

1972-75, 78-79: President of the Alberta Volleyball Association.

1980: CIAU Coach-of-the-Year Award 1973-81: Head coach, University of Alberta Golden Bears volleyball team.

1981-82: Head coach for the University of Alberta Pandas volleyball team.

1981-83: Chair of Volleyball at the 1983 World University Games 1990: University of Alberta Student Union Gold Key Award for outstanding service to improving the quality of life on campus.

2002- 2003: Overseeing the campus recreation program when registrations topped 28,000.

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by Wanda Vivequin

Hugh Hoyles Captain Rec aims to stay fit, spend time with family

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ardworking Hugh Hoyles is a man positively bristling with energy.

His youthful looks and athletic build belie his age (he turns 65 in September 2004), although he is the first to admit he needs to work harder these days to stay in shape. “One of the first things I will do when I retire is to really get into a regular exercise routine,” he says. This is a surprising revelation coming from a man who has spent the last 35 years developing the physical activities program for tens of thousands of University of Alberta staff and students Hoyles leaves his post as Director, Campus Recreation at the end of this semester. “I have to be honest and say that my job has taken a lot of time away from my wife and family and addressing this balance is a top priority,” he says.

Hoyles says his greatest satisfaction working at the U of A has come from the sense of community that recreation and sport programs have created on campus.

“I have really enjoyed being part of the transition from the rec centre being just a place for students to do sport, to somewhere the whole university community comes to meet and have fun—the socialization component of recreation is extremely important,” he says.

Hoyles’ plans are to stay in Edmonton, a city he considers one of the most active in Canada, although he believes its reputation for cruel winters has become overrated. “I like winter! No let me rephrase that. I like the seasons in Edmonton and know of many people who have retired to the coast only to find themselves back here after a few years because they miss their friends and family,” he says.

Sports and recreation will play a big role in his retirement he says, both as a participant and as a voluntary administrator. “I have been playing in the Campus Recreation Over-35 hockey league for 19 years and definitely will continue with it as well as do some golfing, travelling and gardening,” he says. “The gardening might come as something of a surprise to people but with time on my side, it’s something I know I will enjoy.”

“Right now I am also looking through the list of sports offered at the World Masters’ Games in Edmonton in 2005 and deciding on what I might participate in,” he added. “Not too sure what yet, but, I have plenty of time to decide,” he says with a smile. ■

University of Alberta

Olympian and Canadian Shot Put Champ heads Cross Country, Track and Field Programmes “If competing in the Olympics was my only dream, I’d have done it in a heartbeat. But I was born and raised here. It’s not about competing in the Olympics. It’s about being Canadian.” sk Golden Bears and Pandas track and field head coach Georgette Reed what it takes to be an uberathlete and she’ll boil it down to two things: passion and sacrifice. And Reed’s done it all. She waited on tables, tended bar, bounced drunks into the street for 13 years to be able to keep training, keep working to be a track athlete that’s one to watch.

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Her passion for sport began in the swimming pool when Reed’s mom steered her toward swimming at age eight as a way to keep fit. “I love to eat,” explains Reed. “It’s my favourite thing — that’s why my mom decided to get me active!” Reed went on to excel at both swimming and water polo.

“I always wanted to go to the Olympic Games and make my mark in sport. And if it was to be any sport, it would be swimming.” The thought of competing at that level in track and field just didn’t compute, until, as a member of Washington State University’s swimming team, she sustained a shoulder injury that side-lined her competitive swimming career forever — and pivoted her into track and field — and into Canadian sports history books. “Despite what they teach in high school, the throwing events are lower body events. You need to be strong in the legs and have a very strong core — the arm is just a coordination factor.”

Reed became one of Washington State University’s most celebrated athletes in shot put and discus. She’s still the holder of the school’s shot put record, which she’d smashed by seven feet, and which still stands after 12 years!

Born in Regina, Saskatchewan, Reed holds degrees in journalism and marketing, and physical education with a major in coaching and a minor in sport administration from Washington State University.

After graduating, Reed went to Australia in search of more competition opportunities. “I was offered Australian

citizenship in three months if I wanted to compete for them in the Georgette Reed Olympic Games.”

Reed turned it down. “If competing in the Olympics was my only dream, I’d have done it in a heartbeat. But I was born and raised here. It’s not about competing in the Olympics. It’s about being Canadian.”

The greatest experience? Definitely the Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain in 1992. “It hit me walking into the opening ceremonies. They announced ‘Canada’ ... and 70,000 people were cheering! When they pulled an Olympic flag over all the athletes in the infield, I reached up and touched the yellow circle of the Olympic rings and started crying, and I thought, ‘All the effort, all of the pain, all the hard work, all the time — for this. It was worth it all.’”

Reed has also competed at the World Championships in Athletics, the World Bobsleigh Championships, the Pan American Games, the Commonwealth Games and the Francophone Games among many others. She continues to reign as Canada’s women’s shot put champion, a title she’s held 15 times. She is also one of Canada’s best female discus throwers.

Reed began coaching in 1995 and retired from competition last July. She joined the Faculty in 2002 as assistant track and field coach, becoming head coach in July 2003.

As for the future, this year Reed will be concentrating on the Golden Bears and Pandas and working with Athletics Canada on national team projects. She’s also been appointed as apprentice coach for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. ■

University of Alberta

9

University of Alberta’s Alumni Pride Awards recognize four outstanding PER leaders 2003 was a very proud year for the Faculty as four of our distinguished alumni were selected to receive one of the University’s most outstanding awards — the Alumni Honour award. The Alumni Honour Award recognizes the significant contributions made over a number of years

by University of Alberta alumni in their local communities and beyond.

Jim Donlevy, ‘59 BPE, ‘61 BEd, ‘75 MA, has been a leader in provincial sports for more than 30 years. A highly respected coach, he received five Coach-of-the-Year awards from his colleagues at both the provincial and national levels and is an inductee to the University’s Sports Wall of Fame. His impact in sports continues through his coaching and educational clinics in the Western Hockey League and in his role as commissioner for the Canada West Football League.

Dru Marshall, ‘82 MSc, ‘89 PhD, successful coach of Pandas Field Hockey and the Canadian National Field Hockey team, is a recipient of the prestigious 3M Award for Coaching in Canada. Winner of many Coach-of-the-Year awards in Canada West and CIAU, she continues to make an outstanding contribution to the development of women’s sport in Canada through teaching and research, mentoring national coaches, and advising the Federal Minister of Sport.

Susan Nattrass, ‘72 BPE, ‘74 MA, ‘88 PhD, dominated the sport of trapshooting by winning six World Championship gold medals, four silver and three bronze and holding the women’s world record from 1974-1989. She was invested as an Officer of the Order of Canada, inducted into Edmonton’s, Alberta’s and Canada’s Sports Halls of Fame, and named Canada’s Athlete of the Year (1981). She was instrumental in establishing separate women’s events in trap and skeet shooting for the 2000 Olympics.

Darwin Park, ‘67 BPE, is a tireless, lifelong volunteer who has generously given his time and energy to the United Way, the University of Alberta, AIESEC, Uncles-at-Large, and numerous community based organizations. In 2003, he chaired the highly successful Alberta Capital Region United Way Campaign. The former Spruce Grove Citizen of the Year and 1977 recipient of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee medal was recently recognized with the Queen’s Golden Jubilee medal for community leadership in 2002. ■ If you know of an alumnus you feel is deserving of this award, contact the Development office in the Faculty.

Deadline for submissions is March 1 each year.

Where are you?

Keep the Faculty and the University informed of your address changes Changing your address? Updating your mailing preferences? Keep in touch with U of A by letting the office of Advancement Records External Relations know where you are.

Via email: alumrec@ualberta.ca Phone: (toll-free in North America) 1-866-492-7516 Local: 780-492-3471 Check out the alumni web site at: http://www.ualberta.ca/ALUMNI and use the online form.

10 University of Alberta

Biomedical engineer gives hope to stroke and spinal cord injury patients “FES corrects foot drop by artificially stimulating the muscles needed to flex the ankle during walking.” early 350,000 Canadians are living with the debilitating effects of stroke or spinal cord injury.

Such traumas disrupt connections in the central nervous system (CNS) that are needed to activate muscles and control movement. But the research of Dr. Doug Weber is directed at understanding the neural control of movement and ways to rehabilitate the nervous system after injury.

Weber’s goal is to understand how the nervous system controls movement with the hope that such knowledge will improve our ability to restore function to muscles that have been paralyzed by injury or disease.

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“We are all naturally fascinated with the body and what makes it tick,” says Weber. He was just two years into a degree in electrical engineering at Milwaukee School of Engineering when he discovered that the engineering principles he was learning could also be applied to the human body. “Suddenly all the tools I was learning in engineering became so much more interesting!” he says.

It was this Eureka moment for the Wisconsin-born Packers fan that led to a PhD in Biomedical Engineering at Arizona State University. “I looked at how the motor cortex controls reaching movements in light of perturbations or disturbances,” he says, describing how he recorded signals from the neurons in the motor cortex that control arm movements and studied how those neurons responded to errors or disturbances in the movement. What he found was that the brain soon learned to adapt and anticipate the disturbances and adjust for them ahead of time. Those findings continue to inspire his research in motor learning.

On the basic science level, Weber studies how neurons in the body signal information — through either feedback signals which report what is happening, or motor signals which command new movement. His applied work involves the use of functional electrical stimulation (FES) to artificially stimulate muscles that have been paralyzed by stroke or spinal cord injury.

In a large collaboration involving neuroscience researchers in Medicine and Rehabilitation Medicine at the

U of A, and biomedical engineers at the University of Southern California, Weber is using FES to treat ‘foot Doug Weber drop,’ a common deficit produced by stroke and spinal cord injury. “FES corrects foot drop by artificially stimulating the muscles needed to flex the ankle during walking,” he says. “An interesting and exciting phenomenon observed in many people is that with prolonged use of FES, the body adapts and recovers the functions generated by the FES. This means that FES can provide two benefits. First, it can serve as a prosthesis that replaces lost function and secondly, as a therapeutic device that promotes recovery of natural function.”

Weber is also working on brain computer interface (BCI) research — a way of tapping into the nervous system to extract signals for controlling prosthetic devices. “By recording from sensory neurons that signal information about leg position and movement, we are able to predict where the leg is in space as well as the velocity of its movement. Our goal is to use these natural sensory signals to provide feedback for controlling FES systems for walking and reaching.”

In the future he wants to study how we learn to perform new motor tasks such as a new racquet sport or musical instrument. “I’ve designed experiments that will examine how sensory feedback is used during motor learning. This summer, I will be testing my theories in healthy individuals to see how they adapt to feedback training. The next step will be to test these principles with stroke patients to see if we can optimize the feedback needed to promote motor recovery.” Weber plans to work with Steadward Centre clients who are already using FES exercises to help them recover motor function and fitness. ■

11 University of Alberta

You were there! We’re so glad you made it!

Reunion 2003 12

or Reunion Weekend 2003 we did things differently! The Alumni Pride event kicked off the festivities with no fewer than four of our distinguished alumni recognized for their outstanding achievements, including Jim Donlevy ‘59 BPE, ‘61 BEd, ‘75 MA, Dru Marshall ‘82 MSc, ‘89 PhD, Susan Nattrass ‘72 BPE, ‘74 MA, ‘88 PhD and Darwin Park ‘67 BPE. Then we launched into our first ever Pub Night at Alumni Lounge at Foote Field. On Saturday, many of you joined the Turkey Trot, then attended the Dean’s Lunch in the Van Vliet Centre.

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We loved seeing you here!

This year Reunion Weekend is from September 30 to October 3. Come on home!

Let’s give them something to talk about!

Class of ‘53: Mert Shapka, Steve Mendryk, Joan Thompson, Jean Henderson, Jim Day and Marilyn Holmes

Class of ‘63

Andrea Borys (BPE ‘62), Jeanne Mendryk, Margo Wyley (Rec Admin ‘63) and Jo Goselny (BPE ‘62)

Kirstin Nannling (Rec Admin ‘99), Karina Damgaard (RA ‘98), Catherine Broomfield (BPE ‘93), Sharon Murphy (RA ‘98), Lou McDougall (RA 98)

University of Alberta

Barry Mitchelson (BPE ‘66, MA ‘68) and Mert Shapka (BPE ‘53)

John Sutter (Rec Admin ‘62) and Cathy

University of Alberta Reunion Weekend/ Open House 2004 September 30 to October 3 Come home and celebrate!

Faculty Events: Dr. Al Affleck

Larry Dufresne (BPE ‘67, MA ‘70) and Wendy Andrews (BPE ‘71)

■ Friday, October 1 — Pub Night at Foote Field 19h00 to 21h00 Host bar. Beer mugs $5 each!

■ Saturday, October 2 — Join us at the Faculty’s Turkey Trot — run, walk or stroll in aid of United Way!

Gregg Meropoulis (BPE 74, MA ‘78) and Patti

Mas Kinoshita and Al Graham (ED, BPE ‘66)

■ Dean’s Lunch Saville Sports Centre 12h00 to 14h00 $10 per person Keynote speaker: Sandy O’Brien Cousins on Healthy Ageing Research poster display Catch up, curl and play tennis in our new facility!

Jean Gulayets (BPE ‘78) and Gerry Kosior (BPE ‘78)

Dean Mike Mahon and Joan Thompson (BPE ‘53)

Sporting events at Foote Field ■ Saturday, October 2, 19h00 Football: Bears vs University of Calgary Dinos ■ Sunday, October 3 — Soccer: Bears and Pandas vs University of Saskatchewan Huskies Kick-off: Pandas - 12h00; Bears - 14h15 Check the web site: www.physedandrec.ualberta.ca

Jean Henderson (BPE ‘53) and John

Denise Rout, athletics director Kim Gordon and Susan Nattrass (BPE ’72, MA ’74, PhD ’88)

University of Alberta

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PhD candidate Aggie Weighill roughs it in Fiji to research field hockey fans “Getting involved in this was really about family history and doing something that the women in my family do.” n October last year, provisional PhD candidate Aggie Weighill took her research to where most of us would call heaven — to Nadi in Fiji actually, to collect data for her thesis. Weighill is working on her dissertation titled “Women who play while away: Motivations and behaviours of active sport travellers.” The event she chose to research was Air New Zealand’s Golden Oldies Field Hockey Festival — a recreational festival — which every two years meets in one of the hemispheres and draws to it field hockey enthusiasts of every stripe from around the globe — but they have to be over 35 to play — and they’d better be ready to party too!

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“My area is the social psychology of leisure and tourism,” explains Weighill. Not a lot of the literature has addressed the actual role of sport and the travel experience, she says, “So I wanted to take an activity or an event and find out what are the motivating factors for attending that event and the travel that goes along with that.” At the festival she’d be examining the travel motivations of Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders.

The choice of the 21-year old event, says Weighill, was clear from the get-go — field hockey runs deep in the family veins. “My mother, grandmother, aunts and cousins have all been involved in this event for a number of years,” says Weighill of the co-ed event. Her grandmother is a past president of BC Women’s Field Hockey; her aunt was a varsity coach and Team Canada member. And they’ve travelled the world together with their team, the Vancouver Snowbirds — to Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and England — playing in the hockey festival virtually since its inception in 1983 in Auckland, New Zealand.

This is definitely a hockey festival, rather than a tournament, and it produces no winners or losers. Scores are not kept. Skill isn’t a requirement either — just enthusiasm and love of the game. Making memories is the aim of the seven-day event, where at least half the time is spent socialising off the field.

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So why do they do it?

“There’s a concept called ‘recreational mode’,” says Weighill, “which suggests that Aggie Weighill hands Canadian there are three flags to young Fijians parts of an experience that motivate people: the activity, the place or the social aspects.” Weighill surveyed approximately 740 individuals — asking about their motivation and if they were combining this trip with other travel. “The motivational aspects of my research focus on why they’re attending this particular hockey festival and the behavioural aspects look at that time period before and after the festival. I want to see if there are differences related to gender or lifespan stage.”

“Getting involved in this was really about family history and doing something that the women in my family do,” Weighill says. Weighill’s 74-year old grandmother has only just given up playing. When the festival came to Vancouver, six of her family members played. At 29, Weighill isn’t old enough to participate yet, but she’s playing in the intramurals at U of A and “I love it!” she says.

Weighill’s back from Fiji now and getting ready to analyse the data. What does she hope to find? “I’m expecting to find that the social aspect of the event is a primary motive for everyone because it’s such a high focus in the planning and the organisation of this festival. I expect to find nostalgia among those at a later life stage, whereas I think being physically active and playing hockey are going to be more important to those in the 35 to 45 age range.” ■

Want to play? The next Golden Oldies Field Hockey Festival runs in Den Bosch, The Netherlands from September 5 to 11 2005. Details on the Air New Zealand website at www.airnz.ca.na

University of Alberta

Tribute to alumnus and champion golfer, Rachel (Rae) Simpson 1934 — 2002 Rachel (Rae) Simpson died on September 25 2002 of leukemia. Her husband of 33 years, Jim Simpson, shared the story of Rae’s many accomplishments as an athlete, a wife and a mother. t could be said of Rae Simpson that she was born golf club in hand. It would have been hard not to be!

For she was born and raised in Jasper, Alberta, where her father, Jack Milligan, was the superintendent and greens keeper of the Jasper Golf Course, and an avid golfer himself, as were Rae’s siblings Robert and MaryBeth. Not surprisingly Rae, a true natural athlete if ever there was one, took to the sport of golf at age nine and never looked back! From 1953, at the age of 19, to 1962, she won the Alberta Amateur Golf Championship nine times. As one of the top four women golfers in Canada, she was appointed to the Canadian Commonwealth Golf Teams in 1959 and 1963; she won the Ontario Amateur Championship in1955, in a field that included the indomitable Marlene Streit who was honoured as Canada’s Female Amateur Golfer of the Century. Rae was runner-up in this competition in 1957. In her ‘50’s Rae won the Ontario Senior Championship twice — in 1985 and ‘89.

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Rae was named Alberta Golfer of the ‘50’s Decade by the Alberta Golf Association — a high honour indeed as it encompassed men and women.

She wasn’t just a golfer though. “She was an outstanding athlete,” says Jim, a retired school teacher who met and married the effervescent and gregarious Rae in 1969.

“While she was in high school, she won the Alberta mixed doubles in badminton. She was an outstanding skier and skater. She loved all sports.”

Her love of sport brought her to the University of Alberta, from which she graduated with a BPE in 1956 and went on to teach physical education at Western Canada High School in Calgary. Challenging her golf game took her

East in 1966. She taught at Emery Junior High in Toronto from 1966 to 1971.

She and Jim had a son, Scott — now 27 — who’s a golf success in his own right! “He doesn’t get it from me,” laughs Jim. Every summer the family headed to their ‘second home’ — Jasper. “Rae’s favourite place,” says Jim. “Every time we went there, there were always 20 to 30 good friends of Rae’s that we managed to see and play golf with.”

“When Rae made friends, she kept them. She loved people and she was very outgoing.” Her passion for golf had taken her to many countries around the world: “She wrote to people in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, to relatives in England and Ireland, a friend in Bermuda,” says Jim. “I met many wonderful people because of Rae. She brought me out, I’ll tell you!”

She was humble about her golfing prowess and “would play with anyone,” says Jim. After she was diagnosed with leukemia she’d play the 9-hole course at their cottage near Fenelon Falls in Ontario two to three times a week but never complained when her illness made it impossible.

She requested no service, but that her ashes be returned to her beloved Jasper — to the golf course she loved so well. During her life, Rae’s favourite word had been ‘humongous.’ Last summer, the humongous spirit of Rae Simpson went home for the last time. ■

15 University of Alberta

Bears, Pandas coaches are a winning team

by Bev Betkowski for ExpressNews

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f their coaches’ performances mirror their own, the University of Alberta Golden Bears and Pandas should all come home winners when the final points are scored this year.

The men’s and women’s coaches in both U of A volleyball and hockey were recently named Canada West coaches of the year. The four winners were chosen by their peers in the Canada West Universities Athletic Association.

As well, Laurie Eisler and Terry Danyluk, coaches of the Pandas and Bears volleyball teams, were named national coaches of the year by Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS), as were Bears hockey coach Rob Daum and Pandas hockey coach Howie Draper.

The deluge of accolades is a reflection of the U of A’s commitment to having the best on staff, said Mike McTeague, assistant director of athletics. “The paramount reason we are so successful is we have the best coaches,” he said. “There are very few universities who have a level of commitment to having full-time coaches” as the U of A does, he said. It also explains the winning ways of the Bears and Pandas teams, he added. “Success breeds success.”

All of the coaches are deeply involved in their sports off the field of play, which makes them very effective in their duties, McTeague believes. “They are all leaders in their sports.”

Eisler coached the volleyball Pandas to six national titles in the 1990s, and took the team to a bronze medal win in 2003. For the second year in a row, the Pandas headed to nationals as the No. 1 seed after winning the Canada West conference. Pandas took silver against the University of Calgary Dinos in the final. A 12-year veteran at the U of A, Eisler is

Terry Danyluk heavily involved in the development of volleyball, serving on several committees, and “she studies the game,” McTeague noted.

Danyluk, whose CIS award is his third as Coach of the Year, “lives the game,” McTeague Laurie Eisler said. Danyluk coached the junior national team last year, taking it to Australia, and has played professionally in Japan, France and Switzerland. His No. 3 seeded Bears finished first in Canada West with a 15-5 conference record. They lost to the top-seeded University of Saskatchewan Huskies at the CIS finals in Quebec City.

Canada West named Rob Daum men’s Hockey Coach of the Year for the 2003-04 season, his fifth time collecting the honour. Under his guidance, the U of A Golden Bears earned a record-setting 26-0-2 season record and are only the third team in conference history to complete the regular season undefeated.

Daum has spent nine years behind the Bears bench and in that time has taken Alberta to the CIS University Cup national championship seven times, winning the title twice. He shares the award with his team, saying the players and other coaching staff made it happen

“My greatest reward comes from the cohesion that has developed throughout the season, and I believe this team has done a great job coming together. The coaching award is really a reflection of the success of the team and I’m happy to accept the award on their behalf.”

— Howie Draper

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Continued on page 17

University of Alberta

Sport and summer camps at the Faculty — hone your sports skills and keep the kids in shape

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ant to rev up your fitness? Need to sharpen your sports skills? Find something physical for the kids to do this summer? Come on home! Your Faculty has everything you need to keep fit and active.

Sport and Children’s Camps In July and August we offer sport camps for children and youth, men and women in: hockey, basketball, football, soccer, tennis, track and field, volleyball and gymnastics. We also offer resistance training, a volleyball/racquet sport combo and Camp-4Fun, aimed at the seven to 12 set, with indoor climbing, racquet sports, gymnastics, pool activities, and more.

Dates, times, venues and program descriptions at

Curling and Tennis facilities Come and play at the Saville Sports Centre!

6501 — 115th Street, Edmonton 492-2222 ■ Quality facilities for curling clinics and leagues on 10 curling sheets ■ Tennis memberships and tennis lessons for adults, children and youth on eight indoor tennis courts

Fitness Centres We have two available for your use and we’re currently raising funds for a third fitness centre at Saville Sports Centre.

■ www.physedandrec.ualberta.ca. On the home page, link to Interuniversity Athletics and scroll down to Sport and Children’s Camps.

■ Foote Field (11601 — 68th Avenue)

■ www.bears.ualberta.ca or www.pandas.ualberta.ca

Details about all of our facilities and program are available at the Activity Registration Zone in the Van Vliet Centre. Call 492-2231 or online at

To register call or visit the Activity Registration Zone (W-79 Van Vliet Centre) at 780-492-2231. Check the website often. Online registration will be available soon with complete course and program information.

■ Fitness and Lifestyle Centre — Van Vliet Centre

www.physedandrec.ualberta.ca/facilities.cfm

Bears, Pandas coaches… con’t from page 16 through their commitment to the game. “I have a passion for it and to work with the players who have the same passion and share in that, is what I enjoy most about it.”

In a repeat performance from last season, Howie Draper was named Canada West Coach of the Year for his leadership of the U of A Pandas hockey team. Like Daum, he led his young players on an unbeaten 20-0-0 streak in regular season play. The Pandas were ranked No. 1 going into the CIS nationals, having spent the entire season ranked No. 1 in the CIS. The Pandas

claimed their third consecutive National Championship and fourth in the last five years, with a 2-0 victory over the Ottawa Gee Gees in Montreal, Quebec in March.

“I’m proud of the players and coaches on this year’s team,” Draper said. “My greatest reward comes from the cohesion that has developed throughout the season, and I believe this team has done a great job coming together. The coaching award is really a reflection of the success of the team and I’m happy to accept the award on their behalf.” ■

17 University of Alberta

Undergraduate achievers net $200,000 in scholarships he stars were out in October last year as the Faculty celebrated undergraduate excellence. Stellar academic performances netted 97 students studying in all three of the Faculty’s diverse degree offerings, an unprecedented $200,000 in scholarships.

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And these were not just students who excel in the classroom — they’re athletes at the top of their game too, as evidenced in the fact that many who could not attend the ceremony were practicing volleyball, hockey, soccer or football!

Here’s a list of the scholarships and the number of students who received them: ■ Jason Lang Memorial Scholarships (value $1000) — 45 ■ University of Alberta Academic Excellence Scholarships (values varies from $1250 — $3000) — 23 ■ Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation Academic Excellence Scholarships (value — $1000) — 18 ■ Louise McKinney Post-Secondary Scholarships — (value — $2500) — 8

Dean Mike Mahon congratulates award winners Natalie Ginther and Ashley Mackenzie ■ Renewals of citations: 1 first renewal of Dean’s Citation — $10,000; 1 — first renewal of Bank of Montreal Citation — $5000. Total value — $20,000 ■ Chancellors’ Entrance Citation — $2250. Total value — $15,000 The number of this year’s scholarship awards represents an increase of 30 percent over last year’s numbers. “It’s obvious we are attracting more and more top notch students to our faculty,” said Associate Dean Academic, Dr. Dru Marshall.

Many of the students had plans to take their studies further into programs such as medicine and physiotherapy. ■

Hank Tatarchuk inducted into Basketball Hall of Fame n October 2003, Hank Tatarchuk, former assistant dean in the Faculty, was inducted into the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame. Tatarchuk has served basketball in Canada for over 50 years and in every capacity: as player, coach, official and administrator.

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His basketball career began in 1951, when he played for the Canadian Forces team and coached various RCAF men’s and women’s teams. He was the head coach at Royal Military College in Kingston from 1963 to 1976 and over the next 15 years he was assistant coach at the Universities of Alberta, Manitoba, Ottawa and Carleton.

Hank Tatarchuk with his wife, Arlene and son, Eric

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He officiated in the 1967 Pan Am Games and served as an administrator for the Royal Canadian Air Force, Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union (CIAU) and the Montreal Olympic Games.

Tatarchuck was a course instructor for CABA, World University Games (1983 and 1993), the Los Angeles Olympic Games and the Seoul Olympic Games. He also served as the CIAU (CIS) Canada West Conference commissioner. ■

University of Alberta

PhD student sheds new light on heart and lung function during exercise

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here’s no question that exercise is good for us, but can we get too much of a good thing? Some research seems to indicate that when we train hard — to the point of exhaustion — lung and heart damage may occur.

But is it really damage? PhD student Mike Stickland thinks it just might be the body’s perfectly natural reaction to highintensity training. And he’s rocking the exercise physiology world with a theory that may rewrite the book on how blood flows through the lungs during exercise. Recently the American Physiology Society recognised his breakthrough work with an award.

Stickland is studying cardiopulmonary function in endurance athletes — a fitting topic considering he’s ranked among the top five road cyclists in Alberta and one of Canada’s top 10, with a string of provincial, national and international results under his belt, as well as coaching some of the country’s leading racers.

“An interesting thing happens during exercise,” he says. “The lungs lose their ability to oxygenate the blood. Surprisingly the very people you’d expect the have very good lungs — endurance athletes — actually get the greatest impairment to lung function.” Much of the previous research had hypothesized that during exercise the lungs develop edema or damage due to the high blood pressure in the lungs.

Stickland and his supervisory committee — a mélange of some of the university’s finest medical minds in heart and lung function reseach including Drs. Rob Welsh (Cardiology), Richard Jones (Pulmonary Medicine), Stu Petersen and Marcel Bouffard (Physical Education and Recreation), Mark Haykowsky (Rehabilitation Medicine) — thought that during intense exercise edema was not the answer, but instead a phenomenon called shunt occurs. It’s a bit like a railway switch

(L-R) Master’s student Reg Nugent, Mike Stickland (undergoing the procedure), Allen McLean, sonographer and Robert Welsh, MD, cardiology which shunts the train in another direction: in the body the blood destined for the lungs actually bypasses the area where oxygen is taken up, missing the gas exchange entirely during exercise.

To properly evaluate this hypothesis a specialized catheter was inserted into the arm and advanced into the heart of their subject, allowing them to measure pressures around the heart. At the same time, an echocardiogram captured images of the heart, and measured arterial oxygen content through a catheter in the radial artery. Inserting the heart catheter is an invasive procedure — a procedure done every day in cardiology, but only a few times in the world to date during exercise — this can only be performed by a specialized cardiologist, in this case Dr. Rob Welsh. “To measure shunt we found a simple technique where we agitate saline to make tiny bubbles (think of a glass of 7-Up), then we inject this solution into the right side of the heart. During exercise we saw that these large bubbles went through the lungs and ended up in the left side of the heart “ says Stickland. The results of the study indicate that the change in lung function is due to shunt, rather than exercise-induced damage.

His work has been attracting the attention of some of the world’s most notable scholars in exercise physiology, including the Dr. Jerome Dempsey of the University of Wisconsin, with whom Stickland begins post-doctoral work in July this year. Dempsey, a world-renowned expert in lung function, was so taken with Stickland’s theory, he asked to investigate the question in his own laboratory. Sure enough, Dempsey’s lab was seeing shunt as well. “That’s pretty big!” says an excited Stickland. “The fact that these shunts are occurring will change how basic gas exchange is evaluated in a clinical setting.” ■

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Mike Stickland

University of Alberta

Dr. Tom Hinch — Unravelling the mysteries of our connection with place f you enjoyed great skiing, or perhaps sampling exotic cuisine or admiring Gothic architecture on your last vacation, chances are your leisure activities will be what you remember most fondly about the place you visited.

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“I’m interested in sport and how people travelling for sport relate to the place where they play,” he says.

Hinch’s fascination with sport and relationships with place was sparked when, as an undergraduate and avid hockey player at Brandon University in Manitoba, he travelled with his team to Nova Scotia. Many of his teammates hadn’t been east of Ontario, and Hinch, who’d travelled extensively while growing up, was intrigued by their reaction to travelling beyond their experience, and connecting, through their sport, with another place. “As a result, some of them went to other countries to coach or play sport because of their positive experience,” he says.

Hinch recently published a book Sport Tourism Development with co-author James Higham from the University of Otago in New Zealand. “I think this book of ours will play an important role in the academic study of sport tourism,” he says. And he’s excited that events like the upcoming Masters’ Games of 2005, the 2010 Olympic Games in Whistler B.C. and the downhill skiing industry in Alberta will bring about a substantial amount of sport-related tourism to Canada — and plenty of opportunities for his graduate students to study firsthand.

He’s made some fascinating discoveries in his work. “In a recent study about leisure travel we compared patrons who gamble in their home town versus patrons who

travel. We were interested in how these patrons relate to the place where they gamble. We asked what’s most important to them: the activity, the place or the companions and the social side? We were interested in where place ranked. My hunch was that place would rank a distant second or third relative to activity.

The impression I had was that it wasn’t a big social experience. But in fact people said they were going on these trips because of their companions and people they were socialising with. Activity and place were a distant second or third.”

His other main research interests involve tourism and indigenous peoples and Hinch has published books and consulted extensively about this area of study too. Hinch has studied and spoken about these issues on three continents. “In all cases, the central issues related to the dynamic between the host, the guest and the land,” says Hinch, adding that, “The degree of indigenous control over tourist activity in their communities is a critical factor in success or failure.” ■

Stay in touch by email 20

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If you’d like to receive the e-newsletter we’re developing this year, or would like to receive occasional notices about events in the Faculty you might like to attend, please forward your email address to Jane Hurly, communications strategist at jane.hurly@ualberta.ca. All information kept strictly confidential. ■

University of Alberta

Puck Pandas win Third Straight National Title

By Bob Stauffer

It’s official... it’s a dynasty!

“I knew it was a matter of time before we scored.

We are a talented team, and are committed to our system. We never lost confidence and it paid off.”

— Delaney Collins he #1 ranked University of Alberta Pandas (20-0-0 Canada West, 7-0 playoffs, 35-0-0 overall) hockey team claimed their third consecutive National Championship and fourth in the last five years, with a 2-0 victory over the Ottawa Gee Gees Sunday afternoon in Montreal, Quebec.

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The Pandas got two goals from CIS Player of the Year Danielle Bourgeois (Edmonton, AB, 4th) for the second consecutive game, as Alberta dominated the game throughout outshooting Ottawa 28-5 through two periods and 45-14 overall.

After a scoreless first period in which Alberta outshot Ottawa 14-4, Bourgeois Danielle finally broke through late in the second.

Bourgeois With just over a minute left in the period the Tournament MVP accepted a pass from National teamer’ Delaney Collins (Pilot Mound, MB, 4th), and then beat a Gee Gee defender with an inside move, before banging her own rebound past Megan Takeda, giving the Pandas a 1-0 lead at 18:56 of the second. Bourgeois then added the insurance-marker at 8:08 of the third, as she poked the puck past Takeda to give the Pandas a 2-0 lead that Alberta would never relinquish.

Delaney Collins CIS Coach of the Year Howie Draper suggested today’s game culminated a stunning season for the Pandas, who ran their undefeated streak against CIS opponents to 81 games. “I think this team has been amazing, it has been amazing ride this year. I wasn’t concerned today, I know we had tremendous momentum and we were going to break the goalies bubble eventually,” said Draper.

Bourgeois suggested that the Pandas were rewarded for their tenacity. “It feels amazing, sometimes when we don’t get on the board right away, we get a little down, but today we kept holding out and forechecking and our patience paid off. It’s awesome,” said an elated Bourgeois who had multiple-goal games in all three of Alberta’s games at the Championship. Collins, who will join Team Canada for the upcoming IIHF Women’s Hockey World Championships concurred with her linemate Bourgeois.

“I knew it was a matter of time before we scored. We are a talented team, and are committed to our system.

We never lost confidence and it paid off,” said Collins.

The Pandas advanced to the Championship after beating St. Mary’s 10-0 and McGill 2-1 in the round-robin, and only yielded 36 shots against in three games. Robyn Rittmaster (Halifax, N.S., 5th) picked up her second shutout in three games in the victory. ■

Get all the scores for all the teams anytime at the Interuniversity website at www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/athletics

21 University of Alberta

Prof helps kids with movement difficulties master physical activity skills “I felt bad for kids who weren’t very good at physical activity or sport. The same kids were also picked last for teams and I wondered what it was like to not be good in physical education — to be poorly skilled.

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very kid wants to fit in and kids just want to have fun. But not every kid finds it easy to ride a bike or skip rope or manage physical activities the way others do. That can cause children to feel and be left out — because they don’t feel adequate or competent and they’re not like the rest of the gang. “At school it seemed that competence was very important,” says Dr. Janice Causgrove Dunn, who grew up an avid and accomplished athlete in many sports at school and who wanted, more than anything, to be a PE teacher.

She developed an interest in adapted physical activity, because “I felt bad for kids who weren’t very good at physical activity or sport. The same kids were also picked last for teams and I wondered what it was like to not be good in physical education — to be poorly skilled. I became interested in the psycho-social aspects of participation for kids who have movement difficulties.”

Today, that passion to have every kid feel the sense of accomplishment of mastering a physical activity is much in evidence in her research working with children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) — somewhat of a ‘mystery’ disorder that usually gets noticed when kids go to school. “There’s no known reason for it such as cerebral palsy or a neuro-muscular reason why they can’t perform. They just can’t,” explains Causgrove Dunn.

Every Saturday at the Pat Austin Centre graduate students and Causgrove Dunn engage up to 60 kids from grades one to seven with DCD in a program of physical activity interventions to help them learn physical activity skills.

Dr. Janice Causgrove Dunn involves teaching them to ride a bike, for example, but the emphasis is on helping them help themselves,” she says. “We want to give them a self-regulatory strategy which helps them recognise the importance of settng goals and planning to reach that goal, evaluate how they’re doing and changing the goal.”

The reward? “Having the kids be able to do something and get all the benefits of being able to do an activity: the sense of accomplishment, happiness you get when you can do it. And being able to participate with other people and have fun,” she says.

There’s plenty of exciting work ahead for Causgrove Dunn in this high-demand field. She’s beginning to examine whether some children engage in physical activity to attain social goals, such as joining a sports team to become part of a social network. She’s also collaborating with the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine to complete an in-depth study of documented interventions, with plans to select some major approaches for further study. An intervention program in schools — a collaboration with kinesiologists in the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation and the Edmonton School Board — for children with learning disabilities, is getting underway. A new grant from the Health Services Utilization Research Council in Saskatchewan will enable Causgrove Dunn and a team of researchers to develop an ‘ecological model’ of what influences the participation of children with disabilities. ■

One such intervention is the cognitive approach “which focuses on strategies that kids use. The intervention

22 University of Alberta

Sports Wall of Fame Fundraising Dinner May 25 2004 Join us for a glittering gala event at the Shaw Conference Centre on Thursday, May 25 to recognize the outstanding contributions of athletes and builders of university sport and for their subsequent contributions to their communities and Canada.

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This is also the Faculty’s most important fundraising event in support of scholarships for our student-athletes.

Without athletic scholarships most student-athletes simply couldn’t hope to pursue their sport with the dedication that’s needed to reach their full potential.

This year we’ll induct five exceptional athletes and builders: Joyce Cutts, Janice McCaffrey, Herb McLachlin, Lorne Sawula and Stacey Wakabayashi. ■

Top Left: Jim Fleming, inductee in 2003; Top Right: Marilyn and Ed Zemrau, Kim Gordon Bottom: Darlene and Joe Poplawski — 2003 inductee Shaw Conference Centre $150 per ticket $1500 per table of 10

Sports Wall of Fame Dinner Event details

For tickets and information contact Jocelyne Lambert Development and Alumni Affairs Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation Phone 780-492-3893 Email jocelyne.lambert@ualberta.ca

Tuesday, May 25, 2004 17h30 No Host Reception & Silent Auction 19h30 Dinner 21h00 Induction Ceremony

Don’t miss this important fundraiser in support of our student-athletes and to recognize our alumni athletes, coaches and administrators.

Alumnus awarded Queen’s Jubilee Medal lumnus Garry (Garnet) Gibson (MA ’66, PhD ’77) was awarded the Queen’s Jubilee medal in 2003

by MLA LeRoy Johnson in recognition of his outstanding contribution to sport in Alberta and Canada.

Gibson was acknowledged for his 10-year involvement with the World University Games, which have taken him to Italy, Spain, Korea, Slovenia and Poland. “He finds this is a good way to fill in his retirement,” says his wife, Dorothy, “and keeps him in touch with athletes and coaches.” ■

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23 University of Alberta

a ctivealumni 40063741

Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation W1-34 Van Vliet Centre Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2H9

University of Alberta PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND RECREATION

Colin Cooper Family and friends of Colin Cooper, a courageous BPE student who lost his young life in 2003 to cancer, are establishing a scholarship in his name. Colin was a ‘doer’ in every sense of the word, a keen sportsman, a hard-working student, generous friend, and an industrious volunteer.

Colin’s friends and family have already donated generously to this scholarship fund, but more is needed.

To donate to The Collin Cooper Award, please contact:

Total contributions to date are $4875. To be able to begin awarding this annual scholarship, we need a minimum of $10,000.

Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation, University of Alberta W1-34 Van Vliet Centre Edmonton, Alberta Phone: 780.492.1002 Fax 780-492-1008

I wish to make a gift of ■ $100

■ $250

■ $500

Award

■ $1000

■ Other $_______

■ Cheque (made payable to the University of Alberta) ■ Visa _______________________________________________ ■ MasterCard _________________________________________ Expiry date____________________________________________ Name ________________________________________________ ■ I have also enclosed a corporate matching gift from my (or my spouse’s) employer Please return to: Office of the Dean, Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation, University of Alberta W1-34 Van Vliet Centre, Edmonton Alberta T6G 2V4 www.physedandrec.ualberta.ca

Bob Kinasewich, Director, Development and Alumni Affairs

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The

I would like my gift to support $ _________ Undergraduate academic scholarships $ _________ Graduate academic scholarships $ _________ Athletic scholarships (specify team) _____________________________________ $ _________ Golden Bear or Panda Team (specify team) _______________________________ $ _________ Dean’s Strategic Initiative Fund $ _________ Steadward Centre $ _________ Alberta Centre for Active Living $ _________ Health and Wellness Research Space ■ I would like information on how to make a gift of publicly trades securities to support the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation at the U of A. ■ I would like information on how to include the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation at the U of A as part of a will, life insurance or other planned gift instrument.

■ I have provided for the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation at the U of A in a will or trust agreement.