Sweat

sweat OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE ONTARIO COLLEGES ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION

FALL 2018

OH LORDS! DURHAM COACH JIM NEMISH’S 3 DECADES OF DOMINANCE

TRY ME

Rugby’s impact on athletes

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BLAZING A TRAIL

Lambton’s FireFit phenoms

NO-O-C-A-A CHEERLEADING A sport in decline

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Westmont Hospitality Group

Booking accommodations for your team couldn’t get any easier!

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sweat contents

FALL 2018

pg. 8

pg. 15

pg. 20

pg. 24

pg. 26

pg. 29

pg. 33

IN EVERY ISSUE

VARSITY

HEALTH

4 Letter from the editors/sweat roster 5 President’s note 6 Photo contest 38 Sweat it Out 40 OCAA Championship 44 Off the bench 46 Coach’s corner

8 Rugby: don’t get mauled 10 A longtime Lord: 30 years, 500 wins 12 Batting a thousand 15 Irons, wedges, and drivers, oh my!

42 OCAA highlight reel

29 A centre for wellness 35 A never-ending grind

FEATURES

24 Fire and brimstone: Lambton’s hot streak 26 From far and wide: the traveling athlete 31 Smack talk smack down 33 A tale of two personalities 37 Calling it quits

18 Offside: hockey across borders 20 A dying cheer

sweat OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE ONTARIO COLLEGES ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION

FALL 2018

OFFSIDE DURHAM COACH JIM NEMISH HOLDS 3 DECADES OF DOMINANCE

SCRUM DOWN

s impact on athletes

BLAZING A TRAIL

Lambton’s FireFit phenoms

NO-O-C-A-A CHEERLEADING A sport in decline

Cover photo

by Al Fournier

Fall 2018 | 3

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LETTER FROM

THE EDITORS “Journalism is just like that. It’s a game of learning as you go. You do your research, you collect information, and you talk to people who know way, way more than you do.”

BY: KIT KOLBEGGER EDITOR-IN-CHIEF sweat MAGAZINE Starting this magazine seemed daunting, at first.

While Kit has a solid handle on design and layout, the closest they had come to sports in recent years was a bout on the competitive air guitar circuit. Luckily, Kavan is a selfproclaimed sports fanatic; he sometimes jokes that he was born in a Montreal Canadiens jersey.

Prior to working on sweat, Kavan was the managing editor of the Algonquin Times, covered the Ottawa Senators for Glue magazine and wrote for multiple online sports outlets. Kit was the editor-in-chief of YYZ, Humber Et Cetera and The Spare.

BY: KAVAN YOUNG EDITOR-IN-CHIEF sweat MAGAZINE The combined knowledge of sports and design from both Humber and Algonquin culminated in this magazine.

In this issue of sweat, we took a look at the issues surrounding college varsity sports, from living away from home to the challenges athletes face when going through a mental health crisis. Anyone can watch a baseball game and give you a play-by-play, but people often overlook what happens behind the scenes of those games.

There’s a lot of hard work, long days and practice.

Journalism is just like that. It’s a game of learning as you go. You do your research, you

collect information, and you talk to people who know way, way more than you do. That’s the point. And being on a magazine is just like being on a team. You share responsibility, you’re accountable to other people, and you have someone to high five at the end of the process.

On that note, Kit and Kavan would like to thank our editorial advisers, Lara King and Julie McCann, our supporting cast of senior editors, Rick Woodard, Zach Mulder and Austin Spearman — and everyone else who had a hand in putting this magazine together.

Thank you for reading.

CORRECTION: PICTURES ON PAGE 31 AND 42 IN THE SPRING 2018 ISSUE CREDITED TO THE OCAA SHOULD HAVE BEEN CREDITED TO YVANO ANTONIO WHICKHAM, CENTENNIAL COLLEGE PHOTOGRAPHER. 4 | sweat

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sweat PRESIDENT’S

FALL 2018

KIT KOLBEGGER KAVAN YOUNG

NOTE

A RECORD-BREAKING SEASON

AUSTIN SPEARMAN ZACH MULDER RICK WOODARD KATERYNA HORINA ROSS LOPES CHELSEA ALPHONSO ROSS LOPES MICHELLE ROWE-JARDINE DAVID TUCHMAN KARINE BEAULIEU, MIDELINE BONY, JENNA DROVER, CAMERON KEIGHLEY, TAYLOR YOUNG MILLAGE, JONATHAN MULVIHILL FIONA SCRIVENS TYLER KIDD RAY CHATEAU JAY MCNIELLY CAMERON BRENNAN DANIELLA GRANT MIA KING LARA KING, HUMBER JULIE MCCANN, ALGONQUIN KYLE PELLY JOSH BELL-WEBSTER IAN CAMPBELL RYAN KELLY LARA.KING@HUMBER.CA 205 HUMBER COLLEGE BLVD. TORONTO, ON. M9W 5L7 416-675-6622 EXT. 4513

I would like to welcome all our readers to the Fall 2018 edition of sweat magazine, the official magazine of the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association. In particular, on behalf of the Association’s 27 member institutions, I would like to extend our thanks to the Humber College and Algonquin College Journalism programs for their continued support in the writing, editing and producing of the magazine.

This fall, we have witnessed some spectacular performances, including recordbreaking accomplishments. Congratulations to the following athletes on their record setting performances: Jade Kovacevic, Elisa Gregoris, Kevin Dion and Liam Gray.

The depth of talented and outstanding programs continues to grow. It was evidenced with 10 different teams medalling at OCAA championships this fall, including LaurierBrantford who captured their first OCAA medal — women’s team bronze in cross country.

Thank you to our host institutions and congratulations to this fall’s OCAA champion

programs: Men’s Golf — Humber College Women’s Golf — Fanshawe College Softball — Durham College Baseball — Humber College Cross Country Women — Fanshawe College Cross Country Men — St. Clair College Men’s Rugby — Durham College Women’s Rugby 7s — Humber College Women’s Soccer — Fanshawe College Men’s Soccer — Humber College On behalf of the OCAA, its central office and membership institutions, I would like to extend best wishes to all student-athletes as they pursue excellence both on the field of play and in the classroom. Without question, we will witness exceptional athletic performances over the next four months as our student-athletes pursue provincial and national excellence.

Yours in sport,

RAY CHATEAU PRESIDENT OCAA Fall 2018 | 5

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PHOTO CONTEST

BAT-BUSTING SHOT

WINNER

Photo by William Smith

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THANK YOU FOR ALL THE FALL 2018 SUBMISSIONS

Photo by Matt Hiscox

Photo by Sasha Sefter

Photo by M. Umair Farooq Khan

Photo by William Smith

Photo by Char Cruz

Photo by William Smith

Photo by Meheret Begna

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VARSITY

RUCK ME UP RUGBY STYLE

BY TYLER KIDD

W

hen Carson Brown first discovered rugby, she was in the stands watching her brother play. She was only 12 years old but she knew she didn’t just want to watch. She looked into a local club team.

It’s been seven years since Brown first embraced the sport. Since then, she has represented Ontario at the national championships and even played with Team Canada. She’s playing now for the Algonquin Thunder.

When Brown started training this year, she was finishing her recovery from breaking her arm – the most significant injury she has sustained playing rugby.

She says she likes that rugby is a contact sport, that she likes to “get in there.”

Women’s rugby does see less contact than men’s rugby in the OCAA. Because the women play in teams of seven, and the men play in teams of 15, there’s just more open space to run into. However, playing sevens means there’s roughly half the people to share the ball with. Brown says it’s mostly about the respect shown when you compete.

“I don’t think it’s a dangerous sport if you’re playing smart and your opponents are

Photo courtesy of the OCAA Rugby players for the Algonquin Thunder and Durham Lords play on the field.

playing smart,” says Brown. “When I was growing up I was told that rugby was a bit of a gentlemen’s game or a high-mannered game. You just have to have respect for each other.”

Brown is serious when she says you need to play smart. The OCAA rugby season is short. It starts in September and is over by early November. Practice time at the start of training camp is valuable. Even still, Brown says it’s important not to overlook the very basics of the game.

“I have always said, ‘I don’t mind taking the first couple of weeks just to go over the basics of tackling,” she says. “Because I would rather my teammates be safe than to have a teammate be rushed into certain styles of the game that they don’t understand.”

Rugby is a demanding sport. Its athletes need to be in excellent shape, they need to trust each other on the field and they have to strike a delicate balance between the aggressive physical nature of the sport and their own well-being.

Rowan Stringer was a 17-year-old rugby player at John McRae Secondary School in Ottawa. She died in 2013.

After her death on May 12 of that year,

it was revealed that she had suffered two concussions in the days before her death.

Though she had shared concerns with her friends, she didn’t report her symptoms to her coaches or trainers. The coaches or trainers didn’t recognize her symptoms either.

Rowan’s Law, known officially as Bill 193, was passed by Ontario in March 2018.

It requires athletes and their parents to be made aware of the signs and symptoms of concussions. It also forces groups like the OCAA to have policies for its leagues to remove athletes from the game if they are suspected of suffering from concussion. The legislation is the first of its kind in Canada.

The law shifts the burden from the athlete to the community. Instead of requiring an athlete who may be suffering from a concussion to report their symptoms, entire organizations are being educated on how to recognize when something is wrong.

“It’s great to see the progress that the province especially is making with regards to concussions,” says Kaylin Fraser, athletic therapist and strength and conditioning coach at Centennial College. “It’s unfortunate that it took the passing of Rowan Stringer for the province to get on board and pass all the

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VARSITY “I don’t think it’s a dangerous sport if you’re playing smart and your opponents are playing smart.”

- Carson Brown, Algonquin rugby player legislation, but is great that it is happening now.”

While Centennial College doesn’t have a rugby program, the athletics department started the conversation about concussions on day one. That’s the point with Rowan’s Law — all athletes are legally required to be aware of risks that exist.

Students are provided with a video explaining what to look for and they must sign off, saying they acknowledge the risks. They also are agreeing to report these symptoms in themselves or on their teammates.

“It’s a ten-minute educational about signs and symptoms of concussions,” says Fraser. “[Things like] responsibilities of taking care of the concussion, things around return to sport, return to school and the steps you need to take if you do have a concussion or if you suspect that a friend or family member, or teammate as well.”

Thunder men’s coach Geoff Tomlinson has been in rugby for 40 years, playing and coaching. He has witnessed firsthand the evolution of the sport. It’s gone from a sport where referees turned a blind eye and players got even on the field to a well-organized sport where players trust the officials to keep them safe.

“I come from an era where the game was far more violent,” says Tomlinson. He says it’s not just the game that’s changed — the athletes are also bigger, at all levels of the game. “People are bigger, I wouldn’t say fitter,” he says. Tomlinson sees a direct link between fitness and injury.

“That’s where all the injuries occur – well, not all, but most. It’s fitness based,” he explained. “If you don’t take pride in your fitness, which I believe is a core skill of rugby, you are going to get injured.”

Even though Fraser isn’t currently working with rugby athletes, she has in the past.

Fatigue leads to two problems in sport: poor decision-making and weakened muscles. This is made worse if athletes aren’t physically

ready for the rigors of a sport like rugby.

Fraser says one problem “especially in female rugby” is players can lack the upper body and neck strength to protect their spines and heads in body on body collision.

The sport, especially to those unfamiliar with it, can seem brutal. Athletes slam together – seemingly head-on at times.

However, there are strict rules.

“In rugby, you have to go down with the person or it’s a penalty. You can’t just clothesline someone and get away with it.

That’s not the point,” says Andrew White, a captain with the Algonquin men’s team. “And there’s a safety aspect. It’s tackling properly.

I have learned so many techniques I have

taught other players.”

In the rugby community, players understand they face risk. They know that you could get hurt with any play. So, they have a vested interest in sharing their knowledge to make the game safer.

Rugby is very much a close-knit community, and it seems those that get involved with the sport tend to stick around a long time. Despite the aggression and violent nature of the collisions, there’s a bond amongst the players. Brown says she loves that it’s just her and the other athletes on the field.“I love how it’s no padding, just strictly your body and your body is your protection.”

Photo courtesy of the OCAA Andrew White gets ready to swing the ball out to hooker Pouya Sadatsharify.

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VARSITY

JIM NEMISH: LIVING LEGEND

BY RICK WOODWARD

T

o say Jim Nemish has achieved legendary status in the OCAA’s coaching ranks would be an understatement.

Back in September, Durham College women’s softball coach Nemish won his 500th career game. His prolific career is more impressive when looking at the number of games he’s lost. Nemish’s career winning percentage of .753 is one of the highest in Canadian collegiate softball history.

Running the team since the late ’80s, Nemish has led his team to a medal finish at provincials in 27 of his 30 seasons, including 17 golds. That kind of continued success is almost unheard of in most sports, but the coach chalks it up to solid recruitment and philosophy.

“We’ve been fortunate enough to be able to get quality players here and they’ve bought into the program,” Nemish says. “When you succeed and win, and have a winning program, then it attracts good players because everybody wants to play on a successful program.”

Ken Babcock, Director of Athletics & Recreation for Durham College, has known Nemish for most of his tenure with the program. He says the coach expects a lot out of his players, but he expects a lot out of himself as well.

“Jim knows how to build and run a collegiate women’s softball program that

Photo courtesy of Allan Fournier Jim Nemish has accumulated over 500 wins in his 30 years at Durham.

mirrors any top NCAA WSB program in the USA. And his ability to recruit top studentathletes who are strong players and excellent students has been the recipe for success,” Babcock says via email. Former player Allison Giroux, a member of the team that went undefeated over a 56-game stretch in the early 2000s, was one of many athletes drawn to Durham based on its track record.

She isn’t the only one who felt that way, as countless others have gone out of their way to be part of Nemish’s legendary program.

“People look at that program and say, ‘You know what, you’re a fastball player, you need to go to Durham.’ It’s an amazing program and it’s highly recommended,” Giroux says.

“Jim also does an amazing job throughout the off-season recruiting. He takes such great pride in finding his talent. He’s finding these gems and puts together, clearly, year after year, an amazing program.”

Being around for as long as he has, Nemish has seen the league expand in terms of the number of games played, along with several other changes, including the evolution of the athletes themselves.

“A lot of girls that used to go to the States are staying in Canada now because their

season’s longer, there’s more games,” he says, citing more double-headers in the last five years. “Better quality players because over the years, things have changed, kids are training harder, they’re keeping in better shape, so they’re becoming better athletes,” The athletes aren’t the only ones who have changed, however. When you’ve had as much success as the Durham Lords have had over the last three decades, other teams begin to take notice, formulating specific game plans to take down the mighty Lords. As such, Coach Nemish has had to adapt to the everevolving game of softball.

Assistant coach Rosie Theriault says, “He’s grown with the game … he has a vision of what he wants to be and he just goes and gets it done.”

Nemish has become synonymous with Durham softball and it’s a relationship he wouldn’t change a thing about. “I like it here, I’m treated very well. It’s a great staff to work with, the athletic department looks after us very well,” Nemish says. “And it’s fun…

I enjoy every year meeting new players, returning players coming back, so it’s been fun.”

After 30 years with the college, Nemish has accumulated a few favourite memories

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VARSITY during his time as a coach.

“There’s a lot of memorable moments, I think our first medal at nationals in 2010, we won a silver medal out there,” Nemish says. “I think the biggest thing was over a four-year period where we went undefeated for 56 games, and I think that was a huge accomplishment and that was pretty memorable, being able to do that over four years.”

One would think that Nemish has accomplished all that can possibly be accomplished in the OCAA, but he says he has no concrete plans to walk away just yet.

“It’s a year by year thing and as long as it continues to be fun, and as long as they want me, I’ll keep coming back,” he says.

“When you succeed and win, and have a winning program, then it attracts good players because everybody wants to play on a successful program.”

- Coach Jim Nemish

Photo courtesy of the OCAA Members of the Durham softball team celebrate win number 500.

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VARSITY

ST. CLAIR’S DYNASTY ON THE DIAMOND

BY ZACH MULDER

W

hen Kyle Breitner set foot on the dewy grass of the baseball diamond he’s called home for the past five seasons, he was in a very different role than the one he was used to.

A former pitching ace for the St. Clair Saints men’s baseball team, Breitner accumulated over 300 strikeouts in his OCAA pitching career. Now, he has transitioned into the role of pitching coach for the team.

“It sucks not being able to get into the game, not being able to get the job done yourself,” says Breitner. “But I try to help them, give them my experiences and what’s helped me. Just coaching them.”

At the beginning of every OCAA season, teams prepare to make their run for the championship. For some, it’s more fantasy than reality. For others, an OCAA championship title is almost an expectation.

And for a select few teams, their history of success is so prolific that anything other than first place can be seen as a disappointment.

That’s how it is for the Saints men’s baseball team, who had won the OCAA title for five consecutive years. This five-year span encompasses every season since the OCAA introduced baseball as one of their league sports.

Five teams were a part of that opening year. St. Clair, Durham, Seneca, Humber and George Brown all stepped up to bat.

But because this was the first season, teams didn’t know what to expect. There was little pressure, and a clean slate for everyone.

“Our main goal was to win everything for sure,” says Breitner. “Going in there that first year we didn’t know how what we had was going to hold up to the competition of other teams.”

However, it didn’t take long for the Saints to separate themselves from the competition

Photo courtesy of the OCAA OCAA Player of the Year Kevin Dion steps into the batter’s box.

and cruise their way to 14 wins and two losses in the season, capturing the first OCAA baseball championship over the Durham Lords.

“It was kind of interesting for the first couple weeks but once we played everybody, I think we knew pretty quickly that we had a far better team and we were above the competition,” says Breitner, who was statistically the best pitcher in OCAA by a wide margin.

But, while talent helps, it is not the only factor in perpetual success. In the eyes of Breitner and others on the team, that honour falls to head coach Dave Cooper, who had already been with the team for two years before the OCAA established its baseball league.

“He’s definitely the reason why St. Clair has become a talked about program within Ontario if not Canadian baseball,” says

Breitner fondly. “He doesn’t just coach players, he teaches them how to win and always gets the best out of them. I’ve seen it for five years, he turns average ball players into good ball players. I’m fortunate to have learned from him.”

Yet for Cooper, the success of the team comes down to one simple thing.“In the end you can say you’ve won this or you’ve won that, you expect to win or you don’t expect to win, but it all gets down to who’s going to work the hardest,” said Cooper.

“You need talent, and if you get the talent and put them to work, that’s what my teams have done over the years.”

The following season saw Fanshawe throw their hat in the mix and field a team, bringing the total number of teams in the league to the six that compete today. The addition of a new team did nothing to slow St. Clair down.

They breezed their way to a 19 win and

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VARSITY one loss season, improving on their record from the year before and capturing gold once again. This pattern continued with a perfect 20-0 season the next year. The Saints won the next three OCAA championships as well.

But with success comes pressure. A pressure to maintain the standard you’ve set, a pressure to continue the title streak. And, in the world of college sports, your players are on the clock. Each athlete is given, at most, five years of eligibility. After those five years are done, they can’t play in the OCAA again.

“We’ve been fortunate to have a good piece of our roster hang in there,” says Cooper. “Last year was the biggest turnover we’ve had, and we started six rookies.”

While pieces of that roster, such as Breitner, stayed with the team for their entire five years, the team now has a completely different look than it did in year one. With another eight rookies on the roster this year, no players are left from that first championship season. Despite this, the Saints have been able to use their success and the baseball programs around them to keep the quality of players on the team high.

“They were rookies in the OCAA but there were a lot of players that came up through some good organizations,” says Cooper. He says that Windsor is “a hotbed of baseball,” with the Tecumseh Thunder and the Windsor Selects program. Both programs feed the Saints’ team. “Those two programs are top in Ontario. When you’re getting a lot of these kids out of there, they’re coached properly and it’s easy for them to step right in.”

Another aspect key to the Saints excellence is the support they get from administration.

That’s where Ted Beale comes in. As the athletic coordinator for the team, Beale handles everything, from travel and lodging

for away games to making sure the athletes have all the equipment they need.

For Cooper, that administrative support is a big draw when selling the team to potential recruits. First class travel, nice hotels, free equipment from cleats to helmet and scholarships that are the cream of the crop.

“Our kids are spoiled,” says Cooper appreciatively. “They run this like a triple-A franchise.”

But with that level of support comes a pressure that’s hard to find elsewhere. The expectations are high, and the players are given the tools to reach their goals. For some, though, that pressure is a reason to steer clear of St. Clair.

“A lot of kids shy away because they’re not so sure they’ll start or play,” says Cooper.

“The teams we put on the field, you’ve got to be an experienced player.”

Saint Clair baseball’s history of success shines brightly, but for Cooper the focus is squarely on the next game. While the past is something to be proud of, complacency is detrimental to success. For a dynasty to endure there needs to be motivation, something to push you to live up to the hype and the pressure.

“I don’t get the pressure so much. I’ve been around the block a million times, I’ve won more than you can ever imagine,” says Cooper. “It’s not the excitement now as much as it hurts more to think you’re losing, that you might lose.”

“You have to prove yourself. You have to prove yourself every year because nobody remembers what happened yesterday.”

On Oct. 20, 2018 the Saints’ title streak came to an end. They lost to the Humber Hawks in the finals of the OCAA championship. The season saw them trailing

Photo courtesy of the OCAA Third year pitcher for St. Clair Miguel Cienfuegos winds up for the pitch.

the Hawks in the standings for most of the year; the Saints finally met their match. But if history has shown one thing, it’s that being knocked off the top is the best motivation for getting back there.

Photo courtesy of the OCAA Garik Godard from St. Clair dives for a catch in the outfield during a baseball game.

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VARSITY

GOING FOR THE GREEN

BY KATERYNA HORINA

Playing the game of golf competitively takes practice, coordination, focus and — most importantly — money.

According to the Professional Golf Association of Canada (PGA), golf remains the most popular sport in the country with the play rate being one of the highest per capita in the world.

A virtual shopping trip to an online golf shop shows items can add up. It can cost $3,000 to buy basic equipment, which can include $270 for Footjoys, more than $2,500 for a set of Titleist clubs, $64 for a package of balls, $30 for TaylorMade Gloves and $95 for the Nike golf polo shirt.

“It’s definitely not cheap,” says Tyler Martin, the coach of Durham College’s varsity golf team.

“If you want to play on a higher level, you need some of the better equipment. It’s quite pricey,” he says.

Martin played professional golf for five years, and before that he played for Durham College varsity team when he was attending school. He says, however, what makes golf stand out among other sports isn’t the price.

It’s the kind of sport where you have to analyze every little thing.

“It’s not a reactionary sport like hockey, or football, or baseball. You have more time to think about what you’re doing, so it takes different skills to do it, “ Martin says. “To me it’s awesome and it’s like no other sport, as far as I’m concerned.”

Lucas Pichl, a golfer on the Durham varsity team trained by Martin, agrees. However, he says as a college team player he doesn’t have to spend quite as much.

“The school is great in covering a lot of fees regarding the actual fees of playing, and even a range of balls and gear,” he says.

The only thing not included in the price is golf clubs, which Pichl says doesn’t bother him.

“Technically, really, I don’t spend that much. Playing with the golf team, I only spend maybe a bit on a new club here and there but that’s not much to me. But a membership in Photo by Kateryna Horina A pair of shoes, clubs, gloves and a golf ball are just a few items needed to play the game.

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VARSITY

Photo by Kateryna Horina Professional Golf Management student, Alex Hughes at Humber practices at the Golf Lab. The screen shows the ball speed and how far it went.

my home course is around a grand a year [which] I pay out of my own pocket. That’s quite a bit for a student.”

He says that a great way to spend less is to have a course membership.

“I play a couple courses and have memberships, so I just pay a flat fee for the year and play as much as I can so it saves me money in the end.”

Pichl started playing golf since he was three and he’s continuously played since.

He’s also been playing on Durham’s team for the past three years. He says that he likes how golf is changing with the newest technologies.

“A lot of new clubs are coming out on average every six months and technology greatly improves that,” he says. “There’re electronic devices, carts, clubs obviously, even clothing.”

Coach Martin says today’s technologies in golf have changed a lot, especially in the last 10 years.

“It’s changing so much that it’s changing golf as a whole, unfortunately,” he says.

He adds that what has especially changed is the ability of players to find the clubs that are perfect for them.

“It allows players so much more control,” Martin says.

According to Global Golf Canada, the rules of golf limit the player to carry no more than 14 clubs in the golf bag, but for a good start, the baseline set only needs to include six main kinds of clubs. There are drivers, woods, hybrids, irons, wedges and putters.

Starting with this set, an athlete can then start selecting equipment based on their level of play and personal preferences.

For many players, the investment is well worth it to help improve the game they love.

There are also opportunities to invest in new, game-changing technologies. Some of these advancements have provided players with the edge they need to help develop their game play, strengthen on weaknesses and choose the right equipment.

This is what Humber’s Golf Lab was created for.

The Golf Lab is a new on-campus golf facility that is one-of-a-kind in Canada.

According to their website, it is equipped with the best performance development technology available including a launch monitor, 3D swing analysis, video swing analysis and a putting system.

The Golf Lab website also states more than $100,000 has been invested in this lab and the player development program, which prepares

students to pass the PGA of Canada’s Playing Ability Test (PAT).

In order to register as a candidate for membership, players who pass the PAT test will be able to join the PGA of Canada and can then work to become a PGA of Canada Class “A” member.

Andrew Vento, Professor and Program Coordinator of the Professional Golf Management program at Humber, works at the Humber’s new Golf Lab. “It gives us the ability to teach, club fit, maybe some guys just want to play golf, so it gives us the ability to do a bunch of different things,” Vento says.

The Golf Lab has three rooms. Each featuring different technologies.

For example, there’s a simulation room where Vento says students can play and practice, give lessons, fit clubs, teach and coach.

“Our golf team would be here as well, using this facility to improve their skills so the golf team can play to their best ability,” Vento says.

Vento shows and explains how the putting system works.

“You basically hit a shot,” he says and he swings a club, “and it shows your shot there

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VARSITY

Photo by Kateryna Horina Golf equipment drives up the costs when getting into the sport competitively.

[on a display] and usually it will give you some numbers, too.”

The putting system shows the ball’s speed and how far it went.

“So you know, if you were coaching me, I would hit 10 or 12 shots, or more, and you’ll get an average number and you’ll be able to tell me how far I’m hitting it and what I need to do based on my numbers. Or based on equipment.”

Vento says that if the equipment a golfer uses isn’t right for them — based on the given numbers — they are able to see that too.

“Maybe I need a lighter club, or one that bends more, or different angles. There’s a bunch of things we can do here to be able to fit the right equipment to the person who is hitting the shot,” Vento says.

“Once we know, let’s say, what equipment you need, in this room — and this is our workshop — we can pull this club apart, put the different heads on it, we can test the club to see if it’s doing what it’s supposed to be doing,” he says.

The biggest simulation room at the Golf Lab is the one with the cameras in it. There are two cameras on the sides and a bigger camera in the end of the room.

“Not only are we getting results from the software, but we’re also going to get a camera angle,” Vento says.

“As you’re swinging, the camera will pick up where you are from different positions, and that way we can critique the golfer and

help them improve,” he says.

In the third room there is a K-motion, which is wearable technology where a golfer puts on a vest and then it shows his or her moves on the computer screen.

“So when you’re golfing, a lot of times you swing pretty quickly, so that’s why we have the cameras and this equipment — because it’s hard to see what your body’s actually doing, because it’s moving so fast.

With this equipment, after you actually make a golf swing, we can show you what your body exactly did exactly on the screen. We can see where your hands are, where your shoulders are, how much you’re turning in relation to your hips,” Vento says.

At this time, the Golf Lab is only available to use for Humber Professional Golf Management students, but Vento says they are planning to open the lab for other students too.

“When we’re ready, that’s our goal — to get to that point where we’re outside, when any student or staff can come in and get a golf lesson, fit clubs, maybe even order some clubs, buy shirts and our students will provide them all those services,” Vento says.

“And as we go through the semester, hopefully, we’ll get better and be showing what we’re doing.”

“It’s not a reactionary sport like hockey, or football, or baseball.

You have more time to think of what you’re doing, so it takes different skills to do it.”

- Coach Tyler Martin

What do you need to get started?

PUTTERS: THERE IS A WIDE VARIETY OF SHAPES AND SIZES OF PUTTERS. USUALLY, THEY ARE USED FOR KNOCKING THE BALL INTO THE HOLE (IN OTHER WORDS, FOR “PUTTING”).

IRONS: IRONS USUALLY HAVE SMALLER CLUB HEADS, THAT ARE VERY THIN IN COMPARISON TO OTHERS ‘(ALSO KNOWN AS “BLADES”).

GENERALLY, IRONS ARE USED FOR THE SHOTS FROM THE FAIRWAY. WEDGES: THERE ARE PITCHING WEDGES, GAP WEDGES, SAND WEDGES AND LOB WEDGES. THEY ARE USED FOR SHORTER APPROACH SHOTS AND FOR PLAYING OUT OF SAND BUNKERS.

HYBRIDS: HYBRIDS ARE THE NEWEST TYPE OF GOLF CLUBS. BASICALLY, THEY ARE JUST A HYBRID OF WOODS — NOT DEPICTED — AND IRONS.

DRIVERS: DRIVERS BASICALLY BELONG TO THE WOODS CATEGORY AND ARE ALSO KNOWN AS 1-WOOD. THEY ARE TYPICALLY USED FOR THE FIRST STROKE FROM THE TEEING GROUND.

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FEATURES

BY ZACH MULDER

R

yan Vendramin stepped onto the ice in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, more than 8,500 km from his home in Sault Ste. Marie, he was experiencing a once in a lifetime opportunity. Vendramin was in Russia as a member of the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) Division III Select team. The select team was essentially an all-star team, and he was there to compete in a one-week tournament against teams from the U.S., Russia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

Vendramin was selected for the team after scoring 59 points in only 13 games as the captain of the Sault Cougars during the 20172018 ACHA season. The season happened to be the Sault’s first in the league.

“It was probably the best experience of my life,” says Vendramin fondly. “It was so fun, the guys I was with, we had a great time and a great group of guys. Those are friends I’ll have forever and I’ll never forget it.”

As an Ontario school, Sault College’s

Even though Sault Ste. Marie’s college hockey team isn’t in the OCAA, they are the sole Canadian team to be a part of the American Collegiate Hockey Association. sports teams usually compete in the OCAA, including basketball, curling, cross country and golf. But the OCAA doesn’t have a hockey league.

This wasn’t going to stop Sault from strapping on the skates and playing the sport so integral to the city’s identity. So, they found another way and became the only Canadian team in the ACHA. Brought in to coach the team was Mike Hall, a veteran coach who spent 25 years coaching triple-A midget hockey. Nineteen of those years were spent in Sault Ste. Marie.

As a coach there, Hall became the winningest coach in the Great North Midget League’s history. It’s a legacy of success that he hopes to bring to the Cougars.

“I had stepped away [from coaching] for a couple years and was kind of enjoying my time away,” says Hall.

“When I’d seen what they were trying to do here, giving kids in northern Ontario an opportunity to get their education and still play competitive hockey, I just thought it’d

be something good,” he says.

With Hall’s presence behind the bench, the Cougars first season was a success. They finished the season with a record of 12 wins, one loss and two overtime losses. However, it wasn’t all sunshine and goal lights.

“The way that [the ACHA] works is the first year you’re in the ACHA, you don’t qualify for regionals or nationals,” says Hall.

“When the first round of rankings came out, we were ranked the number one team in all of the ACHA, but seeing that we were a first-year program we weren’t allowed to participate in regionals or nationals.”

It was a tough reality for the players to face. Despite their hard work and success on the ice, their season was set to end without any sort of post-season hockey. What made matters worse was that they didn’t find out until the season was already underway.

“Last year we were all set on going as far as we could, we wanted to go to nationals,” says Vendramin. “Finding out the news we couldn’t even go was such a bummer. We

Photo courtesy of Sault College The 2018-2019 Sault College Cougars men’s hockey team.

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FEATURES

Photo courtesy of Sault College Ryan Vendramin takes practice shots on goalie Drew Gregory during their pre-game warm up.

found out a month and a half, two months, into the season.”

However, that experience had provided more motivation than demoralization, as the Cougars are now more determined than ever to reach the championships.

“This year that’s our main goal,” says Vendramin. “The nationals are in Dallas this year, that’s where we want to go.”

But, in order to win you need good players.

That means recruiting.

“Most of our kids that play for us are from northern Ontario,” says Hall. “That’s sort of been our focus, to recruit kids from northern Ontario that are used to playing in northern Ontario.”

It’s a system that’s paid off in dividends, with players wanting to come play for the Cougars. The success they’ve had shows just how important recruiting is in the modern college athletics world.

“This year’s team is probably 85 to 90 per cent recruited,” says Hall. “The days of standing outside residence to see who walks in with a hockey stick and asking them if they play hockey are kind of over. We actually hired a scouting staff.”

Despite having a good team and now being eligible for the post-season, Sault still has one major hurdle to overcome: geography.

For Sault to play home games, the players on the teams they face all need to have valid passports, otherwise they can’t get across the border.

So far, only eight of their total 32 games being played are at home. Luckily, travel for games is not something new to those who grew up playing organized hockey in northern Ontario.

“In the Great North Midget League, it was

nothing to travel seven, eight hours to play a game,” said Hall. “A lot of ours now are four or five hour [drives] and all on four lane highways so that’s certainly nice.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by the players, who can spend the bus trips keeping up to date with their courses.

“On the bus it’s usually just homework,” says Bryceton Lalonde, a rookie on the team.

“We’re gone mostly every weekend, not really during the school week, so it doesn’t really effect the classes too much. You got lots of time to study on the bus.”

At the start of November 2018, the Cougars traveled to face the Michigan State Spartans, a major U.S. university with brand recognition that eclipses most Canadian schools. The Cougars faced the challenge eagerly and with excitement.

“It’s not at all intimidating,” says Lalonde.

“It’s definitely better to play some better teams and help us get better for our own division. If we’re playing poorer teams, then we’re just going to be not getting better and improving.”

The Cougar’s captain, Vendramin, echoed the sentiment. “We’ve got a pretty confident group of players here,” says Vendramin of his team. “Most of our players have played junior hockey and we’ve played at a high level so we’re not intimidated in any place we go to.”

It’s a confidence that’s found throughout the roster, with the goal of the season being the same with all players on the team: first the regional championships in Grand Rapids, then the national championships in Dallas.

It’s a lofty goal, but if their record shows anything, it’s an achievable one for the Sault Cougars.

Ryan Vendramin works on his stick-handling during practice.

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FEATURES

Athlete by nature, cheerleader by choice Photo by Ross Lopes Amanda Wyrzykowski is held up by Michelle O’Shea and teammates practicing at the Power Cheer Gym — owned by Coach David-Lee Tracey — in London, Ont.

BY ROSS LOPES

F

or almost four decades, David-Lee Tracey — or “Trace” — has been coaching cheerleading. He was a former cheerleader himself for six years.

Now, he owns Power Cheer Gym in London, Ontario and coaches the Western Mustangs cheerleading team. Fanshawe College students approached him years ago and asked if he could find them a coach for their team.

After many years of saying no to coaching them himself, there was an opening at his gym. He decided to give them a try.

That was 11 years ago.

Now, Fanshawe is the only college in Ontario that offers their students cheerleading as a sport. However, Coach Trace says the team is not associated with the athletics department of the school. Western University’s team, on the other hand, is — and Western isn’t the only Ontario university that offers cheerleading as a sport.

According to Cheerleading Canada Inc., 25 universities offer cheerleading as a sport —seven of them in Ontario — as opposed to only three Canadian colleges.

Trace says one way to boost the profile

of collegiate cheerleading would be to have more clubs involved.

“There are cheerleading clubs, hundreds and hundreds of them around the country that are very robust and are great training centres,” Coach Trace says.

However, Trace says the clubs don’t always recognize college teams as viable.

“I know one of the bigger problems that the clubs have is that they will say ‘Hey, we don’t have the space, we’re full [all afternoon]’, and say, ‘We can’t. We’d like to, but we can’t,’” Trace explains. “I made it a priority at our gym to make sure that Fanshawe College had space.”

There are two sides to cheerleading: competitive cheerleading and sideline cheerleading.

Mario Carito is currently one of the stunt team captains for the CFL Toronto Argonauts cheerleaders, and was a Humber Hawks cheerleader for three years. He has experienced both styles of cheer.

“Competition [cheerleading], we would practice our skills, work on our timing, work on being in sync and that’s how we are scored

in competitions,” Carito explains. “In sideline cheerleading, we keep our skills basic since there is a lot of repetition.”

The term “skills” in cheerleading refers to the moves cheerleaders perform. Skills include handspring, handstand, roundoff, tumbling, and many others.

Trace says cheerleading originated with sideline cheer at football games, which universities offer. Since the college system in Ontario does not offer football, college cheerleading did not have that same starting point that university cheerleading did.

However, Trace says the sport can move away from where it started.

“In no way does cheerleading have to be associated with football, there is very little relation in this point of time,” Trace says.

While schools could have a team that goes to games, Fanshawe came along as a purely competitive cheerleading club. Before them, Trace says the most successful team was Humber, cheering for the Hawks basketball team.

The Humber Hawks cheerleading program ran for five years, ending in May 2015.

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FEATURES Kristina McCahon was the head coach for all five years and says during their seasons, they competed provincially and sometimes internationally. She says they ended on a perfect season.

“We won a couple national championships under [McCahon’s] belt there, which was pretty incredible,” Carito says.

When Humber offered cheerleading, the sport was associated with the athletics department.

“The school did … the usual backing they would do if we went [on away games], and our accommodations were taken care of,” Carito says. “We got the usual varsity athlete traveling package.”

However, since they were a competitive team doing sideline cheering, there was simply no space for them at basketball games, McCahon says.

“They could stay in the front [of the court], but they couldn’t stunt,” she says.

It is easier for university cheerleaders to showcase their skills when they go to football games, since universities have access to a football stadium with a track, McCahon says.

They can perform their stunts there.

“Perhaps this is one of the downfalls for the colleges who don’t have football.

We don’t even have stadiums for our rugby teams,” she says.

Eventually, the Humber cheerleading team stopped going to games or making school appearances. On top of that, Carito says, benefits started to decline.

“With my first two years, it was really great with the athletic director,” he says.

After that there was a different direction for the athletic department, McCahon says.

McCahon says Humber athletics started to take more of a streamlined approach to the department and cheerleading is not currently recognized by the OCAA. “I think that’s part of the reason we saw the program dismantled,” she continues. “It moved from a varsity status to a club status, and then it [moved] from a club status … to an extramural.”

Chateau says the decision to take a streamlined approach to the athletics was made before he took the position.

“That move was made by Doug Fox prior to me coming on board as the athletic director.

And I didn’t see any need to reverse it,” he says. “I think the biggest thing we did is that varsity sports … needed to be competing within the OCAA.” The end of the Humber Hawks, under McCahon’s understanding, came down to money. The sport requires a fully sprung floor of nine mats plus training materials.

The Humber team trained two or three times a week at Humber, but sometimes the need for certain equipment meant they had to go to off-site — which would come out of the athlete’s pockets, she says.

McMahon says the Hawks came from an environment where almost everything was fully funded.

“Moving away from that to an environment where they were given still the use of gym space but not necessarily a priority … and then simply not getting funding for clothing and things like that, [it] became harder and harder to run the program,” McCahon explains.

“The program came to a natural end because it was such an expensive program to run and the athletic department — in my understanding — was in a time of budget cuts,” she says.

However, Chateau says this was not the case.

“My number one issue with cheerleading was the health of the students,” he says. “For student athletes, we were dealing within an extremely high rate of injury, particularly concussions.”

Chateau says during discussions with the athletics head therapist as well as clinic and athletic staff, they found the injury rate and the extent of the injuries unacceptable. They decided they weren’t comfortable keeping cheerleading at the school.

“They had the highest concussion rate of any team,” he says. “They had more concussions than all of our varsity teams added up.”

Chateau says he believes a Humber sport needs to be competing within the OCAA and be attending championships. He says that if there was enough interest— meaning five teams, to be qualified as an OCAA sport — then he would be willing to bring cheerleading back as a varsity sport.

Fanshawe’s athletic department doesn’t have the same ideology as Humber. When Michelle O’Shea is tossed into the air by her teammates as they practice different skills sets at Power Cheer Gym.

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FEATURES

Photo by Ross Lopes The Fanshawe Falcons cheerleading coach David-Lee Tracey helps the cheerleaders practice their skills and routines at his gym in London, Ont.

Trace first approached Fanshawe’s athletic department, he says they were supportive but told him they couldn’t give him money or space for the team.

“That lasted for exactly one year, and a year later they said ‘You know what, it’s not a thing that we need to spend our time on, so you’re on your own,’” he says.

Trace says the relationship between the team and the athletic department is positive, but says since the team is not officially affiliated with the school — even though it’s completely made up of Fanshawe students — the school has to pretend the team isn’t there.

“That bothers me because these kids bust their assess off for that school and they are deeply proud of their relationship and are Fanshawe to the core,” Trace says. “But they don’t get any official recognition or even a thank you.”

Unlike the Fanshawe team’s exile from the athletics department, the Western Mustangs cheerleaders have the benefits of

“What it’s going to take for the community colleges to get into the game stronger is for those clubs to recognize the colleges as a viable entity.”

- Coach Trace

being associated with the university’s athletic department. Michelle O’Shea has cheered for both teams.

O’Shea says the Mustang cheerleaders get to attend a lot of events at the school. They are involved in all the football games, both away and at home, and even go to international games.

Compared Mustang cheerleaders, O’Shea says Fanshawe gets nothing. The Fanshawe team isn’t really a part of anything with the school, and O’Shea says that makes it harder to get people onto the Fanshawe team. She says most students don’t really know about the team at all.

“If the school would recognize it as a sport [and] if it was connected to the school, that would probably make it a little bit more beneficial,” O’Shea says.

Even though the Falcons aren’t the official cheerleaders for Fanshawe, O’Shea says she still loves the environment the team offers.

“There’s always new skills to learn, we’re all working together for the same goal of hopefully winning and improving ourselves, and being able to bond in that team atmosphere,” she says.

Fanshawe’s Coach Trace says people use athletics as a vehicle for maturity, responsibility and physical training. It’s not just about the cheerleading, he says — it’s more about the team development, the social skills, physical skills and discipline.

“That’s always what has motivated me as the coach,” Trace says. “It’s about watching that growth [and] seeing them succeed at the other side ... I love seeing that.”

Courtesy photo Former Humber cheerleder Mario Carito holds up one of his teammates at a CFL Toronto Argonauts game.

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FireFit is based on fire-fighting tasks commonly performed in emergency situations in the form of a competition.

The Lambton team is one of many who participated in the event.

BY AUSTIN SPEARMAN

D

renched in sweat and in 80 pounds of gear, a firefighter makes a mad dash up four flights of stairs. This exhausting sprint is followed by hoisting a 45-pound hose up to the top of the stairs. The fun doesn’t end there.

This test of mental and physical fitness isn’t a typical relay race. This is the world of FireFit. The competition is usually reserved for those whose full-time job is firefighting, but in the city of Sarnia there is a dynasty in the making. Lambton College has managed to podium in either the individual or team categories every competition over the past three years. The small but mighty college team has been able to take firefightersin-training and turn them into FireFit phenomenons.

Coach Sue Patrick has created a winning atmosphere that has allowed for Lambton to dominate the FireFit scene.

“We are one of the best fire[fighting] schools in Canada,”says Patrick.

Lambton houses a state-of-the-art fire science facility that replicates the feel of a fire hall. The training towers allow the athletes to practice real life scenarios while preparing them for competition at the same time.

Their training begins in February with workouts focusing on the athlete’s power and strength. The athletes shift to learning the skills for competition at the firehouse in May, according to Patrick.

“It’s like training to die, because that’s what it feels like at the end of the course. They are almost down to their last electrolyte, it’s pretty intense,” says Patrick.

These collegiate athletes aren’t just competing with their peers; Lambton is only one of two colleges who take part in the national competition. This presents these firefighters-in-training with the chance to not only take on the best, but to learn from them as well.

Over the years Lambton has racked up quite the trophy case as they’ve competed against the rest of Canada and the world.

Photo courtesy of Lisa Cattran Lambton captain Sarah Goodman drags a 165-pound Rescue Randy training dummy towards the finish line.

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OFFSIDE

Since 2013. Lambton College has won two Rookie of the Year awards, bronze and gold medals at the Combat Challenge in Alabama, and two silvers and a gold at the Canadian championships. In 2013, they won it all in Vegas, reaching first place in the World Championship men’s relay race.

Outside of team success, Lambton has seen their fair share of individual brilliance over the years. Lambton athletes have been on Canadian all-star teams that won world titles. Patrick says both the team and individual successes have been a product of a winning culture mixed with the best young talent available.

“We get the best students here, students who want to be firefighters. A lot of them acknowledge that this is the place to be,”says Patrick. “There isn’t even another college in Ontario that even comes close in either program or facility.”

Year after year, even with a changing roster, Lambton has managed to stay dominant.

Patrick chalks it up to the strong personal that her team has had over her tenure. Former members of the Lambton Lions hold FireFit world records.

“Some of the best athletes in the world are former Lambton college graduates,” says Patrick.

Many FireFit competitors have extensive backgrounds in other sports. Sarah Goodman, a former OCAA basketball player, made her switch into the world of FireFit last year.

In only her second year of competition, Goodman has been named team captain, beaten the course in under three minutes , and lead her women’s team to a silver medal at the national championships. When the current paramedic student is at the starting line, she says she has only one thing on her mind.

“Just finish,” says Goodman.

That mindset is a necessity when competing in the dead heat of summer in what could be described as an 80-pound snowsuit.

The gear, combined with the air intake, leaves competitors feeling like they’re breathing through a straw. It’s a recipe for pure exhaustion.

A FireFit race begins with picking up a 45-pound bundle and racing upstairs. Another

45 pounds await competitors in the form of a hose hoist. In order to conserve energy, athletes like Goodman have to use their whole body in these weight challenges. It saves their arms from burning out.

Next on the course is the forcible entrance.

In comparison to the first two legs, Goodman says, it’s a walk in the park. A 10-pound mallet — which feels like a feather in comparison to the hose — is used to hit a metal sled down a track.

Up next, competitors race to a hose on the other side of the course. Then, they must go all the way back to hit a target before the final leg of the competition begins.

Adrenaline is flowing at the finish line, where a 165-pound mannequin “victim” waits for rescue. Goodman says you just have to mentally tell yourself you’re going to be okay or you won’t do it. The last task on the course ends in pure relief as athletes collapse at the finish line.

“It’s like, ‘Thank God! I did it,’”she says.

What sets this sport apart from others is the community attached to it. There won’t be any chirping or trash-talking on the athletes’ watch.

Goodman says they prefer to encourage and cheer on the competition. For these college students, the competition is also an excellent place to network and make friends in the industry.

“Everyone’s a family and everyone wants to see each other better themselves,” says Goodman.

At nationals, this was on full display when Goodman faced off against a firefighter from Fort McMurray. Before the race began, the competitors set their goal. They wanted to finish the run in under three minutes. They pushed each other along the race to hit that mark.

Goodman crossed the line with a time of 2:58 and accomplished a goal she set out at the start of her FireFit journey two years ago.

As it stands, Lambton College and Fleming College are the only OCAA schools to compete in this ever-growing sport. The Lions will look to add to their FireFit trophy case next fall when they host the Western Ontario regional finals in September.

Photo courtesy of Lisa Cattran Second year paramedic student, Sarah Goodman catches her breath in between races.

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VARSITY

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

BY KAVAN YOUNG

B

ack when he was in the eighth grade, Jaden White took a walk around his neighbourhood out of sheer boredom and stumbled upon his friends playing a pickup game of hoops at the local middle school.

He didn’t think much of it and kept walking until one of them called out to him, asking him if he wanted to play. He was apprehensive about joining in; at that point he had never really played basketball and wasn’t interested in embarrassing himself.

Nervous or not, White was never one to turn away from his friends so he begrudgingly agreed. It didn’t take him long to pick things up.

“I scored my first basket and it was awesome,” White says. “I never felt that way before.” Within minutes he had fallen in love with the game.

After that he kept playing pickup ball with his buddies and worked on his skills, all the while growing more and more passionate about the game.

Later that summer, his skill caught the eye of high school coach Mike Luby, who invited White to come train with him. Luby conducted morning workout sessions with other kids from the area and was impressed at White’s ability to dunk the ball at such a young age.

“I was pretty impressed with a kid that’s never played basketball before,” Luby said.

“He was a kid from the reserve, never had any coaching, never played basketball and he was already dunking the ball … I thought that was pretty impressive.”

Eventually, Luby, who played professional basketball himself, suggested that White connect with a basketball trainer friend of his in the Toronto area to further his game. He agreed and before his ninth-grade year was over, White was in Toronto.

Now a 19-year-old general arts and science student, White plays for the Lancers at Loyalist College in Belleville. He isn’t alone, either. There are student-athletes from Photo courtesy of the OCAA Spanish midfielder Enrique Domingo brings the ball up the pitch.

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VARSITY

Photo courtesy of the OCAA Ukrainian defender Ostap Hamarnyk steals the ball from a Seneca attacker during a game.

all over the world playing varsity sports in colleges across Ontario.

Some move from across the province to go to school, others move across the world.

Regardless of where they come from, people have unique reasons for choosing their schools. They also have unique challenges that a lot of us wouldn’t understand.

White is from a small Indigenous reserve nestled among the lakes of northern Ontario, about an hour southeast of Kenora. Home to around 1,000 people, Whitefish Bay First Nations reserve has a post office and a couple cafés and convenience stores. You can find a bed and breakfast or rent a floating lodge if you plan to stay for a few days. For those who choose to spend their lives here, however, life can be difficult.

“What I love about the game is that it keeps me out of trouble,” White says. Trouble, he adds, is something can often be too easy to find.

Luby says that early on Jaden’s start in basketball was met with great resistance from other competing schools.

Luby was nearly exiled from coaching just for giving White a pair of shoes. White

had his growth spurt at an early age so by the time Luby found him, his feet were already a size 15 shoe. He said that non-reserve schools banded together and tried to banish both he and White for what he believed was a simple act of kindness.

He insists, though, that kids like White are starting to change the culture around Whitefish.

“Because Jaden now went away to prep school and moved away and now he’s in college that inspired other kids,” he said. “The communities are really close-knit, so that’s kind of the talk. Everyone knows Jaden’s in college, everyone knows that his younger cousin, Ethan, was able to go to a prep school and this is really opening up people’s eyes.”

Recent media reports tell of other young people on the Whitefish Bay Reserve advocating for change, including significantly increased athletic facilities and sports opportunities.

Finding acceptance through sports isn’t just a problem among Indigenous Canadians.

It happens all over the world and Canadian colleges are sometimes the only option.

Faby Monteiro is from Belo Horizonte,

Brazil and plays soccer at Centennial College.

She moved here with her wife a little over a year ago and said that soccer here is a lot different than back home.

“Over the last couple years, I’ve seen some disgusting things when I was watching soccer,” she said. “Homophobic behaviour, misogynistic behaviour and that kind of situation kept me away from watching soccer in Brazil.”

Homophobia is an increasingly serious problem in Brazil. South America’s largest country saw 445 deaths of LGBTQ people in 2017, a staggering 30 per cent increase from the previous year, according new research from Brazil LGBT gay rights watchdog group Grupo Gay Bahia and reported in The Guardian and other world media.

Monteiro hasn’t experienced any of that in Canada and said the support has been overwhelming.

When she was in university in Brazil, people played soccer to have fun. Here in Canada though, people take it more seriously and the games are more competitive.

Despite the extra competitive edge, the respect she gets from her teammates, coaches

“If something bad happened to my family, all I’d be able to say is, you know, ‘My bad for not being there’ ... because I’m so far away, I probably wouldn’t have the chance to get there in time to help my family. That’s a thought that I always have in my head and it never leaves.”

- Enrique Domingo, soccer player from Centennial Fall 2018 | 27

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VARSITY and even opponents make it worth it.

Although there are numerous perks of being a student-athlete away from home, it’s not without some hardship. While any student living away from home has to juggle all kinds of things like finances and academics, student-athletes have even more responsibilities to handle.

In addition to playing games, studentathletes also have to exercise consistently to stay in top shape and they have to attend team practices and training sessions. Depending on the sport, these activities can be highly timeconsuming.

Dealing with the stresses of life can be challenging for anyone, but it’s even harder when you’re thousands of kilometres from home.

Enrique Domingo, also a soccer player from Centennial, left his family back in Algemesi, Spain to come to school in Canada. They supported his decision then and continue to support him despite a sixhour time difference and being over 6,000 kilometres away.

Although he Facetimes with his family every day before they go to bed, he admits feeling a bit helpless from this side of the Atlantic.

“If something bad happened to my family, all I’d be able to say is, you know, ‘My bad for not being there,’” he said. “Because I’m so far away, I probably wouldn’t have the chance to get there in time to help my family.

That’s a thought that I always have in my head and it never leaves.”

“No matter how happy I am or my mental state, that’s always a thought that I have on

my head.”

For that reason, he fully understands the importance of staying in game shape and on top of his school work.

“I need to perform in order to get my scholarship,” he said. “I need to perform on and off the field.”

Doing that is easier said than done.

Ukranian soccer player Ostap Hamarnyk is also playing for a scholarship, with his family and his future on his mind.

Hamarnyk is from Lviv, a city of around 80,000 people. Although the city lies on the west side of Ukraine, the civil unrest in the European country has caused significant deterrents to students and student-athletes.

Even without considering the personal safety aspect, which is inherently everyone’s top priority, it has become virtually impossible to even find an operational college or university in certain parts of Ukraine.

Almost immediately after the war began, rebel forces started seizing government establishments, post-secondary institutions included. Funding was cut off to schools, resulting in unpaid teachers and a total lack of educational resources.

In Canada, Hamarnyk feels as though he has a better opportunity to gain the skills and knowledge he needs to be able to make a life for himself back home.

“Things are much worse back home,” he said. “The quality of life is a bit worse, people are having a harder time earning money and there’s a lot of corruption.”

That’s why he says it’s so important to him to continue playing soccer. As an international student, Hamarnyk has to pay exponentially

Photo courtesy of Khree Fearman, Centennial College Brazilian forward Faby Monteiro jockeys for position against Seneca player. player.

more for his tuition and other school fees so any financial help he can get helps.

“If we’re playing soccer, we get a scholarship,” he said. “It’s not that much but it still helps out to pay the fees.”

For those who are able and willing to attend post-secondary school, it’s important to have an escape for when times inevitably get tough. No matter who you are or where you’re from, sports are a universal escape, a language that everyone understands.

These athletes all have their own unique hardships, but the common denominator that helps all of them is sports.

Sports teach us discipline and instill courage. They help us figure out who we are and give us confidence when we’re down.

They can even help provide financially and distract us from the horrors of the world, even if just momentarily.

So if you’re ever faced with the opportunity to play sports at the post-secondary level, even if it seems like a Hail Mary, take your best shot. It may just be a slam dunk.

Photo courtesy of the OCAA Domingo surveys the field for his next pass.

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HEALTH

FINDING YOUR CENTRE Photo by David Tuchman CCMHS staff members work inside of a converted basketball court. Clients meet their specialist here and then move to a private, soundproof office.

BY DAVID TUCHMAN

M

ental health can be a struggle for student athletes across Canada. That struggle can sometimes be very damaging. With few outlets or resources availble for them, finding any help is a challenge in of itself.

In Ottawa, however, a new centre promises to help athletes who are suffering from mental health issues.

“There is still a lot of stigma around mental health, in sport specifically. I think we’re starting to talk in the general public, so [stigma] is starting to reduce but with sport it is slow to catch up,” says Krista Van Slingerland, co-founder of the Canadian Centre for Mental Health and Sport (CCMHS).

Van Slingerland says that there is an idea in sports that athletes must be “mentally tough.” She says it’s especially prevalent in team sports.

“You are expected to pull your weight. An injury that you can’t see is really difficult for athletes and coaches to understand that it is legitimate,” she continued.

Natalie Durand-Bush, the other co-founder of the CCMHS and a professor of sports psychology at the University of Ottawa, says the current help available to athletes and coaches can actually end up being harmful to them and not offering the connection needed for them to feel comfortable.

“Some [athletes] would say that, ‘I am experiencing anxiety, I was referred to the counselling centre on campus, I went to see this person…I explained my situation, the person suggested that I just quit sport,’ which is more devastating to hear,” Durand-Bush said.

The CCMHS, which serves high-level athletes and coaches, is the only one of its kind in all of Canada and the second one in the entire world. The first is in far-away Sweden.

The point of the centre is to address how high-level sports can sometimes contribute to mental strain in athletes.

“The way it was done, it was quite debilitative. In some of these cases, it causes more harm than good because it increases the anxiety instead of being done in a way that helps [athletes] to increase awareness and better manage their symptoms,” DurandBush says.

For Van Slingerland, a former varsity athlete at the University of Ottawa, creating the centre was personal. As an athlete, Van Slingerland struggled with anxiety, depression, and self-harm.

“The Centre is creating a light out of a really dark space for me,” she says. “Since coming out the other side of that experience, I really focused on improving sports culture and the experience of other athletes in the sense that they can be open and receive support for

their own mental health challenges.”

The OCAA has its own partnerships to promote mental health awareness. In January 2018, 24 OCAA schools partnered with Bell Let’s Talk. Joel Mrak, Vice President of Marketing at the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association, wrote in a press release at the time that enriching the overall academic experience of student-athletes is core to the support the OCAA offers across campuses.

There is still a space for the CCMHS within the OCAA, however. Kyle Pelly, the OCAA executive director, says that the CCMHS can be very beneficial for student athletes.

“If students are able to take advantage of services, [and] if there are potential mental health issues at stake then that sounds like a really great opportunity for them,” he says.

How athletes deal with mental health differs from person to person. Kevin Rempel, a 2013 World Champion and 2014 Sochi Paralympic bronze medalist in sledge hockey, had to overcome a tremendous amount of adversity to get to that point.

In 2006, Kevin was paralyzed following a motocross accident leaving his back and pelvis broken. He was an incomplete paraplegic. A year later, Rempel’s father took his own life.

“It was devastating,” Rempel says. “It’s hard when the lights are off and you’re all by

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HEALTH yourself. You have to be the one to choose how you’re going to keep handling those situations.”

Rempel, however, was determined to take control over the awful circumstances.

“You need to accept responsibility for your life. You may not be responsible for it happening to you but you’re responsible for what you do about it. In this case, I was responsible for what happened to me and I had nobody to blame,” Rempel says. “Just have the mindset of waking up everyday and choosing to have a positive attitude and try to keep moving forward.”

One topic Van Slingerland stressed was the centre was not just for athletes, but for coaches and staff as well, to give them the knowledge and tools to help their athletes.

Andy Sparks, Head Coach of the University of Ottawa’s Women’s Basketball team says that identifying and learning strategies for each different mental illness is essential in helping an athlete cope, especially in a team setting.

“The protocols that have to go along with each different types of mental illness have to be developed at this point. [They] are all essential to make sure you give the athlete the best opportunity to be the best they can be in the sport they want to play,” Sparks says.

One thing Sparks stressed as a key aspect in learning how to work with athletes who are struggling is early identification. “[The] education part for all of our coaches continues to grow in this area so that we can be more aware of the warning signs so that we can get the necessary help early if that is required, and understand where to go to get

that help,” he says.

However, the stigma surrounding mental illness is still so strong that it leads to athletes not wanting to speak with their coaches about it. They may fear of being scolded or worse. Durand-Bush says that an athlete’s relationship with their coach is one of the factors that is contributing to the struggle.

“Some coaches have a really tough mentality when they are coaching, to the point where some are considered emotionally abusive in the way they talk to their athletes,” she says. “[They] treat their athletes just like they are numbers or commodities and if they are not performing up to their potential then they are basically disregarded or discarded.”

“So, in some of these environments where the climate is really negative and tough… [it’s] just unforgiving,” Durand-Bush says.

Sparks, whose coaching career spans 42 years, says this is still a huge problem and one of the reasons why the CCMHS is so important.

“It is unquestionably strong. This is part of the importance of type of an organization that Krista and Natalie have started with. It’s that for athletes, there is a stigma that goes along with mental illness,” he says.

“In a team sport you have other people that are depending on you, and often athletes will unquestionably to try to hide how they are feeling. I think our society has to work to bring down any of those barriers that have people with mental illness feeling that way about themselves so that the treatment can come in a timely fashion.”

Photo by David Tuchman The CCMHS is located in the RA Centre’s House of Sport. The House of Sport is also shared by Canada’s national coaching association.

“ I really focused on improving sports culture and the experience of other athletes in the sense of that they can be open and receive support for their own mental health challenges.”

- Krista Van Slingerland Photo by David Tuchman

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OFFSIDE

CHIRPING’S FOR THE BIRDS Where can athletes find the line when it comes to trash talk on the playing field?

BY KIT KOLBEGGER

S

mack talk.

Chirping.

Trash talk.

It has many names, and it happens in every kind of competition.

D a n i e l Wright, a player on the Seneca Sting men’s basketball team, says it’s just part of the game, and it happens all the time.

“It’s before the game, it’s during the game. It’s even like, say, two weeks before the game may start, if you know the person,” he says. “It’s that psychological effect, to get them ready, to get them thrown off.”

The science also says it works. A 2013 Florida State University study of men who trash-talked found that the banter affected not only the men’s performances, but how the men believed they were performing. Another study from

Georgetown University and the University of Pennsylvania found that it even contributes to feelings of rivalry.

“Seneca against George Brown, we’re always rivals, so everybody in that game is trash talking at one point,” Wright says.

Wright says that for him and others, trash talk is so natural that they sometimes barely realize they are doing it.

“We don’t realize it till after the fact, like, ‘Oh, I was really trash-talking. Okay, I gotta back it up now.’ If you don’t back it up, then you’re in for a world of trouble.”

Wright explained how, beyond the OCAA guidelines of fair play, basketball players followed their own unwritten code of ethics to keep things civil.

“There’s friendly bantering, going back and forth,” he says. “Then there’s, say, racial slurs that may come into effect.”

Occasionally, Wright says, that kind of talk can spill off of the court.

“That carries on outside of basketball, that carries on the streets too,” he says. “A fight may break out on the street.”

He says it can be hard for players who experience racial slurs or trash talk about their families to leave it on the court.

“That’s really hard to let go, in some cases. Other cases, you can just go up to him and say, I don’t appreciate the way you said this,” he says.

Referees also help in dealing with trash talk that crosses a line. Wright says that if a referee overhears, it gets called out right then and there.

“He’ll blow his whistle, stop the game, and say, ‘You two, come here.’ Talk to them, talk to their coaches, give warnings,” he says.

He says it’s important for players to just not take their banter to that level, but that in general, trash talk is just part of the sport.

Photo by Kit Kolbegger Trash talk is common in sports, and many insults can be much vulgar than the ones shown.

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OFFSIDE “Trash talk is a part of basketball, whether you like it or not,” he says.

Wright says that because players on the rival teams have sometimes known each other for years, the chirping isn’t always about what’s happening during the current game.

“We kind of bring in old stuff, that may happen back in out of school rec basketball.

Say, ‘Oh, you remember that time four years ago where we beat you in a gold medal game?

That might happen again today, you guys are going to lose,’” Wright says.

Jonathan Lasnier, a mental performance consultant and member of the Canadian Sports Psychology Association, says that keeping players in the past is one of the main goals of trash talk.

“If somebody tells you something negative when you compete, you’ll remember this comment,” he says. “It’ll, in a way, put your mind in the past. And when you compete, you compete in the present. If your mind is in the past, you will not be able to perform optimally.”

Lasnier says that trash talk mostly serves as a distraction technique, and that athletes shouldn’t let their focus be drawn from the game. One way to keep from getting distracted, he says, is to practice techniques beforehand. One strategy is self-talk, or talking to yourself. Practice can help figure out what an athlete should

say to themself.

“Which type of statements am I going to use in my self-talk? Will I say, ‘Let it go, it’s okay,’” Lasnier says. “‘Be here.’”

Athletes can also write down keywords or positive affirmations. Lasnier also suggested breathing exercises for when trash talk does manage to get under an athlete’s skin.

He described a technique called “belly breathing.” The first step is to inhale, counting four seconds and letting your belly rise with the inhale. Then, you exhale for six seconds, letting your belly flatten back out.

“When you use breathing techniques, you’re able to refocus on yourself,” he says.

Lasnier also says there’s something else important to keep in mind.

“Trash talkers, they do this because they’re attempting to level the playing field,” he says. “When people do this, it’s because they’re scared of you, in a way.”

Shikaeb Rahi Soratgar of the Seneca Sting tends to agree. He has played basketball not only in Canada and the United States, but also in his home country of Afghanistan. He says in Afghanistan, players can be given a warning for even the mildest insults.

“Even if you say something like, ‘Oh, you’re too weak, you can’t guard me,’ the refs back home think it’s not necessary,” he says.

“If someone can’t guard you, they can’t guard you, and you all can see it.”

But while trash talk is common here,

“When people do this, it’s because they’re scared of you, in a way.”

- Jonathan Lasnier, mental performance consultant

Soratgar says he doesn’t let it affect him.

“For me personally, if someone trash talks, I don’t really consider it that much. I think that someone trash talks when they are weak,” he says.

Once, Soratgar played a game of 21 in the U.S., where one player was chirping others frequently. That guy was also the worst on the court. Another athlete had words of advice.

“He, at the end of the game, said, ‘The person who is the loudest person on the court is the weakest person on the court.’ From that day, I was like, ‘Oh wow, that’s exactly what I was thinking,’” he says.

“Now I know exactly what I’m going to say to someone who trash talks.”

ENTER BY MARCH 6, 2019 sweat is holding its annual photo contest and we’re looking to

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ME, MYSELF AND I

VARSITY

BY RICK WOODARD

A

thletes often play as part of a team. They’re part of a group, a collective unit that’s striving for a common goal. The needs of the team outweigh the needs of any individual player.

At the same time, Western culture prioritizes individuality. “Be yourself” is a very common saying.

For some athletes, this may seem like a dichotomy. But for Liv Thomson, being part of a team is at the core of her individuality.

She says,standing out on the court is not only part of her game, but part of her personal identity as well. She leads by example on the court through a combination of flashy gear

and a physical, in-your-face style of play.

“For my shoes, it has to have something that’s like ‘BAM’, like, ‘Look at me’, you know? So right now, I’m rocking the LeBrons and they’re multi-coloured,” says Thomson.

“They match my personality a lot, cause I’m very bubbly, outgoing, loud. And I’m very unique, I like doing things that might not necessarily be correct, but I can find a way to make it correct,” she says.

“I’m one of the vets, there’s two of us that have played for five years. So, a lot of people look up to us because we’ve been in the league for so long, we know how things run, we know how people are. They look at us

for guidance,” says Thomson.

Another aspect of an athlete’s individuality that some may take issue with is their style of play. Basketball is not a contact sport, but it can still get physical. Thomson is the type of player who embraces the physical side of her sport, incorporating it into her game and her on-court identity.

“If we’re playing defence and someone comes in my vicinity, then I hit them or I box them out, so that they don’t want to come back in to deal with it again,” she says.

She points out the various bruises she has as well. “Yesterday for example, at our game, I’m a very big communicator. So, as soon as

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VARSITY

“Volleyball is played by introverts and extroverts, so a lot of people that would be quiet [and] in their shell, I’m always trying to bring them out of their shell in a sense, kind of with the intention of bringing the team together as a whole.”

- Emily Joe, volleyball player from Centennial College

Photo courtesy of Yvano Antonio Wickham, Centennial College Third year middle Emily Joe focuses in before delivering a serve.

my player walked on the court, I repeated about 8,000 times ‘I have four, I have four… number four is mine,’ and I could hear on the other bench, they were saying, ‘This girl is so annoying.’”

On the other hand, some superstar players, prefer to fly under the radar. Those athletes like to keep it low-key and let their performance speak for itself as they quietly lead their team, while still garnering attention from the rest of the league.

“I wouldn’t say that I try to draw attention towards myself, because it is a team sport and I wouldn’t be able to do what I do without my teammates,” says Emily Joe, a Centennial’s women’s volleyball team player.

“I like being an aggressive player in the sense of always trying to think ahead, try to run different plays and always try to do my position to the best of my ability, because I know when I do that, it helps everybody else on the court as well,” Joe says.

A positive attitude can go a long way towards a successful season, and Joe sees herself as the type of leader that keeps her club ready to continue working hard.

“I try my best to be the one person who can always bring positive energy when it’s needed, cause with positive energy, your team plays better, it’s more fun. I’m always trying to bring that to the team,” she says.

“Volleyball is played by introverts and

extroverts, so a lot of people that would be quiet [and] in their shell, I’m always trying to bring them out of their shell in a sense, kind of with the intention of bringing the team together as a whole,” she says.

Sports are a form of theatre and the athletes are the performers. Every performance has somebody in the starring role, with several supporting roles sprinkled in. While some performers like to be over the top and make their presence known, others prefer to conduct their business in a quieter manner.

But at the end of the day, they are just one cog in the machine, chugging along with the goal of a championship trumping their own personal goals.

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HEALTH

BY MICHELLE ROWE-JARDINE Practicing constantly, enhancing skills and only having one day off are just a few examples of how student athletes spend their time when the season is over.

K

endra Challis says she couldn’t believe it when she got a standing ovation at the Sheridan College Athletics and Recreation awards banquet last year.

“I was still sitting down. I was like, ‘Wait, what they called my name?’” Challis says.

Sheridan hosts an annual banquet to celebrate the achievements of hardworking athletes who play for the college.

Following the 2017-18 season for the OCAA women’s soccer league, Challis was given an Athlete of the Year award from her school.

And while the OCAA soccer season begins in August and wraps up at the end of October, Challis and her team train for these moments of glory and triumph all year round.

During the season their coach, Paul Angelini, has them training every weekday — except the days after a game.

But when the season wraps up, he says they should be training more and not less.

Angelini, a coaching veteran for over 20 years, advises his athletes to do two things

during the OCAA’s off-season. One is to continue playing soccer at a competitive level. The other is to make use of the athletic therapy program at Sheridan.

“Every team has a therapist, and the therapists are prepared to make them personal training programs for the summer,” he says.

Angelini says the plans are tailored to each individual athlete and can include plyometrics, weight-training for endurance and stretching.

“They have more time on their hands and so we recommend six days a week in the offseason,” he says.

The OCAA season may run from August through October, but the main season for soccer is during the warmer months — from April to August — where many OCAA athletes continue playing competitively.

Additionally, indoor soccer leagues run during the coldest months of the year, when playing outside isn’t possible.

When the OCAA season wraps up, Challis only takes a brief resting period. Then, she’s back to a rigorous training regimen to

come back an even stronger athlete than the previous season.

“I usually take a few weeks off because the schedule is so compact and … you have to take a break at some point, your body needs it. So, I usually take a week or two and then I’m right back into training,” she says. “It feels good to relax but then after a while my body starts to get jittery and I want to start going again and it’s an athlete’s way just to keep moving, always working out.”

As both a kinesiology and health promotion student and a lifelong athlete, Challis is familiar with the effects of overtraining. She says she experienced some of the negative aspects associated with not taking a break last year.

“You’re just more sluggish, you really don’t want to do anything, your appetite is not really there. For me, I didn’t really slip into a depression, but I just didn’t want to do things and I was just tired. It’s just not a good feeling,” she says.

Athletic burnout and overtraining are two common conditions that many dedicated

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HEALTH athletes can be afflicted with at some point during their careers.

In the 2013 study “Hope and athlete burnout: Stress and effects as mediators,” Henrik Gustaffson, et. al write that an estimated range of one to nine per cent of all athletes are suffering from some form of athletic burnout.

Burnout is characterized in this study as “a psychophysiological syndrome comprised of three dimensions; emotional/ physical exhaustion, a reduced sense of accomplishment and sport devaluation.”

Sport devaluation encompasses a loss of interest in or cynical attitude towards a oncebeloved sport.

“Because you’re training, training, training and then if you don’t take a break or anything, your body is just going to give up.

The biggest thing is: take a break every once in a while,” Challis says.

But because of the rigorous schedule of student athletes, taking a break can be harder than it sounds.

Sheridan Bruins women’s soccer defender Marianna DeFina says she’s always on the move and she doesn’t necessarily take a break.

“I find that once the season is done I’m pretty much right into the next,” she says.

“For me in the winter, my biggest motivation is that I prefer indoor soccer … and then in the summer it’s just what I love to do. I work at a job that involves a lot of soccer as well and I can’t see myself not doing it.”

DeFina works at a camp over the summer where she helps kids connect with their own sports-based passions.

“I don’t do much else other than the job that I work that requires running around with kids all day in the gym,” she says.

If OCAA athletes do take a hiatus from their sport, they risk not even making the team the following season.

“You see it the very first practice … they show up and you know right away who has been working in the summer and who hasn’t,” Angelini says.

Despite knowing that they have to stay on top to stay in the game next season, motivation can sometimes be hard to come by.

DeFina uses self-talk to get her through the days where she just doesn’t feel like

Photo courtesy of Ryan McCullough Sheridan Bruins Captain Kendra Challis won an Athlete of the Year award from Sheridan Athletics and is the recipient of three OCAA-All Academic awards.

“I usually take a few weeks off because the schedule is so compact and … you have to take a break at some point, your body needs it.”

- Kendra Challis, Sheridan soccer player putting the work in.

“On days like that I just try to selfmotivate, so I just try to talk to myself and say, ‘You’ve got to do it, it’s going to make you better,’” she says.

Challis has been playing soccer since she was three, and has been playing competitively since she was nine. She’s no stranger to the year-round grind.

But throw school into the mix and it’s long hours of training several days a week, plus travelling across the province for games, all while trying to maintain a high GPA. Challis says it can be a struggle because she also works on the side, but she’s still

managed to win three OCAA-All Academic awards during her time playing at Sheridan.

The OCAA hands out these awards to athletes who maintain honours-level grades.

DeFina also managed to secure one of these accolades last season.

When asked what makes the grueling hours of work and school plus the commitment to her sport worth it season after season, Challis says, “the biggest honour for me is being called captain of the women’s soccer team.”

“Staying on top of school work, getting the grades, setting an example for all the first years and second years… at the end of the day it’s about being that role model.”

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KNOW WHEN TO FOLD ‘EM

BY FIONA SCRIVENS

A

s the steel cutter tore into Ryan Gillis-Bateman’s knee, his brain blocked out the pain. He was working alone 60 feet above the ground on a welding job when the wind blew him over.

It would eventually take him six months to recover, but his lifetime dream of being a football player was lost at that moment.

There are charts, statistics and pages of step by step recovery plans for all the different types of injuries that can accure in an athlete’s career.

However, there are no guidelines or specialists to help an athlete come to terms with not being able to follow their passion.

More athletes fail than succeed but no one ever talks about it.

It is easy as a child: one’s family pays the bills and there is little sacrifice involved.

But then athletes start growing up and that passion is still there but the world isn’t as small anymore. There suddenly becomes a cost for playing a sport.

Gillis-Bateman, 24, was a football player who had to let the goal of going professional go. He now plays rugby on Algonquin College’s OCAA team.

Now, Gillis-Bateman dedicates five days out of the week for an hour and a half practices and then usually three to four hours on weekends for games. And that’s just for college rugby.

“It is a big chunk of my time,” he says.

OFFSIDE

Photo courtesy of the OCAA Third year business student at Algonquin, Ryan Gillis-Bateman braces for impact.

What do athletes do when their dream of going professional is no longer a possibility?

“There is a lot of sacrifices, you got to sacrifice family time, friends time, any social event you got to put aside. Just the way it plays out, you know?”

Before the knee injury, Gillis-Bateman thought about going pro in football. Instead of going straight to university, he decided to get a trade under his belt.

Gillis-Bateman went into welding and soon found himself going straight into the workforce, all while he was still playing football and working towards his goal.

Then he got injured.

“It seemed life happened all at once,” he says. “It shook my world a little bit and it brought me back to reality.”

That reality, he says, was he may never have been big enough to play at the highest level of football, injury or no injury.

With his world spinning, Gillis-Bateman was heartbroken.

Sport becomes such a huge part of an athlete’s life that when the dream they were trying to accomplish gets ripped out from under them, it can feel like someone else is in their reflection.

“There is always that idea you could go further and play for the highest level you can, but once you get more level-headed it’s a

humbling experience,” Gillis-Bateman says.

For some athletes, the day they realize that not all dreams come true is not a single day. It takes them their whole childhood to find out they will never be on the podium and despite all the passion, they know deep down that they can never be the best.

“My parents told me the truth,” says Enrique Domingo, a men’s soccer player at Centennial College. “I’m going to have to give up soccer at some point. Parents don’t teach their kids that everyone can’t make it professional.”

Domingo came to Canada from Spain, always loving soccer.

He learned that because sport can become a part of who you are, it can be hard to separate yourself from it. However, sports teach him strength and he is glad his parents told him the truth so he didn’t have to experience heartbreak later in life.

Gillis-Bateman did have to change his plans. But after feeling sad, he realized there is another path for him. He says he tries to apply what he has learned in sports to his everyday life.

“I always try to match my physical level to my mental level at school. I try to match my practice to everything,” says Gillis-Bateman.

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HEALTH

SWEAT IT OUT DE-STRESS THIS SEMESTER WITH RELAXING YOGA POSES

E

BY: MICHELLE ROWE-JARDINE

veryone is susceptible to stress, athlete or otherwise. Stress is what happens when things go awry, when fears and anxieties seep into the muscles and cause tension throughout the whole body.

But stress is unavoidable. It’s important to have an outlet for all the pent-up energy that builds at work, school or even on the court.

Tammy Abresch, a yoga instructor at Cambrian College for nearly 10 years, says yoga has personally helped her with anxiety and helped her deal with daily stressors in a

Warrior 1

healthier way.

“It brings you into the body. Most of us live outside our body — especially for students and staff because you’re at work and you’re thinking, ‘What’s next?’”

According to a 2013 study called “The Role of Exercise in Stress Management,” Dr. Erica Johnson writes, “a study conducted in a worksite environment showed that 15 minutes of chairbased yoga postures was effective in reducing acute stress when assessed by self-report.”

Abresch recommends a series of stressbusting poses, specifically warrior one,

• • • • • • •

• • • • • • •

warrior two and triangle pose.

She says these poses can bring power and strength. “When you’re focusing on breathing and moving, you can’t focus on anything else so it calms the body, it brings you out of that fight or flight.”

In addition to focusing on breathing during the poses, or asanas, Abresch recommends making sure the spine is in full extension and the joints are stacked — meaning in a lunge position. For instance, the knee joint should sits directly on top of the ankle joint and shouldn’t jut too far forward.

Standing at the front of the mat, take a big step back with your left foot.

Press your left heel into the floor and angle your foot at 45 degrees, so the inner edge of your foot is facing the front of the mat.

Bend your right knee as close to 90 degrees as you are comfortable with while keeping your back leg straight.

Make sure your knee joint is stacked on top of your ankle joint.

Keep both hips facing as straightforward as you are comfortable with.

While inhaling, raise your hands above your head and bring them together.

Lift your rib cage and pull the shoulder blades away from your ears, as you shift your gaze to stare at your hands.

Standing with your hips facing the long side of your mat, take a big step out to the side.

Turn your right foot forward while your left foot turns at about a 45 degree angle, so the inner edge of your foot is facing the front of the mat.

Bend your right knee as close to 90 degrees as you are comfortable with.

Make sure your knee joint is stacked on top of your ankle joint and isn’t pushing too far forward.

Keep both hips facing the long side of your mat while pulling them into a more central position, away from your right thigh.

Bring your pelvis into a more neutral, upright position while pushing your tailbone down and elongating your spine.

While inhaling, bring both your arms up until your palms are parallel to the floor and shift your gaze to stare at your right fingers.

Warrior 2

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HEALTH Triangle

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Reverse Warrior

From Warrior 2 pose, initiate a backbend by bringing your left hand to rest on the back of your left leg.

Inhaling, bring your right arm up overhead and look at your fingers.

Keep your shoulders rolled down and away from your ears.

Half-Moon Pose

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•

Standing at the top of your mat, take a big step out to the side so your hips are parallel to the long side of the mat.

Turn your right foot towards the front of the mat while your left foot turns at about a 45 degree angle.

Inhaling, lengthen your spine while you bring both arms up to shoulder height.

Exhaling, bend at the hips and reach your right hand towards the ground while keeping your hips and chest as open as possible.

If the ground is not reachable, placing your hand on your right shin is fine.

Stack your shoulder joints on top of one another.

Avoid leaning too far forward on your front leg, instead utilizing your core to stabilize the pose.

Sit with your knees wide apart and big toes touching.

Sitting straight with length in your spine, hinge forward at the hips while exhaling and extending your arms straight out in front, palms facing down.

Allow your torso to drape between your thighs as you rest your forehead on the mat.

Start in a low lunge with your hands on either side of your right foot.

Raise your right hand to your hip as you open up your hips and bring your right leg straight off the floor.

Inhaling, raise your right hand directly overhead and shift your gaze to right hand.

“When you’re focusing on breathing and moving, you can’t focus on anything else so it calms the body.”

-Tammy Abresch, yoga instructor

Child’s Pose

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VARSITY

OCAA CHAM

MEN’S BASEBALL

WOMEN’S SOFTBALL

Photo courtesy of Cameron Billingham - Durham College Athletics

Photo courtesy of the OCAA

GOLD: HUMBER HAWKS

GOLD: DURHAM LORDS

The Humber Hawks unseated the longstanding champions, beating the St. Clair Saints with a final score of 14-5. The Hawks went on to defeat the Saints and took home the gold.

The Durham Lords won their 20th championship. They’re the first team to win a title 20 times and the first team to win four straight gold medals. They beat the St. Clair Saints 4-1 and 6-2 in the final.

MEN’S RUGBY

WOMEN’S RUGBY SEVENs

Photo courtesy of the OCAA

Photo courtesy of the OCAA

GOLD: DURHAM COLLEGE

GOLD: HUMBER HAWKS

Even though they hadn’t competed in the OCAA since 1996, the Durham Lords came back to take home first place in men’s rugby this year. They won over the Georgian Grizzlies 21-15.

The Humber Hawks beat the Algonquin Thunder 14-5 in the gold medal game. Humber’s Cheyenne DeLuca and Christina Branch were the league’s top scorers.

MEN’S SOCCER

WOMEN’S SOCCER

Photo courtesy of the OCAA

Photo courtesy of the OCAA

GOLD: HUMBER HAWKS

GOLD: FANSHAWE FALCONS

The Humber Hawks won the provincial championship game against the Sheridan Bruins 2-1. Both teams went on to the National Championships, where Humber took first place.

The Fanshawe Falcons beat the Humber Hawks 3-2 in overtime in a fierce battle of the birds. Fanshawe’s Jade Kovacevic was named the OCAA and the CCAA Women’s Soccer Player of the Year.

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VARSITY

MPIONSHIP GOLF

Men’s Division I:

Women’s Team:

Men’s Division II:

GOLD: HUMBER HAWKS

GOLD: FANSHAWE FALCONS

GOLD: ST. CLAIR SAINTS

Photo courtesy of the OCAA

Photo courtesy of the OCAA

Photo courtesy of the OCAA

The Humber Hawks maintained their team title in men’s golf winning this year’s championships, having all five golfers on the team place in the Top 10 individually.

For the second time in four years, the St. Clair Saints got the gold in the OCAA championships for the men’s golf division II.

The Fanshawe Falcons made history this year winning their first-ever OCAA championships in women’s golf, beating out the Humber Hawks by three strokes.

Men’s Individual:

Women’s Individual:

GOLD: FANSHAWE FALCONS BRAYDON WHITE Photo courtesy of the OCAA

The Fanshawe Falcons men’s golfer Braydon White led in the OCAA men’s golf individual competition, shooting an even par 213. He set a new best three-day record for men’s golf.

CROSS COUNTRY

Men’s GOLD: ST. CLAIR SAINTS

GOLD: FANSHAWE FALCONS ALYSSA STODDART Photo courtesy of the OCAA

Alyssa Stoddart is the first Fanshawe Falcons female golfer to win the individual gold medal in the OCAA championship. She set a new record for Fanshawe for best three-day score.

Women’s GOLD: FANSHAWE FALCONS

Photo courtesy of the OCAA

Photo courtesy of the OCAA

The St. Clair Saints took home first place at the OCAA championships. The average time for a runner on the team was 27:45.5.

Men’s Individual:

The Fanshawe Falcons thrashed the OCAA competition this year with only 26 points. The second place team, Humber Hawks, had 86 points.

Women’s Individual:

GOLD: MOHAWK MOUNTAINEERS KYLE ROOKE Photo courtesy of the OCAA

Mohawks Mountaineers’ Kyle Rooke edged out the competition by 14 seconds to take home another gold medal for his team.

GOLD: FANSHAWE FALCONS JANELLE HANNA Photo courtesy of the OCAA

Janelle Hanna from the Fanshawe Falcons took home the gold at the OCAA championships.

Her total run time was 23:44.5.

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VARSITY

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE OCAA VARSITY SEASON

BY CHELSEA ALPHONSO

A

s the season comes to an end, it’s time to reflect on the hurricane of wild upsets and turbulent victories that comes with playing in the OCAA. Women’s Rugby sevens experienced an upset at the championships when Humber defeated Algonquin. The Thunder had gone undefeated with a 12-0 record during the regular season, but their streak was quashed by the Humber Hawks on Nov. 3 when they swooped in to steal the gold. Humber also cruised through the regular season with a record of 13-1.

Despite the upset, Algonquin made huge strides considering they finished their season last year with 8-7-1 stats.

Last season’s champions The Seneca Sting pulled a bronze this season and Julia Fantin, fly half for the team, says there are some notable differences in the team compared to last year.

“Last year we were a really new team, we didn’t know each other in the beginning,” she says. “Throughout the season, we progressively got really good and we ended up winning gold, it was an amazing feeling because no one has beat Humber for so long.

You could really feel that we became a family last year,” Fantin says.

On the soccer field Humber’s men’s soccer have reined in yet another gold medal, winning nationals the past five of seven years.

Tomasz Balicki, forward for the Hawks, says the team was really close and that played a part in their win.

“We persevered through a lot to be honest, we had a lot of injuries,” he says. “A lot of guys were in and out of the line-up and I think that really got us closer together.”

The three factors that Balicki says played a role in their success were perseverance,

“We persevered through a lot to be honest ... and I think that really got us closer together.”

- Julie Fantia, Seneca rugby player friendship and sacrifice.

Fanshawe’s women’s soccer team won bronze at Nationals.

In 2009 Fanshawe won silver. Since then the OCAA has only had four medalists and all of them were bronze. This demonstrates the tough competition at Nationals every year.

Jade Kovacevic won CCAA and OCAA player of the year on top of the OCAA championship, but only after she broke the record for goals in the season with 30 goals.

Kovacevic also set a record with nine goals in one game, beating out the previous record of seven.

At the provincial level, Fanshawe earned a gold medal for women’s cross country and St. Clair men’s brought home the gold.

There were some notable individual performances with Janelle Hanna of Fanshawe winning the individual gold two years in a row, making her only the fifth woman to achieve this accomplishment in OCAA history.

On the baseball diamond, some notable firsts took place this season.

Humber men’s baseball won their first OCAA championship, ending St. Clair’s winning streak of five consecutive championships. And while St. Clair won the regular season, they were beat out in the championship.

The Durham Lords won the women’s softball championship making it their fourth consecutive win. That kind of streak has never been done before.

On the green Alyssa Stoddart of Fanshawe finished with a bronze at nationals. Stoddart also led her team to provincial gold by six strokes.

In men’s golf, Conner Watt of Humber

won a silver medal at National Gold and the team won silver at Nationals.

For men’s individual awards, Braydon White from Fanshawe won gold by six strokes in the OCAA finals, giving Fanshawe their first win since 1975.

Volleyball this season saw the end of an era as the St. Clair Saint’s women’s volleyball team vanquished the Humber Hawk’s 155game winning streak.

Georgian volleyball set a record for aces.

Liam Gray set a record for 15 service aces in a game.

After an action-packed season of recordbreaking performances, long-time rulers being overthrown and new kings and queens being crowned, newly-stoked rivalries and new quests for redemption will surely lead to an exciting season next year.

Photo courtesy of OCAA Julie Fantia plays rugby for the Seneca Sting.

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VARSITY

OFF THE

BENCH

BY CAMERON BRENNAN

I

HUMBER COLLEGE - GOLF

t took me three years of trying out for varsity golf to make it onto the Humber Hawks team. At that time, I was at the peak of my academic performance and had achieved good enough grades to keep me near the top of the class. This led me to believe I had finally worked out the perfect academic-athletic balance.

Little did I know, this was far from the truth.

Fortunately, as a Professional Golf Management student at Humber, we have a late start to classes due to co-op opportunities we can arrange during the summer. Those extra three to four weeks during the summer helped me practice and participate in collegiate events without having to miss many classes or fall too far behind on homework.

Playing for the varsity team was certainly exciting. I travelled with the team to numerous events, playing mediocrely and certainly not up to my standards. My performance on the course progressed along with my position on the team and the feedback I received from the

coaches was positive and supportive. This aided my development not only as a player but as a student as well.

The following year proved to be the best year of my college career to date after a summer spent working hard in the gym and on the course to get my game in competitive shape. The team placed in the top 10 numerous times with a 2nd place finish at OCAAs and was victorious at many of the regular season tournaments throughout the year, including winning gold at the 2017 OCAA Provincial Championship and bronze at the 2017 CCAA National Championship.

The most significant change I saw throughout the year, despite our team’s success, were my grades. I had recently graduated from Humber college and transferred into a degree program at the University of Guelph-Humber. While I was still able to participate on Humber’s golf team, I no longer had the leniency of an extra month without classes. The shift from one school to the next had proved to be one of

Photo courtesy of the OCAA

the most difficult challenges of my collegiate career as I was required to miss more classes to participate in athletics.

Although many of the professors were quite lenient with the deferral of exams and certain assignments, it seemed like I was slightly behind and trying to catch up the remainder of the year. It’s not always easy trying to find a balance between athletics and school and it definitely takes a lot of efficient time-management.

This past year was quite successful for both our team standings and some individual performances, too. We won many regular season events as a team and were victorious for the second year in a row at the 2018 OCAA Championship. Additionally, we won silver at the 2018 CCAA Championship with Cam Griffin placing 2nd individually at OCAAs and Conner Watt placing 2nd individually at CCAAs. Along with another successful season came a lot of missed classes and it has been quite difficult catching up on the material I’ve missed.

Overall, I can say that I have thoroughly enjoyed being part of the Humber Hawks and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I’m lucky enough to have been on the team now for three years and every year it gets even more memorable. If you’re a prospective student looking to join a varsity team with any school, be sure to prepare yourself for years of incredible camaraderie, memories and friendships, but certainly don’t forget to manage your time efficiently in the classroom. After all, it is all about being a student-athlete.

Photo courtesy of the OCAA Brennan spends his time learning about golf managment at Humber and also enjoys playing the sport.

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VARSITY

OFF THE

BENCH

BY DANIELLA GRANT

Photo courtesy of the OCAA

“In keeping with my rugby roots, my last piece of advice is to share a quote that I live by: ‘It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get back up.’”

I

HUMBER COLLEGE - RUGBY

t all started when I was in grade nine, just minding my own business in the hallway when a girl came up to me and said I should try out for the rugby team.

I had no idea what rugby was all about, so I went home that night and looked up the sport online.

I watched a game between New Zealand and England for about five minutes and I was set on trying out.

There was just one thing left to do. I had to convince my parents. When I mentioned it to them, they thought I was too small to play and were worried that I would get hurt.

After trying to convince them throughout the weekend, they finally said yes.

After I played my first game of rugby, I fell in love with the sport. I told my parents that I didn’t want to play soccer anymore. I loved the atmosphere, the varying pace of the game, the teamwork, the big hits and there was just something about rugby that was unlike any other sport.

Although people try to compare rugby to football, they’re not similar at all. There is a saying within the rugby community, “Rugby is a game for barbarians, played by gentleman and football is a game for gentlemen, played by barbarians.”

It means that although rugby is a tough sport, respect plays a huge role in the game.

In rugby, once the game is done, any negative feelings are left on the field. I have played soccer, basketball, volleyball, wrestled, and I have never found that same level of respect within any other sport. If you

ask anyone who plays rugby, they will agree that it’s a sport for players with high levels of passion and respect.

Playing rugby while going to school and working is definitely busy, but it’s doable. I have a few tips to help you manage this type of schedule.

First, you have to be organized, to track and regulate your time. Use a calendar to record test and assignment due dates, your work schedule and all games and practices.

Make sure to schedule time for rest and relaxation with family and friends.

Second, you have to be good at problem-solving to resolve any schedule conflicts or to adjust to changing situations.

If a conflict or new situation arises, don’t put it on the back shelf.

Deal with it right away so the issue doesn’t become more complicated over time. To manage conflicts or changes, maintain a positive attitude and focus on what you can do to adapt.

Third you must be good at communicating information to professors, classmates, coaches, teammates and your boss. Be honest with yourself and with others, admit if you made a mistake and ask for help when you need it.

So, regardless of what you are studying, where you work, or what extra-curricular activities you do, life is busy. In keeping with my rugby roots, my last piece of advice is to share a quote that I live by: “It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get back up.”

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VARSITY

COACH’S CORNER

BY JAY MCNEILLY

W

hen that final horn sounded to signify a goal, it was one of the most gratifying sounds I’d ever heard. We had succeeded in bringing home the first ever CCAA basketball championship trophy in school history. Merely a week before we won the OCAA championship, which had not been accomplished in more than 30 years.

Being surrounded by family, friends and colleagues made those accomplishments much more meaningful. Being able to successfully represent the character, leadership and excellence of Seneca College has been one of the greatest highlights of my coaching career.

Taking over as head coach of such a solid foundation — one which I helped to lay, but that was orchestrated by coach Darrell Glenn — was as exhilarating as it was intimidating.

I knew I would face many challenges in this new role; a role which saw me immediately having to become accustomed to the different landscape of the league. As head coach, the interaction between myself and referees, administrators, players, etc. had changed. The boost to my ego very quickly took a back seat to the sudden awareness of the responsibilities that came with the new position.

Efficiently managing the production of the coaching staff and our student athletes on and off the court was one of the biggest challenges I would face. Besides having the final say in tough choices like who to recruit, there were even tougher choices like what our culture represented and what our offcourt beliefs were. These were the on-court decisions I would now bear the weight of and they would determine our trajectory on the path to victory or defeat.

Another challenge I knew we would face was time — or rather lack of time. At our very first coaches meeting, we started a list and

SENECA COLLEGE HEAD COACH - MEN’S BASKETBALL

Photo courtesy of Jay McNeilly Jay McNeilly coaches the Seneca Sting basketball team, taking the position of their new head coach.

realized that this multitude of ideas may not fit into one season. When the opportunity to become head coach becomes available, you want to take every idea you’ve ever had about what you would do if the opportunity ever presented itself and cram it into whatever time you have.

Thinking back to where we were a year ago, the main thing that comes to mind is how grateful I am to be a part of the continued legacy and rich school spirit of Seneca College. A phenomenal group of student athletes allowed us to coach them; they were open to on and off the court lessons that we drilled into them weekly. The relationship between player and coach enabled all parties to grow and develop in our respective roles.

But, the learning went both ways. The

growth and development of the coaching staff as they willingly faced new assignments and responsibilities has been immensely rewarding. We can only hope the seeds we planted will take hold and that we would see the rewards down the road five to 10 years from now.

What is still really satisfying is hearing and seeing the ripple effect of some of the ‘life lessons’ we introduced and knowing they imprinted upon the players. One of the first lessons was that being on time meant arriving early and arriving on time meant you were late. Another lesson demanded being a fountain and not a drain.

Our final challenge after setting the bar so high in our first year as new coaches is: how do we outdo ourselves?

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