Gazette Spotlight Magazine, April 6, 2016

APRIL 2016 • VOLUME 1 • ISSUE 3

GAZETTE PRESENTS...

INSIDE APRIL 2016 • VOLUME 1 • ISSUE 3

4 STUDENT TRAINERS 20 SPEAKING OUT 22 STARTING LINEUP

22

PHOTOS FROM THROUGHOUT THE SEASON

THE OFT-FORGOTTEN HEROES OF MUSTANG ATHLETICS

JAKE WORRAD’S “FAREWELL TO HOCKEY” TURNS HEADS

MUSTANGS SEASON IN REVIEW

28

32

WE CHART THE RESULTS OF ALL 46 TEAMS

STRUGGLING FOR SPORTS EQUALITY

30

CHRONICLING THE HISTORY OF WESTERN’S ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

32 MUSTANG RUGBY GOING BACK TO ITS ROOTS 40 GREGGY FRANCHISE

FAREWELL TO A LEGEND

42

THIS YEAR THE INTERNATIONAL TOUR WAS BROUGHT BACK

ATHLETES IN THE OFF-SEASON

42

NO LONGER A TIME FOR REST, WE PROFILE ATHLETES’ STAYING IN SHAPE

HOCKEY TEAMS QUALIFY FOR NATIONAL

52

52

BOTH TEAMS COULD ONLY MAKE IT SO FAR

SOARING TO NEW HEIGHTS ROBIN BONE’S OLYMPIC DREAMS VERY MUCH ALIVE

54 54

IAIN BOEKHOFF EDITOR-IN-CHIEF @IAINATGAZETTE

OLIVIA ZOLLINO PRINT MANAGING EDITOR @OLIVIAATGAZETTE

NATHAN KANTER DIGITAL MANAGING EDITOR @NATHANATGAZETTE

CONTRIBUTORS CHARLIE O’CONNOR CLARKE MIKE DEBOER HALA GHONAIM NATHAN KANTER CLAIRE PALMER SERENA QUINN ANNIE REUTER SHANE ROBERTS

Dear Readers, This is it: the last magazine issue of Volume 109 and we’ve decided to pay homage to the student athletes that walk this campus every day.

Western undoubtedly sets the bar when it comes to athletic excellence in Canadian Interuniversity Sport, with its 46 teams and hundreds of academic all-Canadians every year.

This year, 22 different Western teams medaled at the provincial level and 11 medaled at the national level (for team by team results, head to page 28).

It was also important for us to highlight some of Western’s most influential graduating athletes. Greg Morrow will be leaving Western after turning around the basketball program [page 32] and pole vaulter Robin Bone is leaving Western’s track and field program with Olympic aspirations [page 54].

We take a peek into the lives of athletes in their off-seasons [page 42], we talk to the kinesiology students who dedicate their time as student trainers [page 20], we find out why Western’s men’s rugby program has brought back their international tour [page 40] and we delve into the politics of Western’s two athletic alumni associations and what it took for them to finally merge [page 30].

Both of Western’s hockey teams also qualified for the CIS national championships this year and we sum up their seasons on pages 52–53.

Finally, former Mustang hockey player Jake Worrad retired from the game for good this past December and followed up with a blog post documenting his struggles both on and off the ice. We caught up with the former London Knight to get a better picture of what he went through [page 22].

There is so much that goes on with Western athletics every year, making it impossible to document everyone in one magazine. This is merely a snapshot, a fraction of the stories of Western athletes that are out there.

We hope you enjoy it.

COPY EDITORS CLAIRE CHRISTOPHER DANIELLE GERRITSE PHOTOGRAPHERS JENNY JAY TAYLOR LASOTA KYLE PORTER MAAILAH BLACKWOOD GRAPHIC EDITORS JENNIFER FELDMAN JORDAN MCGAVIN COMPOSING IAN GREAVES, MANAGER MAJA ANJOLI-BILIC ROBERT ARMSTRONG DIANA WATSON, ADVERTISING FRONT COVER ILLUSTRATION JENNIFER FELDMAN

PHOTO BY KYLE PORTER

1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8

Starting Lineup

Daylight n Western centre-fielder Andrew Hastings sees some daylight as he rounds the bases and heads home in a regular season game against Waterloo. The Mustangs baseball team hosted the Ontario University Athletics playoffs in 2015 and came through, winning their first provincial championship since 2009. They defeated the defending champion Brock Badgers 9–4 in the final.

Photo by

Kyle Porter

1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8

Starting Lineup

Out of my way n Western receiver Justin Sanvido stiff-arms Guelph lineman Jordan Thompson in the 2015 Yates Cup. The football team went 8–0 in the regular season for the second time in three years but fell to the Gryphons in the Yates Cup 23–17. It was the seventh time Western had qualified for the Yates in the past 10 years.

Photo by

Damon Burtt

1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8

Starting Lineup

Stroke, Stroke n Mustang swimmer Aaron Rode competes in the backstroke in the Ontario University Athletics championships at Thompson Recreation and Athletics Centre on February 11. Both the men’s and women’s swimming teams were two of the most successful teams at Western this year, with both claiming OUA silver. The men’s team also finished fifth in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport championships, while the women finished sixth.

Photo by

Kyle Porter

1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8

Starting Lineup

Golden n Mustangs winger Andrew Goldberg celebrates after scoring a goal in Western’s 8–3 playoff win over the Laurier Golden Hawks in the quarter-finals on February 17. Western finished second in the regular season with an 18–10–0 record this season before sweeping the Hawks in the first round. Western then beat the University of Toronto Varsity Blues in the second round and the Guelph Gryphons in the OUA west finals to advance to the Queen’s Cup. The Mustangs fell to the UQTR Patriotes 4–3 in overtime but still qualified for the University Cup, where they were unfortunately outmatched by the eventual champion UNB Varsity Reds 5–1.

Photo by

Kyle Porter

1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8

Starting Lineup

It’s all over n The Mustangs women’s hockey team celebrates their triple overtime playoff win over the Nipissing Lakers on March 6. Lyndsay Kirkham scored the game-winning goal after 116 minutes of hockey to advance Western to the McCaw Cup, the Ontario University Athletics championship final. The defending champion Mustangs lost to the Guelph Gryphons 5–1 in the McCaw Cup and despite a berth in the nationals, lost in the quarter-finals to the Saint Mary’s Huskies 1–0.

Photo by

Kyle Porter

1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8

Starting Lineup

Too little, too late n Brock goalkeeper Matthew Zaikos watches helplessly as the ball rolls past him on its way to the back of the net in a game against Western at Mustang Field on September 20. Western’s men’s soccer team had a disappointing season, winning just four times in 16 games, before bowing out in the OUA west quarter-finals. The women’s team, meanwhile, was upset in the opening round of the playoffs by the Guelph Gryphons after a very successful 11–2–3 regular season.

Photo by

Jenny Jay

PHOTO BY KYLE PORTER

R

1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8

Starting Lineup

Hoop and the harm n Western senior Caroline Wolynski (9) goes up for a lay-up in a regular season game against the Nipissing Lakers on February 5.

Wolynski was named a second-team all-star in her final year after recording a career-high 13.6 pointsper-game. Western was eliminated in the second round of the playoffs by the eventual OUA champion Ryerson Rams, but won a playoff game for the first time since 201213. Second-year guard Maddy Horst (4) also had a strong year, recording 12.1 points-per-game.

Photo by Maailah Blackwood

1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8

Starting Lineup

Reaching new heights n Western’s women’s volleyball team once again made the OUA Final Four this season after an impressive 16–3 regular season. Unfortunately, the team fell short in the semifinals against Ryerson, but rebounded well in the bronze medal game to beat their rival: the McMaster Marauders. Most of Western’s core, including Aja Gyimah (18), Candice Scott (8), Kat Tsiofas (9) and Kelsey Veltman will return next year.

Photo by Kyle Porter

SPOTLIGHT Mustangs

Student trainers: The unsung heroes

By: Shane Roberts

W

hen you think about the coaches and staff that allow Mustangs athletics to function, one key player is often forgotten: the student trainer.

The student trainers at Western are fourth-year kinesiology students.

However, they aren’t just any normal students. They have each gone through a long academic process to get to where they are today.

Each student trainer is required to take a specific athletic injuries course in their second year at Western.

After they have taken this course, the students with the best marks have the opportunity to take another athletic injuries course in their third year. After the third-year course, each prospective student trainer must go through an application process where only the students with the best marks are selected to be trainers in their fourth year.

It’s also important to note that being an athletic trainer involves work in the classroom as well. They meet 20 SPOTLIGHT April, 2016

for class once a week where professor and athletic trainer Rob Walsh teaches them new techniques and helps them improve as trainers. This class portion was unexpected by some of the trainers, including men’s lacrosse trainer Elizabeth Fryer.

“I just thought it was a secret society kind of thing,” said Fryer.

The classroom portion is particularly important for trainers who work with lower contact sports where there is a lower chance of injury. It’s a chance for students to be exposed to a wide range of possibilities they might not be able to see in their work.

“In class I get to hear about all the traumatic stuff that I don’t have with volleyball,” said men’s volleyball trainer Eman Smaltic. “I can then take that and use it in the future if I see those injuries.”

Despite the advantages of the classroom setting, Fryer noted there are many things about being a trainer that can only be learned on the playing field.

“With athletes, it was more trying to figure out what the problem was and how to help them, whereas in lab and in class we already knew the context of it,” she said. “It was very much adapting what we learned in class to a real life setting, which I found challenging.”

Specifically, Fryer found that the most challenging injury she had to deal with was not what she expected.

“Injuries wise, it was definitely blisters,” said Fryer. “That was a huge thing. We actually didn’t learn about that in class at all.”

Wrestling team trainer Christian Laidlaw also found identifying and dealing with new injuries to be difficult in a real life setting.

“It’s taken a bit of time to be confident in the things I think the injury is,” he explained. “It’s kind of tricky sometimes to really lay the law down.”

Despite these challenges, Laidlaw also emphasized the important role of the student trainer for the well being of student athletes at Western. ❱❱

“F

or some teams, it can make the difference between somebody competing and not competing,” said Laidlaw. “In the case of a concussion, second impact syndrome can be pretty harmful to somebody’s life. If they get a concussion and return too soon, they’re vulnerable to pretty serious brain injuries.

Having us as that resource for them is pretty vital to some people.”

Laidlaw’s assessment of injuries has been particularly important for the well being of the Western wrestling team.

“There’s been no shortage of injuries given the nature of the sport,” he said.

“It’s pretty high impact stuff. It’s a really good experience in that way.”

Laidlaw added the wide range of motions in wrestling cause a variety of different injuries in the sport.

“The good thing with wrestling is there isn’t one typical thing you see all the time since it’s such a full body involved sport,” said Laidlaw. “You can get anything from concussion to high ankle sprain to fractured hand.”

Even though trainers are very helpful, women’s lacrosse trainer Sasha Guay commented on the limitations of a trainer.

“It always breaks my heart a little when someone gets a concussion because there’s nothing really that I can do,” explained Guay. “I’ve had numerous before and it’s very frustrating because your body is fine but it’s just your head. The symptoms are super frustrating.

“I always hate dealing with concussions because as a trainer I can’t work with them that much more than letting them know how to be cautious,” she added.

Men’s basketball trainer Alex Restrepo also reiterated that the chance of a high impact injury like a concussion makes the job particularly stressful at times.

“We have to respond to any injury on the field, as extreme as it might be,” said Restrepo. “In basketball, they go pretty hard in practice and games, so sometimes there’s going to be a lot of

KATHERINE M. IVERSEN WESTERN WRESTLING

contact.... The moment someone goes down, whatever it may be, you’re the first one there for them. You have to be able to treat them and hopefully not make them any worse.”

Limitations also arise for the trainers because of the athletics budget. Not every team can have a trainer because there are simply too many teams; teams like tennis don’t get the privilege of having a student trainer.

“Part of the issue is budget. Definitely a lot of money is involved in the training program itself and paying for everything that is associated with it,” said Restrepo. “[Western] might consider that some teams aren’t as high contact and might not require a trainer but of course if they did introduce more trainers I’m sure more people would be interested in pursuing those other sports.”

Despite these limitations, it’s evident that the student training program at Western is superb. It benefits both the student athletes and the student trainers by giving the athletes the best treatment possible and giving the trainers great practical experience.

It also gives the student trainers a chance to be apart of a team. Almost all teams are very welcoming of their trainers and many of the trainers find themselves feeling as though they are apart of the team themselves by the end of the season.

“I find myself during games getting just as hyped up as some of the guys on the bench,” said Restrepo. “If you look at some of the videos I’m always really involved in the game because I want these guys to succeed of course....

Basketball is a really intense sport and when you see your team do really well

you get fired up. There’s no other way to word it.”

There also seems to be a great relationship between student trainers and varsity coaches at Western.

In particular, Smaltic had high praise for men’s volleyball head coach Jim Sage. After taking a few volleyball courses with Sage earlier in his undergrad, Smaltic requested the men’s volleyball team to be his number one choice and was ecstatic to get to work with Sage.

“Jim Sage is the biggest beauty you will ever to come to meet. I honestly couldn’t be happier with any other coach,” explained Smaltic. “He’s a London local and born and raised in London, he played volleyball for Western and he lives around the corner from the school. He’s just an overall beauty.”

Based on the positive experiences of all these trainers, it is clear that the student trainer program at Western has had a great impact on the athletic department and is integral in ensuring the best student experience for the student athletes at Western and students in the kinesiology department. 

PHOYO BY KYLE PORTER

April, 2016 SPOTLIGHT 21

PHOYO BY KYLE PORTER

Speaking out:

A game without boundaries By: Serena Quinn

For many Canadians, playing hockey is simply a way of life.

Children grow up impersonating their favourite hockey players on frozen ponds and enrol in organized hockey leagues where they dream of making it to “the Show” — the National Hockey League.

O

ften, the perks of playing hockey at a varsity, semi-professional or professional level bring with it a way of life that seems attractive to a lot of people: money, popularity, girls and access to all of the best parties.

While all of this might seem appealing, very few hockey players ever speak out about the negative side of this hockey lifestyle.

That is, until former London Knight and Western Mustangs hockey player Jake Worrad wrote a blog post that got everyone’s attention.

Last December, Jake wrote his “Farewell to Hockey” after suffering his sixth concussion in a pre-season game playing with the Western Mustangs, an injury that pushed him to retire from the sport completely.

His story has over 12,000 views and counting and has reached people in 40 different countries around the world. In it, Jake describes his early beginnings in hockey and opens up about the good, the bad and the downright ugly side of playing the game and living the hockey lifestyle.

“The whole meaning of the article was kind of to show there’s two sides to hockey,” Jake said.

“There’s a side that everyone sees, which is the fame or the glorified identity of playing hockey.

Then there’s the other side, which is the personal struggles of the person actually playing the game.”

Becoming a professional hockey player was always the dream for Jake, but unlike some of his peers, he didn’t get his start in the sport until the age of seven.

With an American father who grew up playing baseball and a mother who was hesitant to enrol her son in such a high-contact sport like hockey, Jake had stayed away from organized hockey for a large part of his early childhood.

“I think I said ‘over my dead body will my kids play hockey,’ ” Worrad’s mother Mindy said.

“That may have been a little strong.”

She laughs about it now, but her concerns regarding the sport came from witnessing the impact hockey had on families.

“I guess because I had seen [hockey] tear families apart, because it’s such a commitment and all of the violence and not wanting your kids to get hurt,” Mindy said.

“But when others picked up on the talent that he had just playing pond hockey in the neighborhood, I wasn’t at all going to hold him back.”

From a coaching standpoint, Jake’s talent on the ice was noticed at his first tryout for the Lucan Fighting Irish, a competitive rep team that he ended up making in his first year.

From that point forward, Jake’s hockey career took off.

Within just two years, Jake had been named team captain and landed a spot in the Bells Capital Cup all-star and skills competition in Toronto where he competed against some of the best hockey players in the nation. ❱❱

April, 2016 SPOTLIGHT 23

SPOTLIGHT Mustangs

“T

hat was where, really if he hadn’t lost an edge in one of the events he would have finished in the top two and he would have skated on TSN with the Leafs in their skills thing,” Worrad’s father Brian said. “I always knew he was a pretty good athlete [and] we knew he was maybe pretty good at hockey when that whole thing went through.”

Jake placed seventh overall in the skills challenge, which reinforced his dreams of playing professional hockey.

After two years with the Fighting Irish, Jake’s skills had him climbing up the organized hockey ranks as he played AAA hockey with the Elgin-Middlesex Chiefs, a team that he played on for the next five years of his life.

But playing hockey as a child and playing hockey as a young adult were two totally different things, and Jake quickly learned the difference.

At age nine he started to notice his teammates trying alcohol for the first time. By 12, they were trying chewing tobacco, watching porn and drinking excessively.

With every new level of hockey that Jake played, these pastimes became more frequent and more intense.

By the time Jake was drafted in 2009 at the age of 16 to his hometown London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League, partying, drinking and hooking up with girls seemed to be the way of life off the ice for his teammates.

But this lifestyle did not align with the Christian values that Jake was raised with and so he did his best to avoid it altogether. He struggled between keeping his integrity and his morals and trying to fit in as a hockey player and a member of the team.

Jake was fortunate to be living with his family during those years, unlike many of his teammates who had moved away from home at the age of 16 and were living with billet families in order to play for the Knights. This gave many of them the freedom to make their own decisions day in and day out. ypically, most of the guys on the team are living on their own without anyone telling them what they can or cannot do,” Jake said. ❱❱

“T

24 SPOTLIGHT April, 2016

PHOTO BY KYLE PORTER

TOP LEFT COURTESY OF JAKE WORRAD Jake didn’t get his start in hockey until the age of seven. Here, he’s seen on an outdoor rink practicing his skating.

TOP RIGHT COURTESY OF AARON BELL, OHL IMAGES Jake was traded to the Belleville Bulls at 18 and spend three years with the OHL club, including one year as the assistant captain.

“G

ive any teenager control over most aspects of their life and the outcomes usually aren’t good. Add in free money, girls and popularity and the likelihood of bad decisions is endless.”

And that’s where the hockey lifestyle began to conflict with Jake’s own values, and living with his family at home meant that Jake’s decisions were still mediated through his parents.

Finding a balance between his own values and the ones that hockey culture promoted proved to be a challenge for Jake, and he ended up closing himself off from the team in many ways.

“I originally secluded myself in London, which kind of gave off the vibe that I was judging people and I don’t ever want to do that,” Jake said.

“I screwed that up in London. It’s hard to jump back in and say ‘OK, I’ll come out with you guys because they’ve already closed the door on you.’ ” But the partying lifestyle of a semi-professional hockey player and fitting in with the team were not the only challenges Jake was presented with over the course of his hockey career. It was the struggles on the ice as well that brought a lot of pain and frustration to Jake’s life.

In Jake’s NHL draft season of 2010-11, he tore his ACL in an exhibition game against the Plymouth Whalers. As a result of the injury, Jake had to undergo knee surgery that ended any hopes of being drafted that year.

But Jake put himself through intense rehabili-

tation, building himself up even stronger than he had been before. He was traded to the Belleville Bulls and at 18 was out on his own for the first time.

Jake spent three years with the Bulls and was named assistant captain in his final year with the team. He had become a seasoned and successful hockey player and at 19 his professional hockey future seemed clear.

But just when Jake’s future as a professional hockey player was starting to feel like a reality, another injury crushed his dreams once again.

“It seems that whenever I gear up for something somebody just pulls the carpet out from underneath me,” Jake said.

This time, it was a separated shoulder that sent Jake back to the surgeon’s table and into a summer filled with rehabilitation.

In his Farewell to Hockey post, Jake opened up about this moment and described breaking down in the arms of his mother in the parking lot of Budweiser Gardens.

“I did break down and I remember that was tough for me to share because to show yourself as vulnerable is not easy,” Jake said. “I think I just had to say that to properly portray the way I felt because I did feel shattered inside.” ❱❱

April, 2016 SPOTLIGHT 25

SPOTLIGHT Mustangs made the decision to take the scholarship money he had earned from the OHL and go to university.

Once a player moves on from the OHL they receive a minimum scholarship of tuition, textbooks and compulsory fees toward an undergraduate degree for each year played in the OHL. Because Jake spent five years playing in the OHL he was entitled to a five-year scholarship to a university or college of his choice, depending on admission.

After making the decision to take his

T

he most heartbreaking part of it all, however, was that just one day after his shoulder surgery he had two offers: one to play professional hockey in Russia and the other to attend an NHL camp.

“I was feeling badly for him,” Mindy said. “Now he’d be out for six months, so those opportunities weren’t going to be there anymore.

“I said ‘I’m so sorry, I heard about the offers you had one day too late,’ “ Mindy recalled. “And he said ‘No, it couldn’t be any clearer. If they were meant to be, if that’s what God wanted me to do, they would have come in yesterday.’ ” After the injury, Jake was determined to recover and rebuild once again but this time around he was not preparing to return to the OHL or professional hockey. Instead, Jake

26 SPOTLIGHT April, 2016

talents to a varsity hockey team, coaches from schools across the country began to heavily recruit Jake.

“Universities were flying me out to visit, paying all my expenses and offering additional money for me to be a part of their program,” Jake wrote in his Farewell to Hockey.

But Jake decided to stay in London and play for his hometown Western Mustangs under head coach Clarke Singer.

Despite moving out of the OHL spotlight, Jake’s popularity as a hockey player didn’t dwindle when he transitioned to Western.

“Just like being in the OHL, girls seem to love hockey players, even varsity hockey players,” Jake wrote in his Farewell to Hockey.

With this popularity, the hockey lifestyle Jake had tried to avoid while playing in the OHL was still a way of life at Western, but with age and maturity, he found more positive ways to deal with the lifestyle.

Instead of isolating himself from the team parties, Jake went out and used

some interesting techniques to have fun without compromising his own morals or beliefs.

“I always went by the rule of thumb that nothing good happens after 12 o’clock,” Jake said. “If I were to go to a party, I’d go for the beginning because then everyone’s sober.

It gave me an opportunity to have meaningful conversations with people while they were still sober.”

Jake would also consistently volunteer to be the designated driver for a number of his friends on the team and he’d also bring a case of Dr. Pepper with him to parties in order to have something in a red solo cup to sip on throughout the night. This way, friends and party-goers never questioned why he wasn’t drinking.

So while the same temptations and uncomfortable situations continued to exist for Jake while playing varsity hockey, he found better ways to balance his own values and the lifestyle that came with being a hockey player.

“At Western, I was able to be given a fresh start,” Jake said. “To say ‘Hey, I’m still here for you guys, let’s go have fun. I’m not judging you guys but for my personal reasons I just don’t necessarily want to get drunk.’ ” And despite finally finding a balance between being the person he strives to be while also being a hockey player, one final injury knocked him out of the game entirely late last year.

Jake suffered his sixth concussion in a pre-season game with the Western Mustangs back in October. It was this injury that led him to hang up his skates for good. ❱❱

COURTESY OF JAKE WORRAD

J

ake and his mother met with Dr. Lisa Fischer, the director of sport medicine at the Fowler Kennedy Sport Medicine Clinic at Western, and she assessed Jake’s situation. After examining Jake’s condition she asked Jake what his plans for the future were.

“He told her that he could be in Europe if he was really seriously thinking about hockey but he decided to focus on his academics and was playing for Western and was really hoping to write the LSAT,” Mindy said. “She looked at him and said, ‘Jake, why are you playing hockey? You just dodged a major bullet here [and] the next one could be major cognitive impairment and you’ve got all these things that you can do.’ ” It was those words that put everything into perspective for Jake and lead him to consider living a life that didn’t involve playing hockey.

It was by retiring from the sport and reflecting on his journey through hockey that Jake decided his story could be valuable to other children and families who may be facing the same issues he had once faced.

“It’s been something that I’ve been thinking about over my career because I was like, ‘OK, these aren’t the things that I expected when I was coming to play hockey,’ ” Jake said. “Now that I have this time that I’m not playing any longer, I think that it would be beneficial for others for me to share

my story.”

And that’s what Jake did. He became an open book and decided to create a dialogue about everything that hockey can offer, but also what hockey can potentially take away.

It’s not often that someone who has been so successful in the sport speaks out about the negative side of hockey and the lifestyle that young boys and young adults will inevitably be exposed to. For Jake, his self-reflection article was designed to educate. He wasn’t looking to encourage people not to play the sport, he just wanted to give families looking to register their children in hockey the full perspective of what it’s like to play the game.

But opening yourself up and shining a light on a darker side of hockey in a country that pairs the sport with a Canadian identity is not always received well.

Jake has experienced a bit of backlash from former teammates and others who have read the article.

“I tried to look at it from every angle from an outsider’s perspective and I went in knowing that there was going to be some negative backlash,” Jake said. “But I think for me to be able to share a message from my life personally and add credibility through my own experiences outweighed the negative backlashes that I would face personally.”

Despite a handful of critics, Jake’s

story has been well received by his family and friends and those who connect with his experiences or appreciate the insight that he offers.

But while Jake’s Farewell to Hockey leaves readers with a well-rounded perspective on the sport, it does not address Jake’s new lifestyle beyond hockey. What does he do with all of his free time now?

Well, aside from studying to complete an honours specialization in criminology and maintaining marks to apply to law school, Jake has taken up playing the guitar and has joined a two-man band with ex-teammate Colten Mayor. But what seems to take up a lot of Jake’s free time these days is hanging out and cuddling up with his new companion — Audrey the doodle.

“It’s @AudreyTheDoodle on Instagram, if you want to follow her,” Jake joked. “I’m one of those crazy dog owners … I bought her a Christmas outfit and those little booty things that go on her paws. She’s my little girl and she and I share the basement of my house.”

Despite devoting years and years to playing hockey in hopes of making it to “the Show” only to have it all taken away by one injury after another, Jake was OK with leaving the sport after his sixth concussion.

“The idea of actually stepping away from hockey, I never really contemplated it at the time,” Jake said. “But when you think about it, it makes sense. Whether you’re playing university hockey, or semi-professional hockey or whether you are really close to making it in the NHL, you have to make a decision. Is it worth continuing putting all of your eggs in that one basket or do you need to start moving on with your life?”

After being advised by the specialist to hang up his skates for good, Jake had come to terms with the fact that he had a full life left to live outside of hockey. Even though the game had become a large part of his identity it did not define him as a person.

“Hockey can be a part of your identity,” Jake said. “But not all of it.” 

April, 2016 SPOTLIGHT 27

MUSTANGS 2015-16 Team

CIS

OUA

Other

Badminton Baseball Preliminary round Quarter finals

Basektball (men) Basketball (women) Cheerleading (women)

Nationals

Cheerleading (co-ed)

Nationals

Cross-country

11th

6th

Curling (men)

5th

Curling (women)

4th

Fencing (men)

4th

Fencing (women) Field hockey Figure skating Football Golf (men)

5th

Golf (women)

4th

Hockey (men) Hockey (women) Lacrosse (men)

Quarter finals Quarter finals Nationals

Lacrosse (women) Ringette Rowing (men) Rowing (women)

5th at AA Provincials

SEASON IN REVIEW Team

CIS

OUA

Other

Rugby (men) Rugby (women) West quarter-final West quarter-final

Soccer (men) Soccer (women)

Ontario Nationals

Softball Squash (men) Squash (women) Swimming (men)

5th

Swimming (women)

6th

Synchronized swimming

Nationals

Table tennis (men) Table tennis (women)

NCTTA

Tennis (men) Tennis (women) Track & field (men)

7th

Track & field (women) Ultimate frisbee (open)

Nationals 5th at Nationals

Ultimate frisbee (women) Quarter finals

Volleyball (men) Volleyball (women)

5th

Water polo Wrestling (men)

9th

Wrestling (women)

11th

4th Jordan McGavin • Gazette

PHOTO BY KYLE PORTER

PHOTO BY TAYLOR LASOTA

SPOTLIGHT Mustangs

Struggling for today’s sports equality By: Hala Ghonaim

“I

had people calling me sir when they knew I was a woman,” health sciences professor Angela Schneider said. “They were challenging my identity.”

They were also telling the former varsity athlete who had competed on the Canadian rowing team in the Commonwealth Games and in the World Masters that she shouldn’t be rowing at all because she was a woman.

They were the byproduct of a patriarchal society. Now, everything has changed for Schneider and the female athletic student body.

“There is total equity,” she said. “I do not feel the tension at all the way we felt before trying to fight. It wasn’t any particular individuals that we were fighting, but it was the culture and the climate.”

Schneider is the chair of the Western Mustangs Athletic Alumni, on top of her duties as a professor in the school of kinesiology and a competitive row-

30 SPOTLIGHT April, 2016

ing athlete. The small-town girl from Rodney, Ont., was the first to graduate high school from her family and leave behind their tobacco farm.

Schneider chose Western for its track team in 1978, then eventually made her way into varsity rowing where she played for five years alongside track and field.

After an undergrad, two master’s degrees and a PhD, Schneider found herself passionately serving as the chair of the Western Mustangs Athletics Alumni. This is a co-ed recognition group that focuses its time on shedding light on former athletes who have served Western for years.

However, prior to this title in 2015, Schneider served as a committee member for the the Women’s Athletic Alumnae founded in 1987, which had no ties to The “W” Club, the predominantly men’s athletic alumni club founded in 1923.

The two official athletic alumni

chapters merged on May 2, 2015 after almost 100 years of athletic establishment and separation.

Schneider joined the conversation in the early ’90s as a PhD student. At the time, she says The “W” Club was meant to honour women as well; however, the committee seemed to solely recognize male athletes. It took her years to simply get honoured by The “W” Club after winning an Olympic silver medal in rowing in 1984. She believed the female athletes had to work harder in order to receive similar opportunities or recognition certificates as men.

Helen Luckman, the athletic director for Western at the time, also noticed there was not enough gender representation in The “W” club. It was her initiative to invite many progressive women and female varsity athletes to a community meeting to discuss the creation of the WAA. ❱❱

O

ne of the new committee’s arguing points was that there wasn’t equal funding for male and female athletic clubs. Female athletes were paying the same amount as their counterparts, but they didn’t have the same opportunities because a lot of the money would go to The “W” Club.

After the first meeting, the committee decided they needed their own athletic alumni club to get themselves and their predecessors recognized. As soon as they established themselves publicly in 1987, the WAA was asked by The “W” Club to become one entity with them. However, the Women’s Athletic Alumnae decided it was important to be independent in order to make up for the lost years of women’s failed recognition on campus.

“We didn’t want to sit and debate about whether women should be getting awards,” Schneider said. “We already knew [we should be]. There was too much to make up for. They had 50 years and it didn’t happen before so we wanted to just get it done.”

Schneider believes this gender equality was a product of the societal norms of the years prior to her varsity athletic career.

“The women’s teams had to wash all of their uniforms and the men’s had theirs washed for them,” she said. “The men clearly got all the best boats. There was no question about that. So the only way we could use the good boats is if we went out earlier and took the men’s.”

She recalled a crucial time in her career when she competed in the 1981 Dad Vail Regatta, an intercollegiate rowing event, where she resorted to securing her feet into her foot stretchers by using her coxswain’s bra. It was the only way to combat the poor quality of the equipment.

A decade later, however, the tables were turned when The “W” Club refused the first attempt made by the WAA to merge in 2014. They resisted due to the idea of a budget merge, but also because the WAA requested an award name change. The Elfrida Berzins Award was a sentimental part

of the WAA because Berzins was a former Mustang who played a vital role in supporting women’s sport on campus. The W Club had chosen The “W” Club Award. Eventually, in 2015, The “W” Club agreed to share both the budget and the name, and that’s when the Western Mustang Athletic Alumni club and award were born.

Schneider continues to compete as the director of the Western Mustang Athletic Alumni today. She took 35 years off from competitive athletics to raise her children and focus on her career before coming back from retirement and playing again.

The motivated athlete later competed in the 2010 World Championships in St. Catharines, and then the World Masters last summer in Belgium where she won two gold medals.

Longtime friend and teammate Volker Nolte helped motivate Schneider. Volte, who’s the current head coach of rowing at Western and a professor in biomechanics, was one of the main inspirations for Schneider to come back into the game. He encouraged the challenge because he appreciated the effort that was put into Schneider’s accomplishments during times of struggle and inequality.

“The definition of a competitive rower is not based on the gender,” Nolte said. “It’s based on what we have on our mission statement: commitment and teamwork.”

Prior to moving to Canada in his later years, he embraced life in the small town of Saarbrücken in West Germany.

He didn’t realize gender inequality was a problem until his Canadian girlfriend felt odd about getting naked in the sauna with Nolte’s coaching team at the time. This was a longtime German tradition with Nolte’s co-ed team during his youth. This opened his eyes about the gender divide in his girlfriend’s home country, Canada.

Therefore, upon coming to Western, he was even more surprised to hear from the WAA committee members about gender inequality on-campus.

“Women were treated second class,” said Nolte. “They were given sec-

ond-class equipment. They could only come out at a certain time. They did not have the same kind of coaching.

[People] called them funny names.”

Nolte can’t wrap his head around the existence of gender inequality. He sees no reason to treat men and women differently because social classes are then created based off gender instead of skill.

Although Western has come a long way, Nolte sees a minor form of gender inequality alive today on campus. He believes there is an imbalance of female to male coaches due to the logic that it’s easier to find a male coach when hiring. Nolte is trying to change this by giving women more opportunity and encouraging female athletic professionals to pursue their dreams.

“We should be the role models for our children because we cannot change the old boys,” Nolte said. “Let them move on and then we can show [our children] a better world.”

Today, Schneider still rows with Nolte in Canada and her own personal team internationally. She’s competing again this summer in the San Diego Crew Classic, one of the largest competitions in the world.

Although gender inequality has improved in sports, continuing to value the importance of physical activity for both males and females is dire for continual progression. It is indisputable that municipal, national and international sports are still viewed in a linear manner, concentrating more heavily on the more sensationalized male-dominated sports. This type of focus continues to create a divide between men and women and the desire to continue segregated sport. Nonetheless, merging the Athletic Alumni at Western is one baby step towards fixing a problem on a bigger scare.

Schneider believes the struggle to get to where Western is today was worth it.

“Even with all those struggles trying to achieve equity, all those struggles on trying to get equipment support, all those struggles on trying to get the women recognized, I think we have come tremendously a long way,” said Schneider. 

April, 2016 SPOTLIGHT 31

Greggy Franchise Farewell to a Mustangs legend By: Mike DeBoer

PHOTO BY KYLE PORTER

G

reg Morrow’s greatness as a university basketball player may have begun three years ago one November night at Alumni Hall when he scored 21 points and led Western to its first win of that season.

Or a year later in a game against the Laurentian Voyageurs where Morrow completely dominated with 27 points and 15 rebounds en route to an 88–77 win.

Or last season in a game with the perennial powerhouse Ottawa GeeGees who were 12-0 at that point on the schedule. Morrow had 41 points and nine rebounds, willing his team to win but eventually falling short.

Or all those times and then some.

As the buzzer sounded on March 2, 2016, Greg Morrow’s career at Western was finished.

In a heartbreaking loss thanks to an unlikely three-pointer from Henry Tan of the Lakehead Thunderwolves, the quiet legend had finished writing his story as a Mustang.

Alumni Hall might never see another player like him.

In a league where it’s hard to fill the gym with fans and at a school where the basketball program is overshadowed by football, Greg Morrow may end up going unnoticed by many on Western’s campus — and that is a shame.

For all he’s done for the Mustangs men’s basketball program, especially considering where this team has come from — a 3–18 record in 2012-13 to making the playoffs three years in a row — Morrow deserves recognition.

Western may very well be saying goodbye to the greatest basketball player in the history of the program.

He leaves Western as the leading scorer in school history, breaking the record with point number 1,478 in a game against York on February 13, 2016. Add 600 rebounds to that résumé along with three Ontario University Athletics first-team all-star selections and Morrow’s accolades rank among such Western greats as Ray Monnot, Tom Williamson and the legendary John Stiefelmeyer.

Morrow was born and raised in London, the son of athletes who taught him to work hard and follow his dreams. His father, Al, was an Olympic rowing coach and encouraged him to participate in a variety of sports and other

activities as a youngster: cross country in the fall, basketball and volleyball in the winter, soccer in the summer.

Eventually basketball stuck, and the legendary basketball career of Western’s leading scorer began to take form in the gym of Sir Frederick Banting Secondary School, under the direction of Broncos head coach Umar Chaudhry. “[Chaudhry] was a really passionate guy,” said Morrow. “He’s the first guy that made me focus on basketball, because back in high school I used to play a lot of sports and basketball wasn’t my main focus. He told me I could be really good and get to the next level, and [at] that point I had never really thought about it.”

Morrow was a raw athletic talent and with the help of Chaudhry Morrow became the face of the Banting basketball program.

“He was a dominating force, specifically in his senior years,” said Chaudhry. “He helped Banting win our first city championship in 30plus years, we went to [the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations championships] and had a top-five finish in OFSAA.” Chaudhry recalls a specific memory in an OFSAA elite-8 game. Due to the crowded schedule of the OFSAA tournament, the Banting players were physically and mentally exhausted when they reached the quarter-finals.

After going up for a big dunk, Morrow landed and fell to the floor as his legs cramped up. But Morrow fought through the pain, getting up on his feet and rushing back on defence.

Chaudhry used one word to describe Morrow, both in this OFSAA game and in his entire high school basketball career: warrior.

This ethic was instilled in Morrow by parents who preached getting up and battling through adversity. Whining to refs was not encouraged in the Morrow household. Teamwork and sacrifice was what he learned from his parents and throughout his university career — this was evident.. ❱❱

April, 2016 SPOTLIGHT 33

SPOTLIGHT Mustangs

“M

y dad always taught me a lot of values about being a team player and showing up to practice on time and showing respect for your coaches and officials,” said Morrow. “So I got an interesting perspective from my dad, and my mom was an athlete growing up and she taught me hard work. They were just really supportive.”

Upon graduating from Banting, Morrow was surprisingly under-recruited.

The lack of interest may have been attributed to a general lack of exposure for Morrow, who didn’t compete in the high school

basketball hotbed of the Greater Toronto Area, and who did not travel often outside of Ontario with his competitive basketball team, the London Ramblers.

But there’s one thing that is certain: every single school in the country regrets not pushing Morrow to come to their program.

Western got to Morrow before anyone else, beginning to recruit him in grade 11. Morrow also received interest from some NCAA division II programs and McMaster jumped in late in his high school career to attempt to get him to go to Hamilton.

But Morrow decided to stay home and play for his hometown program.

According to his dad, it was the perfect match for Morrow; his great work ethic and blue-collar playing style fit perfectly with the philosophy of Mustangs head coach Brad Campbell.

According to Peter Scholtes, a fifth-year senior this season who played youth basketball with Morrow when Scholtes’ club program, Orion, was absorbed by Morrow’s London Ramblers organization, Campbell had a real vision for Morrow and his program.

“We were just sitting around and I remember Brad [Campbell] saying if our program was going to get better, Greg [Morrow] would have to be our best player,” said Scholtes. “And at this point Greg is a raw talent, kind of undisciplined defensively, so we kind of thought, ‘Yeah, but that might take a while, Brad.’ “

H

owever, Morrow started working hard immediately, hitting the weight room and developing his arsenal of post moves. He was not necessarily an instant star in the OUA, but he was showing early signs of a solid collegiate career.

Morrow entered the Canadian Interuniversity Sport basketball scene in 2011 and averaged just 5.6 points-per-game in 17.1 minutes per game. The Mustangs struggled that season, finishing the regular season with an 8–14 record.

In his second season, Western suffered through one of the worst years in the history of the program, going 3–18 — last in the OUA. Yet through the struggle, Morrow was able to start 14 games and improve his game, building his body and his skill set to better suit the rigorous university game. He finished with 10.7 points-per-game, setting the stage for three years as the cornerstone of the Mustangs program.

In 2013-14, Morrow saw a jump in scoring, averaging 15.4 points per game. It was in this season that Morrow established himself as one of the top players in the province along with 7.1 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game. As Al Morrow explained, Greg’s stardom came as bit of a surprise to the Morrow family.

“There was never really a point where we realized that he was a star in the CIS. It just kind of crept up,” Al said. “If you look at his statistics, his point totals increased every year. He was just constantly working to get better.”

There was no doubt that Morrow was a star, turning into the player Brad Campbell envisioned: the guy who would take the reins of the program and lead it to glory.

In 2014-15, the Mustangs improved to 12–8, beating Brock and Windsor to establish themselves as a top-tier team in the OUA’s West Division. In terms of Morrow’s legacy in the purple and white, his integral role in the massive rebuild of the Mustangs program should be noted. The Mustangs went from 3-18 one year to 12-8 just two seasons later. This dramatic improvement can be directly linked to Morrow’s development as a player. The jump for the Mustangs was orchestrated by the evolution of Morrow into one of the best players in the entire country.

This evolution was sparked, in large part, due to his hard work in the off-seasons.

“He worked his butt off in the off-seasons,” said Scholtes. “Although he’s a freak athlete, he obviously enjoys getting more athletic.

He’s faster [and] stronger and he can take contact now in the post.

In the summer, Brad [Campbell] did a good job making sure he was getting shots up and working on his ball handling skills.” ❱❱

PHOTOS BY MAAILAH BLACKWOOD

Month, 2015 SPOTLIGHT 35

SPOTLIGHT Mustangs

T

his off-season regimen turned Morrow into one of the most versatile players in the country — someone who can score down the stretch, grab boards and get the ball to open teammates. One of those teammates, Tony Spiridis, turned into a solid scorer for the Mustangs partly due to Morrow’s passing skills.

“Part of the reason he was so reliable was not just because of his scoring, but because he did everything so well,” said Spiridis. “He rebounds the ball better than anyone on our team.... He can get up and play above the rim, so he can grab rebounds for us, he can push the ball to find people. That’s how I got most of my buckets, from Greg dishing the ball. He also steals the ball and he gets to the basket.”

Along with his offensive versatility, Morrow has developed throughout his career into an underrated defender who can match up well with smaller, faster guards or strong big men in the post.

“It’s tough to ask a lot of him defensively because he puts up such big numbers offensively,” said Spiridis. “But his natural, physical body and his athleticism is so impressive that he can guard [centres, forwards] and guards and he has the ability to block shots, which is rare.”

Morrow truly can do it all.

But for all the personal accolades and accomplishments, Morrow has only had one thing on his mind throughout his career: to win games.

He built the program from a three-win basement dweller to a pre-season top-10 CIS team before the 2015-16 season. But a lack of playoff success may be what keeps Morrow from receiving the national recognition he deserves.

Tony Spiridis wishes the Mustangs could have won more games to secure Morrow’s legendary status.

“Maybe as a team we didn’t succeed the way we should have, so he may not go out with the league recognition that he deserves,” said Spirid36 SPOTLIGHT April, 2016

is. “He was [a] first-team OUA all-star, which is great to see. I think if he’s not an all-Canadian that has more to do with our lack of team success versus his ability.”

Many reference John Stiefelmeyer when debating the greatest Mustangs basketball player of all time. Stiefelmeyer’s résumé is strong: four-time all-Canadian, 1989 Mike Moser Trophy winner as national player of the year and 1990-91 national champion. He is the measuring stick by which all other Mustangs have been judged.

Yet Morrow rebuilt this program from darker days.

Not alone, of course. Campbell made philosophical changes to push the Mustangs into the OUA’s upper stratosphere, and Tony Spiridis and Peter Scholtes developed into reliable scorers.

But without Morrow, it’s hard to imagine where Mustangs basketball would be. That three-win season may not have been an aberration; it may have become the norm.

“He was obviously massive in rebuilding our program, going from a first-year guy to making our program what it is now, back on the radar as one of the most competitive teams in the OUA,” said Spiridis. “His legacy should be one of the best Western Mustangs of all time.”

Morrow has remained humble about his success. He is quiet and calm on the court, and lets his play speak for itself.

“I just wanted to be the best player on the court,” said Morrow. “I wanted to be able to do things that would help my team win. It’s not about personal status or getting awards or breaking records. My main thing was to carry the team and help us reach new heights. And me being the best player on the court would help my team do that.”

That demeanour is what his parents are the most proud of about their son’s career. Sure, the trophies and honours are cool, but Greg never allowed the success to get to his head.

“We’re extremely proud of him as a grounded, unselfish young man,” said Al Morrow. “When people tell me about what a good teammate and good kid he is, that’s what makes you proud as a parent.”

That character was evident in the summer of 2015 when Campbell wanted his players to stay in London and train together.

Three practices a week and team workouts twice a week, all summer long — and Morrow showed up every single day. ❱❱

PHOTO BY KYLE PORTER

“It’s not about personal status or getting awards or breaking records. My main thing was to carry the team and help us reach new heights. And me being the best player on the court would help my team do that.”

— Greg Morrow

PHOTOS BY MAAILAH BLACKWOOD

N

ot only was this dedication abundantly apparent this season, but Scholtes believes the example Morrow set for his teammates will be beneficial for the program moving forward.

“I think I saw it this summer, with a rookie like Jedson [Tavernier] who stayed in town and worked out in the summer and [Alex] Cootes came back early because he wanted to work out and put up shots and practice with the team,” said Scholtes. “Greg was the poster boy for Brad’s off-season program and that will be important for those younger guys moving forward.”

For Morrow, moving forward translates into a realistic shot at playing professional basketball. He’ll have to improve on his three-point shooting to succeed at the next level but those around him know he’s good enough to make it.

“He should have a good pro career,” said Spiridis.

“I’m hoping for the best for him. He’s obviously getting attention from agents or pro clubs, so I think he’s just trying to figure out what his best bet is.”

The process for Morrow now is to choose an agent, who will then get him a contract with a professional team. The possibility of travelling the world and making money excites Morrow, but it’s his passion for basketball that makes him want to go pro.

“I don’t want to give up basketball yet,” said Morrow.

“I love the sport and I love competing, so a pro career would be the perfect thing for me to do right now with my life, so that’s what I want to do moving forward.”

Morrow has loved his time at Western. Although he often wonders what going to the United States to play NCAA division I basketball would have been like, he wouldn’t trade his experiences as a Mustang for anything.

“I think about what it would be like sometimes,” said Morrow. “At the same time, if I played in the States I wouldn’t have had the great experience I’ve had at Western. I can’t really say I’d rather do something else because the time here has been great and I think I was in a really good situation here.”

When Lakehead beat Western in the playoffs on March 2, a legendary five-year career was finished.

Greg Morrow leaves Alumni Hall and Western University as the all-time leading scorer in program history.

And he leaves the program in much better shape than when he arrived.

Now, Campbell and the Mustangs will need to rebuild and retool. But Morrow leaves a lasting foundation on which the program can create a blue-collar culture of hard work and dedication.

Morrow can still be found in Alumni Hall weeks after the season is done, but he will never again don the purple and white and never again be introduced to a rousing ovation from Mustangs fans.

When Morrow is long gone, perhaps playing professional basketball in some far-off place, the memories will still live in the gym, on-campus and in the program.

Alumni Hall will never see anyone like him again. 

April, 2016 SPOTLIGHT 39

Mustang rugby going back to its roots By: Shane Roberts

RAY CHAN MUSTANGS RUGBY

Former Western rugby head coach Gerry Slattery stands on a rugby field in Ireland, his emotions running high.

It’s the middle of February and he and the rest of the Mustangs are commemorating the death of former Western rugby player Mike Talbot, who passed away a week ago in Thailand.

The occasion holds special significance for Slattery because they’re standing on a rugby field named after his brother, Jimmy, who also recently passed away. Jimmy was the founder of the rugby club that the Mustangs are playing today.

This moment is one Slattery said he will never forget.

RAY CHAN MUSTANGS RUGBY

I

t’s almost unheard of for a university team in Canada to travel outside of the continent for competition. However, there is an exception — the Western Mustangs rugby team.

Third-year rugby athlete Christian Nonni explained it’s common for other rugby teams to do similar trips.

“Touring is a traditional thing in rugby,” he said. “All teams usually try and do it. It’s such a global sport that you can do it anywhere.”

Nonni also outlined the importance of the trip for team chemistry.

“The main goal of the tour was bonding and getting to know your teammates,” he said.

This bonding experience used to be crucial for Western’s rugby team between 1997 and 2002.

During this time, the rugby team traveled to Ireland, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia under the leadership of Slattery. The first trip was in 1997 in Ireland. A large influence to start in Ireland was Slattery’s Irish heritage, which was also a big factor in returning this year because Slattery had already established contacts in the country from the first tour.

After the success of the Ireland trip in 1997, the next trips to South Africa, New Zealand and Australia were planned as a bigger experience. All three were at the beginning of May after the end of the school year and lasted for about three weeks each.

But with Slattery’s departure in 2002, the tradition died and as a result, the team’s culture changed, according to Slattery.

“I felt the program had dropped a couple of steps. In my view it had dropped in standard in relation to what Queen’s and Guelph were putting out,” Slattery explained.

“One of the reasons was the absence of an overseas tour.... I thought for

recruiting purposes and to develop the program it was important to take the rugby program back to a rugby culture every two years if possible. Being Irish-Canadian, I thought it would be best to kickstart a tour overseas.”

Slattery believed the Mustangs program had deteriorated a bit given they have only won two Ontario University Athletics titles in the past decade and a half. In comparison, Western won three OUA championships with Slattery in his six years as Mustangs coach between 1997 and 2002.

This year’s OUA semifinal loss to Queen’s proved that Queen’s has a much stronger program than Western right now. The Golden Gaels handed it to the Mustangs by a score of 37-8, something that shows Western still has a long way to go to catch their rivals.

Slattery gauged interest about two years ago among the Mustang players about bringing back the rugby tours.

By bringing back the old tradition, the hope was to significantly improve the experience for Western rugby players. “[The rugby tours] not only develop rugby players but it develops good people,” said Slattery. “It builds good character. They can learn a lot about themselves during the tour and about each other as well. It creates real good bonding and builds some real team camaraderie.”

The team responded enthusiastically to his proposal and Slattery went to work planning the trip for the team. Even though it was a lot of planning, Slattery admits he doesn’t mind because of the benefits it brings to student athletes.

“I think it’s crucial for the development of any student athlete in any sport to step outside of the campus and be exposed to other cultures, other countries and it’s part of the char-

acter building of the student athlete,” said Slattery. “It feels so good to be apart of that and be able to play a part in that development for the program.

It becomes more than just a sport.”

Since the primary reason for the trip was rugby, the team played a lot of games in their trip over reading week. Over the 10 days, they played five games against rugby teams from Ireland.

In between games, the team was experiencing the cultural sites of Ireland.

They visited the Cliffs of Moher, the Blarney Castle, the Guinness factory in Dublin and many other tourist locations throughout their trip.

In total, about 45 of the Mustangs players came on the trip. There are many more players involved with Western rugby — they carry multiple squads — but many could not go because of the financial cost of the trip.

Western was able to provide administrative support for the team but no financial assistance was available from the athletic department. This meant that the trip was entirely funded by the players and the fundraisers they put together.

As for next year, the Mustangs will be hoping to avenge their semifinal loss to Queen’s and take home their first OUA title since 2012. Slattery is confident they will be at the top soon.

“We may not reach number one next season but we’re certainly well on the way to getting back to where we were several years ago,” said Slattery.

Next year, Slattery and the Mustangs also hope to attract more recruits by planning a new tour for the Mustangs for 2017-18.

“I think I’ll continue to look for new locations, new venues, new countries to visit where we will use the same model that we used to go to Ireland and set our sights on a new destination maybe in two years time.” 

April, 2016 SPOTLIGHT 41

Athletes in the offseason There are dozens of varsity teams at Western, but many sports have short seasons that end after only a couple of months. Student athletes, however, don’t stop training there; no longer is the off-season a time to relax, but instead a time to improve and stay in shape.

Whether it’s the seven-week baseball season, the eight-game rugby season or the six-week tennis season, the off-season can sometimes dwarf the actual season in terms of length. But what actually happens in the many months when teams aren’t playing? What kind of work goes into “staying in shape?”

Here’s what it’s like for six varsity teams in their respective off-seasons.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JADE FARHAT

42 SPOTLIGHT Month, 2015

ROWING

By: Charlie O’Connor Clarke

A

s a varsity sport, rowing often flies under the radar. Very few Western students would have heard that the Mustangs swept the most recent Canadian University Rowing Championships in November, with both the men’s and women’s teams capturing titles for the second time in three years in Nova Scotia.

Even a varsity rower like Jill Moffatt, a fifth-year health sciences student, only got into the sport by chance when she was asked to try out for the team in her first year at Western. “[Someone from the rowing team] approached me in the gym and I was like, ‘Okay, I’ll go try out, because if I don’t make it, it doesn’t matter and if I do, then sweet,’ ” she said.

Moffatt did track and swimming competitively in high school, so she was missing the feeling of being part of a team. She rowed for the novice team in her first year and moved up to varsity the next.

Despite never rowing before coming to Western, the sport has become a huge part of Moffatt’s life.

“I got kind of sucked in,” she said.

You’d have to be dedicated to stick to it like she has, though. The varsity rowing schedule would likely make a typical student squirm.

During the season, the rowing team meets at 5:45 in the morning, six days a week, but Moffatt isn’t fazed by this busy schedule.

“It’s kind of nice,” she said. “It doesn’t conflict with your classes.”

Even after the short Ontario University Athletics season ends, the rowing team’s training regimen is a grind. The women’s team works out together every Tuesday morning and again on Fridays with the men’s team. Athletes are expected to put in work on the rowing machine six days a week, either in the scheduled full-team workouts or partnered up with a teammate.

“It’s so much more boring,” said Moffatt about the off-season training plan. “You’re just sitting there staring at numbers for 90 minutes.... Mentally

it sucks a lot, it’s hot and there’s no windows [in the rowing team’s indoor facility].”

Rowers don’t even get a break during their “off ” month of December, as the athletes are encouraged to stay active throughout their time away from school. Moffatt knows firsthand how important it is to maintain your fitness when the team isn’t training together.

“If you just sit on your couch all of December, January is like a slap in the face,” she said. “The first two weeks of January, especially coming off Christmas break, that sucks.”

Moffatt has had to learn over the years how best to use that month.

“I remember my first year coming back in January it was like, ‘What have I done, I’m totally screwed,’ ” she said. “I think that just comes with time and it depends what level you’re at, too. If you’re junior varsity and trying to make the varsity team you’re probably not doing too much in December because you really don’t have to kill yourself, but if you’re trying to make a national team there’s a lot of different requirements.”

Moffatt knows a thing or two about training for the national team. She won a silver medal at the 2013 Canada Summer Games for Team Ontario in the lightweight double sculls competition. In July, she competed for Canada at the World Under-23 Rowing Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. She and her partner finished third in the B Final of their competition.

For someone who hadn’t even picked up an oar before coming to university, Moffatt has had tremendous success in the sport. Last August, at the Mustangs Athletic Awards Gala, she received the MVP award for lightweight women’s rowing at Western.

Moffatt can only be thankful for the athlete who approached her in the gym in her first year. That person started her on a path that could lead to competing for Canada at the Olympics one day. ❱❱

April, 2016 SPOTLIGHT 43

BASEBALL

By: Charlie O’Connor Clarke

B

aseball is a game of tiny details. A slight change in a pitcher’s delivery or a tiny adjustment to a batting stance can sometimes make all the difference between a win and a loss. That’s why the Mustangs baseball team is on the field non-stop during the season.

Nolan Anderson, a fourth-year engineering student who plays shortstop for Western, knows how tough it is to stay on top of the game. He’s been a huge part of the Mustangs’ team since 2012, when he was honoured as the Ontario University Athletics rookie of the year.

Anderson’s father, a huge baseball fan, was the one who first got him into the game by signing him up for a local house league in London.

“I’ve been playing since I was six or seven,” said Anderson. “Somewhere way back in the day.”

In his four years as a Mustang, Anderson has become accustomed to the rigours of playing for one of the top varsity baseball teams in the province. During the short competition season, the team is on the field every day, with

PHOTO BY KYLE PORTER

44 SPOTLIGHT April, 2016

practice Monday to Friday and typically doubleheaders on both Saturday and Sunday.

Practicing so often means the players have no time for any non-baseball workouts.

“We do all the gym stuff off-season,” said Anderson.

The off-season training regimen starts in January, after a couple months of rest to heal injuries and catch up on schoolwork. Once the team returns from winter break, they’re back at it. “[Coach Mike Lumley] wants you to be working out two or three times a week in the gym,” said Anderson. “He just expects us to do it on our own.”

Other than one full-team practice a week, baseball players have flexibility in how they train in the winter. Anderson takes full advantage of the team’s indoor practice facility, going in alone for extra batting practice at least once a week.

When exams finish in April, the Mustangs disperse, but it seems a significant chunk of the team stayed in London

to play baseball in June and July last year. Anderson played for the local St. Thomas Tomcats, along with nine other Mustangs players.

“There were a lot of us on that team,” said Anderson, “but we’ve got people that go home to Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto.”

The team, then, is quite spread out over the summer.

The coaching staff trust their players to stay in game shape without their supervision.

The Western team reconvenes in August to prepare for the upcoming season. Anderson finds there’s always some rust to shake off at first.

“Your first couple games your swing’s slow, your arm doesn’t feel as good,” he said.

However, he praises the team’s new indoor facility for making the readjustment a lot easier. “[Before the indoor facility], I remember we’d be inside a gym once a week, working out but not really doing much baseball,” reflected Anderson. “[Now], being able to do

baseball skills inside, two times a week, [you can] keep up your bat speed and you’ve been able to keep your arm in shape. It was a lot easier the last couple summers.”

Last year, at least, the August training prepared Anderson and the team extremely well for the season. They went into the playoffs ranked third and won the OUA championship as the host team, recapturing the Jason Guindon Trophy for the first time since 2009.

In October before the playoffs started, Anderson was named a first-team all-star by the OUA after a tremendous season. He finished seventh in the league with a .400 batting average and a .520 slugging percentage, and was one of the top defensive players with 38 fielding assists, committing just one error all season.

Anderson has one year left of varsity eligibility, which he plans to make full use of in defending the Mustangs’ title.

After that, he’s not sure yet what he wants to do. Anderson has no intention of quitting baseball and is looking into playing in a summer league after Western. ❱❱

April, 2016 SPOTLIGHT 45

SPOTLIGHT Mustangs

PHOTO BY TAYLOR LASOTA

46 SPOTLIGHT April, 2016

FOOTBALL

By: Charlie O’Connor Clarke

A

s one of Western’s marquee teams, the pressure on football players to stay at the top of their game is tremendous.

Players like Josh Woodman, a cornerback in his fifth year in the Mustangs system, deal with that pressure by sticking to a disciplined, intense training regimen.

Woodman was always interested in football growing up.

“My grandfather played when he was younger,” he explained, adding his grandfather was also the one to bring Woodman along to his older cousins’ games all the time. “They kind of got me into it.”

When he got to high school, Woodman was finally able to play organized football.

“We didn’t have minor football where I’m from [in Chatham],” he said.

He started with the ChathamKent Cougars as a defensive back before switching to the wide receiver position. He was recruited to Western as a wide receiver and didn’t switch back over to the defensive side until halfway through his career as a Mustang.

His first year on the Mustangs’ team, Woodman didn’t burn a year of his eligibility, not playing enough for that until the final game of his second year. He attributes that to his off-season conditioning.

“My first two years here I didn’t stay back [in London] in the summer and that really showed when I came back to training camp in August,” he said. “I didn’t really play that much because I didn’t understand what it took to commit to football and get that training in.”

After that wake-up call, Woodman figured out how best to get more opportunities to play.

“Once you get to university it’s pretty much a full-year commitment,” he said. “It can’t just be on and off.”

From the training schedule he laid out, that seems about right.

The team practices five days a week during the short competition season, with two or three weightlifting workouts thrown in on top.

It’s not much easier after the season either, with three positional workouts every week, along with a full-team on-field practice and a lifting session with the team’s strength coach, Jeff Watson.

When training camp rolls around in August, Woodman admitted there is some readjusting to do, particularly getting in the first few practices and games with pads and helmets.

“It might take a day or two to get back in the groove of things,” he said. “When the first game comes there’s always a few missed calls or missed tackles.”

At that point in the year, most players haven’t seen game action for months, so Western’s coaching staff raises the level of competition in training camp. “[Head coach Greg Marshall] makes sure that we’re competing almost as if we’re in a game,” said Woodman.

He also noted typically the Mustangs will invite another Ontario University Athletics team — whichever team they aren’t scheduled to play that season — to come participate in a light-contact scrimmage.

Figuring out what it takes to train like a varsity football player has done wonders for Woodman.

He’s appeared in every Mustangs game the past two seasons, making 34.5 total tackles and catching nine interceptions. In 2014, he was named to the second Canadian Interuniversity Sport all-Canadian team.

Now, Woodman’s focus shifts to the upcoming CFL draft. He’ll be hoping to hear his named called in May. He could come back to Western for another year of eligibility, but that will depend on how the next few months play out for him. ❱❱

April, 2016 SPOTLIGHT 47

TENNIS By: Annie Rueter

T

ennis has an incredibly short competition season; this year, the men’s team started their season by facing McMaster on Sept. 13 and wrapped up their season by taking a silver medal in the Ontario University Athletics championships against Toronto on Oct. 18.

Jabrille Kabli, fourth-year honours specialization BMOS accounting student, kept his tennis skills sharp during the long off-season by working as a tennis instructor at the London Hunt and Country Club this past summer.

Kabli, a Trinidad and Tobago native, tried out for the men’s tennis team for the first time this September. Prior to playing at Western, Kabli played in the under-18 International Tennis Federation tour within the Caribbean circuit.

“Coming to university, I basically came to Western opting that I would not play tennis and focus on my academics,” says Kabli. “But now that I’m in fourth year, I didn’t want to graduate Western, look back and be like, ‘I could have played tennis.’ ” After tryouts, the competition season gears up right away.

“Our season, when it starts, it’s straight into matches against other universities, so the coaches try to determine who is the most match-ready,” says Kabli.

To determine that, practices are solely match play. “[It] doesn’t matter who’s played the most tennis in their life, doesn’t matter who has travelled the most,” says Kabli.

“It matters who is playing the best matches at the moment.... So we do a lot of match play and point simulation.”

Independent weight lifting and general fitness training are encouraged by coaches but are not part of the training schedule.

For Kabli, he practices a total of 14 hours weekly during the competition season — two hours of tennis daily, Monday through Sunday.

In the off-season, that commitment drops to two and a half hours weekly.

This off-season, however, is an anomaly for the team.

For the first time in four years, the men’s team has not qualified for Canadian Interuniversity Sport.

“Unfortunately, it’s the first time in four years that we haven’t made nationals,” says Kabli. “Nationals [are] in the summer, during around August, [so] if we were playing nationals we definitely would [have a training camp].”

To qualify for CIS nationals, teams must win their provincial finals. Western finished second in the OUA finals this year.

Beyond the disappointment of not qualifying for nationals, the team faces the constant challenge of getting court time in the off-season.

“I wish there was more practice time in the off-season,”

PHOTO BY ANNIE REUTER

48 SPOTLIGHT April, 2016

says Kabli. “The challenge is, for the most part, buying court time because it’s not even free.”

Although varsity tennis athletes have the advantage of being waived the upfront membership fee, they still need to pay to use the bubble outside scheduled practice time.

What makes practices most enjoyable, Kabli says, is “when the coach is having a laugh as well.” Head coach Anthony Glavanic also encourages athletes to play in a men’s league on Saturdays.

“We have played with the coaches,” Kabli says. “[Glavanic] is probably better than me, but I won’t admit it.”

Kabli’s hope for the men’s team — beyond qualifying for nationals in years to come — is greater integration with the Western community.

“Not many people at school seem to be aware of the tennis dynamic,” says Kabli. “A lot of people are interested that I’ve spoken to, and the way that the bubble is isolated from everything else makes it hard for people to just come across tennis and sit down and play.”

Hopefully, the team can gain wider support from Western students as their success is recognized.

“Everyone wants to see their university team and see what it’s about,” says Kabli. “But with the bubble, if you’re going inside, it’s to be on a tennis court.” ❱❱

RUGBY By: Annie Rueter

I

n 2013, Nikki Case was training with the women’s national sevens Olympic rugby team in Victoria, B.C. Today, she is a second-year student athlete at Western studying general sciences.

Case, a Toronto native, was given the opportunity to train with the Olympic team after accepting her admission offer to Western.

“I was like, ‘What? This has got to be a joke,’ ” says Case.

“I didn’t really didn’t know what my skill level was at but apparently it was higher than most people to have gotten that email.”

After a year of intensive training and playing in rugby tournaments across the globe, Case says she “missed learning” and decided to begin her first year at Western in September 2014.

Since winning the bronze Ontario University Athletics title this past November, the team continues to train intensively during the off-season. Case explains the importance of off-season training and the level of commitment required to achieve individual and team goals.

“A lot of teams make huge jumps in the off-season,” she says. “For example, McMaster has really diligent off-season training and they go to as many tournaments as they can.

That was something we tried to do more of this year and keep up with our rugby in the off-season as a team.”

The off-season for rugby begins in November and allows time for injury recovery — injuries tend to pile on during the season, says Case.

“It’s why it’s so great to have 30 people on the team because 15 play at any given time, but at the end of the year you’re down to three or four subs,” she explains.

After recovery, the team determines individual and collective goals to achieve starting in December. Case’s personal goal is to gain more muscle mass.

“Personally, I’m pretty light for the sport,” she says. “I want to put on more muscle mass because it’s a contact sport — you can get flung around a little bit when you’re light, so it’s advantageous to be heavier.”

Despite being in off-season, the women’s rugby team commits six and a half hours to training each week. Case says the team spends two hours a week on rugby skills and one to one and a half hours of weight lifting three times weekly.

Since last season, the team has seen some changes regarding off-season training. Rather than a personalized weight trainer, the team trusts Jeff Watson, the strength and conditioning coach at the Michael Kirlkey Training Centre, who arranges all the workouts for varsity teams.

“Last year our trainer liked hypertrophy work, which is building a ton of muscle mass, so not necessarily getting stronger,” explains Case. “Jeff [Watson] focuses more on fast, explosive movements, which I think is good for rugby in general.”

One of the greatest challenges the team faces in the off-season is attendance; Case can’t attend one of the lifting

sessions because of night class.

“Everyone is a very committed athlete and also a very committed student,” says Case. “It’s hard putting everything you want into sport and academics.”

After exams wrap up in April, training only amps up for the team. Coaches encourage athletes to join club rugby teams in their hometowns over the summer to gain as much playing time as possible.

After the end of club season, the team jumps into the toughest part of their varsity season: training camp.

“Training camp — no matter if you’re in shape — is very intense,” says Case. “It’s two weeks before school starts, it’s the hottest part of the summer, you’re sweating out more than you can drink and there’s not enough ice in the world to soak your painful body.”

During training camp, the team trains for two two-hour sessions daily for two weeks and plays five test matches.

The intensity level evens the playing field for athletes, many of whom are first-year student athletes playing rugby at the university level for the first time.

And the off-season work pays off; Case was named OUA rookie of the year in 2014 and was named a Canadian Interuniversity Sport all-Canadian athlete in the 2015 season.

Although Case does not want to pursue a professional rugby career, the sport and the people will always play a significant role in her life. Case plans to play throughout the entirety of her undergraduate career. ❱❱

April, 2016 SPOTLIGHT 49

SOCCER By: Annie Rueter

C

onnor McFall, fourth-year political science student at King’s University College, has been a member of Western’s men’s soccer team for three years.

Some of his fondest memories aren’t from the wins, but rather from training camp.

“That’s probably my favourite part of the year”, says McFall, who plays midfield.

“Pre-season, getting to see all the boys, back at school, training every day.”

After a summer of playing club soccer, the team reunites mid-August to kick-start an intensive pre-season training camp.

“We start with two or three practices a day and by about a week into it they knock it down to one practice with a recovery session — so maybe light ball work or shooting,” says McFall. “Pre-season is a lot of fitness to build up cardiovascular endurance.”

In the summer, McFall plays for both FC London and London Marconi.

“Our FC London team that we play for is extremely good — they are probably the highest level of soccer that I have played,” says McFall. “It’s probably two tiers below [Major League Soccer], I would say.”

London Marconi, an amateur team, is currently the back-to-back reigning national champion. The two teams feed players back and forth and also have connections to Western: Western’s women’s soccer coach, Martin Painter, is a former FC London coach.

After playing soccer several times a week from April to November, reduced playing time in the off-season presents a challenge to McFall.

“I kind of get bored or don’t know what to do with my spare time,” he says. “I just like to train, regardless if it’s cardio or scrimmaging — its always fun. I’d rather do that than anything else, really.”

Despite reduced playing time, the team still commits about five hours a week to off-season training.

“Usually we have two in-gym workouts a week and one indoor session in the BMO Centre in London,” says McFall. “Just to get out there and get the legs moving again ... to avoid being rusty basically.”

To get in a bit more playing time, several team members also play futsal at the West-

PHOTO BY KYLE PORTER

50 SPOTLIGHT April, 2016

ern Rec Centre.

Like the women’s rugby team, the men’s soccer team relies on Jeff Watson to design effective weight programs.

“We have a designed workout plan with Jeff Watson in [the Michael Kirkley Training Centre],” says McFall. “He does an extremely good job at developing sport-specific workouts for soccer athletes.”

Rather than attributing the success of the team to any particular element of off-season training, McFall emphasizes the importance of the connection between teammates.

“I think it really comes down to how much we enjoy being with each other and playing with each other as well,” says McFall. “I think it speaks volumes of our team. Although it might not technically translate into points or wins, you can tell that there’s a good connection between us on the field.”

In the 2015 season, the team was eliminated from a chance at the Ontario University Athletic championships by Guelph.

McFall acknowledges how challenging the west division is, which Western plays in.

“We play in the toughest division in the entire [Canadian Interuniversity Sport],” says McFall. “It’s tough to make it out.”

In McFall’s third year in the 2014 season, the CIS final was between McMaster and York; both universities play in the same division as Western. McMaster knocked out Western from a chance at competing in CIS by winning the game on a penalty shot.

McFall transferred to Western from Notre Dame College of Ohio in his second year, but was ineligible to play in the CIS because he had played in the NCAA the previous year.

In terms of McFall’s plans for next year, he is uncertain if he will return to Western as a fifth-year student athlete. McFall anticipates a good athlete turnover due to the coaches’ ability to scout from the talented London pool.

One thing is for sure: McFall will miss the team social dynamic should he not return to the team next year.

“I wouldn’t change it for the world,” says McFall. 

April, 2016 SPOTLIGHT 51

PHOTOS BY KYLE PORTER

E

BEATING EXPECTATIONS

xpectations for the men’s hockey season this past October were not very high. At least, not compared to Mustang teams of the past.

In 2011-12, Western began the season ranked sixth in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport top10 poll. In 2012-13, sixth again. In 2013-14, third.

This year, they didn’t begin the season in the top 10 at all.

And yet, they finished the regular season on an 8–2–0 run, good enough to clinch second place in the tight Ontario University Athletics west division.

The thing is, regular season success wasn’t anything new for this program. The past three seasons Western finished second, first and first in the OUA west.

Each of those seasons, Western had a least one formidable scorer — often more than one — as the offence of Matt Clarke, Daniel Erlich, Zach Harnden and Steve Reese terrorized goaltenders across the OUA. But each of those seasons also brought with it an early playoff exit: A first round loss to Lakehead last year, a second round loss to Windsor the year before and a second round loss to Waterloo the year before that. Despite the firepower, Western came away empty handed in the playoffs.

This year was different.

This year, Western found themselves playing in the Queen’s Cup for the first time since 2012. Despite a heartbreaking overtime loss to the second-ranked Université du Québec à Trois-Rivière Patriotes in the Queen’s Cup, Western had bought themselves a ticket to the nationals for the first time since 2012.

“Not many people maybe gave us a chance at the beginning of this year, seeing our team coming in, to make it this far, so I’m very proud

52 SPOTLIGHT April, 2016

By: Nathan Kanter

of the guys,” said Mustangs captain David Corrente. “I’ve always wanted to make it here, to this point and play in a national tournament.”

The unfortunate truth for Western was they were outmatched at nationals.

They drew arguably the best team in the country in the quarter-finals, the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds, a team that had won four national titles in the last nine years.

UNB was also the top-ranked team in the CIS top-10 poll for the last five consecutive weeks of the 2015-16 season.

The result of the quarter-final was not pretty: UNB crushed Western 5–1, outshooting them 45–15.

“We played a great team today, definitely the best team we’ve faced this year,” said Mustangs head coach Clarke Singer following the loss.

“Once they got a couple [of ] goals, we sagged a little bit and it was tough getting our game back against a really good team. It’s almost like they smelled blood a little bit in the water — they’re circling, circling, circling, ready to go.”

But even making it to nationals was an accomplishment.

The Mustangs were the only team in the eight-team tournament with zero conference all-stars. Not one of their players ranked in the top-50 in CIS scoring in the regular season and their goaltenders combined for an average .910 save percentage — 11th in the country.

“The one thing I can tell you is that we never lost faith,” said Mustangs defenceman Stephen Gaskin. “The whole way through we knew the type of team we had and that we could compete at a high level and we proved it.”

Gaskin’s comments after the loss ring true, as very few people expected Western to make it to nationals.

So how did they make it?

Both Singer and the three seniors — David

Corrente, Stephen Gaskin and Shaun Furlong — who had to talk to the media following their devastating loss said the same thing: It was hard work and resilience all season long that got Western to the nationals.

“Credit to our leaders for the type of culture they’ve established in our dressing room,” Singer said. “I’m proud of our guys. They worked hard right until the final buzzer. We’ve had an outstanding year and lost to a good hockey team.”

Singer pointed out Western was facing elimination in two separate playoff series, yet they found a way to win. The amount of injuries the team faced at the beginning of the year also speaks to the character of this team.

But character and hard work can only get you so far — that much was clear this season.

Perhaps it hurts a little less that UNB went on to win the championship, their fifth in the last 10 years. Perhaps it doesn’t.

Above all, this year’s results are a learning experience for Western’s younger players.

“You have to be here and experience everything that goes on with being at the nationals and a long playoff run — the hills and the valleys — to become a better team,” Singer said. “Hopefully we take from this experience, the good and the bad, and we learn from it and come back a stronger group next year.”

The returning crop includes five of Western’s top-six scorers: Matt Marantz, Spenser Cobbold, Ray Huether, Andrew Goldberg and Trent Ouellette. Plus Cody Brown, who recorded nine points in just 10 games because of injury, will also return. Brown and Goldberg were also 1–2 in Western playoff scoring.

With Corrente and Gaskin gone, there will be a significant void on the blueline. But as Western proved this year, work ethic and heart can go a long way. 

BATTLING ADVERSITY By: Claire Palmer

T

his season was a season of adversity for the Western Mustangs women’s hockey team.

The team went 14-1-8-1 during the regular season and once again battled their way to both the Ontario University Athletics finals and the Canadian Interuniversity Sport championship.

“I’m proud of the way our team played this year,” said Mustangs head coach Dave Barrett.

“Given everything that happened, it was a successful season.”

The team battled through injuries and bad puck luck, which led to some unfortunate losses and offensive challenges. Despite this, the team came together as a unit and really embraced their identity as a team.

Western swept Waterloo in the first round and came from behind to claim a series victory over Nipissing after a triple overtime thriller, propelling them to the OUA finals.

“There was a continued commitment to our identity as a team,” said Barrett. “As well as a continued emphasis on a team first approach to everything. That allowed us to have a family culture.”

The team’s offensive struggles persisted all season long.

After leading scorer Kendra Broad was injured in January, goals dried up for the Mustangs, resulting in a seven game slide where the team only won one game.

“The inconsistency in our offensive production lead to our downfall at the end of the season,” said Barrett. “It’s having the willingness to go to the difficult part of ice, particularly in front of our opponents net to get those rebounds and deflection goals.”

As the season continued, many younger players came into their own, developing with the team as they made the jump to university hockey. With encouragement from the veterans

on the team, the new players gained confidence.

“We had a bunch of new players who felt a little apprehensive to assert themselves coming into a national champ team,” said Barrett.

“But I think [the Levesque sisters] are going to be exceptional college players. April Clark and Catherine O’Connor bring a tremendous amount of energy and enthusiasm to our team.”

The Levesque sisters certainly matured over the regular season, peaking just in time for the playoffs. Offensively, Evra Levesque, along with linemates Amanda Pereira and Lyndsay Kirkham, had points in almost every postseason game this year. Pereira and Kirkham, although not first years like the twins, were also new to the team this season. The line scored one of the biggest goals of the year in triple overtime against Nipissing to send the team to the OUA final as well as the CIS championships.

“I’d never been in a game of that length before,” said Barrett. “It was the deciding game to send us to nationals [and that] made it a highlight of the year.”

The team unfortunately found themselves outmatched by the Guelph Gryphons in their OUA final, as they fell 5-1. The Mustangs couldn’t defend their banner from last season, but the way they got there made it a highlight for Barrett.

Other highlights for the team included raising their CIS banner from the previous season — the first in program history — the team’s road trip to the states to compete against Cornell and Quinnipiac, and of course, their trip to Calgary for the CIS championships for a chance to defend their national banner.

Unfortunately, the Mustangs offensive woes followed them to nationals, where they only managed to score one goal over the course of the tournament.

The Mustangs lost their first game of the tournament 1–0 to the Saint Mary’s Huskies.

Despite having a number of scoring opportunities, the game was scoreless until the third period when Huskies forward Caitlyn Schell notched the lone goal.

And just like that, Western lost the opportunity to defend their CIS banner. They were left to fight through the consolation semifinal for the chance to claim fifth place at best.

Once again, a lack of scoring was their kryptonite in their second game against the Dinos.

“It was an area of concern knowing we weren’t producing a lot up front in the last couple of games,” Mustangs associate coach Kelly Paton said. “We tried to put some spark in our girls [but] it just wasn’t our game for scoring.”

The Calgary Dinos eased to a 3–1 win in the CIS consolation semifinal.

The loss to the Dinos marked the end of the season for the Mustangs. It also marked the end of a number of intercollegiate careers for a number of fifth-year Mustangs players like Kelly Campbell, Katelyn Gosling, Kendra Broad, Brittany Clapham and Stacey Scott.

“We had some great times together, I’ve come to love and appreciate each one of them,” said Barrett “they’re all like family to me at this point.”

Graduating players aren’t the only thing the Mustangs will be losing next year; Barrett will not be returning as head coach. Kelly Paton will be taking over the team starting in September with Barrett staying on in a senior advisor role to help her transition into her new role.

“It’s about helping Kelly more than anything next year,” said Barrett about his new role with the team. “She’s exceptional at skill development, she’s exceptional at fitness and conditioning, she’s strong tactically.” 

April, 2016 SPOTLIGHT 53

SPOTLIGHT Mustangs

Soaring to new heights By: Nathan Kanter

GEOFF ROBINS MUNDO SPORT IMAGES

Robin Bone is the only pole vaulter in Canada to compete with a helmet, but she refuses to let the extra equipment get in the way of her Olympic dreams.

I

t’s the Canadian Interuniversity Sport track and field championships in Toronto and Western pole vaulter Robin Bone is about to jump for the gold medal.

All she needs is 3.91 metres, well below her career best of 4.36.

“It was a very special meet for me to finish,” Bone says in a phone interview from Florida three weeks after the CIS championships. “All the other events were over ... [and] our team bus waited for me to finish pole vaulting so my entire team was cheering for me on the side.

“It was the feeling of ‘wow, this is it, this is time for me to go out with a bang,’ ” Bone says.

Not only were her teammates there to support her, but so were her parents and her brother, Mustangs quarterback Stevenson Bone, who had driven to York University to see his sister immediately following football practice in London.

54 SPOTLIGHT April, 2016

And so, with all this support behind her, Bone went for the gold.

“The first thing that went through my mind is, ‘it was a bad jump,’ ” Bone recalls.

But “bad” is different for different people.

For Bone — someone who head track and field coach Vickie Croley says is “the most consistent, female vaulter at the highest level that the CIS has ever seen” — “bad” is still good enough to win her a third career CIS gold.

Later, Bone increases the height to 4.25 metres in an attempt to break the meet record. It will be her last jump as a Mustang and to no one’s surprise, she succeeds, setting a new meet record for the 19th time in her university career.

“One teammate, Joy Spear Chief-Morris, one of my closest friends, she came up to me, gave me this hug and basically grabbed my shoulders and said, ‘You did it!’ ” Bone says. “That’s when it hit me and I started crying, because I thought ‘oh my gosh, I did it.’ ” Western pole vault coach Dave Collins says he can’t believe Bone’s track career has come and gone so fast. He borrows legendary football coach Vince Lombardi’s words when reflecting on her career.

“I would sum up her career as a ‘relentless pursuit of perfection,’ ” he says. “Robin and I have had such a close relationship.... We have a mutual respect for each other ... and her success challenges me to be a better coach and to continue to learn.” ❱❱

COURTESY OF LIFE2 PHOTOGRAPHY

B

one is a member of one of the most successful Mustang families ever: her father, Jamie, led Western’s football team to two nationals championships in the 1970s and her brother, Stevenson, is now the current Mustangs starting quarterback.

But it’s her mom who Robin says wins “most valuable family member.”

“She waits around after football games, she waits around after track meets, my dad coaches so she’s waiting for dad to finish up at practice, waiting for my brother to finish practice,” Bone says. “Without her, it would be tough to make it all work.”

Bone was born in Toronto but grew up in the small town of Darien, Connecticut, a town of roughly 20,000. Growing up, she played everything from lacrosse to softball to football but eventually committed herself to gymnastics. “[Gymnastics] still is true my true passion,” Bone says. “I just can’t get enough of it.”

But after suffering her fifth concussion by the age of 16, doctors had to relay some grim news: “I don’t think it’s safe for you to return to gymnastics,” they told her.

When Bone first heard her doctor utter these words, she was simply annoyed, thinking it meant she would only miss the beginning of her gymnastics season.

“The second time he said it, it totally stuck like a knife into my heart,” Bone says. “I remember thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, he’s not talking about today, tomorrow, next week, next

month. He’s saying ever.’ Just that thought made me feel immediately sick to my stomach. I felt like I was in shock.”

Without gymnastics, Bone felt lost.

“I struggled with finding my purpose,” Bone says. “I felt like I was gymnastics.”

But her father sat her down and told her words she has never forgotten.

“Gymnastics wasn’t who you are, it’s just what you did,” Jamie told his daughter.

As unfortunate as that experience was for Bone, she says it shaped her into the person she is today.

“In a weird way I guess I’m thankful having to go through something so tough,” she says.

Western head track and field coach Croley says facing this adversity early in her career wasn’t necessarily what has helped Bone become so successful.

“I don’t know if overcoming adversity is the reason for [her success] or if it is just who she is,” Croley says. “I truly think she is just highly driven and when she couldn’t compete in gymnastics anymore, she needed a new challenge, and pole vault was it.”

Rachael Muma, Bone’s roommate and teammate on the track team, points out another type of adversity Bone has faced: wearing a helmet.

Bone is the only pole vaulter in Canada to compete with a helmet, which she has to wear because of her concussion history. ❱❱

April, 2016 SPOTLIGHT 55

COURTESY OF JAMIE BONE

“I

COURTESY OF LIFE2 PHOTOGRAPHY

t definitely takes a particular self-confidence to do something no one else is doing and it’s a very admirable trait Robin possesses,” Muma says. “One of Robin’s mantras has always been ‘Never let anyone dull your sparkle’ and she truly lives by that every day.”

Bone recalls a particular moment in high school that lit a fire under her and pushed her to new limits.

As a sophomore track athlete, she was invited to a high school invitational with some of the best seniors in Connecticut because the seniors from her high school team had to write their SATs. Bone came in last — she hadn’t been pole vaulting for very long so her competitors were jumping five feet higher than her — but afterwards when was standing in line for refreshments, she overheard senior vaulters talking and laughing so she thought it might be a good time to make some new friends.

Soon, she realized they were laughing at her but they didn’t make the connection because she wasn’t wearing her helmet in line.

“I remember thinking, ‘OK, you think you know helmet girl? I’ll show you Robin Bone,’ ” she recalls. “I’m a very competitive person so I went crazy into pole vault learning....

I like proving people wrong. If somebody thinks that I can’t do something, I want to make sure I can do it.”

The next challenge on Bone’s list is a huge hurdle: qualifying for the Olympics.

Bone competed in the Florida relays last week as preparation for the upcoming Canadian Olympic trials in Edmonton from July 7-10.

To qualify for Rio 2016, she needs to accomplish two things; one, she must jump 4.50 metres and; two, she must finish top-three at the Olympic trials.

Bone is competing and training outside in warm weather because indoor competitions don’t count, so even if she jumped 4.50 metres indoors, she wouldn’t be able to cross her

56 SPOTLIGHT April, 2016

COURTESY OF ROBIN BONE

first objective off her list.

This is also why she competed as infrequently as possible during Western’s season, which is strictly indoors.

The tricky thing is that even if Bone does jump 4.50 metres, which is 14 centimetres higher than she has ever jumped, she isn’t guaranteed a spot — she still has to beat out most of Canada’s top jumpers.

Between now and the Olympic trials, Bone will head to Phoenix for about a month to train at ALTIS, an elite athletic training centre, where she will train under Greg Hull and Dan Pfaff. A lot of other athletes, many of whom have already competed at the Olympics, will be at ALTIS with Bone.

Both coach Croley and coach Collins believe Bone can qualify, but they also agree that she needs to technically improve on her plant.

“She will need to fine tune some things in her plant that will maximize the energy she puts in,” Collins says. “Sometimes in track and field there are those break through technical moments that yield huge improvements. Robin has had some of these in the last couple of years but there are more that she can still get.”

Bone is well aware of this.

“I need to fix a couple things in my take off,” she says.

“Right now I only grip at about 3.95 metres ... [but] most of the other girls grip for sure over four, potentially even 4.20.

“I just have to grip up a bit.”

If anyone is sure about Bone making this next leap, it’s her roommate Muma.

“The other night at dinner we were discussing the funding that goes into supporting individual’s Olympic dreams and Robin said something along the lines of, ‘I can’t put a price on that. There is no dollar amount on the Olympics.

The Olympics is not x-amount of dollars, the Olympics is everything,’ ” Muma says. 

PHOTO BY KYLE PORTER