Chihuahua-terrier mix Fumble receives a warning from the ref.

The eighth annual Puppy Bowl kicks off Sunday Feb. 5 on Animal Planet and it promises to be just as heated, intense and confusing as the previous years. There aren’t many rules to the Puppy Bowl, but it involves 10 adorable puppies at a time taking to a miniature football field with the hopes of dragging a chew-toy across the goal line — or falling asleep.

The scoring may be arbitrary, the players devoid of any sort of team spirit — or for that matter, a team — and the strategy completely inscrutable, but one can’t argue with the sheer pluck and heart exhibited by the athletes.

Fans of the sport are familiar with the event’s usual components and this year’s broadcast will revisit all of the fan favourites of years past. The hamster blimp crew will be back, providing a bird’s eye view of the action from high above puppy stadium, while the customary kitten half-time show will return in a blaze of confusion and bewilderment.

New features to the broadcast have also been introduced, including a piglet cheer crew that will root the players on from the sidelines. And, not to be left behind by new media, the network has employed a bird named Meep to live-tweet the event. Meep’s involvement finally brings this archaic sport screaming into the modern era.

While the NFL is abuzz with talk of the rematch between rival quarterbacks Tom Brady and Eli Manning, the Puppy Bowl has its own share of heated conflict.

Augusta (right) hangs back in the safety position.

Take for example Aberdeen and Abilene, two Australian shepherd mix breeds who both hail from the SPCA of Sullivan County, NY. These two came up together in Rock Hill, NY, both striving to one-up the other from the time they were born 10 weeks ago. Their rivalry has been bitter and fans can expect the same level of competition on the field that has become so commonplace in the kennel. Neither of these two are above playing a little dirty and, in the absence of an attentive referee, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect some ear biting or after-the-whistle tackles.

The big news on the field, however, is the two rookie players who are making their Puppy Bowl debuts. Fumble, a Chihuahua-terrier mix and Hunter, a boxer pup, both only nine weeks old, will take to the field and try to prove their worth in an arena full of players that, in some cases, have over six-and-a-half weeks of experience on them. Only game day will tell how these two untested rookies will fare on the field; will they rise to the occasion and give their older competitors a run for their money, or give in to the pressure and totally shit the field?

The trend this year is toward smaller, quicker players, which could mean that this will be the most fast-paced year in the event’s history: Chihuahua-terrier mixes facing off against dachshunds in a high-tempo frenzy. While some analysts defend the league’s move to smaller, faster breeds, purists in the fanbase have already begun vocally pining for the good old days, such as in Puppy Bowl VI when Kiva, an 11-week-old Alaskan malamute held the entire offensive line and led his team to a decisive victory.

This year’s halftime show will be just as scandalous as ever.

Of course, as in the human sports organizations, there has also been a recent controversy surrounding the health and well-being of the players in the canine league, which could explain the shift away from violent clashes of large players. New discoveries in the link between trauma suffered by pro-athletes and health problems later in life have hit the puppy league just as hard as the NFL and NHL.

Forced to retire by a medical advisory at the young age of two and a half, the now three-year-old Kiva’s feelings are understandably complex. A source close to the former puppy explained that though he has fond memories of the way the game used to be played, he sympathizes with the toll that puppy football can take on a player and realizes the need for change.

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Photos: Animal Planet

File photo by Raisa Pezderic/The Sheaf

The Dogs downed the hosting Thompson Rivers University Wolfpack 3-2 (25-21, 20-25, 19-25, 25-22, 15-8) and 3-0 (25-17, 25-18, 25-2) on consecutive nights to mark only their second and third wins of the 2011-12 campaign.

Led by middle blocker Geoff Zerr, the Huskies were able to come back from a two-sets-to-one deficit in the weekend’s first match and win it 15-8 in the fifth and final set.

Zerr, who recorded 11 kills in the first game, was hot in the second match as well. His nine kills, seven digs and three blocks allowed Saskatchewan to take the game in just three sets, which included a dominant 25-2 win in the final set.

The Saskatchewan men move to 3-13 on the year while TRU falls to 3-15.

The Dogs women’s team, who also faced TRU, were on the opposite end of the broom as the Wolfpack swept them 3-1 (20-25, 25-12, 34-32, 21-25) and 3-0 (25-22, 25-20, 25-20).

They now sit with a 0-16 record on the year while the Wolfpack are 8-10.

The Huskies men’s and women’s teams will host the University of British Columbia Okanagan Heat at home Feb. 3 and 4.

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Photo: Raisa Pezderic/The Sheaf

Fourth quarter explosion helps Huskies men clinch playoff spot

Jamelle Barrett beats a Brandon defender.

A 23-point Saskatchewan lead after the first quarter of action put the weekend’s first game out of reach for the Bobcats almost immediately. Though Brandon actually outscored Saskatchewan by one point in the remainder of the game, the Dogs easily won 92-70.

The Huskies did a nice job of spreading the ball around with four players achieving double-digit points. They also outshot Brandon by 12 per cent and battled around the basket to gain possession on 20 rebounds more than their opponents.

Brandon, however, came more prepared for the match-up the following night. Bobcats forwards Ali Mounir and Kyle Vince led the charge to help the team gain a 22-15 lead after the first quarter.

Along with the offensive upgrade, Brandon mounted a stronger zone defensive plan — meaning their defenders covered specific areas of the court as opposed to specific Huskie players — which forced Saskatchewan to adjust and shoot from farther away.

“They came out with that zone, and it felt like we got into a rut where we were stuck on the perimeter,” said Huskies head coach Barry Rawlyk. “They really out-hustled us in the first quarter and we didn’t respond well to that.”

The Dogs slowly began to chip away at the lead, and tied the game in the second quarter with a long three-point basket from Jamelle Barrett. Barrett brought the ball back down the court on the next offensive rush and lobbed the ball perfectly into the hands of Michael Lieffers, who was in mid-flight at the side of the net and slammed the ball down for the two-point alley-oop.

Lieffers put up 23 points and 13 rebounds in the match. The effort was enough for him to eclipse the 1,000 career rebounds mark, which he had done in points a week earlier. Lieffers joins an elite group of Huskies, becoming only the fifth player in team history to accomplish both 1,000 points and rebounds.

The Bobcats found themselves in foul trouble in the second half, including a technical team foul charged to Brandon’s head coach. It seemed enough to swing momentum in favor of the Huskies, who then managed to score more consistently.

By the final quarter the Huskies hit full stride. Peter Lomuro sank a three-point shot two minutes into the frame to make the score 73-60. They followed up that score with five more unanswered baskets set up by crafty passing from Barrett.

The Dogs didn’t relinquish the lead and won the game 89-70, outscoring Brandon by 16 points in the fourth quarter.

“The game became fun in the fourth quarter, and when we’re having fun that is when we are at our best,” said fifth-year Duncan Jones, who finished with 21 points and three steals on the evening.

“If we can play that way for 40 minutes I think we will be tough to stop.”

Huskies women silence Bobcat scorers

The Huskies women’s basketball team nearly doubled the points of their opponents Friday, Jan. 27 at the PAC, as they dominated the league’s worst team, the Brandon University Bobcats.

Saskatchewan downed the visitors 81-42.

The Huskies came out firing, putting up 16 points on the board before Brandon realized they needed to score baskets of their own. The strong effort from younger Dogs like Dalyce Emmerson and Kelsey Trulsrud was exactly what the team needed with the absence of the team’s leading scorer Katie Miyazaki, who was resting a sprained finger.

Brandon showed signs of life in the second quarter, scoring more than twice their first quarter points in the first six minutes of the second frame. The momentum was short-lived, however, as the Huskies took control soon after and maintained it for the rest of the game.

The teams met again the following night, and Huskies head coach Lisa Thomaidis felt her squad didn’t start the match as strong as it should have.

“I was disappointed with the intensity we brought into this game,” she said. “Yesterday we came out on fire and dictated the tempo, but the beginning of this game we didn’t show up with the kind of intensity that is required at this level.”

At the end of the first quarter Brandon was within five points, and even managed to tie the game momentarily in the second quarter. However, the Huskies responded with a 17-4 point run, controlling the game the rest of the way and eventually winning 77-47.

Huskies point guard Kelsey Trulsrud nabbed player of the game status and finished the weekend with 21 points, four steals and nine rebounds. She attributes her first-year success largely to the guidance of the veterans on the team.

“The three fifth-year players help out by teaching us [rookies] where to go in practices, warm-ups and games. They are leading us on the right path,” said Trulsrud.

Following the weekend rout of the Bobcats, the Huskies move to 11-4 on the season and keep up in the tight battle for a home playoff spot. The club has five games remaining in the regular season, including a provincial rivalry match against the undefeated Regina Cougars before playoffs.

Brandon, on the other hand, doesn’t have a single win to boast about this season and their record falls to 0-16.

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Photo: Raisa Pezderic/The Sheaf

FRASER CALDWELL 
The Silhouette (McMaster University)

HAMILTON (CUP) — These days, Kevin Rempel is best known for his exploits on a sled. But in 2006, it was another vehicle that changed his life unalterably.

The Dundas, Ont. native lived to ride his dirt bike. What he wanted most was to bask in the pure, adrenaline-fuelled freedom of the motocross jump.

Kevin Rempel has become a dominant member of Team Canada.

Four and a half years ago, Rempel realized this dream, only to see it quite literally crash down around him. Losing control of his bike in the midst of a jump, he found himself plunging to the ground. Lying in the dirt, Rempel knew that his life would never be the same.

“I remember staring up at the sky and thinking, ‘Oh crap, I’m paralyzed,’ ” the 29-year-old said of his fateful crash. “In that moment, everything just froze.”

Rempel had dealt with paralysis since 2002, when his father Gerald suffered an accident while hunting and became a paraplegic. Four years later, it was the younger Rempel’s turn to experience a life-changing injury.

“I recall that when I saw my dad fall out of the tree, my life was going to be little bit different forever in dealing with his injury,” said Rempel. “When I crashed, I knew once again that my life was again going to change.”

Rempel’s previous experience with the harsh reality of paralysis prepared him for the aftermath of his own injury.

That’s because in the wake of his 2002 accident, Gerald Rempel had struggled and ultimately failed to cope with his disability. He spiralled into depression, developed a gambling addiction and ended his own life.

When it came time for the younger Rempel to cope with his disability, he chose to pursue a different path.

“My dad was a great person, and I have nothing negative to say about him as a father,” said Rempel. “But unfortunately, he let his accident defeat him and he became a victim of his disability rather than seeing the bright side in that he still had a lot to live for.

“I took that experience and decided that I didn’t want to live like that. In my recovery, I wanted to do the opposite and live a prosperous life, regardless of what the outcome was going to be from my injuries.”

Two years after his accident, Rempel discovered the sport that would come to dominate and redefine his new life. He had played hockey as an able-bodied individual before the crash, but had never experienced the sled variety. When a friend introduced him to the sport, it took only moments before he was hooked.

“As soon as someone told me about it I wanted to try it, and as soon as I got on the ice, I knew that this was something I wanted to do for a long time.”

Rempel began to play with the Niagara Thunderblades team out of St. Catherines in 2008, and very quickly took to the game, ordering his own custom sled and gaining the attention of coaches at Sledge Ontario, the organizing body for sledge hockey in Ontario.

Battling through a prescription medication addiction to make the provincial squad, the Dundas native continued his climb to the very top of the national sledge hockey ranks. Within two years, a man who had known nothing of the sport saw his name on the roster of Team Canada.

Not only is Rempel donning the red and white these days, he’s thriving as part of the successful team. Most recently, the Canadians won the World Sledge Hockey Challenge in December, and look poised to be at the top of the heap when the World Championships roll around this year.

Despite the fact that the majority of his teammates are similarly paralyzed, Rempel says the atmosphere in the locker room is never one of commiseration. Rather, the athletes enjoy making light of their shared situation.

“We’re all troopers,” said Rempel of his teammates. “We’re all so strong in getting to this point. To be on Team Canada and to reach this level with a disability means that we’re pretty strong as it is. If anything, we poke fun at each other and joke about our disabilities.

“You’ve got to have that attitude, not just in the locker room but in life as well. You can’t take these things too seriously.”

In his continued search for improvement, Rempel works with the training staff at McMaster University’s Pulse Fitness Centre, being led in his routines by experienced trainer Jeremy Steinbach.

Steinbach indicates that the sledge standout’s success derives from his competitive attitude, a determination that sees him persevere despite his physical challenges.

“He is motivated to get better, that’s the main thing,” said the trainer of his charge’s mentality. “He works his tail off and comes in here with a good attitude, and is never afraid to try new things. We’ve tried things before and they haven’t worked because of his disability, but we troubleshoot things as we go.”

New things have come in droves for Rempel since his accident, and he has discovered a talent outside of sport that he never knew he possessed. Since the crash, the Dundas native has begun motivational speaking, through no design of his own.

“It was a total fluke that I got into it,” said Rempel of his public speaking engagements.

“Just by talking to people, they told me that I had a powerful story and that I should be a public speaker. It was through my college co-op program — where someone knew me and my story — that I was asked to do my first event.

“I did my five-minute speech and suddenly I was getting a standing ovation. Someone noticed me, got me my next gig, and I thought, ‘Wow, I guess I’ve got something here and people like hearing it.’”

Editor’s Note: On Jan. 22, Kevin Rempel and the Canadian men’s sledge hockey team won gold at the Four Nations tournament in Nagano, Japan. They defeated Norway 5-1 in the final. Their next action is a three-game series against the United States from Feb. 24 to 26 in Buffalo, N.Y. They will travel to Hamar, Norway in April for the 2012 International Paralympic Committee’s Sledge Hockey World Championship.

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Photo: Hockey Hall of Fame and Hockey Canada

Michael Lieffers has scored 1,000 points in just four years as a Huskie. He is also close to reaching 1,000 career rebounds.

When the Huskies men’s basketball team hosts the Brandon University Bobcats at home on Jan. 27 and 28, it is very likely that Michael Lieffers will cross a career milestone.

The 6-8 forward from Saskatoon became the 37th Huskie ever to reach 1,000 career points on Jan. 20 when he put up eight points in a game against the University of British Columbia Okanagan Heat. He is also only 14 boards shy of becoming the fifth Huskie ever to grab 1,000 rebounds.

Lieffers, however, isn’t paying attention to the numbers.

“My girlfriend was just saying that I’m getting close to 1,000 rebounds,” said Lieffers. “She told me a number but I can’t really remember what it was.”

His focus is on winning a national championship — something he also did in 2009-2010 with the Huskies.

Lieffers, who played a year at Lakeland College in Lloydminster before joining the Huskies in 2008, was a major part of the Dogs’ first-ever Canada West and Canadian Interuniversty Sport title wins.

Those wins were dedicated to their teammate Brennan Jarrett.

In 2008, when Lieffers was in his first-year with the Huskies, he — along with the entire Saskatchewan team — lost Jarrett to cancer. It was an event that changed Lieffers’ perspective on basketball completely.

“Brennan was an incredible guy,” he said. “He always lived with the motto that with privilege comes great responsibility. Everyday I try to think about that; to realize how privileged you are to be able to play and just to be here.”

Lieffers in action.

Nolan “may never be able to run again,” said Lieffers. “An injury like that is incredible and it makes you realize how privileged you are to play basketball.”

It also makes Lieffers laugh at the panic he felt when he thought he had suffered a potentially serious injury prior to the 2009-2010 CIS semi-final.

According to Lieffers, he had slipped on a wet bathroom floor while getting ready to leave for the game.

“My heels just went way up in the air instantly. My feet hit the toilet. The toilet jumped into the air and it exploded. I smashed my knee on the vanity, hit my head on the door. The [toilet] came crashing down and water just started” spraying everywhere.

He suffered a deep gash on his right ankle and was rushed to the hospital via ambulance.

The news spread throughout the tournament and to TSN that Lieffers might not play. This was not true. The ambulance supervisor, clearly a basketball fan, stayed at the hospital, waiting for Lieffers to receive his stitches. Once Lieffers was treated, the supervisor rushed him back to the game.

Lieffers arrived just before tip-off and, as if nothing had happened, he put up a double-double — 13 points and 11 rebounds — in the game.

“I thought that if I get a chance to play tonight, I’m just going to focus and leave everything on the floor,” he told Global Saskatoon following the tournament.

It’s that mentality that keeps Lieffers gunning for another championship.

“I don’t really care about making an all-star or whatever. For me it’s about getting that ring. That’s what really matters.”

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Photos: Raisa Pezderic/The Sheaf &
Pete Yee

Dogs women too much for Canada West scoring leader 

Huskies forward Kiera Lyons shoots over a UBC Okanagan defender.

A 92-55 stomping over the University of British Columbia Okanagan Heat on Jan. 20 didn’t go to the Huskies’ heads when they faced the Thompson Rivers Wolf Pack the following night.

Saskatchewan knew they would be facing a much stronger opponent.

“I think we all knew that this game was going to be a lot more competitive than the last game,” said Huskies first-year forward Dalyce Emmerson, whose 13 points and 14 rebounds led the Dogs to a 70-62 win over the Wolf Pack.

Emmerson, who has seven double-doubles this year, was charged with the daunting task of covering Canada West scoring leader Diane Schuetze.

“I knew Diane Schuetze was going to be a good player but I didn’t realize she was such a threat from all over the floor,” said Emmerson. “At first it was a bit of a shock to me but I think I adjusted well in the second half.”

Schuetze, a fourth-year forward, had a game-high 31 points. 16 of those came in the first quarter, however, as Emmerson adjusted well to covering her.

“Coach told me to sit more on her left shoulder because that’s where she goes,” said Emmerson, who had “to battle her so she didn’t get the position that she wanted.”

Despite holding a 5-9 record and sitting in second-last place in the Canada West conference’s Pacific division, the Wolf Pack have come close to downing the country’s top teams this year.

They came within five points of beating Canadian Interuniversity Sport’s No. 1-ranked Regina Cougars on Nov. 26 and, on the weekend prior to meeting the Huskies, nearly upset the No. 3 University of British Columbia Thunderbirds in a close 59-55 loss.

“They’re a quality team. We knew we’d have our hands full,” said Dogs head coach Lisa Thomaidis. “Thankfully we came out with the win.”

Against UBC Okanagan, Emmerson put up a game-high 17 points to accompany her 11 rebounds.

Huskies men add two wins

Led by Peter Lomuro and Jamelle Barrett, the Huskies men’s basketball team walked all over the visiting UBC Okanagan Heat and Thompson Rivers Wolf Pack Jan. 20 and 21, respectively.

Lomuro, who put up 18 points in Saskatchewan’s 96-67 win over the Heat, added a game-high 26 more against TRU.

“He was knocking down shots from everywhere,” said Huskies head coach Barry Rawlyk. “He carries himself with a great deal of confidence and when he gets in a bit of a groove he can really go.”

“I just put them up like I do in practice,” added Lomuro.

Lomuro, a fifth-year transfer who formerly played for the University of Winnipeg Wesmen, said the scoring came easy because of the Dogs’ strong defence and his ability to find open spaces on the court.

Barrett, of course, greatly assisted Lomuro’s efforts by dropping 10 dimes, recording three steals and adding 14 points in the game. He put up a game-high 25 points against UBC Okanagan.

Saskatchewan forward Michael Lieffers’ performance over the weekend should also be noted. Against the Heat, his eight points pushed him past 1,000 career points as a Huskie. He added 14 points and 13 rebounds against the Wolf Pack the following night and now sits only 14 rebounds away from breaking the 1,000-rebounds mark.

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Photo: Raisa Pezderic/The Sheaf

Cara Wooster, donning the Huskies “Play for a Cure” jerseys, scored the overtime winner Jan. 20.

On Jan. 21, in the second of two games the Huskies women’s hockey team played against the visiting Manitoba Bisons, the Dogs lost 4-3 in a shootout.

Both teams had to send five shooters before Bisons forward Nellie Minshull scored the only goal of the breakaway contest. Minshull, however, fumbled the puck on her way to the net and had to stop to reach back and retrieve the puck before she fired it through Huskies goaltender Mackenzie Rizos’ five-hole. The crowd and the Huskies bench erupted when the goal was allowed, thinking that the play should have been considered dead when Minshull was forced to stop and turn back. After some referee deliberation the goal was still counted, giving Manitoba the extra point and the win.

“I don’t know how she makes that call,” commented Huskies head coach Steve Kook in regards to the referee’s decision. “Our goalie thought it was a dead play. Their player thought it was a dead play and probably shot the puck because she was pissed off.”

The official ruling on shootout and penalty shots is that the puck, not the player, must be kept in motion towards the goal line. Therefore, as long as the puck did not stop in its forward movement the goal was rightfully allowed.

Huskies forward Danny Stone started the scoring in the first period for the Dogs and added another midway through the second frame with help from the nifty passing of Julia Flinton and Breanne George.

The Bisons’ Caitlin MacDonald and Addie Miles each potted a goal to tie the game at two going into the third period. Manitoba then took their first lead of the game three minutes into the third frame when Amy Lee tallied one.

The Dogs managed to tie it up again late in the third period after a long slap shot from the point rang off the post and bounced to a wide open Sara White, who easily pushed it past the goal line for her sixth goal of the year.

Overtime solved nothing despite a two-minute man advantage for the Huskies after Manitoba’s Caitlin MacDonald got called for holding. The shootout ensued and Manitoba won with Minshull’s effort.

It wasn’t the first time these two teams needed extra time to find a winner. The previous night’s game also went into overtime with the teams knotted at two goals each after 60 minutes.

Huskies forward Cara Wooster came up big in that game, scoring 3:28 into the extra frame to give the Dogs a 3-2 win.

“I jumped off the bench and went all the way around the net, the puck landed on my stick and the goalie overplayed it so I was able to put it into the open net,” she explained.

That goal counts as Wooster’s second overtime winner this year and puts her at sixth in the Canada West points race.

Wooster isn’t about to rest on those stats, however, and going into the bye week she recognizes the team can still improve.

“We need to get back to hard work,” she said. “We can’t dwell on this loss too long. We got three out of four points [this weekend], but we need to move on.”

Huskies Lindsay Karst and Julie Paetsch both scored in the weekend’s first game to give the Dogs a 2-0 lead early in the second period. The lead shrunk to one before the second intermission, though, with a power play goal from Manitoba’s Minshull. Then in the final frame the Bisons scored their second goal on the man advantage, this one coming off the stick of Caitlin MacDonald.

The Dogs were sporting their special “Play For A Cure” jerseys in that game. Play For A Cure, held by Huskie Athletics, raises funds and awareness for cancer research. The jerseys were sold to fans and Huskie alumni following the game, and the team sold raffle tickets for a pink Play For A Cure quilt.

The Huskies raised a total of $3700 towards the charity, but that amount will rise as more jerseys are still being sold.

“Cancer is one of those diseases that no matter whom you know, someone is always affected by it, and I think it’s great that the team does something to try and help out,” said Rizos. “We are all people, and to do something beyond hockey to help the community and the Canadian Cancer Society is great.”

The women’s team will rest up this week as they enjoy a week off. They will resume play Feb. 3 and 4 when they travel to Calgary to take on the Dinos, who boast a 9-1 home record.

Bisons trample Dogs

The Huskies men’s hockey team suffered its first back-to-back regulation losses of the season last weekend as they fell 4-2 and 3-1 to the University of Manitoba Bisons.

The losses were only the Dogs’ fourth and fifth of the season.

They still sit tied with Alberta at first in the Canada West, sporting a 15-5-2 record.

Maintoba is two points behind with a 14-4-2 record.

The Huskies, who have a bye week this weekend, will host Calgary at Rutherford Rink Feb. 3 and 4. They have yet to lose at Rutherford this year — their only home loss came at the Credit Union Centre on Oct. 21.

With files from Kevin Menz

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Photo: Raisa Pezderic/The Sheaf

KAAN ERASLAN
The Ubyssey (University of British Columbia)

VANCOUVER (CUP) — “I almost died from depression, suicide, drugs and alcohol from the depression of violence. I’m living proof that living a violent lifestyle can kill you.”

When asked about the effects that fighting has in hockey, that is what former NHL enforcer Jim Thomson said. You might remember Thomson as the recent subject of the boisterous Don Cherry, who on Hockey Night in Canada called Thomson a “puke” and “ingrate” for advocating his desire to ban fighting from hockey.

So far this year Derek Boogaard, Wade Belak and Rick Rypien — three former NHL players known for their penchant for dropping the gloves — died from suicide or substance abuse. It is believed all three suffered from depression.

While the last 12 months have provided more than enough tragedy, the narrative on fighting in professional hockey is still ongoing, with no foreseeable end in sight. Yet one place where the narrative has found a conclusion is at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport level. To the chagrin of purists, but to the delight of advocates such as Thomson, fighting is not permitted in CIS hockey.

The question is, should it be? As a fundamental component of both the junior and professional ranks, should players who have created a niche for themselves protecting their teammates, and one could argue, symbolically protecting the game, be allowed to bring their skill set to the university ranks? Are the rules in the CIS helping or hindering these players from joining the CIS, let alone allowing to them to excel in the CIS game?

Discrepancies in league regulations

If ethics and morality are cast aside, the appeal of seeing a hockey fight is understandable. On its own, a fight may not be for everyone to watch. In a fast-paced game like hockey, there is already plenty of excitement to see with highly conditioned athletes competing in non-stop action.

Derek Boogaard of the New York Rangers drops the gloves versus Steve MacIntyre of the Edmonton Oilers.

Irrespective of entertainment or excitement, there is a purpose to having enforcers in hockey. This mainly involves keeping the opposition from making dirty plays and retaliation. In CIS hockey, the current regulations on fighting prevents enforcers from doing what they do best.

Every year, there are only a few fights that break out in the CIS. Participants get an automatic game suspension. The player who instigated the fight gets suspended for two games. This eliminates retaliation for dirty hits and leaves the punishment up to the game officials.

Michel Belanger, the CIS media and communications manager, explained that the reasons for the regulations are simple.

“To us, it’s pretty obvious — I mean, it is a university sport, it is a student sport. We think it’s a good rule because you just don’t want fighting in university hockey,” he said. “I don’t think it would go really well with our institutions and the kind of message that you’re trying to send.”

Although Belanger was not quite clear on exactly what message university athletics want to send, he explained it was not simply a matter of sportsmanship. “It’s all about the value that you want to give and you want to represent when you have a student sport and university sport,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s about better sportsmanship — it’s more about the overall values of institutions like a university.”

These values are clearly not part of junior league hockey where teenagers as young as 16 are free to engage in fights. Some Western Hockey League players build up their reputations as enforcers at an early age. These players are put in an awkward position if they want to make a successful transition to university-level hockey. Although they can still be physical, they are stripped of one of their most distinguishing tools.

“I think it’s kind of sad when you see [fighting] with junior players at 16, 17 or 18 years old. They know that there are scouts in the stands and that people are watching and they want a little extra edge that will put them ahead of another player,” said Belanger.

UBC hockey player Matt Wray is an example of a junior league enforcer who had to make the transition to CIS hockey. As an Alberta Junior Hockey League player for Camrose, Wray racked up over 250 penalty minutes. “Early on in my career, I wasn’t expected [to fight] as much,” he said. “Because I didn’t have an objection to [fighting], I started doing it more and more. When I was in Kamloops, I think I got into 21 fights in 40 games.”

Wray’s easygoing and jovial nature might be surprising for those who have seen his physical style of hockey, but there is no mistaking his belief that there is a place for fighting and enforcement in hockey.

“It eliminates a lot of stuff. There are instances where, on the ice, guys are being cheap or they injure a player or something, and there’s no real means to get back at them other than making them pay on the scoreboard,” he said.

Other than strictly enforcing good behaviour on the ice, Wray also noted a motivational factor that a violent scrap can bring. “A lot of the times in the juniors or pros, fighting is a good way to get the guys fired up. A lot of players respond really well to seeing a guy go out there and put it on the line for their team.”

Wray’s transition to CIS hockey was not without its difficulties. He explained there is a need to “pull back the reigns” and hold back from retaliating. As a winger, Wray has more than just his physicality to rely on, which is also an important factor in the transition. Before establishing himself as a fighter, he was a high-energy player, able to put points on the scoreboard.

The challenges of being an enforcer

Jim Thomson believes CIS hockey is ahead of the NHL and junior level hockey when it comes to game regulations.

Thomson’s passion for getting rid of violence in hockey comes from a lifetime of negative experience as an enforcer for many teams including the L.A. Kings and Ottawa Senators. During the 1986-87 season, playing for the American Hockey League (AHL)’s Binghamton Whalers, Thomas racked up an astounding 360 penalty minutes in 57 games.

At first it may seem odd that a former enforcer would be calling out against the very aspects of the game that got him recognized, but it’s clear that the lifestyle took away more than it gave to him.

“Let’s face it: the night before a game, I would do drugs and drink just to kill the anxiety and the fear — so I became a drug addict and an alcoholic in a major way, dealing with the depression and the fear of fighting,” he said.

Thomson has a unique perspective about the life of an enforcer. He recognizes that there are people in the sport who depend on their fighting abilities to make a living, but he also sees a necessity for that role to be removed in order for the sport to grow.

“I don’t want anybody to lose their job… but if you take the enforcer out of the NHL you remove 30 jobs. You’re going to replace it with better skill, which is a better product for the consumer,” said Thomson.

As for the enforcer’s role of keeping opposing players and dirty plays in check, Thomson believes that unnecessary. “There’s no easy way of saying it, but let the league be the sheriff, not guys’ fists.”

Skill vs. brawn

Many pro hockey players face problems with addiction and depression.

The reason behind the decreased penalties is hard to pinpoint. Though the absence of fighting may create a sense of self-policing amongst players, Wray believes it has more to do with the university culture manifesting itself into the game. “I think in the CIS there’s more respect between players,” he said.

“They respect [each other] — not only as hockey players, but what they’re aiming to do in their careers. If they don’t go into hockey, then they’re pursuing education, so a guy isn’t going to go and run a player from behind as much.”

There’s no doubt that fighting can be a nerve-wracking situation. Thomson’s struggles with anxiety and depression as an enforcer are well-documented. This type of pressure on a student athlete could only seem unreasonable. However, there are those who are psychologically undamaged by such physical confrontation.

Wray disagrees that anxiety and depression affect all enforcers. By his own experience, he doesn’t feel that he was forced into a fighting role and said he rarely experienced anxiety before games. “You hear about certain instances in [substance abuse], but they’re not really playing up the guys that didn’t do that,” said Wray. “There are a lot of guys who feel pressure to score goals and they’re not resorting to drugs and I think it’s kind of a scapegoat.”

While upfront about his own feelings on the matter, Wray acknowledged that in university there would be players who would not want to risk blows to the head. He also agreed that unhealthy stress levels are a reality in the sport. However, the correlation between these factors and drug use is not concrete.

The substance abuse struggles of NHL enforcers have been a highlight in sports news recently, but these cases have been few and there are many enforcers who do not suffer from these problems. Yes there have been incidents, and Thomson’s experiences are eye-opening, but they do not establish a rule to the matter of substance abuse.

Still, in a university setting where alcohol and drugs can easily be found, why even risk adding the pressure of fighting to student hockey players?

One reason could be for fan attendance. This factor could be the biggest reason why fighting in the NHL and junior hockey will not be banned any time soon. There is undoubtedly a fear of losing viewers if fighting gets cut from the game.

On its own, hockey is a beautiful game to watch. Fans are thrilled by the fast-paced action, exciting hits and highlight-reel goals. Many supporters of fighting in hockey have expressed that hockey viewers will drop with the absence of brawls. According to Thomson, the real outcome could be drastically different.

As a coach, Thomson has seen many parents shy away from allowing their kids to play hockey due to the violence involved. “Hockey in the [United States] is out-viewed by darts, dog shows, bowling, poker, and the list goes on and on,” he said. “How do we know that the game won’t grow if we take the violence out? You’ve got the biggest market in the States and it can’t get any momentum, and I say you take the damn violence out and you might get a whole bunch of new kids registering.”

If Thomson is looking for a place to test his theory, CIS hockey isn’t the best choice. Holding back from fights was not the only change that Wray had to get used to when he started playing hockey at UBC.

“In the WHL, most places you go you get fans coming. In the CIS, it’s quite a drop off from what you’re used to in the juniors. Look at the stands and the majority of seats are empty. It’s a different experience,” he said.

However, Wray doesn’t attribute this drop in attendance to fighting. Correlation does not equal causation. There are plenty of reasons other than the absence of fighting for why the attendance rates at university games are low. University students are busy and a quick look at attendance for other sporting events around campus will reflect a general lack of interest as well. University teams don’t receive as much hype and marketing as junior hockey teams do in their respective cities.

If Olympic hockey games are any indication, the sport can survive just fine without fighting.
Whether or not enforcers can survive is another story.

Fighting is still present in the junior and professional ranks, but it is increasingly becoming less of a priority to have a player excel at this skill. Like Thomson said, skill makes a better product. CIS hockey needs players with more skill than brawn. There’s no doubt that it’s still a physical game, but a player’s fighting abilities are not appreciated.

If a university athlete is aspiring to reach the pro ranks, he will not be able to make it with the power of his fists. He cannot showcase this ability. Good skills have to come first if an NHL career is going to be reached through CIS hockey. As it stands, the regulations in CIS hockey work fine. The game is still exciting to watch and there isn’t any feeling that something is missing.

Fighters may have to change their game for university, but considering that one dimensional fighters are less of a commodity in professional hockey, this change should benefit them. It forces them to practice their hockey skills more than their pugilistic abilities, which will perhaps give them a longer a career in the sport, and more importantly, a longer life to remember that career.

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Photos: rgmcfadden/flickr
mikehoff/flickr
mattbritt00/flickr

As a two-time national champion with her former team, Katie Miyazaki is confident that the University of Saskatchewan Huskies, too, are capable of a national title.

Miyazaki joined the Dogs last year after playing three seasons with the Simon Fraser University Clan.

Katie Miyazaki against the Regina Rams.

It is a decision that she does not look back on with regret.

“I am really happy with my decision to transfer here because of the great year I had last year and again this year,” said Miyazaki.

Over her years with SFU, Miyazaki played across every gym in the Canada West conference. In that time she saw the different atmospheres and support each team received. It was here in Saskatoon where the community support and the coaching staff impressed her the most. And when it came time to choose a new team, the idea of playing with the Huskies trumped the prospect of playing at any other school.

“This program takes pride in its work ethic and being tough and winning games because we are ‘grinders’ rather than [winning] purely on skill alone,” said Miyazaki. “It’s a great thing to see when hard work and toughness can win you games.”

Last year with the Huskies, Miyazaki was not only honoured with her second CIS defensive player of the year award, she was also given a tournament all-star award for her performance in the CIS playoffs. In that tournament she helped lead the Huskies to their best-ever finish — a CIS silver medal.

That team, however, was very different from this year’s team — four starters, three of whom were also league or tournament all-stars, graduated from the team.

This year, the team is younger and Miyazaki takes on an even more prominent leadership role.

With Miyazaki playing on a team  mainly made up of rookies, added pressure and expectations weigh more heavily on her.

“It provides me with the challenge of not just improving myself, but also helping the rest of the team get better and improving their understanding of the game,” she said.

Miyazaki added that she sees improvement each day with the young team and that constant growth is what is needed late in the season. She knows that continuous hard work and learning from their mistakes will help them leading into the playoffs.

“Our goal is to be at our peak at playoff time, so we need to remind ourselves that we need to keep improving and not be satisfied with our success so far,” said Miyazaki.

Miyazaki, who spent the summer representing Team Canada at the World University Games in Shenzhen, China, has played against the best players in the world.

While this experience will help the Huskies on the court, it is Miyazaki’s confidence in her teammates that is the key ingredient for the young Dogs team.

“I always think my team has a chance in playing and winning nationals.”

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Photo: Pete Yee

Huskies created trouble for U of A netminder Kurtis Mucha, who was eventually pulled.

The games were both played at Credit Union Centre with an estimated attendance of 1,800 fans each game — one of the highest Canada West conference totals this year. Both teams were locked at the top of the Canada West standings with duplicate 13-3 records.

By the end of the weekend, the Huskies walked away in sole possession of top spot in the Canada West.

On Jan. 13, the Dogs prevailed 5-2 after jumping off to an early two-goal lead in the first period.

Strong play throughout the second period that led to a power play goal by the Huskies Shaun Vey would put Saskatchewan up 3-0.

The Golden Bears made it close, however, after scoring two goals to finish the second frame including one with only 5.8 seconds left.

Huskies Brennan Bosch and Derek Hulak’s markers in the third sent the Huskies to the locker room with the win.

Dogs goaltender David Reekie sealed the victory by stopping 35 of the Bears’ 37 shots. Alberta netminder Real Cyr stopped 18 of 22.

The matchup on Jan. 14 saw the Huskies down 3-1 going into the second period. A hat-trick from captain Kyle Ross and a total of four unanswered goals in the second period, however, secured the win for Saskatchewan.

Ryan Holfeld stopped 33 of the 37 shots for the Huskies while Alberta goaltender Kurtis Mucha was pulled after letting in five goals on 24 shots. Cyr stopped all three shots he faced in relief of Mucha.

This was their first sweep of the Golden Bears since 2007 and it propelled them two games ahead of their Alberta rivals.

Saskatchewan now sits atop the conference with a 15-3-2 record while Alberta is 13-5-2.

The Huskies also have the top three scorers in the Canada West: Derek Hulak has seven goals and 28 assists for 35 points, Kyle Bortis has 14 goals and 19 assists for 33 points and Kyle Ross has 14 goals and 12 assists for 26 points.

Hulak, who has more assists than most players in the conference have points, scored in both games on the weekend. He is used to playing at CUC because he played with the Blades from 2006 to 2010.

“It was nice playing in front of a big crowd. It’s a great barn, a great facility to play in,” said Hulak.

He believes that “hard work and depth” has led to the Huskies success so far this year.

Captain Kyle Ross attributes the success to “patience and consistency.”

Ross is in his fifth year with the Huskies but said he’s not worried about the lack of leadership for the coming seasons.

There’s “a whole lot of great guys and a whole ton of leadership. There won’t be any problems down the road,” said Ross.

When asked about the Dogs’ upcoming matchups, Ross explained, “There’s a lot of parity in the league, and they’ll all be pretty tough — especially the next couple weekends which will determine the playoff picture.”

The next Huskies games are on the road Jan. 20 and 21 against the Manitoba Bisons. The Bisons are third in the conference with a 12-4-2 record.

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Photo: Pete Yee

DRAKE FENTON
The Ubyssey (University of British Columbia)

File photo by Raisa Pezderic/The Sheaf

Indeed, you are a mean one, Mr. Grinch.

Over the Christmas break, the Canada West University Athletic Association relished its role as the Grinch, forcing the UBC football team to forfeit their six regular season wins and their one playoff win, leaving them with an official record of 0-8. UBC was also fined $1,250 and placed on probation for the 2012 season.

The reason? An inadvertent administrative error in 2009 that allowed a UBC player to play this year when he had already exhausted his eligibility.

Neither the CWUAA nor UBC would release the player’s identity, but it is believed to be defensive end Connor Flynn.

Flynn had played five years of junior football with the Vancouver Trojans before being recruited to UBC in 2009. During the year he was recruited, Canadian Interuniversity Sport amended their eligibility rules as follows: “A student-athlete shall complete his eligibility within seven academic years, calculated from the beginning of the academic year immediately following his high school graduation or completion of high school eligibility … An exception is granted to any student-athlete listed on a 2009-2010 eligibility certificate.”

When Flynn came to UBC in 2009, Ted Goveia was coaching the program and his staff made a clerical error. Flynn was not listed on an eligibility certificate.

During the holidays, this story garnered a lot of media attention. And while it is undoubtedly newsworthy, the only real news is the ridiculousness of the CWUAA’s decision.

UBC fully cooperated with the investigation and stated the violation was unintentional. To say the CWUAA’s decision was needlessly severe would be an understatement. In fact, according to a separate ruling by Canadian Interuniversity Sport (the parent organization of the CWUAA) the CWUAA’s sanctions were needlessly severe. The CIS stated that according to their bylaws, an inadvertent administrative error does not warrant the forfeiture of games.

The harshness of these sanctions are even more confusing when it is taken into account that UBC self-disclosed the error. The CWUAA didn’t know about the error — UBC head coach Shawn Olson informed them of it.

For his honesty in admitting that the program’s former coach had made a mistake, Olson and the current UBC program were punished.

I am not trying to say Olson and UBC are completely without guilt. Olson didn’t properly check the eligibility of all of his players before the season started, and for that the program deserves a monetary fine (as the CIS suggests in this situation) and should be placed on probation.

What is perplexing is why the CWUAA took such a faux-hardline stance. If they wanted to be serious and flex their muscles, then why not go all the way? Their ruling allowed all game statistics, individual honours and awards to remain intact. Quarterback Billy Greene’s Hec Crighton award (CIS MVP) was not put in jeopardy by having all of his statistics wiped out. None of UBC’s first-team all-stars were stripped of their awards. But if the CWUAA was willing to take everything else away, why not those too?

The CWUAA’s ruling was a bluff, and they knew it. They knew it wouldn’t be contested or appealed, simply because no one would care enough to do so.

If UBC had won the Canada West championship or the Vanier Cup, I doubt the CWUAA would have taken such an action. And if they would have tried to go after Greene’s Hec trophy by wiping out his stats, I’m sure the CIS would have stepped in and let them know where the ultimate power lies.

The only good thing about this whole fiasco is that UBC now holds one of the most unique records in Canadian collegiate sport. Greene is the only athlete to have ever played on a winless team and still end the year as the nation’s most valuable player.

COLE GUENTER &
KEVIN MENZ

The Huskies front line couldn’t contain Laval’s attack.

After an unsuccessful first half to the 2011-12 season, the Huskies men’s volleyball team is hoping their strong showing at the annual Enns Baxter Wealth Management Invitational tournament can turn their season around.

The EBWM invitational is an annual tournament hosted by Huskies men’s volleyball. Formerly known as the Brian Mallard tournament, the event has featured teams from Japan as well as the NCAA’s top division.

This year’s tournament took place from Jan. 5 to 7 at the Physical Activity Complex and saw Saskatchewan take on the Calgary Dinos, McMaster Marauders and Laval Rouge et Or.

The Dogs finished with a silver medal after losing to Laval in the tournament’s final match.

“The weekend was up and down. We showed some flashes of brilliance but also played quite poorly at times. We had some solid blocking but our ball control is a problem still, as it’s not giving us quality opportunities,” said Huskies head coach Brian Gavlas.

The Huskies came out strong in their first round robin match against their western conference rivals, the University of Calgary.

The Dogs won the first two sets against the Dinos but dropped the next two. They tightened up in the final set, however, winning 15-11 and taking the match 3-2.

In their second round robin game, the Huskies got their first taste of Laval.

In a fast-paced, high-intensity first set to open the match, Laval narrowly won 30-28.

Geoff Zerr and the Huskies swept McMaster in three sets.

Saskatchewan redeemed itself the following day, however, by sweeping McMaster in three sets (25-7, 28-26, 25-21). The squad from McMaster didn’t seem at all prepared for the first game, losing 25-7.

Huskies left side hitter Paul Thomson helped out in that win with a pair of aces and a handful of kills.

Laval, who went 4-0 in the tournament and swept three of their matches, were just too strong for the other teams in the tournament.

In the gold medal final against Saskatchewan, Laval controlled the net with big blocks and dominating kills from Karl De Grandpre. They won the first set 25-17.

The Dogs took an early lead in the second set as they found their stride and as Huskies middle Geoffrey Zerr fought back with kills of his own. Laval, though, tied it at 18 points and won the second set 25-21.

The Huskies tried mixing up their players in game three but it didn’t help as they lost the third set 25-20, giving up the gold medal to Laval in a three-set sweep.

McMaster defeated Calgary to win the bronze.

After the tournament, the Huskies’ Thomson acknowledged the team’s shaky play.

“It was good to come out and beat Calgary, since we are playing them in a couple weeks,” he said. “Those Laval guys, though, really came out to play and we had our hands full with them, so we can’t be overly pleased. But at the same time we had our moments.”

Gavlas, who has been Saskatchewan’s head coach since 1992, recognized the team still needs work, but is optimistic about the second half of the season.

“We have to take the positives and hopefully build on them for a good second half,” he said.

The Huskies, who went 2-2 in the tournament, had two members — Geoffrey Zerr and Matthew Busse — make the tournament all-star team.

Laval’s Karl De Grandpre was named MVP while teammates Jeremie Lortie and Justin Boudreault were given all-star nods.

Calgary’s Graham Vigrass and McMaster’s T.J. Sanders rounded out the all-star mentions.

The Huskies resume regular season play Jan. 13 and 14 when they host the Winnipeg Wesmen.

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Photo: Raisa Pezderic/The Sheaf

Women’s hockey: Huskies win despite blown lead

It wasn’t pretty but it worked.

The Huskies women’s hockey team was forced to down the visiting Lethbridge Pronghorns 4-3 in overtime Jan. 7 after blowing a 3-0 lead in the third period.

Kandace Cook cleanly wins the faceoff.

“It was a huge relief,” said Wooster. “We didn’t want to go to a shootout.”

The Huskies, who had a commanding 3-0 lead after two periods thanks to goals from Kelsey Tulloch, Julie Paetsch and Sara White, allowed the Pronghorns to pot three goals in the final frame.

“You don’t mean to sit back but I think with any lead — especially a 3-0 lead — you tend to,” said Wooster.

It was the second night in a row that Saskatchewan had given up three goals in the third period.

On Jan. 6, in the first game of their weekend series with the ’Horns, the Huskies were fortunate enough to have a 5-0 lead going into the final frame; Lethbridge’s three late goals were not enough to threaten the Dogs’ lead.

However, the late rally was at least enough to swing momentum into Lethbridge’s favour going into the second game.

“I knew that they’d be pumped up after their third period from last game and I knew that I was going to have to get a good start” in the second game, said Huskies goaltender Mackenzie Rizos.

Rizos, who faced tremendous pressure from Lethbridge’s scorers early on, shut the door on all the Pronghorns’ opening scoring chances. She stopped 54 of 60 shots on the weekend. Patterson stopped 57 of 66.

”I knew that if I could hold my team in there until we got a goal that we’d carry on with our own momentum and pull through on that,” said Rizos.

When Tulloch buried the Huskies’ first goal 4:53 into the game, the momentum shifted. Saskatchewan would control the play for the remainder of the first two frames, outshooting Lethbridge 24-18 in those periods and scoring two more goals before the second intermission.

The third period, however, was a different story. Lethbridge outshot Saskatchewan 10-6 and Ashley Beattie, Erica Williams and Sadie Lenstra all scored to even the game up at three.

“It was just us elevating our game and capitalizing on our chances,” said Beattie, the Lethbridge captain. “In the first two periods, we just weren’t putting the puck away.”

Beattie added that a rivalry is clearly developing between the Huskies and the ’Horns, who both sat first in the Canada West going into the weekend.

“I like the way our teams match up against each other. They’re really good battles.”

In an earlier series this year, it was Lethbridge who swept Saskatchewan. This time, the Huskies took the four crucial points.

Saskatchewan now sits solely atop the conference while Lethbridge slides to third. The Alberta Pandas are in second.

Men’s hockey: Huskies pick up four of possible six points

The Lethbridge Pronghorns continued to trouble the first-place Huskies men’s hockey team last weekend as the Dogs found themselves scrambling for what should have been a guaranteed win.

Earlier this year, a game between the ’Horns and the Huskies was postponed after two periods due to ice resurfacing problems. Saskatchewan had led 3-0 in that game.

On Jan. 6, the third period of that game was replayed. Going into the game with a three-goal lead, the Huskies should have easily skated to victory. However, the Pronghorns scored three goals in the period and forced the game into overtime.

Luckily for Saskatchewan, captain Kyle Ross was able to silence the ’Horns comeback with an overtime goal.

The Huskies then carried that overtime momentum into the second game of the three-game series against Lethbridge by putting up a dominant 5-2 performance.

It was in the third game that the Pronghorns finally got the best of the Dogs. Trailing 2-1 going into the third period, Lethbridge potted two goals in the final frame to down the Huskies 3-2.

Lethbridge, who is near the bottom of the Canada West conference standings with only a 4-11-3 record, has given the Huskies two of their three losses this season.

The Huskies, who sport a 13-3-2 record, are tied with Alberta for first-place in the standings.

Saskatchewan will host Alberta at home on Jan. 13 and 14.

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Photo: Raisa Pezderic/The Sheaf

Huskies football offensive lineman Ben Heenan will join two other CIS players Jan. 21 as they compete in the 87th East-West Shrine game in St. Petersburg, Fla.

The game, which raises funds for Shriners Hospital for Children, features 100 of the United States’ top college players and acts as a showcase for future NFL and CFL talent. Every year since 1985, two or three CIS players are also invited to the game.

Heenan, who is a first team and second team CIS all-Canadian, is only the sixth Huskie in history to attend the game. The last was safety Dylan Barker in 2008, who currently plays for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the CFL.

Like Barker in the 2008 CFL draft, Heenan is projected by the CFL scouting bureau to go number one in the 2012 draft.

Huskies head coach Brian Towriss stated in a press release that even NFL teams have expressed interest in the 6-4, 310-pound agriculture and bioresources student.

“His size, strength and mobility have already attracted interest from several NFL teams,” said Huskies head coach Brian Towriss in a press release. “The Shrine Game will enable Ben to showcase his talents with many of the NCAA’s best… He will represent CIS football very well.”

Heenan will be joined by two defensive ends: Laval Rouge et Or’s Arnaud Gascon-Nadon and Regina Rams’ Akiem Hicks.

Notable CIS players who have played in the Shrine game include the Chicago Bears defensive lineman Israel Idonije, who played at the University of Manitoba from 2000 to 2002, the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ Jason Clermont and Andy Fantuz, and former Tiger-Cat Jesse Lumsden.

Notable NFL stars who have played in the Shrine game include Tom Brady, Brett Favre and John Elway.

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Image: Supplied

ARSHY MANN
The Ubyssey (University of British Columbia)

VANCOUVER (CUP) — The University of British Columbia Thunderbirds football team has forfeited its entire 2011 season after it was found that it was fielding an ineligible player.

The player, defensive lineman Connor Flynn, had already completed his eligibility at the beginning of the season, after having played five years of junior football with the Vancouver Trojans before being recruited to UBC in 2009. According to a Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) statement, UBC “self-disclosed” the violation and co-operated fully with the investigation. It went on to say that the violation was unintentional.

The UBC Thunderbirds will forfeit all six of their wins in the 2011 season.

In 2009, the CIS amended its eligibility rules to state that “a student-athlete shall complete his eligibility within seven academic years, calculated from the beginning of the academic year immediately following the earlier of his high school graduation or completion of high school eligibility … an exception is granted to any student-athlete listed on a 2009–2010 eligibility certificate.”

Due to an error by UBC’s football program, which was coached by Ted Goveia at the time, Flynn was not listed on an eligibility certificate.

UBC’s breakthrough 6-2 season will now be recorded for posterity as 0-8, with 1-0 victories for all of UBC’s opponents.

UBC will also be fined $1,250 and has been placed on probation until 2013.

Since the University of Saskatchewan Huskies defeated UBC 36-33 in their only match of the regular season, the Huskies’ 5-3 record did not change. While Manitoba and Calgary each gained one win from the forfeit and Regina and Alberta each gained two wins, the changes were not enough to affect Saskatchewan’s second place finish.

The playoff game between Saskatchewan and UBC that saw the Huskies lose 27-22 is now listed as a 1-0 win for Saskatchewan. Calgary’s 62-13 win against UBC in the following round still stands. The playoffs will not be replayed.

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Photo: Geoff Lister/The Ubyssey

Six points up for grabs against Lethbridge

Brett Ward fires the puck through a Pronghorns defender.

According to head coach Dave Adolph, the team hasn’t performed very well in the second half of the last two regular seasons.

“Unfortunately for us, we haven’t done a very good job getting better in late February. We’ve sort of just plateaued,” said Adolph. “This year our goal is making sure our finish is better than our start.”

Saskatchewan hasn’t qualified for the Canadian Interuniversity Sport playoffs since the 2007-08 season.

This year the nationals will be in New Brunswick and the Canada West conference can only send one team to compete — meaning the conference will send the winner of the Canada West playoffs.

The Alberta Golden Bears are currently riding a four-year Canada West championship streak and presently sit tied with the Huskies at first place in the league.

“The interesting thing about Alberta is the way they get it done in February and March. Every year they have the ability to score clutch goals and get tremendous performances from everyone on their team,” said Adolph. “That’s what we’re striving for: to make sure we’re clutch.”

Adolph believes that, unlike previous Huskies squads, this year’s team will not falter late in the season.

“I think the key difference for our team this year is competition for playing time,” he said, citing the strong play of goaltenders Ryan Holfeld and David Reekie.

“I’ve been totally hooked on them splitting [playing time]. It’s made them better. Their skills, their habits, everything has been better this year with them splitting,” said Adolph. “They seem content now and I’m not about to change it.”

Along with this, the Huskies blueliners have also been competing hard for ice time. Most notably, rookies Chad Suer and Zak Stebner have stepped into key roles while fifth-year Jesse Zetariuk, who saw significant playing time in previous years and is Saskatchewan’s only senior defenceman, has only played in four games.

“There was some tremendous bumping going on, people jostling for playing time. It was a good thing from my standpoint,” said Adolph. “Jessie has been a regular top-four defenceman for us for the last four years. He got passed and so now he has to fight to get a spot back.”

On the front-end, Saskatchewan will need its secondary scorers to step up.

While Kyle Bortis and Derek Hulak sit comfortably atop the Canada West leaderboard with 28 and 27 points, respectively, Adolph expects to see opposing teams target the scorers. He hopes that with productivity from all four lines, there will be less pressure for Bortis and Hulak to score the bulk of the Huskies’ goals.

Saskatchewan comes into the season’s second half sporting an 11-2-2 record but have a game in hand over Alberta — Alberta has one more loss on the season with an 11-3-2 record.

Their first games will be in Lethbridge against the Pronghorns on Jan. 6 and 7.

Due to an ice resurfacing problem during an Oct. 1 match-up between the Pronghorns and the Huskies, this weekend’s series has six-points up for grabs — meaning the Huskies can potentially earn three wins.

On Jan. 6, the third period of the previously suspended game will be played — Saskatchewan currently leads 3-0 after two periods. After that period is over, the teams will head straight into the second game.

The final game of the series will be played on Jan. 7.

First-place series to kick off second half

The Huskies women's hockey team takes on the Alberta Pandas in this file photo from October, 2011.

The top four teams in the Canada West all currently sit within two points of each other. Saskatchewan and Lethbridge each have 20 points and sport identical 10-4-0 records. The Alberta Pandas have 19 points and a 7-2-5 record while the Calgary Dinos, who have two games in hand on the other squads, have 18 points with their 9-3-0 record.

The Manitoba Bisons trail slightly behind with 16 points and a 7-5-2 record.

The Huskies’ next four series are against each of these teams.

“I know that there has been a lot of talk about this first weekend being a first place match-up but, really, there is four weekends of first-place match-ups,” said Kook.

This year, the University of Alberta is hosting the CIS playoffs, meaning the Canada West can send two teams to compete for the national title. Therefore, while Alberta is guaranteed a spot, the final Canada West spot will likely come down to the Huskies, the Pronghorns and the Dinos.

The Dogs split wins with Calgary this year but were swept by Lethbridge.

Kook admits that they weren’t prepared the last time they met the Pronghorns, a team that didn’t make the Canada West playoffs last season.

“They took us a little bit by surprise and we probably did take them for granted,” he said.

Kook noted, however, that he does not view the sweep as a disappointment. In fact, he feels it helped focus his team — following the losses, the Huskies went 8-2 to finish the season’s first half.

Now Saskatchewan will have to carry that focus into the remainder of the season.

“We’re actually pretty glad we got Lethbridge right off the top,” said Kook, implying that the first-place battle will set the tone for the season’s second half.

Lethbridge “plays so well. They check hard. They’re just really hard to play against,” he added.

“We’ll just have to find a way to chip pucks past them and find some open ice. They also have really good goaltenders so we’ll have to be pretty tenacious around the net.”

It will be up to the Huskies’ high-scoring forwards to keep the Pronghorns goaltenders busy. Saskatchewan currently has four of the league’s top 10 scorers. Julie Paetsch leads the league with 20 points while Cara Wooser has 14, Danny Stone has 13 and Breanne George has 11.

Rookie defenceman Julia Flinton will provide some power from the point, as she leads all first-year Canada West blueliners with 6 points.

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Photos: Pete Yee &
Raisa Pezderic/The Sheaf

SAM GREGORY
The McGill Daily (McGill University)

MONTREAL (CUP) — Most students are well aware that, while thousands of dollars are going towards tuition and housing costs, thousands more are being blown on alcohol. For the most part, they are okay with that. Between frosh weeks and regular bar nights, alcohol is a major part of university life at almost any university campus.

However, Canadian universities are breeding grounds for high-level athletes, and this drinking culture is not conducive to creating a world-class athlete.

Habitual binge drinking among professional athletes is mostly a thing of the past. In England, some of the most successful soccer players of the 1960s and 1970s had serious drinking problems. Immediately, the name George Best comes to mind. He was the Northern Irish soccer player who was named the best player on the planet in 1967 and famously said, “In 1969, I gave up alcohol — it was the worst twenty minutes of my life.”

Best died of liver failure at age 59. The stories of Best and other soccer players who struggled with alcoholism have helped to make drinking culture in England — and across the world — a thing of the past.

With the increasingly cut-throat nature of competitive sports, athletes will do anything to get a step up on their opponents. For professional athletes today, that means giving up alcohol or, at least, binge drinking. Nowadays there are very few cases of professional athletes with alcohol problems. In university athletics, however, this is an entirely different story.

University athletes are younger than the average professional athlete and their career span is much shorter. For most university athletes, their competitive playing career will end at around 22 or 23, when they finish their undergraduate education. This means they worry less about their long-term future, and their entire focus is on the four years they spend playing at the university level.

However, there are a few university athletes who do want to compete at higher levels like in the Olympics or the Canadian Football League, and the culture of drinking at a university that many of their teammates end up participating in could seriously damage their future aspirations.

The heavy drinking culture associated with university life is often exacerbated at the varsity athletics level. A study conducted by Frank Butts at the University of West Georgia suggests that university athletes on average have 5.07 drinks every weekend, while their non-athletic counterparts have only 3.5 drinks per weekend. These are athletes who train on what is usually a daily basis and require their bodies to be in top physical condition.

The main explanation for the increased alcohol consumption of university athletes can be attributed to post-game celebrations and the sense of camaraderie that comes with being part of a competitive team. Again, for the majority of university athletes, drinking will just be part of their university experience, in the same way being part of a varsity team is. For others, they may be forced to choose between risking their future ambitions or forgoing what seems like a typical university experience.

Some Canadian university athletes do go on to career in professional leagues such as the Canadian Football League or a lower-tier pro hockey league like the East Coat Hockey League or the Central Hockey League. Some even go on to become Olympians, as five McGill University athletes did at the 2010 Games in Vancouver.

The athletes they will be up against that are coming from non-university backgrounds will probably not be training under this same binge-drinking environment that occurs at universities. In order to compete at this same level, these McGill athletes will be either forced to forgo or overcome the heavy drinking culture that comes with university.

Several universities have tried to stop the drinking culture within varsity sports, but reversing a culture is not easy and is potentially more harmful than effective. Queen’s University forced its baseball team to forfeit its final two games against Wilfrid Laurier University last year after members of the team were drinking on the bus ride home from an away game.

The move was met with harsh criticism from both the team and the larger student body. Their argument was that these students are just like any others and should not be under stricter regulations just because they play on a varsity team.

Alcohol has always and will always be a part of university life, and students should have the right to fully experience their time at university regardless of whether or not they represent the school in a varsity sport. However, for the small minority of athletes who will go on to compete at the highest level of competition, this drinking culture has the potential to be a major hurdle in both their personal and professional lives.

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Graphic: Amina Batyreva/The McGill Daily

MYLES DOLPHIN 
The Concordian (Concordia University)

David Testo

The American-born soccer player revealed in November that he is gay, although his family, friends and teammates all knew about his sexual orientation. Now the rest of North American society finally knows an openly gay professional athlete. We were ready for it.

“I’m glad he [came out], because he’s in a position where he can inspire a lot of people to do the same,” current Impact captain Nevio Pizzolitto told the Montreal Gazette. “Even though we’re professional athletes, we’re also human beings, and maybe something like this will change the minds of those in the same position.”

No male athlete in North American professional sports (the Big Four — hockey, baseball, football and basketball) has ever come out as being gay while an active player, but that’s probably about to change. Testo’s revelation should have a ripple effect not only in his sport, but in the Big Four, too.

Between January and May of this year, 27 athletes, coaches, journalists and executives had already come out, including American figure skater Johnny Weir and Phoenix Suns president Rick Welts.

Testo initially remained silent because of the pressures he faced while playing for various organizations.

Fearful of the backlash and scrutiny gay professional athletes may face from their teammates and once-adoring fans, many other athletes are keeping mum, too.

“It’s like you’re carrying around a secret, you know, and carrying luggage and just never being allowed to be yourself,” Testo told Radio-Canada in an interview.

It’s important to understand that there are openly gay professional athletes. They just don’t feel the need to tell you about it. Sometimes their teammates know, but the gay athlete in question feels like they can compartmentalize this for now and deal with it when their career is over.

However, it looks like both society at large and most professional athletes are ready to accept gay athletes of any stripe. Based on a 2006 Sports Illustrated study, “a sizable majority of professional athletes would welcome a gay teammate.” (By sport, it ranges from 57 per cent in the NFL to 80 per cent in the NHL.) A 2002 Witeck-Combs study found that 70 per cent of fans would not think negatively of their favourite athlete if he came out of the closet. These studies, although a few years old, are encouraging. Those numbers might be even higher today, given changing attitudes about homosexuality.

Homophobia isn’t cool anymore and hasn’t been for quite some time now. When Kobe Bryant, one of the most marketable players on earth, can’t get away with making an anti-gay slur, it tells you something has changed.

Even if only one superstar athlete in the Big Four sports comes out of the closet, it will set a precedent and open the floodgates for all the others. Once that takes place, we’ll see how far we’ve come. Until then, we have to ask ourselves: how can we say sports are making any discernible progress when gay men can’t even express their sexual orientation publicly?

Jackie Robinson ended racial segregation in professional baseball in 1947. Who is ready to end homophobia in the Big Four?

The effects of a star athlete coming out will be widespread. He’ll be embraced – not only by his teammates, organization and the media — but by the larger culture. He’ll probably even land the cover of Time magazine. His team will be vilified if they even consider cutting or trading him.

A few years ago, this would have been unthinkable. Now, it’s on the verge of happening. Gay icon status was reserved for pop stars and actors, but that’s about to change.

Gay professional athletes, whether they’re superstars or not, deserve to come out when they’re ready. Even more fans, teammates and organizations need to start thinking about these athletes as people they know, respect and trust, not as abstractions or abominations.

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Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Etienne’s 2010 season with the Huskies put him on CFL scouts’ radars.

The former University of Saskatchewan Huskie was part of the Winnipeg Blue Bomber team that lost to the B.C. Lions in the 99th Grey Cup on Nov. 27.

2011 was Etienne’s rookie season in the CFL.

Etienne, who originally joined the Huskies as a red-shirt kicker in 2007 before making the jump to receiver, made the right impression during his breakout 2010 season that saw him finish 3rd in Canadian university sport with 721 receiving yards on 28 receptions in just seven games. The CFL Scouting Bureau ranked him 15th amongst all Canadian-born football players eligible for the 2011 entry draft following that season.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers felt he was even better than that and selected him fourth overall.

“Jade is a young receiver with plenty of upside,” said Bomber Vice-President and General Manager Joe Mack in a press release. “He is a big target with tremendous athletic ability who can make the tough catches. We’re very excited to have selected him in this draft.”

After signing a contract with the team on June 1, the Regina native headed to the Blue Bombers main camp fully prepared to come back to the University of Saskatchewan for another year with the Huskies.

After a strong camp, however, Etienne cracked the Blue Bombers 2011 roster and stayed with the team.

While Etienne was not able to register a catch this year, he played in all but one game through the 2011 regular season, seeing the field in various special team roles.

The Blue Bombers finished first in the East with a 10-8 record, earning themselves a first round bye in playoffs. Unfortunately for Etienne, he was injured in the Blue Bombers’ 19-3 Eastern Conference win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

Etienne said that despite the injury he was very happy with how his first year in the league went.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better rookie season,” said Etienne. “Two preseason games, 17 of 18 regular season games, and one of two playoff games was the most football I’ve ever played.”

As an injured player, Etienne travelled with the team to Vancouver for the Grey Cup and was
with the team on the sidelines for the entire game.

“Getting injured right before the big game wasn’t thrilling but I’m glad I was a part of the team,” said Etienne after the Nov. 27 game. “The fact I got to go to the Grey Cup and be on the sidelines was amazing.”

Led by quarterback Travis Lulay, the hometown B.C. Lions beat Etienne’s Blue Bombers 34-23 in front of a sold out crowd of 54,313 in the newly-built B.C. Place Stadium.

Etienne said he felt the support from his home province throughout the entire season — especially over the last week.

“I’m so thankful for all of my friends and family back home in Saskatoon. All week we had people wishing us the best.”

With a year of professional football experience under his belt, the 22-year-old receiver plans to return home to Saskatchewan for a well-earned off-season before returning to Winnipeg for the Blue Bombers main camp next summer.

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Photo: Huskies Outsider/flickr

Katie Dutchak twists up an opponent in the Huskie Open on Nov. 26.

The University of Saskatchewan Huskies wrestling squad was lucky that Katie Dutchak wasn’t quite yet ready to step off the mat.

The former captain of the Holy Cross High School team and first-year wrestler with the Dogs nearly moved to Missouri this year to take her rodeo career to the next level. However, after a bronze-medal performance in the Canadian junior wrestling finals last year — a finish that she considered lacklustre — she decided that she “wasn’t ready to be done wrestling.”

“There was a scholarship opportunity for me to go to Missouri but I chose to stay here,” said Dutchak, who would have had to give up wrestling had she accepted the offer.

She said that the atmosphere at nationals and her disappointment in not winning gold “re-lit the spark” she once had for the sport.

“It definitely pushed me to keep on going.”

Now, the first-year arts and science student balances both sports.

“I rodeo in the summer and wrestle in the winter,” she said.

This year, the late rodeo season and an injury kept Dutchak off the mat in early competitions.

At her first-ever university competition on Nov. 26, however, her skills were not rusty.

Dutchak was the only Huskie on the women’s team to take home a gold medal when the team hosted a Canada West competition last weekend in the Education Gym.

She won the 51-kilogram category by defeating teammate and fellow rookie Hannah Franson.

“It feels pretty good,” said Dutchak. “I’ve never been able to beat her before.”

Dutchak and Franson are close friends and, while in high school, trained together on the Holy Cross team.

“It’s always bittersweet being in a final against a teammate… and somebody who is like one of your sisters,” said Dutchak. “It’s tough but it’s the sport.”

Franson took home silver in the category.

Other Huskies to win gold medals were Ryan Myrfield and Landon Squires. Dylan Bray and Kathleen Kent also took home silvers while Theo Dow and Natasha Kramble won their bronze medal matches.

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Photo: Raisa Pezderic/The Sheaf

SARAH PETZ
The Manitoban (University of Manitoba)

Penn State head coach Joe Paterno leads his squad onto the field.

The details of the scandal are disturbing, to say the least. Former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky has been charged with 40 counts related to the sexual abuse of boys he met through his charitable organization, Second Mile — a charity that will likely close in the wake of the scandal. A grand jury report shows that reported incidents go back over a decade and that many of them allegedly occurred in Penn State locker rooms and showers.

According to the report, several witnesses came forward with reports of Sandusky’s sexual abuse. In 2000, a janitor who allegedly witnessed Sandusky performing oral sex on a ten-year-old boy in the showers reported the incident to his supervisor, who did not report the incident to officials. In 2002, then-graduate assistant and current assistant coach Mike McQueary informed Paterno that he claimed he saw Sandusky raping another ten-year-old boy in the Penn State Lasch Football building. Paterno informed university administrators. What recourse was taken? McQueary was told that Sandusky was barred from bringing children onto campus.

No investigation began until 2009, after another victim reported that he was sexually abused by Sandusky.

Adding to the list of people who were involved in this scandal are Tim Curley, the university’s athletic director, and Gary Schultz, the university’s senior vice-president for finance and business. They have been charged with perjury and failing to report what they knew of the allegations.

As a student, I would be outraged to learn that the leaders of my institution protected an alleged sexual predator for years, during which time Sandusky is said to have abused upward of 15 children (though only eight have laid charges). But what did thousands of Penn State students take to the streets for? Not to voice their outrage over the blatant, shameful failure to do anything to protect these boys, but to parade and chant in support of Paterno.

Arguably the most successful college football coach in U.S. history, Paterno was an institution at a school probably better known for its football program than its academics. Last year, the school’s football program brought in over US $70 million in revenue. As Buzz Bissinger, the Pulitzer prize-winning author of Friday Night Lights, pointed out in his biting column for the Daily Beast, Paterno had “instant credibility” and arguably had more influence than university officials themselves. This sentiment was demonstrated in his salary for 2009, which clocked in at over US $1 million, higher than that of the university’s president. It perhaps gives some explanation as to why students were so quick to defend their beloved coach. Football is more than a game for Penn State: it’s part of their identity.

Yet if he really was the father figure to Penn State that everyone describes him as, why didn’t he act like one when it really counted? According to the allegations, he had a chance to put a stop to Sandusky’s alleged abuse, and he didn’t. “When he had a chance to be a man … he should have sat down with that graduate assistant, who was an eyewitness to brutal sodomy and said, ‘Son, either you’re going to the police or, if you’re scared, I’ll go with you,’” Bissinger passionately argued on CBC Television. But instead, Paterno passed along information to university officials, and that’s it.

In his column, Bissinger argues that this case is reflective of college football culture as a whole. “Totally disconnected from the academic experience, they are insulated kingdoms with their own rules and reigns of terror because of the money they make, trading in illegal recruiting and illegal gifts and illegal favors, and now, thanks to Penn State, alleged sexual abuse of children by a former coach who must have assumed he would always be protected,” he writes.

This case goes so much further than Paterno, and it’s maddening that there has been so much focus on the fall of his legendary career when all evidence suggests that Penn State coaching staff and university officials did nothing to stop an alleged sexual predator in their institution. Yet I seem to be reading editorial after editorial on how incredible his coaching was, and not on this central issue of the entire scandal. Worse still, I’ve had to watch students of Penn State choose to defend a football coach rather than victims of abuse.

You don’t need to know much about college football to know that this is absolutely disgraceful.

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Photo: PennStateLive/Flickr

ANDREW BATES
CUP Features Bureau Chief

VANCOUVER (CUP) — A wild back-and-forth game for the biggest prize in Canadian university football ended with a huge redeeming field goal.

A 20-yard field goal in overtime by Tyler Crapigna gave the McMaster Marauders a 41-38 Vanier Cup victory over the Laval Rouge et Or on Nov. 25.

Kicker Tyler Crapigna is hoisted onto the shoulders of his team mates to celebrate.

The victory was McMaster’s first Canadian Interuniversity Sport football championship, and it didn’t come easily. After the Marauders roared to a 23-0 halftime lead, Laval responded with 24 unanswered points to set a back-and-forth ending that had the crowd of over 29,000 at BC Place in pandemonium.

Tied at 31, McMaster had a chance to win it on the final play of the fourth quarter, but Crapigna missed a 30-yard field goal wide left, sending the game to overtime.

But he made no mistake on his second chance to win the game.

“Definitely one of the best kicks of my life,” Crapigna said. “I had the same feeling going into both kicks. Obviously the first one didn’t go in, but I knew the second one was going to go in.

“I wasn’t going to miss two in a row.”

“We had total confidence in Tyler to make that second kick even though he missed the first one,” said McMaster wide receiver Mike DiCroce. “He’s made so many big shots for us in the past.”

In the lead-up to the CIS football championship at BC Place, defending champions Laval looked like favourites. They had won all five Vanier cups they had contested in the last eight years, including a 29-2 drubbing of Calgary in last year’s game.

However, after the first 15 minutes, it was MacMaster who held a 6-0 lead.

McMaster looked its best in the second quarter with a sequence of 12 consecutive completions from quarterback Kyle Quinlan, who finished with 482 yards passing and was named game MVP. Squarely outside of their comfort zone, Laval were shaken in a quarter where they managed just four first downs. The Marauders landed their first touchdown on a 60-yard drive including a running fake, with a three-yard pass to James Hill getting the ball over the line.

Four minutes later, a 38-yard pass to DiCroche set up a 13-yard run by Christopher Pezetta for a second TD.
Laval gave up sacks on consecutive offensive drives and looked at their most hopeless when bouncing a field goal attempt off the uprights. They trailed 23-0 at half.

“At the beginning, we were flat and it’s difficult. In offence, it’s us that stopped us. Not them,” said Laval quarterback Bruno Prud’Homme. “At the end, we came back strong with big hits on defensive play.”

After halftime, Laval roared back. Minutes into the third quarter, they were able to puncture the McMaster line with a 62-yard punt return by Guillaume Rioux. A minute later, Frédéric Plesius was able to pick off Kyle Quinlan and ran 37 yards to bag the Rouge et Or’s second touchdown.

McMaster had trouble with Laval’s newfound pressure, managing barely to make it out of their end on the following possession. They nearly grabbed momentum back, however, with a stunning 101-yard run from Ontario University Athletics MVP DiCroce that was ruled offside five minutes into the quarter.

Laval pushed strongly, with several nervy moments for McMaster with pass interference and illegal contact calls that pushed the play closer and closer to their goal line, but limited Laval to a Boris Bede field goal that brought the Rouge et Or within six points at the close of the third quarter.

In the fourth quarter, Laval clawed into the lead. An eight-play, 107-yard drive culminated in a 34-yard pass by Prud’Homme finding Sébastien Lévesque, who was able to bring the ball 44 yards and over the line. A successful conversion marked 24 unanswered points for Laval.

But the Marauders were dangerous as well. On a seven-play scoring drive that saw an 18-yard run by the rushing Quinlan, Matt Peressini nabbed a nine-yard run and a five-yard convert to re-establish the lead 31-24 with six minutes to go.

That TD set the stage for an astounding finale. Laval didn’t stop pushing, and pushed their way down the field before Prud’Homme found Julian Feoli for a five-yard touchdown to establish a 31-31 tie with two minutes and 13 seconds to go.

As overtime loomed — only the second in Vanier Cup history and first since 1994 — McMaster looked dangerous on a drive that started on their own seven-yard line, driving 80 yards in just under three minutes before missing a chance to win the game on Crapigna’s missed field goal.

In overtime, McMaster had the ball first and made it count, with a 26-yard pass to Bradley Fochesato. The Rouge et Or responded, however, sinking a 33-yard pass to draw level at 38-38. But Laval lost their chance to follow up as Marauder cornerback Stephen Ventresca picked off Prud’Homme and, after a series of lateral passes, saw McMaster downed at Laval’s 20-yard line.

“It was tough. The picks did not help me, you know,” said Prud’Homme. “It didn’t give a chance to the defence.

“With overtime, it’s field goal range for a lot of kickers. Throw a pick, [and] you’re not able to do a three point [conversion].”

With the chance to force McMaster into a long field goal to win the game, Laval were called for their second too-many-men call of the evening, giving the Marauders a first down on their own 20 — too easy of a chance for a team that had been dominant on offence all game long, and now, can call themselves Vanier Cup champions.

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Photo: Geoff Lister/The Ubyssey

Click on the picture for a full gallery of photos from the PBR bull-riding competition.

Jared Farley lay motionless on the dirt after his face smashed flat against Bombs Away’s horn. Thousands of fans held their breath as paramedics rushed to assess the damage. After several agonizing minutes, the dazed bull rider got to his feet and walked safely out of the fenced arena.

He wasn’t the only rider to take a beating Nov. 19 as the bulls were angry for the last night of the 2011 Professional Bull Riders Canadian Finals at Credit Union Centre.

Josh Faircloth was temporarily knocked unconscious after Ring My Bell rang his bell. Scott Schiffner was charged at and trampled by Kicking Stones and Zane Lambert’s shoulder popped out of its socket when Tree Shaker’s back legs landed hard on his chest.

The statement that bull riders are the toughest athletes on earth was reiterated over and over again as injured competitor after injured competitor managed to stand on his own two feet, battered but not broken.

“I’ve never seen a day this bad to start with. I don’t know how many guys got knocked out and run over,” said Tyler Thomson, a rider out of Black Diamond, Alta. “That’s just how things go and it’s great to have the best bull fighters in all of Canada to stick up for us.”

The bull fighters, whose sole job is to distract the bull from charging a fallen rider, found their toughest match in the bull Serendipity.

After nearly jumping out of the chute before his run, Serendipity threw his rider off and attacked everything in the ring. He tossed one fighter into the air with a flick of his horns and rammed the outrider Lee Trach and his horse, George, into the fence.

While George was unharmed, Trach broke his ankle.

Trach, whose job is to guide the bull out of the ring once a competitor has finished his run, kept working for the remaining two hours of the event.

“If you don’t finish you don’t get paid,” he joked when asked if there was someone who could have replaced him after the injury. “I kind of blocked it out and tried to do my job. It was a long two hours.”

Dusty Ephrom from Kenosee Lake, Sask., put up three strong runs and a total score of 257 to win the event and finish third in the season’s standings. He said he was unaffected by the second night’s unusually aggressive bulls.

“We deal with that all the time. I try to just keep my focus on riding the bull and not let it bother me. I had to win this event to get close [to a national title] but Tyler [Thomson] was right in there too.”

Thomson’s third-place finish at the event kept him atop the regular season standings and secured his first-ever Canadian national championship.

“I didn’t get the finals’ championship because Dusty was better than me this weekend,” said Thomson, but “It was a long season and I got the better of him throughout the year.”

Thomson, who put up 255.5 points in his three runs, stole the show with the weekend’s best single-run performance.

On the 2009 bull of the finals and Canadian champion bucking bull, Unabomber, Thomson scored 91.5.

“He went one way and back the other and I stayed with, him which was pretty awesome,” he said. “He’s a great bull. I had him when he was young and he bucked me off.”

Harve Stewart from Stephenville, Texas took second place at the event while Lambert finished second on the season.

A riding score is determined by how strong the bull bucks, how controlled the rider is and if the rider stays on for eight seconds. A rider who is bucked off before eight seconds receives no score. A rider’s total event score is the accumulated score after all runs.

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Photo: Raisa Pezderic/The Sheaf

JUSTIN FAUTEUX
CUP Sports Bureau Chief

Laval defeated the Calgary Dinos in the Vanier Cup last year.

Since late August, the star McMaster Marauders quarterback has dealt with lofty expectations for his team, a crushing early-season loss to Ontario powerhouse Western and a three-game suspension after an altercation involving an undercover police officer.

But in Friday night’s Uteck Bowl, all that mattered was what Quinlan saw on the scoreboard: his team trailing the Acadia Axemen 14-0 late in the first quarter. That was when the Ontario University Athletics first-team all-star and the Marauders sprang into action.

Mac would rattle off 38 consecutive points, including 24 in the second quarter alone, on their way to a 45-21 win over the Axemen and a berth in the Vanier Cup final — the team’s first since 1967.

“I didn’t have to say much after we fell behind early,” McMaster head coach Stefan Ptaszek told reporters after the game. “The guys are proud. And they knew that if they didn’t start playing like they’re capable of, the game would be over quickly.”

Quinlan — once he and the Marauders found their stride — was, in a word, brilliant. He completed 23 of his 35 passes for 370 yards and three touchdowns, adding another 65 yards and a touchdown on the ground. Rookie running back Chris Pezzetta ran for 147 yards, while fourth-year receiver Brad Fochesato caught five passes for 159 and two touchdowns.

The win brings the Marauders’ winning streak, dating back to the regular season, to nine; all but one of those wins have been by margins of more than 15 points. But no win was more impressive than the upset of the No. 3 Western Mustangs in last weekend’s Yates Cup.

The Marauders shocked the Mustangs, at home, 40-19, avenging their only loss of the season, which came at Western in week two.

Now the Marauders will need that momentum to carry them to another upset — waiting for them in the Vanier Cup final is the Laval Rouge et Or, a team that has won three of the last five national titles.

Much like the Marauders, the Rouge et Or fell behind early in their national semifinal and found themselves trailing the Calgary Dinos in a rematch of last year’s Vanier Cup.

It was 10-3 for Calgary after the opening quarter but Laval came back with a 24-point second quarter of their own. Once the Dinos’ Chris Dobko fumbled the opening kickoff of the second half and the Rouge et Or’s Jérémie Chrétien scooped it up for a touchdown, the game was essentially over.

Calgary wouldn’t score another point after the 10 they put up in the first quarter and Laval punched their ticket to the national title game with a convincing 41-10 Mitchell Bowl win.

The Vanier Cup matchup will actually mark the second meeting of the season for the Rouge et Or and the Maruaders as the teams played an exhibition game at Laval’s PEPS stadium on Aug. 24. The Rouge et Or took that contest 24-10.

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Photo: Yan Doublet/Universite Laval

Lethbridge was no match for Trisha Carriere and the Huskies.

The Dogs, who had lost their previous three games, downed the Horns 62-55.

Leading by just two points after both the first and second quarters, the Huskies took a 17-point lead in the third frame. While Lethbridge would battle back in the fourth, the clock ran out on the comeback attempt.

On the following night, the Huskies kept Lethbridge silent and played with much more composure. They destroyed the Pronghorns 81-59 after scoring 49 points in the second half.

Katie Miyazaki led Saskatchewan with 39 points on the weekend.

The Huskies men’s team was also perfect at home against the Horns, winning 83-67 and 74-65.

Michael Lieffers led the Dogs in the first game with 18 points, 8 rebounds and 8 steals while Duncan Jones stepped up in the second game with a career-high 26 points.

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Photo: Raisa Pezderic/The Sheaf

ADAM PELESHATY
The Manitoban (University of Manitoba)

WINNIPEG (CUP) — If you turned on the TV or read the newspaper from Oct. 14 to 30, you would have been hard-pressed to find signs of the XVI Pan American Games’ existence.

This year’s games, which were held in Guadalajara, Mexico, were the last high-profile event for Canadian athletes before next year’s Summer Olympics in London. Canada sent 794 athletes, coaches and other support staff to the competition.

Unfortunately, many papers in Canada reduced the Pan Am Games to single articles about Canadian medal winners from the previous day and completely ignored some of the great stories involving our nation’s athletes.

Stories such as the women’s 4×100-metre relay swim team wearing Mexican wrestler masks before their silver-medal winning race or Dylan Armstrong, the world’s leading shot putter, defending his Pan Am title with an event record throw were ignored by the media.

There was nothing significant written about Winnipeg diver Kevin Geyson returning to the water after being hit by a car this past summer or the women’s soccer team winning gold in its first major event since a disastrous World Cup last summer.

The men’s baseball team also won its first-ever Pan Am Games gold medal. With baseball now excluded from the Olympics, pitcher Scott Richmond stated, “This is our Olympics.” Their accomplishment should have been celebrated by Canadians, instead of being relegated to the sports briefs.

Even coverage of the games on television or articles discussing Guadalajara’s performance as the host city were lacking.

However, there may have been a few reasons for the lack of coverage.

The Pan Am Games don’t usually attract the best athletes. Canada often sends developmental teams to the event, including this year.

Media may also have been wary of travelling to Guadalajara, one of the centres of Mexico’s drug war.

This lack of media attention, of course, is unfortunate because the event could have been the starting point of Canadian Olympic success stories in the future.

For instance, Canada and Argentina played for a direct Olympic berth and a gold medal in men’s field hockey — and this year, Argentina won.

Athletes can also claim Olympic berths by meeting qualifying standards in sports such as track and field and swimming or they can simply use the games to gain international experience. Out of the 18 Canadian medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics, 10 were won by athletes with previous Pan Am medals. Therefore, success at this event could translate to Olympic success either next year in London or in 2016 in Rio.

While many Canadian sports fans may have missed out on this year’s event, the next Pan American Games will be hosted by Toronto in 2015.

Hopefully the Canadian media will be more aware of its existence.

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Graphic: Devon Kerslake/The Manitoban

Huskies women seek first win

Chris Unsworth in preseason action earlier this year.

The Dogs, who are currently ranked fourth in Canadian Interuniversity Sport despite graduating four starters last year, have lost all three games this season.

According to veteran guard Katie Miyazaki, the Huskies’ close season opening loss to the Regina Cougars was a better result than expected but their two consecutive losses to the Alberta Pandas were disappointing.

“We played well and competed hard against Regina,” said Miyazaki. Against the Pandas, “We wanted to at least get a split out of the weekend. It was a little disappointing with the results, as we definitely had opportunities to win both of those games.”

Regina is considered the nation’s top team — even ranking higher than last year’s champions, the Windsor Lancers — and for the Huskies to compete against them is a good sign of the Dogs’ potential.

However, the losses to the number eight Pandas highlight the inexperience of the Huskies’ roster.

“Against Regina and Alberta, we had times where we had mental lapses that put us in a hole and forced us to play catch-up,” said Miyazaki, but “considering the youth and amount of new players on our roster, I think we are playing quite well together.”

Miyazaki, who led the Huskies with 32 points against Alberta, said it will take time before the team clicks like last year’s roster.

“We definitely do not have the same chemistry as last year, but that was sort of to be expected. The chemistry will come with time as we play more games together.”

When the Dogs tip off against the Pronghorns, they will need a strong showing from other starters like Mary Hipperson and Kabree Howard. Rookie Dalyce Emmerson will have to continue her strong play.

Emmerson put up a double-double against Regina and had 13 points and 15 rebounds against Alberta.

“Our defence will always keep us in games, but on offence we need a few more players to step up and score if we want to win,” said Miyazaki.

Huskies men look to rebound

Following an absolute pounding of the Regina Cougars in the Huskies’ season opener, the Dogs men’s basketball team fell twice to the Alberta Golden Bears last weekend.

They will be looking to get back on track Nov. 18 when they also host the Lethbridge Pronghorns at home.

“I expect [Lethbridge] will be a very tough team to play against. They’ve added some new recruits and they have some very, very strong guards that will definitely challenge us,” said Huskies fifth-year forward Chris Unsworth.

“For us, the key is to play our game instead of adapting to theirs. Our game is to run the floor and to utilize our athleticism, and we didn’t really do that too much against Alberta.”

In both games against Alberta, weak play in the fourth quarter cost the Huskies a pair of wins.

For instance, leading 57-52 on Nov. 11, the Dogs were out-rebounded and turned the ball over several times in the final frame, allowing the Bears to win 77-71.

Unsworth said the Huskies will have to limit those late-game slip-ups if they want to win against the Pronghorns.

“We just have to clean up some details on both offence and defence, and just kind of try and do the little things right throughout the game,” he said.

Nolan Brudehl led the Huskies against Alberta with 27 points while Jamelle Barrett added 22 and Unsworth put up 18.

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File photo: Raisa Pezderic/Photo Editor

Bryan Fraser smashes it through the Bears defence.

Dogs men lose tight matches to Bears

The University of Alberta Golden Bears snagged two wins from the Huskies men’s volleyball team this past weekend at the Physical Activity Complex.

In the two games held Nov. 11 and 12, the Dogs fell in five sets to the Bears despite leading 2-1 and having plenty of opportunities to win the game.

“We have some guys who have to learn to play in this type of situation,” said Huskies head coach Brian Gavlas after Saturday’s match. “Both last night and tonight kind of proved it.”

On the first night, service errors by the Dogs late in the fourth and fifth sets practically handed the victory to Alberta.

The Bears won 3-2 (25-22, 23-25, 25-27, 25-21, 16-14).

On the second night, had the Huskies been able to finish their kills, Alberta’s mistakes would have gift-wrapped a Saskatchewan win.

In the fourth set, Alberta led 22-20. A net fault, a few kills that went out of bounds and a blooper-reel service return by the Bears, however, put the Huskies ahead 24-22.

Needing only one point to win the set and take the game, the Dogs were unable to capitalize and Alberta took the set 27-25.

“We just didn’t execute,” said Huskie Matt Busse. “At the end of sets and all the way through, that’s what we need to work on.”

The Bears took the final set 15-11.

Alberta moved to 4-0 with the win while the Huskies fell to 1-5.

Huskies women fall to 0-6

Erin McGladdery tips it over the Pandas’ blockers.

The Dogs, after a 25-20 victory in the first set of the first game, couldn’t hold the momentum and fell 3-1 and 3-0 to the undefeated Alberta Pandas.

“We won the first set and we were up 20-19 in the second set, and then everything kind of [fell apart],” said Huskies head coach Jason Grieve after the two-game series. “We were happy with our performance yesterday, in a sense, but not happy with the outcome.”

Saskatchewan’s strong first set was highlighted by a series of comeback kills from Candace Hueser and a service ace from Erin McGladdery that tied the match at 14. First-year Kayla Tycholiz then sealed the Huskies’ 25 points with two consecutive kills.

“I think yesterday felt more positive — the first half of it anyway,” said Grieve.

In the second set, Alberta was able to silence a Dogs’ lead by stealing the final six points of the match and winning 25-20.

The Pandas then took the final sets 25-14 and 25-19.

On the next night, the Huskies faltered greatly and gave the Pandas the victory in three straight sets (25-16, 25-13, 25-12).

“We just have to keep investing in basic skill work,” said Grieve. “When things aren’t going well, we revert to our [old habits], but we have to get away from that.”

With the loss, the Huskies are now 0-6 on the season. Alberta is 4-0.

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Photos: Raisa Pezderic/The Sheaf

Caitlin Warkentin, green, sneaks past her competitors.

The Victoria Vikes kept two former first-place finishers off the podium Nov. 12 as the Huskies fell short of winning their first-ever Canada West women’s cross-country title.

Fifth-year Huskies Jodi Souter and Caitlin Warkentin, who had both won the conference race in the past, finished fourth and sixth, respectively, at the Canada West championships last weekend at Laval University.

“I had [hoped for a better result] because of previous higher national finishes,” said Souter. “That being said, I fared much better this time than previously at this course. I had raced this course before and I knew it was going to challenge my weaknesses.”

Souter ran the five-kilometre competition in 18:47 while Warkentin finished in 18:49.

The Vikes took the conference’s top three spots and were awarded first place honours as a team.

The Dogs finished second.

Jodi Souter is by unphased by terrible weather.

With her return to the Huskies team this year, the combination of Souter and Warkentin, who finished first last year, was perhaps the best chance the Dogs had ever had for a conference title.

Unfortunately, Victoria was too strong.

“We wanted to win the Canda West championship, but Victoria, who placed second in [Canadian Interuniversity Sport], had an amazing year as well,” said Souter.

The championship, which also doubles for the national competition, sees all university runners from throughout Canada compete together. After the race, their times are ranked both nationally and by conference.

Souter crossed the line at 13th in Canada while Warkentin finished in 16th. The Huskies were fourth, nationally, as a team.

“We couldn’t have asked for a better result. We were four points off a CIS team medal,” said Souter. “Our team went into the CIS championship with a goal of top five. Getting fourth and only being four points off of third in the CIS is fantastic.”

Souter, who was named a CIS second team all-Canadian and a Canada West first team all-star, was one of four Huskies to grab all-star mentions.

Warkentin and Marcia Richards, who claimed seventh in the conference, won first team Canada West honours. Leia Fedyk, who finished 11th, was named a conference second team all-star.

On the men’s side, the Huskies finished sixth in the Canada West and 14th nationally.

Samir Marin had the best time of all the Dogs in the ten-kilometre run. His 33:58.2 was 42nd in Canada but earned him a Canada West second team all-star mention because it was 11th in the conference.

No other Huskies male athlete was given the all-star nod.

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Photos: Michel Arnautovich

Jodi Souter, centre, leads the pack.

Hailing from the small town of Pleasantdale, Sask., Souter had a late start in cross country when she began to run competitively in her grade 12 year in 2005. After placing fourth in cross country provincials that year, she joined her sister on both the University of Saskatchewan’s cross country and track and field teams in 2006.

In her first year of competition at the university level, Souter was named the Canada West rookie of the year for cross country and was a nominee for Huskie Athletics female rookie of the year.

In her next three years, Souter’s success continued as she earned several Canada West first team all-star honours.

Her biggest success came in 2009, however, when Souter dominated the cross country scene as a fourth-year competitor. Remaining undefeated in all Canada West competitions she ran in, Souter grabbed the title of Canada West most valuable player in cross country.

Her seventh place finish at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport competition that year also earned her a first team all-Canadian mention and a spot on Team Canada at the World University Games.

In 2010, a season that was supposed to be her fifth and final year of eligibility, Souter took a break from university sport to focus on school and non-university competitions.

“It was a good year for non-university competitions in Canada, so it seemed like a perfect time to take a year off to focus on that,” said Souter.

Now Souter has returned to the Huskies cross country team for her fifth year of eligibility and has managed to pick up where she left off.

She has raced in four cross country meets so far and has placed first in each one. Most recently, she took first amongst all university competitors at the Stewart Cup in Edmonton on Oct. 29.

“I’ve been doing OK at competitions but I haven’t felt strong. I felt strong at the Stewart Cup,” said Souter.

The Huskies women’s cross country team finished first overall at the Stewart Cup.

Souter believes that the team should be in the running for the Canada West Championship title on Nov. 12. Ranked fourth in Canada, Souter said that the team has never been this strong.

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File photo: Jim Holmstrom/Huskie Athletics