Sporting Madness

After much ado and Internet wrangling, my poll of the Top 10 Gaels' moments of the year (a collaboration with the Athletics Department ) is finally live. Unfortunately, only part of the explanatory text made it into the Journal post on the matter, so I figured I'd just post the whole thing and the survey link here as well. Check it out and vote for your favourite! If you feel I left out any key moments or just want to talk about the list, post a comment here or e-mail me at andrew_bucholtz[at]hotmail.com. Here's the full release on the matter: VOTE ONLINE FOR QUEEN’S TOP SPORTING MOMENT OF THE 2008-09 SEASON Kingston, Ont. (March 19, 2009) – The Queen’s Journal invites fans of the Queen’s Gaels to vote online for the top sporting moments of the 2008-09 season. Fans can visit the Journal website at www.queensjournal.ca to cast their ballot and select this year’s top sporting moment. The moments will be ranked and unveiled at the 73rd Annual Colour Awards Athletic Banquet o...

One of the things we often forget about democracy, especially at the level of student politics, is the impact some decisions can have. That was evident at tonight's AMS Annual General Meeting, where around 800 students packed Ban Righ Cafeteria and almost unanimously approved the athletics department's request for a $120 fee increase [myself, Queen's Journal ] over four years. It's easy to see why we often have voter apathy, though; much of the rest of the meeting was consumed with the petty squabbles and meaningless arguments more frequently found in politics, and it's a credit to those who managed to stick it out until the Athletics motion. Still, this one decision was incredibly important and will be remembered as such. Yes, there was a long process of research, polling and discussion leading up to today, but in the end, the future direction of the department all came down to this vote. Without the increase, Queen's sports would have been reduced to a shell...

Next Monday's going to be a very significant moment in the future of Queen's athletics. That's the date of the AMS (Alma Mater Society, the undergraduate student government) general meeting, which takes place in Ban Righ Hall at 8 p.m. All current students have a vote at the meeting. The key motion to be addressed is a $120 increase to the current athletics fee of $131.75, spread out over several years (you can see the details on the Queen's site here , along with some very interesting budgeting data). Steep university budget cuts mean that the athletics department is facing some challenging times financially and may have to drastically alter their programs if they don't get this increase. Anyway, an interesting foreshadowing of what may go down at the AGM occured March 1 at a special AMS Assembly meeting to consider endorsing the fee increase and sending it to the general meeting for further ratification. I got the bare-bones details on the meeting in last week...

A quick note that Queen's men's volleyball outside hitter Joren Zeeman was selected as a second-team All-Canadian tonight. Zeeman was named the CIS Rookie of the Year last season and was even better this year; he was the primary weapon in the Gaels' arsenal and led them to the OUA Final . He'll be one to watch in the years to come. I have the full list of All-Canadians and award winners over at The CIS Blog with some more detailed analysis.

Thanks to Mike Grobe of Queen's Athletics, I came across the 3 minute clip highlighting the Queen's-RMC rivalry that aired on CBC Saturday during their Hockey Day in Canada coverage. It's pretty good; some creative camera shots of both universities, a bit of footage from the old-time reenactment and plenty of coverage from this year's Carr-Harris Cup , including pre-game speeches by Queen's head coach Brett Gibson and RMC head coach Adam Shell , as well as interviews with the likes of Gibson, Paul Bradley , Grant Horvath , Bill Fitsell and David Carr-Harris . You can find it at http://www.cbc.ca/sports/ondemand/ by searching "RMC": only the right clip will show up that way. Unfortunately, I can't embed it or link to it directly, but it's still definitely worth a look. Kudos to CBC on a job well done on this segment, especially without a lot of airtime to work with.

It's Queen's and McMaster for all the marbles once again! Live from Hamilton, join me in the live blog below. Volleyball OUA Final live blog

I’ll be live-blogging Game II of the OUA men’s volleyball finals tonight between Queen’s and McMaster. The game starts at 7. It’s also going to be webcast on SSN Canada . McMaster won Round I pretty handily [myself, Queen’s Journal ] on Tuesday, so it will be interesting to see if the Gaels can bounce back and force a third match on Saturday. McMaster’s only lost one match at home (regular-season and playoffs) in the past two seasons, though, so it’s not going to be easy. The key players and aspects to watch are detailed below. For Queen’s: Joren Zeeman: When Zeeman’s hot, he’s almost unstoppable. He was the CIS rookie of the year last year and earned Queen’s lone OUA first-team all-star nod this season. He led the team with 209 kills this year. He also had 16 kills in their win over Waterloo Saturday and another 19 kills on 36 attempts against McMaster Tuesday. Queen’s is likely to go to him early and often. Jeff DeMeza: DeMeza brings five years of experience to the table and can ...

Few things during my time at Queen's have depressed me more than finding out yesterday [myself and Emily Davies , Queen's Journal ] that the dream of a new hockey arena on Main Campus was all but dead. Sure, they've been talking about it for a while and there are some financial benefits (although no one I talked to yesterday could confirm if those numbers are still accurate), but for me, the arena was always one of the big selling points of the Queen's Centre. New gyms and student space are great, but the sports experience I probably miss more than anything else here were the Friday night hockey games at Jock Harty I'd go to with my buddies from the dorm floor back in first year. There was great student support, beer gardens and just generally a tremendous atmosphere. I've been to plenty of great Queen's hockey games since, including this past weekend's Carr-Harris Cup , but it's never been quite the same; even though the Memorial Centre is a good...

It should be a classic clash tonight between Queen's and RMC for Kingston CIS hockey supremacy. More than just bragging rights is on the line, though; the winner takes home the Carr-Harris Cup, and the Gaels likely need two points to keep their playoff hopes alive. Currently, they're tied with the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees for the final OUA East playoff berth, but Ottawa has two games in hand. Join me in the live blog below for all the action! Queen's hockey: the Carr-Harris Cup!

Join me in the live blog below! Queen's - Ryerson Men's Hockey 02-06-09

A quick note that I'll be live-blogging Queen's men's hockey games here both Friday and Saturday. The Gaels face 4-20-1 Ryerson Friday night and then take on 7-16-2 RMC Saturday in the annual Carr-Harris Cup. Both games are at 7:30 p.m. at the Memorial Centre, and both are likely to prove rather important for the OUA playoff picture. Queen's (10-13-2) is one point behind Ottawa for the final OUA East playoff spot. We'll see if interim captain Billy Burke can continue his streak; he's notched 2 goals in each of the last three games. Check tomorrow's Journal for a piece by Julie Stewart-Binks on Tuesday's win over Carleton and a profile of Burke by Anand Srivastava , and then come join the live blog tomorrow night!

Breaking down Ottawa’s win over Queen’s Friday night… [ Michael Grobe , gogaelsgo.com ] The score: Ottawa 71, Queen’s 50 How I saw it: In person The Good: -Alaina Porter : Porter was Queen’s best player on the night. She went four for eight from the field and seven for 11 from the charity stripe for a 15-point total while adding eight rebounds, four of them offensive. She played well in the post against taller defenders and was consistent all night, a main reason why she recorded a game-high 32 minutes of court time. -Erin Skippon : Skippon also had a decent game for the Gaels, making three of her seven shots from the field and four of her six chances from the line for 10 points. She also added three rebounds. -Jill Wheat : Wheat didn’t provide much offence, only notching three points on free throws, but she collected a game-high 10 rebounds, four of them on the offensive glass. She also only picked up two fouls in 26 minutes of court time, quite good for a post player. -The free-...

Continuing in our proud 1-year tradition , and in step with everyone else who uses the meme, here's the Sporting Madness Christmas gifts for the world of sports: Soccer: - To the Vancouver Whitecaps and Bob Lenarduzzi : a nice, gift-wrapped MLS franchise . That could make the entire city happy. I'll have more on their chances soon. - To the Montreal Impact: good luck for their forthcoming CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal matchup against Mexico's Club Santos Laguna. Montreal's unexpected run has been tremendous to watch, and it would be great to see a Canadian team keep going. - To Toronto FC: Well, they did already get one very nice Christmas present , but we'll send them a quality designated player as well and a playoff berth. This franchise has been great for Canadian soccer and the city of Toronto. They have so much support and so many tickets sold in advance that they really could just go through the motions, so it's refreshing to see them continue th...

A quick note that I'll be live-blogging tonight's men's hockey match between Queen's and the McGill Redmen, believed to be the fourth-oldest hockey rivalry in the world. The game starts at 7:30 p.m. It will also be broadcast on TV Cogeco and webcast at cfrc.ca. Check out Amrit 's story in Friday's paper for a preview and a recap of last week's battle between the teams in Montreal, which McGill won 4-1. Queen's is already off to a better start this weekend with a 2-1 shootout win [ Mike Grobe , gogaelsgo.com ] against the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees last night; we'll see if they can keep it up tonight.

I learned this morning that football tight end Scott Stinson (famed not only for his size and great receiving numbers, but also for being one of the few athletes to crack the front page of the Journal , even in less than ideal circumstances) has officially joined the men's basketball team. There had been some rumours floating around about this earlier, but it's confirmed now: he's on the official roster and may play as early as their weekend games against Brock and Guelph. This might work out well for the team. One of the big problems so far has been their lack of depth in the frontcourt positions; in fact, as I pointed out in my story on last weekend's games, a lot of their success came when they went to a three-guard lineup. Especially with Jon Ogden not playing (he played in the pre-season, but isn't with the team at the moment), there aren't a lot of frontcourt options on this team, and Stinson's addition should significantly help with that. These G...

We were pretty pressed for space in this week's Journal , so I had to cut this piece on the men's basketball team's opening weekend games down substantially for the paper. I figured I'd post it here in its entirety for anyone interested in more details on the team and their opening games. For more Gaels' hoops coverage, check out my profile of Mitch Leger in today's paper: I'll have another posts on the team up here shortly. Here's the full story: Basketball opens with a bang By Andrew Bucholtz Sports Editor The men’s basketball team’s started the season with a bang Friday. They earned a 72-67 victory against the Waterloo Warriors, a team that was 6-16 last season but had defeated the Gaels 92-62 in the preseason. Point guard Baris Ondul poured in 19 points against Waterloo and added six assists and three rebounds. Ondul said the team was out for revenge after their ignominious loss to the Warriors in the pre-season. “We were motivated for redemption,...

There are some moments in sports that transcend the usual prose used to describe such encounters, when art, life and competition collide in a surreal mix. Saturday's football game between Queen's and the Ottawa Gee-Gees was one of those moments, at least from this perspective: I've been trying to find the proper way to give it justice for two days now. In the end, there was one poem that kept flashing through my mind high up in the chilly Richardson Stadium press box while watching the Gaels' dream season reduced to ruins on the gridiron below. I present it below, with annotated commentary on its relevance to this occasion. [ The full text of The Charge of the Light Brigade, by Lord Tennyson, can be found here ... ] Half a league, half a league, Half a league onward, All in the valley of Death Rode the six hundred. "Forward, the Light Brigade! "Charge for the guns!" he said: Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred. Much like the famed Light Brigade...

And we're up and rolling! Kickoff should be in just a moment. My previews of the game are here [ Sporting Madness ] and here [ Queen's Journal ]. Neate also has a good one here . The game is also on the radio at CFRC and is being webcast at SSN Canada . Post comments here or send them to me at andrew_bucholtz (at) hotmail.com. First quarter: - Dan Village kicks off for Queen's: Ottawa returns it to around their own 20. - Dave Mason runs off the left tackle for about five yards. - Josh Sacobie completes a short pass, but his receiver is stopped less than a yard short. Gee-Gees are going for it. - Sacobie sneaks for the first down. 1 and 10 on the Ottawa 33. - Mason carries off right tackle, picks up 5. 2 and 5 on the Ottawa 38. - Mason carries for two, stopped by Mike Botting . 3 and 3 Ottawa: they decide to punt. - Awful snap and the punt's almost blocked by Tim Poffley . Ottawa gets it off, though, but the ball only travels about 35 yards. Jimmy Allin pulls of...