In a few short months, the Waterloo doping scandal has gone from an investigation of one player to a team-wide investigation to league-wide concerns over drug testing. Today saw the first tangible impact on a league-wide scale, though; as Sean Fitz-Gerald of The Canadian Press reports, Waterloo has suspended its football program for the coming year. The coaching staff has been placed on paid administrative leave.
I'll get into analysis on this later, and I believe Rob Pettapiece has a post coming at The CIS Blog as well, but for now, let's focus on the facts. As Mark Masters reports, Canadian Centre for Ethics In Sport (the organization that oversees CIS drug testing) president Paul Melia announced that nine anti-doping violations were found after tests of Waterloo's 62 football players.
As Masters writes, CIS CEO Marg McGregor called it "the biggest doping situation in CIS history. "The results announced today illustrate that the CIS core value of drug-free sport has been compromised and more needs to be done to protect the integrity of university sport and the rights of clean athletes to a level playing field," she said. That would suggest that we're going to see some drug policy changes from a league-wide perspective.
For now, though, the tangible impact comes from the Warriors' disappearance from OUA football for 2010. That's going to alter the schedule, and the OUA football institutions will be holding a conference call today to discuss how that will work. Dropping from a 10-team league to a nine-team league isn't normally easy, but it might not be that difficult in this case. Under the current system, each OUA team plays eight conference games and misses one opponent; with nine teams, each team should be able to play every other team. There are still complications around scheduling (for example, most schools use the same field for football and soccer, so dates have to be carefully planned to avoid conflicts), but they should be able to work it out.
I'll keep you updated as things progress.
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog. Make sure to go there this evening for Rob's thoughts.]
Showing posts with label The CIS Blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The CIS Blog. Show all posts
Monday, June 14, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
CIS prospects finding NFL homes
It's been a good couple of weeks for CIS football. After a strong showing by CIS prospects in the CFL draft, including first-overall pick Shomari Williams (who I interviewed before the draft), six CIS players appear in good shape to catch on with NFL teams. The Detroit Lions signed [Sean Yuille, Pride Of Detroit] Laurier defensive end Chima Ihekwoaba after their rookie minicamp [Tom Kowalski, Mlive.com, via Ron Balaskovitz], and Concordia linebacker Cory Greenwood signed with [Mark Masters, National Post] the Kansas City Chiefs today. Waterloo offensive lineman Joel Reinders has signed with Cleveland [David Naylor, The Globe and Mail, Concordia offensive lineman Kristian Matte has inked a deal with Houston [Herb Zurkowsky, The Gazette], Bishop's wide receiver Shawn Gore reached an agreement with Green Bay [Dave Heller, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel] and Regina wide receiver Jordan Sisco signed with the Indianapolis Colts [Ian Hamilton, Regina Leader-Post].
This does seem to represent a significant change. CIS players like Israel Idonije and Dan Federkeil have headed straight to the NFL out of CIS schools before, but most of the Canadians in the NFL have come from American schools, like Nate Burleson. Having so many players from CIS schools sign with NFL clubs is certainly surprising, especially when several of those players weren't even ranked among the top CFL prospects [Kirk Penton, Toronto Sun].
Christine Rivet of the Waterloo Record had an interesting piece on this, interviewing New York Jets' scout Brock Sunderland, a former director of scouting for the Montreal Alouettes. Sunderland said the gap between CIS-trained and NCAA-trained players is closing, and the fourth-round selection of Western defensive end Vaughn Martin by San Diego last year has convinced more NFL teams to take CIS football seriously.
"I think the Vaughn Martin thing really opened up the eyes to the CIS athlete – that maybe this might be a real opportunity more than just a (fantasy)," Sunderland said. "It opens up the belief it can happen."
What's also interesting about this is that NFL teams are looking at CIS wide receivers and linebackers. Previously, many of the CIS guys taken have been offensive linemen, and some have made the argument that those guys have been seen as projects, chosen based on physical attributes and in spite of the quality of their competition, rather than because of it. Physical attributes are obviously important at receiver and linebacker too, but the amount of guys heading south and the diversity in their positions suggests to me that NFL teams are developing more of a respect for the quality of play in CIS.
The loser in all of this may be the CFL, though. The CFL draft has always been difficult because you have to balance a player's talent against the likelihood that they'll suit up for you; as Masters pointed out in this piece, the more talented players obviously have a higher risk of sticking around in the NFL. Sometimes, top talents will bounce around the NFL for a year or two before heading back north, like Jamall Lee; in other cases, they'll make their reputation up north and then head to the NFL, like Ricky Foley. In other cases, high CFL draft picks like Samuel Giguere, Federkeil and Idonije stick in the NFL and never see the field up north.
It's a delicate balancing act, and we won't be able to properly evaluate it for a few years, but it's important to keep in mind that most of these players went pretty high in this year's CFL draft. The big loser could be the Montreal Alouettes, who used their first two picks on Matte (seventh overall) and Ihekwoaba (14th overall). However, the reigning Grey Cup champions have less immediate needs than other teams and may be able to afford to wait a few years in hopes that those guys will come up north. The Toronto Argonauts have more immediate problems; they traded down from first overall to third, passing on Williams and picking Greenwood, who now seems unlikely to suit up for them next year. They also chose Reinders 26th overall, which seems like reasonable value given that he was rated as the 11th-best prospect by the CFL's scouting bureau, but that could hurt them if he sticks in the NFL. Sisco went eighth overall to Saskatchewan, and the Riders can probably afford to wait for him, given the depth of their Canadian receiving corps. Gore went 10th overall to B.C., and that may hurt more, as the Lions could use some more Canadian pass-catching talent. The eventual effects of this trend on the CFL can't be fully analyzed until we see where these players wind up in a few years, though.
In the end, this seems to me to be a bit of a reflection on how CIS football is changing. I wrote about the effects of increased athletic scholarships and national recruiting a while back, and this may tie into that. There's more competition than ever to attract recruits, and many schools have looked to do that by improving their athletic facilities, adding full-time coaches and offering more advanced strength and conditioning programs. We've also seen a rise in out-of-conference exhibition games among the bigger programs, which has helped to increase their national profiles. More CIS schools seem to be taking football seriously, and high-school recruits, CFL scouts and NFL scouts are all noticing that. To me, that's a good thing.
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
This does seem to represent a significant change. CIS players like Israel Idonije and Dan Federkeil have headed straight to the NFL out of CIS schools before, but most of the Canadians in the NFL have come from American schools, like Nate Burleson. Having so many players from CIS schools sign with NFL clubs is certainly surprising, especially when several of those players weren't even ranked among the top CFL prospects [Kirk Penton, Toronto Sun].
Christine Rivet of the Waterloo Record had an interesting piece on this, interviewing New York Jets' scout Brock Sunderland, a former director of scouting for the Montreal Alouettes. Sunderland said the gap between CIS-trained and NCAA-trained players is closing, and the fourth-round selection of Western defensive end Vaughn Martin by San Diego last year has convinced more NFL teams to take CIS football seriously.
"I think the Vaughn Martin thing really opened up the eyes to the CIS athlete – that maybe this might be a real opportunity more than just a (fantasy)," Sunderland said. "It opens up the belief it can happen."
What's also interesting about this is that NFL teams are looking at CIS wide receivers and linebackers. Previously, many of the CIS guys taken have been offensive linemen, and some have made the argument that those guys have been seen as projects, chosen based on physical attributes and in spite of the quality of their competition, rather than because of it. Physical attributes are obviously important at receiver and linebacker too, but the amount of guys heading south and the diversity in their positions suggests to me that NFL teams are developing more of a respect for the quality of play in CIS.
The loser in all of this may be the CFL, though. The CFL draft has always been difficult because you have to balance a player's talent against the likelihood that they'll suit up for you; as Masters pointed out in this piece, the more talented players obviously have a higher risk of sticking around in the NFL. Sometimes, top talents will bounce around the NFL for a year or two before heading back north, like Jamall Lee; in other cases, they'll make their reputation up north and then head to the NFL, like Ricky Foley. In other cases, high CFL draft picks like Samuel Giguere, Federkeil and Idonije stick in the NFL and never see the field up north.
It's a delicate balancing act, and we won't be able to properly evaluate it for a few years, but it's important to keep in mind that most of these players went pretty high in this year's CFL draft. The big loser could be the Montreal Alouettes, who used their first two picks on Matte (seventh overall) and Ihekwoaba (14th overall). However, the reigning Grey Cup champions have less immediate needs than other teams and may be able to afford to wait a few years in hopes that those guys will come up north. The Toronto Argonauts have more immediate problems; they traded down from first overall to third, passing on Williams and picking Greenwood, who now seems unlikely to suit up for them next year. They also chose Reinders 26th overall, which seems like reasonable value given that he was rated as the 11th-best prospect by the CFL's scouting bureau, but that could hurt them if he sticks in the NFL. Sisco went eighth overall to Saskatchewan, and the Riders can probably afford to wait for him, given the depth of their Canadian receiving corps. Gore went 10th overall to B.C., and that may hurt more, as the Lions could use some more Canadian pass-catching talent. The eventual effects of this trend on the CFL can't be fully analyzed until we see where these players wind up in a few years, though.
In the end, this seems to me to be a bit of a reflection on how CIS football is changing. I wrote about the effects of increased athletic scholarships and national recruiting a while back, and this may tie into that. There's more competition than ever to attract recruits, and many schools have looked to do that by improving their athletic facilities, adding full-time coaches and offering more advanced strength and conditioning programs. We've also seen a rise in out-of-conference exhibition games among the bigger programs, which has helped to increase their national profiles. More CIS schools seem to be taking football seriously, and high-school recruits, CFL scouts and NFL scouts are all noticing that. To me, that's a good thing.
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
Friday, May 07, 2010
CIS: On the addition of UBC-Okanagan
I have a post up at The CIS Blog on Canada West's decision to add UBC-Okanagan, reject UNBC and VIU and make UFV and Thompson Rivers University permanent members. Might be worth a read for those interested in CIS issues; it's been a long process to get to this point, and it's still far from over.
Friday, April 30, 2010
On The Ground: Talking to top CFL prospect Shomari Williams
The CFL draft is coming up [Jaime Stein, CFL.ca] this Sunday (noon Eastern, TSN). It's always an exciting time of the year, particularly from the perspective of watching CIS stars making the jump to the pros. To get you excited for it, here's an e-mail interview I just conducted with Shomari Williams, the Queen's defensive end who led the Gaels to the Vanier Cup this year and is ranked first overall by the CFL's scouting bureau. We talked about the CFL, CIS, the NCAA and his up-and-coming business helping recruits. My questions and his responses are below (slight edits for clarity).
Andrew Bucholtz: You've made a pretty meteoric rise up the CFL Scouting Bureau rankings, from #15 at the start of last season to #4 in December to #1 earlier this year. Do you pay any attention to the rankings, and if so, what did it feel like to take over the top spot?
Shomari Williams: It felt great being named the top prospect in Canada. I worked real hard all season and it was a great feeling to know that all my hard work paid off.
A.B.: With the draft coming up this weekend, there's a chance you could be selected first overall. Do you see the top spot as something special, the way it's usually viewed in the NFL, or does it not make as much of a difference in the CFL's smaller draft?
S.W.: I think this is a big deal. Even though the CFL is smaller than the NFL, only a select few people can ever say they were drafted and even fewer can say they were taken first overall. If I am picked first, it will be something special for me and my family to have my name in the record books as the number-one pick in the 2010 CFL draft.
A.B.: How do you feel about getting the chance to play in the CFL? Has it been something you've always been interested in, or a more recent goal?
S.W.: I feel truly blessed to have an opportunity to play in the CFL. When I first started college, I never had plans to play pro. My first goal was to get on the field and contribute to my team and go from there. As time went on in college, I started thinking about playing pro and coming back and going to Queen's really helped me in getting ready for a professional career.
A.B.: I understand you grew up in Brampton and then played in the NCAA at the University of Houston before coming to Queen's last year. Why did you choose that career path (high school to NCAA to CIS), and would you change anything if you had the chance to go back and do it again?
S.W.: Growing up, I just dreamed of playing in the NCAA. Watching it on TV made me fall in love with football in the States. Getting a scholarship and attending the University of Houston was a great experience for me. I graduated from Houston and I really wanted to play pro football, and I thought the best way to position myself for that was to come back and play for Queen's. I really don't like what-if scenarios, so I don't regret any of the choices I've made and I think all the experiences I've had has made me a better person.
A.B.: What did it mean to you to win the Vanier Cup in your only year of CIS football?
S.W.: Winning the Vanier made me feel like Carmelo Anthony! To come to a team for one year and have such a great season individually and team-wise, you couldn't ask for anything more. The 2010 Queen's Golden Gaels will go down in history as a championship team, and to be a part of that is something that I will never forget.
A.B.: How do NCAA and CIS football compare (calibre, coaching, atmosphere, practices, etc)? What did you like and dislike about each?
S.W.: Some things in the NCAA you can't compare to the CIS. It's just because the NCAA has so much money. The two things I think any football player is looking for when deciding on a program is the experience and the coaching. I had a wonderful experience and excellent coaching in my short time in the CIS and the playoff atmosphere was ridiculous too.
A.B.: Did you find it difficult to adapt to Canadian rules after your years in the NCAA? Which set of rules do you like better?
S.W.: To be honest, I barely noticed the rules. A few times, I lined up offside, but other than that, I really didn't notice the different rules.
A.B.: If you could change CIS however you wanted (at an organization-wide level, a football-wide level or just a Queen's level), what changes would you make?
S.W.: There are so many changes I think the CIS should implement to make the league better. To me, it has a great product, but we hear so little about it. I wish the CIS was run more like a business. To me, if the people involved had a greater stake in the success of the league, they would be more creative in how to expand and market the league.
A.B.: I understand you started Student Blitz (his recruiting business) in 2007. What gave you the idea, and how did you put it into practice? How many athletes have you worked with?
S.W.: Going through the recruiting process myself and seeing how much time and money it cost to send film to college coaches. I thought about ways to make the process more efficient for other players with time and money, so I created a database that allows you to send your film and athletic information to any NCAA coach. I've worked with about 15 athletes now and 70% of those athletes have received full scholarships, so I am happy with that.
A.B.: What are your future plans for the site?
S.W.: Right now, I am trying to get an investor and partner for the business so that he can run the day-to-day operations of the site. I am also excited about my new venture, TopProspects.ca, which should launch in May. This service will help high school athletes get recruited by CIS coaches.
Thanks to Shomari for taking the time to talk with me! Best of luck to him this Sunday. If you want to follow the draft, it will be televised on TSN starting at 12 p.m. Eastern/9 a.m. Pacific. I'll also be following the B.C. Lions' Den's crew's live blog; it should be an excellent source of draft coverage too. I'll hopefully have a post-draft summary up Sunday afternoon at both Sporting Madness and The CIS Blog.
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
Andrew Bucholtz: You've made a pretty meteoric rise up the CFL Scouting Bureau rankings, from #15 at the start of last season to #4 in December to #1 earlier this year. Do you pay any attention to the rankings, and if so, what did it feel like to take over the top spot?
Shomari Williams: It felt great being named the top prospect in Canada. I worked real hard all season and it was a great feeling to know that all my hard work paid off.
A.B.: With the draft coming up this weekend, there's a chance you could be selected first overall. Do you see the top spot as something special, the way it's usually viewed in the NFL, or does it not make as much of a difference in the CFL's smaller draft?
S.W.: I think this is a big deal. Even though the CFL is smaller than the NFL, only a select few people can ever say they were drafted and even fewer can say they were taken first overall. If I am picked first, it will be something special for me and my family to have my name in the record books as the number-one pick in the 2010 CFL draft.
A.B.: How do you feel about getting the chance to play in the CFL? Has it been something you've always been interested in, or a more recent goal?
S.W.: I feel truly blessed to have an opportunity to play in the CFL. When I first started college, I never had plans to play pro. My first goal was to get on the field and contribute to my team and go from there. As time went on in college, I started thinking about playing pro and coming back and going to Queen's really helped me in getting ready for a professional career.
A.B.: I understand you grew up in Brampton and then played in the NCAA at the University of Houston before coming to Queen's last year. Why did you choose that career path (high school to NCAA to CIS), and would you change anything if you had the chance to go back and do it again?
S.W.: Growing up, I just dreamed of playing in the NCAA. Watching it on TV made me fall in love with football in the States. Getting a scholarship and attending the University of Houston was a great experience for me. I graduated from Houston and I really wanted to play pro football, and I thought the best way to position myself for that was to come back and play for Queen's. I really don't like what-if scenarios, so I don't regret any of the choices I've made and I think all the experiences I've had has made me a better person.
A.B.: What did it mean to you to win the Vanier Cup in your only year of CIS football?
S.W.: Winning the Vanier made me feel like Carmelo Anthony! To come to a team for one year and have such a great season individually and team-wise, you couldn't ask for anything more. The 2010 Queen's Golden Gaels will go down in history as a championship team, and to be a part of that is something that I will never forget.
A.B.: How do NCAA and CIS football compare (calibre, coaching, atmosphere, practices, etc)? What did you like and dislike about each?
S.W.: Some things in the NCAA you can't compare to the CIS. It's just because the NCAA has so much money. The two things I think any football player is looking for when deciding on a program is the experience and the coaching. I had a wonderful experience and excellent coaching in my short time in the CIS and the playoff atmosphere was ridiculous too.
A.B.: Did you find it difficult to adapt to Canadian rules after your years in the NCAA? Which set of rules do you like better?
S.W.: To be honest, I barely noticed the rules. A few times, I lined up offside, but other than that, I really didn't notice the different rules.
A.B.: If you could change CIS however you wanted (at an organization-wide level, a football-wide level or just a Queen's level), what changes would you make?
S.W.: There are so many changes I think the CIS should implement to make the league better. To me, it has a great product, but we hear so little about it. I wish the CIS was run more like a business. To me, if the people involved had a greater stake in the success of the league, they would be more creative in how to expand and market the league.
A.B.: I understand you started Student Blitz (his recruiting business) in 2007. What gave you the idea, and how did you put it into practice? How many athletes have you worked with?
S.W.: Going through the recruiting process myself and seeing how much time and money it cost to send film to college coaches. I thought about ways to make the process more efficient for other players with time and money, so I created a database that allows you to send your film and athletic information to any NCAA coach. I've worked with about 15 athletes now and 70% of those athletes have received full scholarships, so I am happy with that.
A.B.: What are your future plans for the site?
S.W.: Right now, I am trying to get an investor and partner for the business so that he can run the day-to-day operations of the site. I am also excited about my new venture, TopProspects.ca, which should launch in May. This service will help high school athletes get recruited by CIS coaches.
Thanks to Shomari for taking the time to talk with me! Best of luck to him this Sunday. If you want to follow the draft, it will be televised on TSN starting at 12 p.m. Eastern/9 a.m. Pacific. I'll also be following the B.C. Lions' Den's crew's live blog; it should be an excellent source of draft coverage too. I'll hopefully have a post-draft summary up Sunday afternoon at both Sporting Madness and The CIS Blog.
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
Saturday, January 30, 2010
CIS: Final league showdown for UBC and SFU
It's a special day for Simon Fraser University's basketball teams. They're hosting the archrival UBC Thunderbirds in a pair of rather important games. On the women's side, the No. 1 Clan are coming off thumpings of the Winnipeg Wesmen and Manitoba Bisons last weekend. They're looking to maintain their perfect 13-0 record in conference play, but they'll face a tough opponent in 10-4 UBC, as the Thunderbirds are tied for second in the Canada West Pacific division. It's also the last home league game for their seniors, including popular blogger Kate Hole, and the team's also raising funds for breast cancer research.
On the men's side, the 12-2 Clan (ranked No. 7) are flying high after knocking off No. 1 UBC 82-79Wednesday Thursday (thanks, Peter!). That was the 13-1 Thunderbirds' first conference loss. They'll be out for revenge in today's rematch.
The other interesting subplot to these games is that they're the final regular-season CIS home games SFU's basketball teams will play, as the school's planned move to the NCAA in 2011 got bumped up to this coming year after Canada West put them on probation earlier this year. As Rob wrote, that also could mean that SFU's fourth-year players either end their careers here (thanks to the NCAA's four-year eligibility window, as compared to the five years in CIS) or wind up moving to another school. This adds another dimension to what's already a compelling pair of contests. I'll be covering both games today (the men's game is at 3 p.m. Pacific, with the women's game to follow) and live-blogging both if I'm able to get an Internet connection; feel free to stop by! I'll have a post-game piece later tonight as well.
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
On the men's side, the 12-2 Clan (ranked No. 7) are flying high after knocking off No. 1 UBC 82-79
The other interesting subplot to these games is that they're the final regular-season CIS home games SFU's basketball teams will play, as the school's planned move to the NCAA in 2011 got bumped up to this coming year after Canada West put them on probation earlier this year. As Rob wrote, that also could mean that SFU's fourth-year players either end their careers here (thanks to the NCAA's four-year eligibility window, as compared to the five years in CIS) or wind up moving to another school. This adds another dimension to what's already a compelling pair of contests. I'll be covering both games today (the men's game is at 3 p.m. Pacific, with the women's game to follow) and live-blogging both if I'm able to get an Internet connection; feel free to stop by! I'll have a post-game piece later tonight as well.
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
Friday, January 22, 2010
CBC Sports Plus delayed indefinitely
William Houston reported the other day that the long-anticipated CBC Sports Plus digital sports channel not only won't be launching this year, it may not launch at all. Houston cites carriage issues as one of the major problems, which makes sense considering the difficulties TSN ran into trying to get Rogers to carry TSN2 (and TSN2 had much more high-demand programming when it started than CBC Sports Plus was anticipated to have).
This is disappointing news for Canadian sports fans as a whole, as more channels tend to mean more sports events are available. However, it may be particularly damaging to CIS fans hoping to see more televised university sports content. I've been following the CBC Sports Plus saga for several years now, and first spoke to CBC Sports head Scott Moore on the subject for a Queen's Journal piece on CIS TV coverage in March 2008. At that time, he seemed quite optimistic that the CIS might have a plcae on the new channel, commenting, "I think it’s a great product that’s underexposed at the moment."
In September 2008, I took another look at the channel (see the factbox at the bottom of the page) and some other university sports initiatives, including some of The Score's new initiatives and Streaming Sports Network's expansion of its coverage. The other two networks were already in existence and thus had much firmer ideas about their coverage of CIS events, but Moore still sounded very positive about CBC Sports Plus and the chance to televise amateur sports content such as CIS sports. As I mentioned in my CIS Blog companion piece, CIS made a lot of sense for CBC, as the CRTC mandated them to carry at least 30 per cent amateur content per week and 80 per cent amateur content per year. CIS sports fit both of those criteria very nicely, and the timing of many CIS games on weeknights and weekend evenings would have been perfect, seeing as much of the other potential amateur content (skiing, curling, swimming, etc) generally takes place on weekend mornings.
The really disappointing thing about this is that it seems the Canadian Olympic Committee's proposed amateur sports network (which I also wrote about in the first piece) is also dead in the water; its website hasn't been updated in over a year. Both networks seemed quite promising and very interested in televising CIS content, and their interest alone might have convinced the other existing networks to see CIS programming as more valuable. Even the success of one of them could have made a substantial difference given the amounts of amateur sports content they were talking about carrying. For the moment, though, it looks like the status quo will prevail.
There is some reason for hope, though. Houston's report makes it clear that CBC Sports Plus hasn't been officially written off yet, and it could still launch in the future. If the CBC is able to acquire some high-end sports properties (more NHL content, some Blue Jays games, more soccer and basketball), they could be in a stronger position to force cable companies like Rogers to carry a new channel. Alternatively, Rogers Sportsnet's ratings could improve to the point where Rogers is no longer terrified of upstarts cutting in. There's also the chance that the CBC and cable companies might be able to come to a reasonable deal that would permit the channel to launch. It's not dead yet, it's just resting!
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
This is disappointing news for Canadian sports fans as a whole, as more channels tend to mean more sports events are available. However, it may be particularly damaging to CIS fans hoping to see more televised university sports content. I've been following the CBC Sports Plus saga for several years now, and first spoke to CBC Sports head Scott Moore on the subject for a Queen's Journal piece on CIS TV coverage in March 2008. At that time, he seemed quite optimistic that the CIS might have a plcae on the new channel, commenting, "I think it’s a great product that’s underexposed at the moment."
In September 2008, I took another look at the channel (see the factbox at the bottom of the page) and some other university sports initiatives, including some of The Score's new initiatives and Streaming Sports Network's expansion of its coverage. The other two networks were already in existence and thus had much firmer ideas about their coverage of CIS events, but Moore still sounded very positive about CBC Sports Plus and the chance to televise amateur sports content such as CIS sports. As I mentioned in my CIS Blog companion piece, CIS made a lot of sense for CBC, as the CRTC mandated them to carry at least 30 per cent amateur content per week and 80 per cent amateur content per year. CIS sports fit both of those criteria very nicely, and the timing of many CIS games on weeknights and weekend evenings would have been perfect, seeing as much of the other potential amateur content (skiing, curling, swimming, etc) generally takes place on weekend mornings.
The really disappointing thing about this is that it seems the Canadian Olympic Committee's proposed amateur sports network (which I also wrote about in the first piece) is also dead in the water; its website hasn't been updated in over a year. Both networks seemed quite promising and very interested in televising CIS content, and their interest alone might have convinced the other existing networks to see CIS programming as more valuable. Even the success of one of them could have made a substantial difference given the amounts of amateur sports content they were talking about carrying. For the moment, though, it looks like the status quo will prevail.
There is some reason for hope, though. Houston's report makes it clear that CBC Sports Plus hasn't been officially written off yet, and it could still launch in the future. If the CBC is able to acquire some high-end sports properties (more NHL content, some Blue Jays games, more soccer and basketball), they could be in a stronger position to force cable companies like Rogers to carry a new channel. Alternatively, Rogers Sportsnet's ratings could improve to the point where Rogers is no longer terrified of upstarts cutting in. There's also the chance that the CBC and cable companies might be able to come to a reasonable deal that would permit the channel to launch. It's not dead yet, it's just resting!
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
Monday, January 11, 2010
Mike Danton joins the CIS
Everyone's favourite hitman contractor Mike Danton is supposedly joining [Neate Sager, The CIS Blog] the Saint Mary's Huskies to play Canadian Interuniversity Sport hockey. It's not clear yet [Noah Love, National Post] if he'll be able to play later this season or if he'll have to wait until next year, but he has already enrolled in the university.
From a strict on-ice perspective, this is probably a good thing for the Huskies. Regardless of his legal issues and prison time, Danton at one point has the skills to play in the NHL. It may take a while for him to regain that form, and he may never be back at where he was, but he'll probably still be one of the most talented players in the league. Most guys in CIS are former major junior players who couldn't make it to the AHL or the NHL; some of the top CIS talents in recent years (such as UNB's Rob Hennigar) have gone on to pro deals. Danton wasn't much of a scoring threat in the NHL, but he did pretty well with the OHL's Barrie Colts and the AHL's Albany River Rats (curiously enough, that's the same team Hennigar's playing for at the moment). If Danton is able to regain his pre-prison form, he could become a dominant CIS player like Hennigar.
From a league perspective, this is more troubling, though. CIS hockey gets next to no attention in Canada (aside from the occasional well-intentioned but completely off-base column, such as this one penned by The Globe and Mail's Allan Maki last week). Now, it will be in the spotlight not for anything positive, but rather for its acceptance of a convicted felon who once tried to hire a hitman. That goes against every image CIS tries to portray, and that's why I have a feeling this move might get some scrutiny from the upper echelons of CIS.
It would be far easier to downplay those concerns if Danton appeared repentant. People make mistakes, and our society is usually happy to provide them with second chances (see Michael Vick's comeback with the Philadelphia Eagles). The problem, though, is unlike Vick, Danton still isn't admitting to much of anything. As William Houston pointed out after Danton's "interview" with Rogers Sportsnet, he didn't say much about what happened, and what he did say made little to no sense. In Danton's case, the situation obviously isn't all his fault, and a good part of the blame must fall on his agent, David Frost (who's still creepily running his Hockey God Online website). Still, I'd like to see some evidence that Danton has dealt with his issues and is really a changed man before his comeback starts. If he is sincere and has changed, fantastic; everyone deserves a second chance, and it could be great for CIS to be associated with his comeback. At the moment, though, this looks like a potential black eye for CIS hockey, which it surely doesn't need at the moment.
Danton during his days with the St. Louis Blues
From a league perspective, this is more troubling, though. CIS hockey gets next to no attention in Canada (aside from the occasional well-intentioned but completely off-base column, such as this one penned by The Globe and Mail's Allan Maki last week). Now, it will be in the spotlight not for anything positive, but rather for its acceptance of a convicted felon who once tried to hire a hitman. That goes against every image CIS tries to portray, and that's why I have a feeling this move might get some scrutiny from the upper echelons of CIS.
It would be far easier to downplay those concerns if Danton appeared repentant. People make mistakes, and our society is usually happy to provide them with second chances (see Michael Vick's comeback with the Philadelphia Eagles). The problem, though, is unlike Vick, Danton still isn't admitting to much of anything. As William Houston pointed out after Danton's "interview" with Rogers Sportsnet, he didn't say much about what happened, and what he did say made little to no sense. In Danton's case, the situation obviously isn't all his fault, and a good part of the blame must fall on his agent, David Frost (who's still creepily running his Hockey God Online website). Still, I'd like to see some evidence that Danton has dealt with his issues and is really a changed man before his comeback starts. If he is sincere and has changed, fantastic; everyone deserves a second chance, and it could be great for CIS to be associated with his comeback. At the moment, though, this looks like a potential black eye for CIS hockey, which it surely doesn't need at the moment.
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
CIS: Paul James leaves York
It's a sad day for CIS soccer. I have a full story on James' departure and its implications up over at The CIS Blog and The 24th Minute.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Vanier Cup live blog!
Join me and the rest of the cast from The CIS Blog for a live blog of the Vanier Cup contest between Queen's and the University of Calgary. Kickoff is set for 12 p.m. Eastern/10 a.m. Mountain/9 a.m. Pacific.
Saturday, November 07, 2009
CIS football live blogs
Just a quick note that I'll be live-blogging today's OUA playoff football games with a cast of characters from The CIS Blog, Always OUA and The Western Gazette, among others. Queen's takes on McMaster at 1 p.m. Eastern/10 a.m Pacific, and Western takes on Laurier at 4:30 p.m. Eastern/1:30 p.m. Pacific. Both games are on The Score, and both live blogs will be posted here. Hope to see you then!
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Western - Guelph live blog
It should be a great day in CIS football, as the No. 2 Western Mustangs take on the No. 10 Guelph Gryphons live on The Score's University Rush. I'll be live-blogging it here and at The CIS Blog with Neate Sager and Rob Pettapiece, plus anyone else who can make it out. Kickoff is at 1 p.m. Eastern/10 a.m. Pacific. Come join us then!
Friday, September 18, 2009
Carleton women's soccer program suspended over hazing incident
It's quite the day for disciplinary stories. The Ottawa Citizen is reporting that Carleton has suspended their women's soccer team over a hazing incident. The team will not play against U of T and Ryerson this weekend, presumably forfeiting those games, and will not take the field again until the university's ongoing investigation is finished.
This could be a big scandal. There may be hazing incidents I'm unaware of, but the last time I can remember an entire team being suspended was in 2005 when McGill forfeited its football season. Queen's Journal sports editors of the time James Bradshaw and Dan Robson ran an excellent piece on the matter, looking at the wider issue of hazing. Of course, that also wound up being the year featuring the Windsor Spitfires' hazing scandal and the fight between Steve Downie and Akim Aliu. The two incidents, coming so close together, turned into a big national story and put a spotlight on hazing in sports. Over time, that spotlight's dimmed, but this story may renew it.
However, don't assume that the Carleton team did anything differently than most sports teams. The issue is that "hazing" is often very loosely defined, and there's a fine line between the rookie rituals that most sports teams have and what may constitute "hazing". These also go beyond just sports or particular universities; see this feature by Monica Heisey on the practices that have taken place during Queen's orientation
week over the years for an example.
It's tough to draw a line in the sand against hazing. For one thing, most sports teams are very tight-knit groups, so it's difficult for an outsider to get accurate information on what really goes on. For another, the general issue that seems to be at play in defining hazing versus rookie rituals is if players consent to the activities, but it must be tough for a rookie trying to gain acceptance with a team to resist peer pressure. Finally, it seems that most of the responses to hazing incidents that become publicized involve suspending the team; how many athletes would want to throw away a year of their career (and the careers of their friends) by going to athletic officials or the media just because they felt uncomfortable about something?
The future of the Carleton women's soccer program is rather cloudy at the moment, but it's impossible to predict exactly what will happen on the basis of the extremely limited information released so far. The competitive effects for the rest of the OUA could be interesting, though. The Ravens have played five games so far, winning twice, losing twice and drawing once. They sit fourth in the OUA East with seven points. Their victories came against Ryerson and RMC, and their draw came against Nipissing. If the Carleton program is suspended for the rest of the season, as seems likely, it will be interesting to see if those results are nullified. From a competitive standpoint, that would seem to be the fair thing to do, as every other team will likely gain full points from Carleton's forfeits. However, it's not as if Carleton fradulently gained those victories or was using an ineligible player (the usual reason for forfeits); their suspension is from their own university, not the OUA. Regardless of what's decided, it will be an interesting situation to follow.
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
This could be a big scandal. There may be hazing incidents I'm unaware of, but the last time I can remember an entire team being suspended was in 2005 when McGill forfeited its football season. Queen's Journal sports editors of the time James Bradshaw and Dan Robson ran an excellent piece on the matter, looking at the wider issue of hazing. Of course, that also wound up being the year featuring the Windsor Spitfires' hazing scandal and the fight between Steve Downie and Akim Aliu. The two incidents, coming so close together, turned into a big national story and put a spotlight on hazing in sports. Over time, that spotlight's dimmed, but this story may renew it.
However, don't assume that the Carleton team did anything differently than most sports teams. The issue is that "hazing" is often very loosely defined, and there's a fine line between the rookie rituals that most sports teams have and what may constitute "hazing". These also go beyond just sports or particular universities; see this feature by Monica Heisey on the practices that have taken place during Queen's orientation
week over the years for an example.
It's tough to draw a line in the sand against hazing. For one thing, most sports teams are very tight-knit groups, so it's difficult for an outsider to get accurate information on what really goes on. For another, the general issue that seems to be at play in defining hazing versus rookie rituals is if players consent to the activities, but it must be tough for a rookie trying to gain acceptance with a team to resist peer pressure. Finally, it seems that most of the responses to hazing incidents that become publicized involve suspending the team; how many athletes would want to throw away a year of their career (and the careers of their friends) by going to athletic officials or the media just because they felt uncomfortable about something?
The future of the Carleton women's soccer program is rather cloudy at the moment, but it's impossible to predict exactly what will happen on the basis of the extremely limited information released so far. The competitive effects for the rest of the OUA could be interesting, though. The Ravens have played five games so far, winning twice, losing twice and drawing once. They sit fourth in the OUA East with seven points. Their victories came against Ryerson and RMC, and their draw came against Nipissing. If the Carleton program is suspended for the rest of the season, as seems likely, it will be interesting to see if those results are nullified. From a competitive standpoint, that would seem to be the fair thing to do, as every other team will likely gain full points from Carleton's forfeits. However, it's not as if Carleton fradulently gained those victories or was using an ineligible player (the usual reason for forfeits); their suspension is from their own university, not the OUA. Regardless of what's decided, it will be an interesting situation to follow.
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Turn and face the strange ch..ch..changes
Hello, readers! As you might have noticed, there have been a few changes around here. I'm now part of the excellent TheScore.com Sports Federation, which will be a lot of fun, and have a real domain name to boot (sportingmadness.ca)! Check out some of the other sites in the network if you get the chance; they're all listed by category in the black bar at the top of the page, but I figured I'd spotlight a few of my personal favourites. For you baseball fans, there's a lot of great sites in the network,including Drunk Jays Fans and Ghostrunner on First. For hockey nuts, check out the likes of Down Goes Brown and the Canucks Hockey Blog. In basketball, RaptorBlog and DinoNation are both excellent, and for soccer, there's some terrific stuff over at TFC Connected and Arsenalist. In general sports, Sports and the City is the best comprehensive Toronto sports blog out there and there's some excellent insight into the world of sports at The Tony Ambrogio Experience. If you don't mind sites sullied by my presence as a contributor, there's The 24th Minute, where I live-blog TFC and Vancouver Whitecaps games and chime in with other posts from time to time, and The CIS Blog, your comprehensive source for all things related to Canadian university athletics. Check out the other network sites as well and the great blogs on The Score's homepage.
Anyway, back to this site. The old Blogspot link should redirect, so there shouldn't be any need to change your bookmarks. The roster of sites I'm writing for has also expanded recently; you can find them all in the blogroll at the right, but I'll list them for the fun of it. In addition to my previous gigs at The CIS Blog (Canadian university sports), Out Of Left Field (Canadian perspectives on sports), The Good Point (a multi-sport webmagazine site where I cover the NFL) and The 24th Minute (Canadian soccer), I'm now writing for the sports humour site The Rookies and will soon be making my debut at the excellent Women's Soccer Weekly and the soon-to-be-launched Phoenix Pub. Given that most of my work for these sites is an every-once-in-a-while thing, I'll post links to it here from time to time, but you should definitely check out all of those destinations for the other excellent writers there.
It's an exciting time here, and it's great to be taking this site to another level. The focus is going to be pretty much exactly as it was before, with coverage from a wide variety of sports but an emphasis on going beyond just the surface and developing detailed, nuanced opinions on the big issues in sports, rather than just trying to shout the loudest about why I'm right and everyone else is wrong. If you haven't read it yet, this post on the shades of grey that should be involved in sports analysis is pretty much my mission statement in that area. I'm also a big fan of doing new and interesting things with the site and going beyond the conventional ideas of what a blog can be. To those ends, I'll have plenty of live blogs, Twitter updates (follow me here), interviews and other content here as well. I'm also always open to suggestions on what you'd like to see covered; the readers are what make this site, so I'm always happy to talk about what you like and dislike about it. Leave comments below or e-mail me at andrew_bucholtz [at] hotmail.com. Hope to hear from you! Until then, I leave you in good hands with Mr. David Bowie:
Anyway, back to this site. The old Blogspot link should redirect, so there shouldn't be any need to change your bookmarks. The roster of sites I'm writing for has also expanded recently; you can find them all in the blogroll at the right, but I'll list them for the fun of it. In addition to my previous gigs at The CIS Blog (Canadian university sports), Out Of Left Field (Canadian perspectives on sports), The Good Point (a multi-sport webmagazine site where I cover the NFL) and The 24th Minute (Canadian soccer), I'm now writing for the sports humour site The Rookies and will soon be making my debut at the excellent Women's Soccer Weekly and the soon-to-be-launched Phoenix Pub. Given that most of my work for these sites is an every-once-in-a-while thing, I'll post links to it here from time to time, but you should definitely check out all of those destinations for the other excellent writers there.
It's an exciting time here, and it's great to be taking this site to another level. The focus is going to be pretty much exactly as it was before, with coverage from a wide variety of sports but an emphasis on going beyond just the surface and developing detailed, nuanced opinions on the big issues in sports, rather than just trying to shout the loudest about why I'm right and everyone else is wrong. If you haven't read it yet, this post on the shades of grey that should be involved in sports analysis is pretty much my mission statement in that area. I'm also a big fan of doing new and interesting things with the site and going beyond the conventional ideas of what a blog can be. To those ends, I'll have plenty of live blogs, Twitter updates (follow me here), interviews and other content here as well. I'm also always open to suggestions on what you'd like to see covered; the readers are what make this site, so I'm always happy to talk about what you like and dislike about it. Leave comments below or e-mail me at andrew_bucholtz [at] hotmail.com. Hope to hear from you! Until then, I leave you in good hands with Mr. David Bowie:
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Cuts spread to University of Calgary
The University of Calgary announced [Ben Matchett, University of Calgary Sports Information Director] today that they will cut varsity funding [Neate Sager, The CIS Blog] to the men's soccer and women's field hockey teams. There's a chance that those teams could still survive if they're able to raise funds through alternative methods, but it doesn't look good for them. Tennis and golf have also been lowered to competitive club status. By contrast, women's soccer will be returned to fully-funded status and women's hockey is applying to return to CIS play after winning the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference. After the changes, Calgary will have eight fully-funded team sports (men’s and women’s basketball, football, men’s and women’s hockey, women’s soccer, and men’s and women’s volleyball) and fully-funded teams in cross country, swimming, track and field and wrestling.
This isn't all that surprising, as plenty of American and Canadian schools have been moving towards this kind of streamlined program for some time [myself, Queen's Journal]. Two American schools also announced cuts today; the University of Maine axed volleyball and men's soccer [Mike Webster, WCSH6.com] and Wenatchee Valley College (in Washington State) also cut its men's soccer team [Brent Stecker, The Wenatchee World Online]. (Thanks to Austin Winnie for those links, by the way). The economic situation perhaps provided the final impetus to make some of these changes, but things have been moving iin that direction for a while.
It is curious that this move came at Calgary, though. Many of the schools looking at these cuts so far have been in the OUA [myself, Queen's Journal], and have cited the recently increased availability of first-year athletic financial awards as the rationale for their decisions. Canada West has offered these awards for a much longer period of time, so they aren't a sudden or unexpected stress on the department. Instead, Calgary athletic director Kevin Boyles said in the release that the move was made to refocus resources into the more successful programs. The timing is somewhat unusual, though, as Calgary won 12 titles last year, including national titles in women's swimming and women's wrestling as well as Canada West titles in football and men's basketball. It doesn't seem that their current model was terribly flawed from that perspective.
This isn't necessarily a bad move in my mind. Varsity programs need significant resources to be successful, and it's good to see the university attempting to provide those resources. Moreover, men's soccer and women's field hockey haven't been very successful lately at Calgary, and that's the ultimate measurement that has to be used here. It is disappointing to see so many schools viewing men's soccer as an easy cut, though; university soccer is very high-calibre and can often lead to pro contracts for players, such as Trinity Western's Paul Hamilton, who just signed with the Whitecaps [myself, The 24th Minute]. Moreover, soccer's gaining popularity rapidly in Canada, and will only expand further once Vancouver (and potentially Montreal) join Toronto in MLS. Most schools currently don't draw a lot of fans for their soccer games, but that could change dramatically in a few years, by which point it might be desirable to have a soccer team at your university.
One final small point to make here. In his otherwise excellent post on the matter, Neate makes an interesting argument:
"A university doesn't owe people a varsity team. At the same time, it should preserve individual sports such as track, swimming and cross-country for the same reason a school has to have an English or philosophy department. It's sort of central to the idea of university that you offer these sports that might not be sexy, but reveal character and discipline. (Sorry to get so flowery!)"
I agree with the first sentence of that paragraph, but I can't support the rest of it. University sports aren't primarily about participation or learning experiences and individual sports don't reveal any more character or discipline than team sports, at least in my mind. Each sport has its own set of struggles, and athletes in all of them deserve respect. At the end of the day, there's no point in offering sports just for the hell of it. Universities have sports teams so they can go out there and win, earning more exposure and publicity for the school in the process. If I'm running a university sports department, I'm basing my decisions on what teams are likely to win and bring in good publicity, not out of any sense of duty to preserve a sport like track or swimming for aesthetic reasons. Schools should compete in as many sports as they can while maintaining a strong program in each in my mind, and if cuts need to be made to make that a reality, they should be performance-based. It looks like that's what Calgary has done, and they deserve applause for that.
This isn't all that surprising, as plenty of American and Canadian schools have been moving towards this kind of streamlined program for some time [myself, Queen's Journal]. Two American schools also announced cuts today; the University of Maine axed volleyball and men's soccer [Mike Webster, WCSH6.com] and Wenatchee Valley College (in Washington State) also cut its men's soccer team [Brent Stecker, The Wenatchee World Online]. (Thanks to Austin Winnie for those links, by the way). The economic situation perhaps provided the final impetus to make some of these changes, but things have been moving iin that direction for a while.
It is curious that this move came at Calgary, though. Many of the schools looking at these cuts so far have been in the OUA [myself, Queen's Journal], and have cited the recently increased availability of first-year athletic financial awards as the rationale for their decisions. Canada West has offered these awards for a much longer period of time, so they aren't a sudden or unexpected stress on the department. Instead, Calgary athletic director Kevin Boyles said in the release that the move was made to refocus resources into the more successful programs. The timing is somewhat unusual, though, as Calgary won 12 titles last year, including national titles in women's swimming and women's wrestling as well as Canada West titles in football and men's basketball. It doesn't seem that their current model was terribly flawed from that perspective.
This isn't necessarily a bad move in my mind. Varsity programs need significant resources to be successful, and it's good to see the university attempting to provide those resources. Moreover, men's soccer and women's field hockey haven't been very successful lately at Calgary, and that's the ultimate measurement that has to be used here. It is disappointing to see so many schools viewing men's soccer as an easy cut, though; university soccer is very high-calibre and can often lead to pro contracts for players, such as Trinity Western's Paul Hamilton, who just signed with the Whitecaps [myself, The 24th Minute]. Moreover, soccer's gaining popularity rapidly in Canada, and will only expand further once Vancouver (and potentially Montreal) join Toronto in MLS. Most schools currently don't draw a lot of fans for their soccer games, but that could change dramatically in a few years, by which point it might be desirable to have a soccer team at your university.
One final small point to make here. In his otherwise excellent post on the matter, Neate makes an interesting argument:
"A university doesn't owe people a varsity team. At the same time, it should preserve individual sports such as track, swimming and cross-country for the same reason a school has to have an English or philosophy department. It's sort of central to the idea of university that you offer these sports that might not be sexy, but reveal character and discipline. (Sorry to get so flowery!)"
I agree with the first sentence of that paragraph, but I can't support the rest of it. University sports aren't primarily about participation or learning experiences and individual sports don't reveal any more character or discipline than team sports, at least in my mind. Each sport has its own set of struggles, and athletes in all of them deserve respect. At the end of the day, there's no point in offering sports just for the hell of it. Universities have sports teams so they can go out there and win, earning more exposure and publicity for the school in the process. If I'm running a university sports department, I'm basing my decisions on what teams are likely to win and bring in good publicity, not out of any sense of duty to preserve a sport like track or swimming for aesthetic reasons. Schools should compete in as many sports as they can while maintaining a strong program in each in my mind, and if cuts need to be made to make that a reality, they should be performance-based. It looks like that's what Calgary has done, and they deserve applause for that.
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Jeff Giles takes over at McMaster
Former CFL president Jeff Giles is off to Hamilton. Giles is taking over as the McMaster Marauders' athletic director after Therese Quigley leaves this summer to go to Western. I have more details and analysis over at The CIS Blog.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Live blog of CIS men's hockey final
This is rather spur-of-the moment, but myself and some of the other writers from The CIS Blog thought we might as well live blog this afternoon's men's hockey final between the Western Mustangs and the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds (which can be seen on all four Sportsnet regional channels and at ssncanada.ca). Who will take home the University Cup? It should be quite the clash, so come join in the live blog below!
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Upcoming CIS basketball live blogs
I'm off to Ottawa later this morning for the men's basketball nationals, the Final 8. It should be a great tournament. Four of the five of us from The CIS Blog are going to be in attendance and will be providing wall-to-wall coverage there, but I'm also planning to do some stuff at this site. In particular, I'll be involved in the live-blogging of all the Friday and Sunday games, and thanks to the magic of CoverItLive, you should be able to access those live blogs here, through Out of Left Field or through The CIS Blog. I have to return to Kingston for some Journal meetings on Saturday, so I won't likely be in on those live blogs (I think the guys are still planning to do them), but you can access those at The CIS Blog. Here's tomorrow's slate of games:
#2 Calgary vs. #7 Concordia: 12:30 p.m. Eastern (SSN Canada)
#3 UBC vs. #6 Dalhousie: 2:30 p.m. Eastern (SSN Canada)
#4 Western vs. #5 Ottawa: 6:00 p.m. Eastern (Live on The Score), also webcast live at SSN Canada)
#1 Carleton vs. #8 St. FX 8:00 p.m. Eastern (Live at SSN Canada, rebroadcast at 10 p.m. Eastern on The Score)
#2 Calgary vs. #7 Concordia: 12:30 p.m. Eastern (SSN Canada)
#3 UBC vs. #6 Dalhousie: 2:30 p.m. Eastern (SSN Canada)
#4 Western vs. #5 Ottawa: 6:00 p.m. Eastern (Live on The Score), also webcast live at SSN Canada)
#1 Carleton vs. #8 St. FX 8:00 p.m. Eastern (Live at SSN Canada, rebroadcast at 10 p.m. Eastern on The Score)
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Examining Pat Sheahan...
James Mirtle of the tremendous eponymous hockey blog (and a former CIS Blog colleague) has a terrific feature in Monday's Globe and Mail on Queen's football head coach Pat Sheahan. Anyone interested in Queen's football should give it a read: highly recommended.
Friday, May 02, 2008
Volleyballing
Apologies for the lack of posts around here lately: I'm currently serving as the Communications Coordinator for the 2008 Canadian Open 17U/18U volleyball championships, which means a lot of writing, editing and dealing with local media (yes, I've gone to the dark side) and not a lot of time to do anything else. We're working 6 a.m. to 1 a.m. days trying to keep everything going, and it can be a little difficult, especially given the scope of the tournament. Anyways, this is a pretty cool tournament with a lot of interesting stories, and it's also related to university volleyball: there's over 100 university coaches, scouts and recruiters here from Canada and the States to evaluate potential new talent for their programs. To give some background on the tournament, one of the lead-in stories I wrote is posted below: you can check out my other pieces on the tournament website. I'll try to check in with an update here whenever possible. There's also good tournament coverage over at Bomberino. Let me know if you have any questions on the tournament.
P.S. While I'm blatantly self-promoting, I wrote about the BLG Awards, Canadian Interuniversity Sport's top honours, on The CIS Blog last week: even if you don't want to read my pieces (shame on you!), Neate's takes on the CFL Draft and point guard Greg Carter choosing Lakehead are well worth looking at the blog.
Here's the piece on the tournament:
17U/18U Championships Set to Kick Off
Over 2400 volleyball players from 202 different teams will step onto courts around Ottawa tomorrow for the first day of the 17U/18U Canadian Open Volleyball Championships. The tournament, which will utilize 34 different courts at five different venues over three days, features many of the top players in Canada at the 17-year-old and 18-year-old age levels. Many of the players at the 18U level have already committed to universities in Canada and the United States. At least 50 scouts from American universities and colleges are expected to be in attendance, as well as more than 50 scouts from Canadian schools.
Some of the best players in the tournament can be found at the men’s and women’s 18U Division I levels. The men’s 18U Division I tournament features several high-profile clubs, such as the top-seeded defending champion Bison Gold team from Winnipeg, Manitoba, the second-seeded Fraser Valley Volleyball Club Blue team from Langley, British Columbia, and the third-seeded NAVC Gold Bears from Edmonton, Alberta. All three teams won their recent provincial championships. Seeding is determined by how each province’s teams fared in last year’s national championships in Abbotsford, B.C.
The Bison Gold club will be led by Chris Voth, a 6’5 setter who was voted as the top Manitoba high school volleyball player in 2007. Voth, who was named the tournament MVP at the Manitoba provincials, is a highly-prized recruit who has committed to play for the University of Manitoba Bisons next season. Last summer, he was the captain of the Manitoba provincial team that claimed gold at the Western Canada Games. He has also played for the Junior National team, and has maintained a 92 per cent average throughout high school. He will continue a strong family tradition of playing for the Bisons: his father Lloyd played five years of volleyball for the university in the 1970s, and his sister Ashley is in her second season with the Bisons’ women’s team.
In the women’s 18U competition, the defending champion Fraser Valley Volleyball Club Blitz claimed the top seed by earning their fifth consecutive provincial gold medal April 20 at the B.C. championships in Kelowna. Other strong contenders in the women’s 18U Division I tournament will be the second-seeded Dinos from Calgary, Alberta, and Whitby, ON’s third-seeded DRVC.
The Blitz have proved to be a force at the nationals over the last five years, winning gold three times and bronze twice. Left side hitter Sophie Schlagintweit, who was named the tournament MVP at the provincial championships, will be a force for the Blitz. As a 17-year-old, she played with older players for the FVVC 18U club that won the national championship last year and was named to the tournament all-star team. Another player to watch for the Blitz will be Rosie Schlagintweit, a 16-year-old right side hitter who put up 13 kills in one game at the provincial championships against players two years older than her.
The tournament features regular pool play on Friday. On Saturday, teams are redistributed into power pools and tiers according to their finish in their pool. The playoffs take place on Sunday. The 18U men’s and women’s Division I teams play Friday and Saturday mornings, with the first games at 7:30 a.m. and the last games at 1:30 p.m. each day. The men’s 18U Division I games will be in the Carleton University (1125 Colonel By Drive) Field House Friday and Saturday mornings, with some additional games at Algonquin College (1385 Woodroffe Avenue) Friday and the Cégep de l’Outaouais (333 Boulevard de la
Cité-des-jeunes, Gatineau) Saturday. The women’s 18U Division I games will be in the Carleton Ice Palace and Norm Fenn Gymnasium Friday morning, with some additional games at Aberdeen Pavilion (1015 Bank Street).
P.S. While I'm blatantly self-promoting, I wrote about the BLG Awards, Canadian Interuniversity Sport's top honours, on The CIS Blog last week: even if you don't want to read my pieces (shame on you!), Neate's takes on the CFL Draft and point guard Greg Carter choosing Lakehead are well worth looking at the blog.
Here's the piece on the tournament:
17U/18U Championships Set to Kick Off
Over 2400 volleyball players from 202 different teams will step onto courts around Ottawa tomorrow for the first day of the 17U/18U Canadian Open Volleyball Championships. The tournament, which will utilize 34 different courts at five different venues over three days, features many of the top players in Canada at the 17-year-old and 18-year-old age levels. Many of the players at the 18U level have already committed to universities in Canada and the United States. At least 50 scouts from American universities and colleges are expected to be in attendance, as well as more than 50 scouts from Canadian schools.
Some of the best players in the tournament can be found at the men’s and women’s 18U Division I levels. The men’s 18U Division I tournament features several high-profile clubs, such as the top-seeded defending champion Bison Gold team from Winnipeg, Manitoba, the second-seeded Fraser Valley Volleyball Club Blue team from Langley, British Columbia, and the third-seeded NAVC Gold Bears from Edmonton, Alberta. All three teams won their recent provincial championships. Seeding is determined by how each province’s teams fared in last year’s national championships in Abbotsford, B.C.
The Bison Gold club will be led by Chris Voth, a 6’5 setter who was voted as the top Manitoba high school volleyball player in 2007. Voth, who was named the tournament MVP at the Manitoba provincials, is a highly-prized recruit who has committed to play for the University of Manitoba Bisons next season. Last summer, he was the captain of the Manitoba provincial team that claimed gold at the Western Canada Games. He has also played for the Junior National team, and has maintained a 92 per cent average throughout high school. He will continue a strong family tradition of playing for the Bisons: his father Lloyd played five years of volleyball for the university in the 1970s, and his sister Ashley is in her second season with the Bisons’ women’s team.
In the women’s 18U competition, the defending champion Fraser Valley Volleyball Club Blitz claimed the top seed by earning their fifth consecutive provincial gold medal April 20 at the B.C. championships in Kelowna. Other strong contenders in the women’s 18U Division I tournament will be the second-seeded Dinos from Calgary, Alberta, and Whitby, ON’s third-seeded DRVC.
The Blitz have proved to be a force at the nationals over the last five years, winning gold three times and bronze twice. Left side hitter Sophie Schlagintweit, who was named the tournament MVP at the provincial championships, will be a force for the Blitz. As a 17-year-old, she played with older players for the FVVC 18U club that won the national championship last year and was named to the tournament all-star team. Another player to watch for the Blitz will be Rosie Schlagintweit, a 16-year-old right side hitter who put up 13 kills in one game at the provincial championships against players two years older than her.
The tournament features regular pool play on Friday. On Saturday, teams are redistributed into power pools and tiers according to their finish in their pool. The playoffs take place on Sunday. The 18U men’s and women’s Division I teams play Friday and Saturday mornings, with the first games at 7:30 a.m. and the last games at 1:30 p.m. each day. The men’s 18U Division I games will be in the Carleton University (1125 Colonel By Drive) Field House Friday and Saturday mornings, with some additional games at Algonquin College (1385 Woodroffe Avenue) Friday and the Cégep de l’Outaouais (333 Boulevard de la
Cité-des-jeunes, Gatineau) Saturday. The women’s 18U Division I games will be in the Carleton Ice Palace and Norm Fenn Gymnasium Friday morning, with some additional games at Aberdeen Pavilion (1015 Bank Street).
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