Garth McLennan
supergarth @hotmail.com

 

 

 

DC Badminton
Team Triumphs

Garth

McLennan
sports editor

 
    
 

Te Douglas College Royal’s
badminton exceptionally well in the
first badminton competition of the
season. Douglas was dominant as they
swept all of the doubles events in the
tournament while newcomer Fiona Zhu
won the singles ‘C’ event in her first ever
tournament.

Another rookie, David Yuan, was
perfect in the singles ‘B’ division,

winning all of his matches and taking the
‘B’ title.

Richard Liang was Douglas’s best
player, defeating Kiran Bogavelli, a
player for Capilano College, in a three
game battle. After losing the first game of
the set, Liang fought back and triumphed,
winning the final games in convincing
fashion.

All of the players on Douglas’s
doubles teams were superb. Chris Lee,
Andy Cheong, Melody Liang, and Andy
Cheong led Douglas to victory.

The second badminton tournament
takes place in two weeks at the Douglas
College Coquitlam campus _ from
November 17-18. After that, the team
takes a lengthy break, next competing in
a tournament that is hosted Capilano and
Langara from January 19-20.

 

 

 

 

UBC to Apply For
NCAA Membership

By Garth McLennan, Sports Edior

Ti University of British Columbia
is trailblazing these days, looking
to become the first Canadian school
accepted into the US-based National
Collegiate Athletic Association.

Unfortunately, UBC will be unable to
immediately join the NCAA’s Division 1

hand out full-ride scholarship deals to
prospective players. Also, the CIS level
of competition, while still respectable,
is nowhere near the level of play in the
NCAA.

With the advantage of being able to
give out full scholarships, UBC would be
able to attract first-rate, top level talent

ranks, due to the to its men’s
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able to apply round draft

for membership in the NCAA’s Div. 2
ranks. This allows plenty of application
processing time, and UBC could be
admitted by as early as 2009.

NCAA regulations also allow Div.
2 schools to enter two of their sports
teams into Div. 1 competition. One team
must be a men’s team, and the other is
required to be a women’s program. This
is excellent news for UBC’s hockey
program, as the NCAA does not field a
Div. 2 hockey program. The only sports
that are not allowed to compete in Div.
1 while a school is in Div. 2 are football
and basketball. In order for a school to
participate in NCAA Div. 2, said school
must field ten teams in different sports.
This won’t be a problem for UBC.

Gaining NCAA membership would
be a godsend for UBC. They would
be allowed to offer full-ride athletic
scholarships, something the current
organization they partake in, CIS
(Canadian Interuniversity Sport), does
not permit. UBCis currently handicapped
against big American colleges and
universities because they are unable to

pick Kyle Turris might be playing for
them.

One of the big questions for UBC,
mainly because they are the pioneers in
this area, is whether or not they would be
able to still compete in CIS with some of
their teams while eight are playing in the
NCAA and two more are competing in
the NCAA’s first division.

UBC athletic director Bob Phillip has
been very straightforward in his desire
for UBC to one day have fully-fledged
acceptance into the NCAA’s Div. 1
program. He has also stated that UBC
will almost definitely apply for Div. 2
membership later this year.

This is a remarkable occurrence
for university and college sports. If
UBC can gain acceptance into the
hollowed ground that is the NCAA, it
opens up all kinds of new and exciting
opportunities for international schools
all over the world that want to move up
to prime time. This is a fantastic step in
an amazing new direction, so let’s hope
that UBC gets approval as we watch
wonderful history in the making.