september 6, 1995 the Ge Press Bouncing back for basketball New basketball coach learned how to persevere before turning to coaching by Charlotte Holst David Smith, 32, is replacing Sean Beasley as head coach with the Douglas College Royals. Smith brings with him some major lessons about dedication. Just after turning 20, Smith suf- fered total paralysis after contracting the mysterious Guillium Barre Syn- drome following surgery for a back injury. He was a guard with the CIAU’s St. Mary’s Huskies and he spent more than two months staring at the ceiling telling himself he would play with them again. Within one year he regained full movement. Within two years, he was back with the Huskies. After gradua- tion, Smith was playing pro basket- ball in Europe helping an upstart team from a town of 45,000 named Horsens wrest the Danish Elite championship away from powerhouse Copenhagen. Smith told me that although it is hard to relate the experience of be- ing tough and fighting something like paralysis, the experience is something that makes you grow as a person and you carry the lessons into whatever you do. Coming from his position as Simon Fraser Clansmen assistant- coach and with four professional sea- sons playing and coaching in Den- mark and Germany, Smith should get tremendous respect from the DC Roy- als. “The team this year is brand new, there are only two players from last year but they are young and excited, so we will [all] work hard and it should be an exciting season.” Smith, who plans to develop closer ties between the Royals program and local high school teams, offered several boys instructional camps dur- ing the summer. “My goal at Douglas is to recruit people motivated to move on to the next. level. Those people will work their butts off and they are much easier to coach. The guys I’m recruiting didn’t get much publicity, but I think they’re a bit hungrier.” Smith expects the first Royals teams he coaches this fall will be small but fast, accentuating the run and shoot style popular in Europe. “In Europe the three-point shot is a equalizer to make up for size. They use the three-point shot a lot more, and a lot more effectively. It’s not unusual to see someone drive into the paint, then turn and pass it out for the longer shot. They’Il take a three-pointer over a layup.” The first game for the men’s bas- ketball team is Friday, October 20 at Douglas. There is a tentative schedule for season but please realize that games could be added or changed! Douglas College Men’s Basket ball Schedule 1995-96 October 20, Friday ._- CBC. @ Douglas 8:00pm October 27, Friday~ Seattle Blue Angels @ Douglas 8:00pm October 28, lay Shoreline CC @ Douglas 6:00pm November 3, Friday | Douglas @ OUC 8:00pm November 4, Saturda Douglas @ UCC 8:00pm 8:00pm 8:00pm 8:00pm 6:00pm Too Much! (continued from page5) out and placed in the other tier. the fall to the tryouts, the young guys Dalcanale regards this as a benefit will push the [veterans] to work harder for his players. “It opens up our schedule to go to more tournaments and play more club ball. There will be more playing opportunities for the players.” Vesna Rukavina from CNC and Nicole Jarvin from Okanagan will be transferring over to DC and playing for the Royals as well. With the strength and experi- ence of the veterans, Dalcanale sees the CCAA National tournament in sight for the 95-96 season, once again. “The girls were working well last year,” says Dalcanale. “At the tryouts this year, we'll be looking to fill in the holes [due to Klunder and Murphy moving on.]” Open tryouts will begin on September 6 at 8 p.m. Men's Volleyball on their skills and teamwork,” claims Newman, “‘We’ll have lots of depth in the new season and do really well.” DC’s men’s volleyball team will be competing in the Red Deer tour- nament and will be hosting the Pro- vincial BCCAA tournament for the 95-96 season. * * * Both volleyball coaches are planning a big trip to Germany for the volleyball teams. They will be fundraising sometime throughout the year. “It'll be a very good experience for the players,” both coaches claim. The benefits come in where the teams will be competing in some matches in the country. Exposure to different types of volleyball players will ex- pand the minds to give new ideas to the players on the court. Men’s Volleyball head coach Men's Basketball Brian Newman hopes for a promis- ing year. David Smith faces a rebuilding In the 94-95 season, Newman year as the head coach of DC’s men’s began with a relatively young team basketball team. Leaving his position consisting of three 3rd year students as SFU’s men’s assistant coach to be- and nine rookies. come the head coach at Douglas Col- “We had a good year but we lege, Smith notes the biggest differ- also had some major injuries which once between the positions is the au- cut us down from 13 healthy bodies thority 19 make decisions. Smith is to seven, said Newman. Despite the injuries and the in- experience, the team earned the Bronze medal spot in the BCCAA league. Eight of these players are returning to tryout this fall and 3 ; Newman is hoping to build upon last Athletics Director Betty Lou Hayes. season’s success: So far there is a Recruitment reports a young balance in the players coming back. ‘4m who is “quick and small but hun- Newman expects four power hitters, 8'Y to move up,” according to Smith. two offsides, one setter and one Ben M. and Neil McQuaide will be around player. returning. Courtney Brown and James “With new players coming in Derouin of Ottawa will be attending aware of the strong BCCAA league and looks forward to challenging the good coaches and the competition this season. Smith was recruited in April by DC in the fall. Also recruited by Smith are what he has described as the unsung players of last year: Cam Johnson of Pitt Meadows, Alex Zabori, a natural all-around player and John Fast, a 6’5" player of DW Poppi. These are all good outside shooters. Smith takes pride in the players, who he notes are good all- around students and people. “We have a whole crew of new guys,” smiles Smith. “There’ll be some tough decisions during the try- outs with the high calibre of 15 dif- ferent players offering different skills.” After observing the basketball scrimmages in the college summer league hosted by SFU and DC, Smith has a good idea of the BCCAA league’s calibre. In the team, Smith is looking to build a team where the strength lies in the depth of the players. The ideal would be to have all twelve players able to contribute to the team. Another note from Smith were his plans to play the game in the “lat- est style” consisting of fast breaks, strong 3-point shooters and tough defense. “Success is counting on how hard we work to win and shooting no lower than CHAMPS,” Smith claims. “We’ll be competitive night- in and night-out.” Women's Basketball A strong contingency of veter- ans has women’s basketball head coach Allison Gill looking forward to another season of what she calls her livelihood. Though the team ended up in the fifth spot in the BCCAA league, Gill was still pleased, “We faired very well in the league. There were five teams tied for second place but only three of them could participate [along with the top ranked team] in the playoffs.” Every member of the 94-95 team will be returning to tryout ex- cept for two point-guards. “We have a lot of returning players who will be a big help this year against teams like Fraser Val- ley University-College. Having the experience will make a big differ- ence,” notes Gill. For the university-colleges par- ticipating in the BCCAA league, they have the benefit of their play- ers staying around the extra years to add their experience to the game. “In the colleges like Douglas, there are programs for only two years,” says Gill, “so we don’t nor- mally get any players with more than a year’s worth of post-secondary training to compete for us.” Gill is looking to Marlee Sie- mens (post), going into her fourth year at DC as well as Lari: Phillips (point-guard), Joanne Blesch (out- side shooter) and the other players for strength on the floor and leader- ship. As far as recruitment goes, Gill noted four high school recruits who are committed to DC: Liz Wolfe of Centennial, Coquitlam; Andrea Dufva of the Steveston Packers; Jocylin Stendal of North Delta and Denise Fraser of Richmond Colts. With these players coming to the tryouts, Gill expects the tryouts to be very competitive. “The four players coming from the high schools probably have their relationships [with each other] turn from a hate to a love relationship,” Gill chuckled. Gill is looking to build the team on as well as off the court. Bonding will be done including setting com- mon goals on the court and playing different sports together off the court. “Before the players get into col- lege, they play and compete against each other. But now that they’re playing for a college team together, they’Il learn [to work together] and that each one has arole on the team. My job is to get that performance from them.” * * * It was noted by the majority of coaches that the athletes needed more support from the students, fac- ulty and staff of Douglas College. “These athletes are training hard every day to represent our col- lege,” said Allison Gill. It would be nice to.have more students coming out to see the games, to support their peers. Tryout dates are already posted throughout the college. Due to lack of time and a pressing deadline, the Other Press was unable to cover all the DC teams in this article. The teams and coaches are not unknown however: Women’s soccer - Sherri Kisser, Men’s’ Soccer - Mike Bernardis, Women’s’ rugby and Men’s’ rugby - Mike Collins, Wom- en’s’ wrestling - Patty Boomhover and Men’s’ wrestling - Dave McKay.