Sports ~ Section Editor: Jordan Cripps the other press Last Wednesday, the Centre for Sports, Recreation and Wellness held its annual tribute to the athletes of Douglas College. The award banquet, held at the Executive Inn in Coquitlam was an evening of recognition for the athletes that have worked so hard to develop a winning athletic tradition at Douglas College. The event was even more special because Chris Johnson, the MC of the banquet and a long-time CSRW employee, will be retiring this year. The ceremony began with Lou Rene Legge, director of the CSRW, thanking Johnson for his work and imploring him to come back every year to host the event. After a brief introduction, Johnson announced, much to the dis- may of some of the athletes, that dinner would be served using a random draw, where the table whose number was called would be allowed to get their food. Fortunately, my table was among the first group called, and we enjoyed a pasta dinner. Table 9 was not so lucky, having to wait until the very end for their table to be called. After the dinner, Johnson introduced Dave Seaweed, the First Nations Student Services Coordinator at the college, who offered some words of inspiration. Moving the evening along, Coach Dave Mckay was brought up to introduce the keynote speaker, former Douglas College student and Olympic Gold Medalist Daniel Igali. Igali proved to be a fine speaker, making jokes at his own expense while relating his own inspirational and motiva- Jordan Cripps Sports Editor Malaspina 2 Malaspina 10 Douglas 0 Douglas 2 It was a dreary Saturday afternoon when the Royals kicked off their season at Mundy Park with a double- header against the Malaspina Mariners. Rain threatened to disrupt the play but, thankfully, held off until the 9th inning of the second game, when the skies finally opened up, soaking the field and making the already chilly air that much cooler. Unfortunately for the Royals, their sea- son didn't get off to the start they wanted as the team dropped both games, the first by a 2-0 margin and the other 10-2. The first game, as the score indicates, was very much a pitching battle as both teams tried to put together some offense. Royals starting pitcher, Trevor Johnstone, was strong, pitching a seven-inning complete game, giving up just two runs early in the game. Unfortunately, the Royals couldn’t provide any run support for Johnstone, only threatening to score twice during the game. Each time it looked like the Royals might be able to put some runs on the board, Malaspina responded by getting clutch outs and helping their pitcher out of dangerous situations. This was the difference in the game, as the Royals weren't given the chance to capitalize on any pitching mistakes. The Royals came up to bat in the seventh and final inning, hoping to capitalize on their last chance to send the game into extra innings. Unable to muster anything, the Royals were retired in order. The second game began a bit stronger for the Royals as dcsportseditor@yahoo.ca tional story. At the conclusion of his speech, he advised all award winners to remember their teammates and coaches and to be sure to thank them for helping them reach the level they had climbed to. After Igali’s speech, it was time for the award presenta- tions to begin. Johnson promised that the awards would move quicker than usual and asked that, after each award was given out, the athlete, their coaches, and the presen- ter move to the back to have their picture taken. First on the agenda were the awards for each sport on the Douglas College roster: Soccer, volleyball, rugby, basketball, wrestling, badminton, wheelchair basketball, baseball and last but not least, golf. It was interesting to hear the responses that the athletes got when they received their awards. By far, the most boisterous group of athletes was the men’s soccer team, who reacted with great shouts every time one of their own received an award. Because of the success the team had this year, it was nice to see the team get such a good response from the other athletes. This year, the Royals boast two CCAA All-Canadians, Avril Gerow from the Women’s soccer team and Taylor Cherris-Wilding from the Men’s basketball team. Gerow and Cherris-Wilding were also named BCCAA All-Stars. In Badminton, Brendan Coutinho and Tiffany Cheong earned BCCAA Provincial All-Star honours, while Stedman Espinoza, Kris Peterson, CJ Greenside and Royals fall to Malaspina they got a hit in their first at bat and were able to keep the Mariners off the scoreboard during the fast-paced first inning. Starting pitcher, Michael Pierce, who got into a jam in the first inning after walking the first batter and watching him steal two bases, was able to regain his composure and pitch his way out of the inning without giving up a run In the second inning, though, the Mariners scored the first run of the game as the Royals were plagued by errors. Pierce, despite making a number of good pitches, had trouble finding his control, walking two batters and giv- ing up a wild pitch as well during the inning. This would have been a good time for the Royals batters to support their pitcher with some runs but they weren't able to do so, going down in order. The third inning was another difficult one for the Royals, who watched Malaspina add two more runs to their lead, once again on the strength of three walks and a balk. Again the Royals batters were retired 1,2,3. Although the Mariners had a number of base runners, they weren't able to shut the door on the Royals and the opportunity was there for the Royals to come back. It was the Royals bats that prevented any sort of comeback until the later innings. The fourth, fifth, and sixth innings were much stronger for the Royals defensively, allowing just one run over the three innings. Unfortunately, in all three innings, the Mariners pitching staff sat down the Royals in order. In 5 of the first six innings, the Royals only sent three batters to the plate and were just able to generate a single hit against Malaspina. Heading into the seventh April 2, 2003 ribute to the Athletes of Douglas College Ryan Fries were recognized for their contributions during the great run of the Men’s soccer team, earning honours at both the BCCAA Provincial Championships and the CCAA National Championships. Toward the end of the evening, the Royals announced their Athletes of the Year. Wrestler Travis Cross was the Male Athlete of the Year recipient, while rugby player Amber Cummings took Female Athlete of the Year hon- ours. Kris Peterson and Colleen Ma from women's Volleyball earned the HN (Andy) Andrews Academic Athetes of the Year awards. Coach of the Year was Joe Ormerod, who led the Men's soccer team to within a goal of the National Championship. A Special Recognition Award was given to Dave Dalcanale, coach of the men’s and women’s volleyball teams, for his efforts. To close out the evening, Chris Johnson announced a scholarship award in his own name to be given to four athletes that had impressed him over the past year. This year’s recipients were Brielle Morgan from Women’s soc- cer, Jesse Arnett from the wrestling team, Jon Frampton from men’s soccer and Jan Hogan from men’s basketball. Chris Johnson lived up to his word and the awards moved along briskly, ending just an hour and a half after they began, bringing to a close a memorable season for many Douglas College athletes. inning stretch, the Royals trailed the Mariners 4-0. They were certainly not out of the game, but something need- ed to happen pretty quickly if they hoped to get back in the game. Something did. In the 7th inning, the Royals bats sud- denly came alive as the first two Royals batters both sin- gled. It was then that the Royals coaching staff reached into their bag of tricks, ordering a double-steal, which was executed to perfection. The third batter in the inning, Danny McDonald, brought in the Royals first run of the season off a groundout. Another grounder that brought the Royals to within two runs quickly fol- lowed this up. The surge stopped there, though, as the Royals hit their third groundout of the inning. In the eighth inning, with a new pitcher on the mound, the Royals control issues seemed to return as the first batter was hit by a pitch and quickly made his way to second base. A pop-fly advanced him to third, and suddenly the Royals were in danger of losing their momentum. Despite the efforts of their catcher in blocking wild pitches, the Royals gave up another run, following a pitch that made its way to the backstop. This run, essentially, put an end to any potential comeback on the part of the Royals as the Mariners prevented any fur- ther comeback by the Royals, executing a double play fol- lowing a base hit by Bill Russell. Malaspina continued to add runs, walking away with a 10-2 victory, closing out what had to be a disappointing beginning to the Royals season. page 21 ©