© Sports the other press e fFlashGordon e dcsportseditor@yahoo.ca August 2003 CSRW Noodle Whippi Flash Gordon Sports Editor July has been a busy month in the Centre for Sport, Recreation and Wellness (CSRW). With the month- ly format of the Other Press for the summer, I am forced to sum up all that has happened, is happen- ing and will happen. Since this is the last issue of the summer term, we must all take a moment to mourn another summer gone. That’s enough. To begin with our ugly school gym is getting a makeover. Painting over all the brown railings has already started and eventually the whole facility will get a new shade of something better. Somebody in athletics finally realized our college gym looked a lit- tle too much like a high school for a BC College with promising athletics teams. The walls and floor will be redone showing off the Douglas College Royals’ colours and brightening the look of the gym. All of the railings will be green and the supports for the basketball hoops will be painted white so that our baskets will appear to float magically against the white walls. New end padding will be added to the length of the court adding to the appearance and the appearance of safe place to play. All of the painting will be completed between August 2 and 6. For those students with exams in the gym immediately afterwards — enjoy the fumes. Its unfortunate that the improvements couldn't have been finished for the British Columbia College Athletic Association basketball tournament that was hosted by Douglas College and the University College of the Fraser Valley in March. Outside the gym, Ed Lunn has spent the last month in Victoria continuing his coaching lessons with his mentor, who incidentally looks a lot like Yoda. His mastership of the coaching arts: will be on-going when he returns in September to his position of Activities Coordinator and Women’s Basketball Coach. Until then, multi-tasker Brian McLennon has been filling in at the office and getting quite comfortable in Lunn’s digs. My message to him is “don't get too comfortable.” The Centre has made some other adjustments throughout the summer with Programmer, Chris Johnson’s retirement. In his stead Dave Munro will take over at the helm and hopefully develop a sense of humour to fill the void left by Johnson. Because of Munro’s increased duties within CSRW, he has left the men’s coaching position vacant. After a string of interviews conducted by “the committee,” candidates were expected to run a one hour-long practice with Royal’s players. When the smoke cleared, Stephen McGilligan appeared as the new sheriff in town. McGilligan went into the trial thinking of it as a “mid-season practice.” This he felt helped him show the committee his preparation skills. His first action as Head Coach was to bring White Rock Christian Academy star, Donald Burton to the team. The next big event for Douglas College is the Soccer Nationals to be held this Fall in Coquitlam by the David Lam campus. Athletic Director, Lou Rene Legge is quite excited about the publicity that it brings to the College. It will be the second big event hosted by Douglas College in the last year. The 2003 BCCAA basketball tournament from the Spring was held as quite a success no thanks to yours truly drawing ire from the Vice President of Kwantlen. The Soccer Nationals is a much bigger deal for the college since our boys won the BCCAA. With the potential for success being high, I can imagine Lou must be tickled pink. The CSRW has been saving pennies so that Douglas College can pull out all of the stops for the tournament. Brian McLennon has been working hard on the tourna- ment website. When it is available for viewing, take a gander at who the website lists as tournament reporter. It will be none other than me! Lou, I prom- ise to be more tactful with articles. To give me more practice as an official reporter, Lou has hired me to write press releases for athletics related issues. If there are factual, unbiased articles concerning Douglas College athletics in the local newspaper, it’s not my fault. They made me do it. Ca Page 30 e hittp://www.otherpress.ca Flash Gordon Sports Editor And hire him we did. Steve McGilligan has more than enough passion for basketball to go around. When Dave Munro stepped down, as the Head Coach of the Royals this summer, Douglas College held auditions for the position. Steve McGilligan, born in Grimsby, ON, was their man. McGilligan has seen his share of Canadian universities, studying his undergrad at Dalhousie University, Halifax then his Masters at the University of Manitoba. He brings a wealth of experi- ence and people skills to the position. Steve approached the auditions like any other practice and tried to squeeze as much as he could into the one-hour session. University of British Columbia Head Coach, Kevin Hanson helped prepare McGilligan for his shot at being a head coach at the college level. Unfortunately for him, the season ahead is full of intangibles and what-ifs. The solid starting line-up has been completely broken up. Part of that is McGilligan’s own doing since he recruited All-Canadian guard Taylor Cherris-Wilding to the wilderness of the University of Manitoba. Must we remind Steve to not send our talent away? Just kidding. Three of the remaining starters have opted to head for other pro- grams in the city like Langara College and Capilano College. Let’s hope they don’t take it personally if they arent welcomed back with open arms while they are wearing the jerseys of our opponents. The remaining starter, lan Hogan has decided to take the year off of basketball to heal his knees and save a year of eligibili- ty for university. When asked about what the focus will be for this year, Steve joked that he needs to find players. He is working toward February. By that time, he hopes to have become familiar with the team and to have effec- tively introduced his system. He prefers a more hard- nosed man-to-man defensive style that requires players to be in peak physical condition. Physical fitness is important to McGilligan as a coach but so are academ- ics. He sees himself as a mentor more than just coach. If there is anything he can do help students adjust to college life, he'll do what he can. Donald Burton, of White Rock Christian Academy is the first to receive his pledge of assistance but in return, “he will work like a dog,” says McGilligan. The new Head Coach impressed the boss lady, Lou Rene Legge on the first day of the job by getting Burton to commit to Douglas’ program. The Fraser Valley MVP will bring a lot to a team that is suddenly in a rebuilding stage. Recruiting has been a strong area for the coach who also snagged Capilano leaper Tim Pershick to Manitoba before taking the job at Douglas. McGilligan’s former boss, coach Rick Suffield of the University of Manitoba Bisons has offered to send any potential to Douglas because he knows the players will be in good hands. The college program allows players who might not otherwise go directly to university to become accustomed to the demands of post-secondary education. They can ease into the colleges without feel- ing the sudden shock of university life. McGilligan asserts that he wants to do what’ in the best interest of his players.