september 6, 1995

OP Sports
Too much of a good thing is not a bad thing

by Elaine Leong

Top flight athletes of past and
present Douglas College seasons
share a good thing: the athletics
coaches gearing up for every
upcoming season.

Douglas College’s varsity pro-
grams offer opportunities for stu-
dents 40 strive for success in ath-
letics. Competition is tough in the
BCCAA (British Columbia Col-
leges Athletic Association) and na-
tional competition comes through
the CCAA (Canadian College’s
Athletics Association).

Every athlete who partici-
pates, strives and competes shares
the thrill, good feelings and benefits
of athletics. Here’s a look at a few
of the teams.

Men's Golf

Coach Gert Van Niekerk is
smiling at the prospect of the
upcoming year with DC’s men’s
golf team. In the past four years,
the DC Royals have earned four
consecutive BCCAA golf champi-
onships. This year will be no ex-
ception. The aim is to dominate the
golf course as in the previous years

Golf never stopped during the
year. Van Niekerk has been out re-
cruiting the high school prospects
last June 95, Since then some of the
players have been practicing :1-2
times a week. This opportunity al-
lows for the players to get ac-,
quainted with each other and al-
lows time to gel.

During the fall semester, the
team will participate in various
weekend tournaments starting Sep-
tember 16 and on through to mid-
November. There will be four 36-
hole tournaments and one 54-hole
tournament.

But the action does not stop
after November, Van Niekerk has
several matches and tournaments
lined up, for the 95-96 DC team,
with US competition like Skajit
Valley, Bellevue and Edmonds.
Also the team will tour Southwest
Washington and the BC Interior.
During this time, the players will
be developing their skills and their
overall game.

In the spring, fundraising will
take place with things like: drive-
a-thons, bingo nights, raffles and
food sales. DC’s 25th Anniversary
is coming up this year and as a part
of it, DC will host an Alumni tour-
nament in the spring at Westwood.
150 people will be teeing off and
the even includes dinner, golf, and
corporate sponsorship.

This year the sponsor of the
team starting this season will be
Westwood Plateau Golf and Coun-
try Club in Coquitlam. The DC
tournament on October 30 will be
played at Westwood as well as any
future golf tournaments hosted by
DC.

The tryouts begin on the sec-
ond week of school.

Women's Golf

Westwood Plateau Golf
and Country Club not only have

their facilities to offer but also Tara
Smetny, a new golf coach to help
form DC’s first-ever women’s golf
team. She’s been a pro at the
Westwood Academy and is now
looking to share her expertise with
any new golfing prospects. Women
are needed urgently for the team.
Please give Gert Van Niekerk a call
if you are interested: 527-5042.

Badminton

After having the Canadian
Open Badminton tournament
hosted in the Lower Mainland just
a month ago, the popularity of bad-
minton is surely on the rise.

DC has always attracted some
of the best the province has to of-
fer, including Sian Deng, who
competed in the Canadian Open

the

GiGi Press

and Julia Chen from China who
won the women’s single category
in national competition two years
in a row, as well as New Westmin-
ster’s Rachel Shiu who competed
in the women’s doubles category.

In the past five years, DC has
been extremely competitive in the
BCCAA tournaments attaining the
gold, silver and bronze medals in
various categories.

In the 94-95 season, DC had
attained the second place in the
province. In the two seasons previ-
ous to that, DC had won the pro-
vincial tournaments. DC’s calibre
of players were high enough to send
four athletes out of five to repre-
sent BC at the national CCAA tour-
nament.

®Registered trade-mark of Royal Bank of Canada
* Royal Bank of Canada, licensee of trade-mark

 

Women's Volleyball

DC’s volleyball teams will be
facing a change in the system in
addition to the new members try-
ing out in the fall. The BCCAA
league has changed the competition
so that there will be two tiers in the
league. This decision was made
upon the wishes of the post-second-
ary institutions. One tier will focus
on play in a tournament format
similar to that of the badminton
league. Meanwhile the other tier in
which both DC teams have been
placed, the teams will face each
competitor once each semester with
the top four teams competing in the
BCCAA provincial championship
tournament.

Goodbye Sasha Klunder and

 

Sheryl Murphy. Hello again
Stephanie Perko, Amy Kanakos
and Lynda Quan. These players and
others such as Michelle Tobin,
Suzanne Muldoon and Lindsay
Vanstone made up the close knit
women’s volleyball team of last
year and are coming back for an-
other competitive year. After reign-
ing as the 94-95 BCCAA Provin-
cial Champions, the women’s vol-
leyball team hold the task of retain-
ing their standing.

“We have a tall team this year
with three girls over 6’1",” says
head coach Dave Dalcanale.
“We're always expecting to do
well. It’s just a matter of gelling.”

In this tier, the stronger com-
petition will be present and a lot of
the weaker opponents are weeded