State of the Royals

Coach Gert Van Niekerk on athletics at Douglas, SFU and beyond

By Garth McLennan, Sports Editor

here are few people at Douglas
College more knowledgeable about
B.C. sports than Gert Van Niekerk.
Van Niekerk is the coordinator for the sports
science program at Douglas and has been
with the College in various capacities for
almost 40 years.

In a wide-ranging discussion about
the current state of athletics at Douglas
and the rest of B.C., Van Niekerk shared
his thoughts and predictions, starting off
with excitement about the prospects of the
upcoming season for the men’s golf team,
of which he is the head coach.

“The men’s golf team will do much
better this summer,” he said. “You know,
last year, things didn’t go good. We started
off with lots of promise, but at Christmas
we had three of our players deemed
ineligible to play, and that really did our
team in.”

On the women’s side of golf for
Douglas, Van Niekerk is also upbeat.

“Michaela Staller, she made the all-star
team when we played down in the states last

year. It’s called the NWAACC [Northwest
Athletic Association of Community
Colleges] down there. She was the only
women’s golf player Douglas had; we didn’t
really have a team. We will this year for
sure though.”

Douglas plays out of the NWAACC for
both men’s and women’s golf and competes
with nine other schools.

For most sports at Douglas though, Van
Niekerk has high hopes. “Douglas is going
to have a full compliment of teams again in
the BCCAA. They’re going to have strong
men’s and women’s soccer teams. Men’s
basketball will be strong again like last year
[when Douglas had a perfect record and
won the national championship], I don’t
know what the women’s basketball will be
like, they’ve been struggling a bit over the
last few years. Badminton is very strong,
they’re perennial champions. I mean, all of
our badminton teams just dominate. The
men’s and women’s wrestling is always
good. Last year they produced a national
collegiate champion.”

When the talk turns to SFU’s recent
acceptance into the NCAA, Van Niekerk is

of two minds.

“T have sort of mixed feelings on it.
I guess it makes sense financially, but we
have a pretty good league here in the CIS
[Canadian Interuniversity Sports] and
they’re pretty competitive. Now SFU is
just jumping to the NCAA. It could be for
financial reasons or for a better calibre of
play, but the level of competition in CIS
isn’t bad: I think that they should support
the local product.”

“T guess that when you think of
the NCAA, you think of big crowds,
cheerleaders, big money. So my question
is, will the NCAA level of PR translate up
here like it does in the U.S.? It might be in
bigger crowds, so there’s that to consider.
Obviously with NCAA tier 1 teams it would
be a huge draw for crowds, so maybe that’s
what they’re thinking long term. But right
now they’re tier 2,” he said. “Now that I
think of it, I suppose the TV revenues are a
big part of it. 1 mean, CIS doesn’t get that
much coverage. But say, Oregon State or
someone like that comes up here from the
NCAA to play SFU, people are going to
watch that.”

 

 

As you might expect, when it comes to
the 2010 Olympics, Van Niekerk is a huge
supporter of the Games, and thinks that the
benefits of the whole deal far outweigh the
negatives.

“I’m a huge Olympic fan. I know that
they come with a lot of criticism because
of the cost, but so did Expo, and that paid
off big time for B.C.,” he said. “In the long
run I think it'll be a good thing for the
province and it will promote sport. There
will be a lot of long-term benefits. You’re
left with a great legacy and the eyes of
the world are on B.C., which is obviously
great for tourism. You get a lot of great
long-term infrastructure. I’m a fan. I think
that VANOC are being very accountable
for the money they spend, they’re being up
front. There haven’t been too many hidden
agendas.”

From the looks of things 2009-10
should be an exciting year for a great sports
program at Douglas. It’s a good thing
that they have one of the most dedicated,
professional coaches in the business to help
them along the way.

 

You’ve got to feel for Dan Cloutier

By Garth McLennan, Sports Editor

efore Roberto Luongo came to town,
B Vancouver was well known as a

goalie graveyard. Many goaltenders
over the years had come here at various

stages of their careers and the vast majority
of them had left in obscurity to some minor

league team or with their confidence shot. No

one exemplified this more than Dan Cloutier,
who fulfilled both of the above scenarios.

Cloutier carved out a place for himself
with the Canucks, stringing together several
superb regular seasons while posting
solid numbers as the club’s first legitimate
starter since the departure of Kirk McLean.
However, one thing Cloutier was never able
to do was attain any sort of playoff success.
Nothing put the exclamation point on this
more than his disastrous 2002 first round
series against the Detroit Red Wings, where
Nicklas Lidstrom fired a now infamous laser
from center ice in game three. Vancouver
went on to lose the series.

The next year was even worse. After
getting by the St. Louis Blues in seven
games, the Canucks advanced to play the
upstart Minnesota Wild, who ventilated
Cloutier for 15 goals over the final three
games of the series. The year after that,
against the Calgary Flames in the first
round, Cloutier injured his ankle and
couldn’t complete the series, which ended
Vancouver’s season.

By this time most Canucks’ fans had
already deemed Cloutier another victim of
the city’s goalie graveyard. Sure enough,
the next year Cloutier suited up for just 13
games before suffering a season-ending ACL
injury. He was replaced by Alex Auld, whose
tombstone in Vancouver’s goalie graveyard
sits right beside Cloutier’s, and the Canucks

 

Dan Cloutier
saves percentage plummeted to a truly awful
.860 and he fell to several more lengthy
injuries before being waived and sent to the
AHL.

Cloutier played just nine games in
2007-08 and was out of hockey last year.

missed the post-season.

After that debacle, Cloutier was traded
to Los Angeles while Luongo was brought
in. During his two seasons in Hollywood,
to say that he played terribly would be
charitable. His GAA ballooned to 3.98, his

It was an incredibly steep decline for a
guy who once set the Vancouver Canucks’
single season shutout record. 31 years old
and not a team in the NHL would give him
a job.

However, it looks like Cloutier is
about to get his second chance (or third,
depending on how you look at it). The
dynastic Detroit Red Wings have invited
the 33-year-old Mont-Laurier, Quebec
native to their training camp to compete
with Jimmy Howard for the team’s backup
goaltender spot.

There are no promises that this will
go anywhere for Cloutier, but right now it
must feel like a godsend. After a Stanley
Cup win two seasons ago and another
appearance in the finals this June, Chris
Osgood is firmly entrenched as Detroit’s
starter. But if there is one identifiable
hole on the Red Wings’ roster it is in net.
Osgood has his doubters and has struggled
over the years to establish himself as a true,
undisputed number one with several teams,
despite his winning pedigree.

Howard has been hailed as a blue
chip prospect for years now but he’s still
toiling away in the minors. He’s been
dubbed the next big thing in Detroit every
summer, with huge expectations heading
into training camp, but that’s been going on
for over half a decade now and there still
hasn’t been anything to validate the hype.

So Cloutier has a shot. Maybe not
a great one, but a shot nonetheless. If he
is able to shake off the inevitable rust
that comes with not playing for an entire
season and win the back up job, anything
can happen. Who knows, he might even be
able to get in a few games next season. No
matter how this situation pans out though,
you have to pull for the guy.

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