© Sports the other press Flash Gordon e dcsportseditor@yahoo.ca March 31, 2004 SPORTS SHORTS Flash Gordon Sports Editor Women’s Only Golf Workshops Come out and enjoy a full day of golfing. The workshop includes a morning instructional component with CPGA Pro Lindsay Jackson. A delicious light lunch at Coyote Creek’s The Creekside Grill, followed by nine holes of instructor assisted golf in the afternoon. Intermediate Workshop: Friday April 2, 2004 Only $89! Women’s Basketball ID Camp The Douglas College Women’s Basketball program will be holding an ID camp for players in Grade 11 and 12 who are serious about playing college basketball. When: Saturday April 3, 2003 Time: Gym Opens—9:30am camp begins 10am-12:30pm, 1:30pm—4pm Where: New West Campus, 700 Royal Ave., New Westminster Cost: FREE Coast Capital Savings Vancouver Community Corporate Rowing 6th Annual Event April 7—-May 29, 2004 The Coast Capital Savings Vancouver Community Corporate Rowing Challenge is a seven-week rowing program for businesses, groups and clubs in the Lower Mainland. Each crew practices twice per week at one of three convenient locations. Teams are coached by Vancouver's best rowers as they learn basic boat handling, rowing and racing skills. No experience is necessary! Packages can be downloaded from the web- site . For more information contact Ed Lunn, Activities Coordinator at 604.527.5005. Premier Drops the Ball Second Division Makes Up For It Women’s Rugby Dave Pearcey OP Contributor Premier Division Quarter Burnaby Lake 40 Douglas 14 Despite an extra week of training and the return of National team member Kirstie Smith to the line-up, the Douglas ladies were humbled by a resurgent Burnaby Lake team just rounding into peak form for the playoffs. Right from the start, the Douglas attack was out of sync—passes were dropped and set plays were bungled. Burnaby Lake man- aged to take a 7-0 lead at the 20- minute mark before the Blues became more settled in their play. Arguably, the turning point of the match occurred on a series of kicks. When pressing the attack deep into their opponent’s end, Douglas turned the ball over in contact. Burnaby won_posses- sion and kicked up field. Douglas secured the ball near midfield, but a hurried pass out wide bounced several times and was kicked ahead by the opposi- tion’s winger. Another kick sent the ball into the Douglas in-goal area and the Burnaby winger touched it down just ahead of fullback Kelly Kitamura. The conversion made the deficit to 0-14. Converted tries before and after the half gave the Lakers a 28-point lead. Kirstie Smith finally set up Tanya Leigh for a try and converted it as well. After a try for Burnaby, Laura Kinnear-Harmse replied for Douglas followed by a convert by Smith(14—33). The exclamation point was made on the last play of the match as another converted try was scored far too easily against the Douglas defense. The Lakers ‘scrum-half Julia Sugawara was certainly a big factor in the game, but it was an overall out- standing performance by her team on the day. Douglas had hoped to get a boost from the presence of Smith, but it was too much to expect her to dominate from her position after nine months on the sidelines with a knee injury. Douglas next faces the number one seeded team, SFU. Second Division Quarter Douglas 17 UBC 5 An injury-depleted roster faired better than expected, as Douglas earned a semi-final match-up with Abbotsford after the victory over UBC. Douglas’ pack came out with an aggressive rucking game and retained a great deal of possession early on. Megan Griffiths, Steph Staller, and Nicole Edgson had the UBC defenders on their heels on sev- eral occassions. Scrumhalf Rikkilee Jones finished off some great play by the forwards to score the first try of the day. It was the backs setting up the forwards for the next score, as a punishing run by Anita Dhillon was followed up by second rower Mel Skolovy for a 10-0 Douglas lead. The game continued to go the home side’s way as fullback Lisa O'Neill broke two tackles on a try scoring run. Griffiths conver- sion capped a 17—point half. UBC did not concede the win however, as they roared out with a try early after the break. They found some gaps in the Douglas defense and only a great effort by O’Neill saved a try that would have brought them with range. Unfortunately she suffered a broken nose on the play and had to be replaced. Neither team produced a threatening offensive move in the latter stages of the game and the try line remained uncharged until the final whistle. So Long and Thanks for all the Fish Flash Gordon Sports Editor highly doubt that “cre- ative outlet” instruction and an manual. yourself from cheering sake of the student press, There’s one more issue of the Other Press and as things begin to stack up like term projects and studying, I wanted to take this opportunity to reflect on my term as Sports Editor. Almost exactly a year ago, I began writing under the super- vision or lack-there-of of the Centre for Sport. The first ever appearance of the mysterious Flash Gordon was even four or five months before that. In print, he showed up on the Douglas Blues Rugby Club website on a game write-up for a road trip to Kamloops. Shortly thereafter, a tamer ver- sion appeared on the col- lege athletics’ website. I was around enough to hear people asking, “Who is this guy?” But does it really matter who he is? I got into it as a creative | outlet mashed together with an interest in sports. To a true sports fan, I ae Page 18 « http://www.otherpress.ca “interest. in sports” belong on the same page anywhere. Where are the statistics? Where are the nitty-gritty facts? The answer is somewhere else. If you really want to, I'll stick around and help you look for them. With regards to the quality of my sports edit- ing, I know my job has been satisfactory at best. Mind you, not for lack of trying or good writing by myself or any of my con- tributors. The nature of the student press has a fly-by-the-seat-of-your- pants quality where you get hired and hopefully you have a clue what youre doing. My predecessor wasn't a very good teacher and no one else in the Other Press had any clue how the Sports Section was supposed to be put together. I didn’t even know how many pages I was allowed. I remember wishing someone had provided me with an Thankfully I made some good contacts at the col- lege and outside of it. Brian McLennon, thanks for all the help and I for- give you for being a Georgetown Hoyas fan and for growing up in Toronto and for being a better basketball player than I am. Lou Rene Legge, the Director and High- Priestess of Royals, thank you for giving me a chance to write and forc- ing me to be professional once in awhile. We all know it doesn’t happen very often. She may be one of the few people who actually laughed at what I’ve written in the past year. So I'll include her and myself and my 30 imaginary friends in my fan club’s newsletter. The pieces I liked to write most were the game write-ups that required me to sit in the stands or out on the field every weekend. I know I didn’t always get the facts right but how can you keep and getting involved in a game but then forgetting who scored? I’m a fan before sports writer and an athlete before being a fan. The most satisfaction I can take away from my job as Sports Guru at the Other Press was from having fun while work- ing. I can't say it was always rosy in the office. There were many exit- proofs that dragged on way too long and that’s time I can’t ever get back. I sincerely hope Douglas College develops some sense of self in the future and a school spirit can be found in the stands on a Friday or Saturday night at the Lion’s Den. By the way, the Lion’s Den is the gym at the New Westminster campus. I coined the term; it’s mine! I don’t actually care if the gym ever gets a name. Lou, just put some fans in it! A couple career high- lights as Flash Gordon, are: getting tattooed at the Dutchman for the a trip to Newfoundland in the middle of winter (Who knew prairie folk knew how to party?), and having the occasional person realize “Oh you're that guy. I’ve heard about you.” While this seems to have turned into a sad pseudo-version of a year- book write-up, I think that I will cut my losses and put out one more issue next week before exams begin. Iam reminded of some- thing written by Douglas Adams about dolphins that suddenly realize the world is about to explode and say, “So long and thanks for all the fish,” then fly off into outer space. The world is promptly obliterated by an interstellar highway construction crew and the only person that remains is a British man by the name of Ford Prefect. My sentiments exactly. Let's hope the next Sports Editor has more fashion sense than I do.