Success for the Clan, but don’t expect Douglas to follow

By Garth McLennan, Sports Editor

history in July when they became
the first school outside of the United
States to gain acceptance into the National
Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
Now, SFU was accepted as a second
division school into the Great Northwest
Athletic Conference (GNAC), so don’t
have any visions of Final Four or Bowl
game glory just yet. Still though, just being
allowed into the best university/college
loop in the world at any level is a major
achievement.
After a lengthy two-year process, SFU

S imon Fraser University (SFU) made

 

and all 19 of their sports teams were granted
admission into the NCAA beginning in
2011-2012. They’ll compete regularly
against various squads from nine other
GNAC schools: Alaska Anchorage, Alaska
Fairbanks, Central Washington, Montana
State Billings, Northwest Nazarene, Saint
Martin’s, Seattle Pacific, Western Oregon
and Western Washington. There are also a
few schools that compete in the GNAC for
football only.

It’s still unclear as to where all the
dominoes will fall, but there is a very real
possibility that SFU may be able to field
a hockey team in division 1. The NCAA
regulations permit a certain number of

division 1 sports to be played by division 2

schools, and hockey would be SFU’s best

bet in that regard. It would be difficult for
them to compete in any other sport at that
high of a level.

As for any other Canadian institutions,
don’t bank on NCAA membership for them
any time soon. The NCAA will look at the
SFU experiment extremely closely before
even considering any other schools north of
the 49", and unfortunately, Douglas College
isn’t even on the radar of making the short
list of schools that would be considered.

Currently, Douglas College plays out
of the Northwest Athletic Association of
Community Colleges.

 

 

Should golf be an Olympic sport?

Absolutely

 

By Garth McLennan, Sports Editor

he debate about which sports should
be Olympic events and which

shouldn’t is pretty much timeless,
and it’s sure to be stirred again with golf
looking very much like the newest sport to
be included in the 2016 Summer Games.
That’s because the International Olympic
Committee (IOC) executive board has
recently returned a decision recommending
the inclusion of golf and rugby sevens. In
order to have golf rubberstamped as an
official Olympic event, the full 106 strong
IOC will vote on the matter in October.

What I can’t understand is why people
are upset about this. Golf is a game that
requires a tremendous amount of skill and
is perfectly suited to the two-week format
of the Olympics. The standard, medal-play
professional golf tournament is contested
over four days, with a cut of the bottom tier
players coming after the second day. That
would fit in nicely, considering how highly
compact almost everything else is at the
Olympics.

Golf is also an extremely international
sport. I mean, almost every country out
there plays golf. It isn’t like other sports
currently on the Olympic roster which are
almost always dominated by the United
States or China. All you have to do for
proof of that is take a quick look at the
PGA Tour World Rankings.

Sure, Tiger Woods and Phil
Mickelson, both Americans, top the list
but after that it’s fairly open. Paul Casey,
ranked third, is British. Sergio Garica, at
sixth, is Spanish, while seventh ranked
Henrik Stenson hails from Sweden. Geoff

Ogilvy, at eighth, is Australian while
Padraig Harrington rounds out the top ten
from Ireland. Then you have former world
number one Vijay Singh, who’s from Fiji
or Retief Goosen from South Africa.

Now, some would say that the allure
of an Olympic gold medal wouldn’t mean
as much as a victory in a Major for most
golfers. Some ask, would Sergio Garcia,
who has never won a major, rather win
a gold medal or the British Open? There
is some truth to that, but I don’t think it
would be a determining factor. After all,
tennis and basketball are both popular
Olympic events, and both of those have
prizes outside the Games that outstrip the
gold medal.

With the already highly diluted
pool of Olympic events, one could also
argue that the IOC should be much more
selective in what sports are granted
admission from now on. However, I
maintain that if pistol shooting and
synchronized diving are allowed in, then
golf should be as well. It may not have the
popularity of soccer or baseball, but people
still care about golf. Imagine how cool
a sight it would be to have Tiger Woods
standing on top of the podium as the first
ever golf gold medal winner.

There really isn’t any logical reason
why golf shouldn’t be included. It’s
popular, it’s easy to identify with, it’s
international, it’s got a ready-made and
easy to understand format, it has a number
of household names and no shortage of
breathtakingly beautiful venues from
which to choose. Here’s hoping the IOC
makes the right move and inducts a truly
magnificent sport into its ranks.

 

Vick is a disgrace, not a case of redemption

   

By Garth McLennan, Sports Editor

ith the announcement of
Michael Vick’s signing with the
Philadelphia Eagles, the sports
talk phone lines have been packed with
people proclaiming that this is a good thing
for football and for Vick. That it’s a good
example of young man who has paid his
debt to society and is deserving of a second
change. .
Forgive me if I don’t share the same
sentiment.
The fact is that Michael Vick is
a disgusting, unconscionable person.
We’re talking about.a guy who repeatedly
committed a nauseatingly revolting felony
for seven years. For seven years! I mean,
this is a person (and I use that term very
loosely) that slaughtered innocent dogs
for fun, in the most cruel and horrendous
ways imaginable. He pitted half-starved
dogs against each other in death matches
and then electrocuted, drowned or hung the
losers. This wasn’t a one-time occurrence.
It wasn’t a stupid mistake that anyone
could make. This was a well-funded
operation that ran for almost a decade.
Then, when it was finally discovered
by the authorities, Vick came out and
publicly lied to the fans, the Atlanta
Falcons and the NFL. And the only
reason that Vick is now coming out and
attempting to gain forgiveness for his
crimes is because all of his scumbag
friends ratted him out as the ringleader!
If they’d refused to flip on him, do you
think for a second that Vick would still be

_ offering to help animal rights groups?

Now, it is true that Vick has lost a lot.
He served almost two years in prison and
lost tens of millions of dollars in salary
and endorsement deals. He went from
being the highest-paid player in the NFL
to working construction part time as a
condition of his release for ten bucks an
hour. He lost two years of the prime of his
career and lost the respect and admiration
of the entire sporting world. He even filed
for bankruptcy protection.

All of this is true, and no one can
deny that it is a momentous loss for
any person. But the fact is Vick brought
this on himself. He wasn’t a victim of
circumstance. Nobody forced him into it.
He had plenty of time to recognize what
he was into and to stop if he wanted to.
He didn’t. He only stopped because he got
caught. He had seven years to think about
what he was doing. Every day for seven
years he got up in the morning with the full
knowledge of what was happening on that
property of his in Virginia.

And it’s not like Vick was a saint
besides the dog fighting. I mean, we’re
also talking about a monumentally
stupid individual. After all, not many
are photographed getting baked outside
the courthouse right before sentencing.
Also, not many attempt to smuggle pot
onto a team plane. Or lend a truck to two
buddies in Virginia who got arrested for
pot distribution. Or flip off the fans in New
Orleans for booing him. Or get sued for
sexual assault. Or, and this seems pretty
basic, not risk everything, a mammoth
contract, major sponsorships with Nike,
Coca-Cola and more, on Bad Newz
Kennels. Talk about a moron.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell
should never have let Michael Vick back
into the league. This is a man who is a
repeat, chronic offender who clearly has
displayed the type of personality unfit
for professional sports, if not society as a
whole. Vick is a disgrace, and I don’t know
how anyone could live with themselves
if they bought his jersey or any of his
merchandise. Goodell had the opportunity
to make a strong statement about the kind
of scum that should not be tolerated, but
he didn’t.

It’s a shame.

 

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