Well, another year of athletics has passed by and it was typical of Douglas College, bigger and better, or what a difference a new campus

- makes.

‘In this, my final article for the Other Press, we’ll take a look at the past, present and future.

September 1982: My. first sem- ester at Douglas College (at the McBride campus),” with my bags freshly unpacked after emigrating from Montreal was uneventful. | naturally assumed there was no athletic program at the college seeing no gymnasium or anything that resembled athletic facilities.

To further reinforce my belief, the Other Press, the student gospel of Douglas never had any sports news.

Then the big move to the giant, inverted,square fishbowl, which we

-now lovingly call. home and lo and ’ behold a gym! To further mystify

me “the student newspaper adver- tised for a sports reporter. On a

whim, | applied and, being the only applicant, was duly appointed sports coordinator. My first assignment: Contact Betty Lou Hayes, the Ath- letic Coordinator for the college.

Yes, they had some teams that participated in __ inter-collegiate sports and one of them, the men’s basketball team, was pretty good.

Where did the teams play before the new campus? You name it, they probably played there but most of their games were at New West Senior Secondary.

What | liked about the team was effort. All the high school stars went to VCC and Capilano so Douglas was not laden with talent but they had guts. | never saw them dog it 1 think that exemplifies all the teams in this college. This always made writing my stories easy.

The athletic department boasts not only an excellent staff but the best accents in the.college. Gert Van Niekerk and Robin Ryan are respec- ted and admired by their students (I also have it on good authority that so is Chris Johnson, it is’ even rumored that some students like John Mills, the basketball instruc- tor.) This bunch of wild loonies are held together by the Athletic Coord- inator, Betty Lou Hayes, the unsung

“hero whose desk-is never less than

three feet deep in paper. She deals with’approximated expense reports,

‘uniforms that disappear right after they are washed. and scorers who

Athletics’ Future: A Winner —

show up five minutes into the game yet, throughout it all, she maintains her sanity and always leaves her door open to all students.

What does the future hold in store? Lots. In three years | predict

that this college will be a power--

house in men’s basketball and a strong force to be reckoned with in all other athletics. 3

The coaching is there. Douglas and Fraser Valley college are per- haps the best coached men’s basket- ball teams in the Totem conference. Steve Beauchamp, our coach, is going to be around for a few years to come. The problem is talent but you just have to look at this year’s

team to see the improvement. Most:

good basketball players, coming out of high school that don’t go to university. think of VCC or Capilano as the only alternative but Douglas is making itself known. Our location in New Westminster is prime real estate. Burnaby, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Surrey, Delta and Maple Ridge to name a few aren’t that far from the college, whereas~ North Van or Langara are too far to trek. More importantly, it will be worth their while to come here.

The same is true for all other

sports as well. Take-the golf team:

for instance, Gert Van Niekerk, the coach just took the best talent available and even threw in a sports writer as the fourth member so that the team would get good coverage.

te

That talent was good enough for second place in the province. The same goes for the curling team. Heck, the team was almost the best in the whole country.

The potential is there. We have the staff, we have the facilities, we have the geographical location and the talent is on its way. The creation of a dynasty has commenced.

| wish them luck. | Being a

Sportswriter is...

A man that needs a brain trans plant goes to a drugstore to bu

one. The druggist looks him over an

brain for $87 a pound, Rhodes Scholar for $94, Nobel Laureate for $96 and Sports Writer brain for $252 a pound.’’

The man looks in astonishment. ‘‘If a Nobel Laureate brain is only $96 a pound, why’ is Sports Writer brain so expensive?’’

To which the druggist replies “Fella, do you know how many skulls we have to crack open to get a

poced of brain out of sports writ- rs!’’ 7

by John Mills, trying to be funny in P.E. 114 — :