Originally published in The Weal, Dec. 22, 2018.
SAIT Trojans men’s hockey head coach Brent Devost believes his team is one of the best in the conference, and one that will only get better when they return in January.
Continue reading “Searching for a second-half surge: Trojans men’s hockey team keeping pace with top teams”There is a path forward from the darkness of concussions, for both athletes who suffer them and for the larger sports world, say Calgary experts.
On Nov. 15, the University of Calgary (U of C)’s Integrated Concussion Research Program held a free panel discussion of researchers, advocates, and ex-athletes, titled “Concussion: Facts, Fiction
Originally published in The Weal, Nov. 19, 2018.
The Calgary Inferno of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) will have four of its games broadcast on Sportsnet 960 The Fan this season.
According to the Fan’s Oct. 15 press release, they are “the first commercial radio station in North America” to do live play-by-play of the CWHL.
Continue reading “Calgary Inferno broadcasting four games on Sportsnet 960 The Fan”
Calgary city council may have kept the 2026 Olympic bid on life support, but Calgarians should still pull the plug on Nov. 13.
On Aug. 4, 2018, Calgary Foothills FC won the Premier Development League (PDL) national championship in Reading, Pa. On the team were two players from the SAIT men’s soccer team, Dean Northover and William Akio. Continue reading “SAIT players help Foothills FC take national title”
First published in The Weal, March 26, 2018.
This semester, some SAIT students have attempted to grow the game of curling, participating in a post-secondary intramural league at the Garrison Curling Club.
The sport is known for its loud yells (“hurry hard” being a well-known one) by curlers directing shots, as well as surprisingly complex strategy. However, this league was largely for fun and growing the game at the post-secondary level in Calgary.
Jamie Caine, a Business Administration student, has been curling for eight years, and met most of his teammates while in other leagues at the Garrison. He curled on a team with Riley Helston, Joshua Kiist and Jack Mackinnon, who are also in Business Administration.
However, Caine said he was the “least competitive” member of his team, saying he preferred curling for fun.
Continue reading “Working hard, not necessarily hurrying, to kickstart curling at SAIT”
First published in The Weal, March 26, 2018.
The SAIT Trojans’ indoor track team set two provincial records on their way to a first-place finish at the provincial championships in Edmonton, which took place March 9-10.
The men’s team won gold in all six races they competed in – the 300m, 600m, 1,000m, 1,500m, and 3,000m, as well as the 4x400m relay.
This led to a first-place finish of 96 points, 55 ahead of second-place MacEwan University.
The women’s team also did well, with a second-place finish of 57 points.
Helping lead the charge for the women’s team was Ricki Christopher, who won gold in the 3,000m, 1,500m and 1,000m events. It was the women’s team’s first medal since indoor track began at SAIT in 2014.
Two of the more notable men’s performances belonged to Matthew Travaglini and Brent Stephen, who set new Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) records in the 1,500m and 600m races, respectively.
Continue reading “SAIT track team runs over the competition in Edmonton”
Originally published in The Weal, March 19, 2018.
Much of the credit for the SAIT Trojans men’s basketball team’s success this season goes to Murphy Beya, who has capped off his college career with his best season yet.
The forward won Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) All-Conference honours this season, and was shortly after was named tournament MVP at the ACAC championships in Lethbridge, Alta.
The highlight of the tournament for Beya was his game-tying three-point shot with 2.9 seconds left in the semi-final game against NAIT.
Beya described the shot as a broken play, where he eventually “thought he had an open shot” and took it.
“As soon as I hit that shot, I knew we had them,” said Beya.
First published in The Weal, March 12, 2018.
In late January, SAIT won a unique competition they helped pioneer 44 years ago, winning first place overall at the Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race (GNCTR) in Waterloo, Ont.
The competition involves schools from across the country designing and racing downhill a five-passenger toboggan with a metal frame and concrete running surface that must weigh less than 350 pounds.
SAIT won the King of the Hill race portion in a photo finish over the host University of Waterloo.
However, their overall victory came because they won first-place awards in Excellence in Safety, Best Superstructure Design, Best Braking Performance, and Best Theme Costumes (an Austin Powers theme.)
According to the team, the result came after careful analysis of last year’s team, which took first place in the race but finished fifth overall.
The team also had to overcome the disadvantages of a two-year school competing against more experienced four-year schools.
Continue reading “Concrete toboggan team goes downhill fast – in a good way”
Opinion piece originally published in The Weal January 29, 2018.
The Connor Neurauter controversy is a disgrace to the University of Calgary (U of C), and displays the work still required to confront sexual interference and institutional complicity in it.
Nearauter, 21, recently recieved a prison sentence for sexual interference with a 13-year-old girl in 2015. He was sentenced in Kamloops, B.C., and his sentence was delayed in order to allow him to finish his classes at U of C.
The University’s handling of the situation has been baffling at best, completely tone-deaf at worst. And, although Neurauter has now been effectively driven off campus, though not expelled, the administration still botched the situation so badly that student activists are fuming, and they should be.
Everything in the university’s conduct, from its vague and flawed non-academic misconduct policy to its clumsy and insensitive response to students, suggests a university prioritizing a convicted sex offender over the safety of students.