Linking the country ...

Football
  • Blake Nill's Calgary Dinos held their first Halifax workout far from Huskies Stadium. (Metro Canada)

  • Calgary QB Erik Glavic is still keeping the reasons for his transfer from Saint Mary's mostly to himself, as his prerogative: "To some, Glavic is a traitor and a scoundrel who betrayed the Huskies when he transferred out in January. To others he’s a student-athlete who exercised his right to study and play where he wished with a head coach (Nill) who worked to recruit him, as well as brothers Marco and Sasha before him." (Halifax Chronicle-Herald)

  • Saint Mary's has running back Devon Jones back for the Atlantic Bowl, but is waiting on his brother Tristan Jones (shoulder injury).

    The Huskies had CB Quinton Meaders go down with an injury last week; it's generally hard to replace a corner this late season, even with SMU's rather enviable depth. (Metro Canada)

  • Queen's backup QB Justin Chapdelaine was eight when his dad Jacques (a B.C. Lions asst. coach) coached Laval to its first Vanier in 1999, so there's a lot of memories coming back for pere et fils.
    "Jacques Chapdelaine, who has gone on to work with the Calgary Stampeders, Edmonton Eskimos and Lions in the CFL, never will forget that 1999 triumph.

    " 'It cannot compare to anything else, it was so unique,' he said. 'There was just that sense we were at the doorstep of something that was going to be huge. The Nordiques (of the National Hockey League) had stopped operating a year or two before and the city was looking for a sense of affiliation and tradition.

    " 'These kids came out of programs that were not always known by Quebec City residents, but at the same time they were local kids and the names were easy for people to know. People, emotionally, really bought into it.' "
    One memory of that 1999 game was seeing a lot of Nordiques sweaters among the Laval throng. (Kingston Whig-Standard)

  • Father Raymond J. de Souza has a passionate plea for the Canadian QB. (National Post)

  • At least one person is tongue-half-in-cheek taking Queen's to win by a field goal over Laval in the Mitchell Bowl. (Our Tricoloured-glasses call is 34-31 for the Gaels.)

  • Freshman defensive end Tom Festeryga has a been something of a revelation for Queen's, given that he's a converted hockey player.

    What is with Queen's and former hockey guys? Pat Sheahan's strong teams back around 2002-03 including Jack Gaudreau, a defensive end who had played in the QMJHL. Former Queen's hockey captain Billy Burke was also on the football team for a time. (Windsor Star)

  • Western Gazette sports ed. Arden Zwelling shares some post-Yates Cup thoughts (is this site going to keep milking this game? You betcha), including some of the unique aspects of Richardson Stadium:
    "The far stands were absolutely packed with students who made lots of noise and even affected the game on the final drive when the Mustangs went offside because they couldn’t hear the cadence. The singing after a Gaels touchdown is a great touch as well — good to see old traditions being carried on. The overwhelming student support on Saturday really makes Western look bad for getting zero student turnout at the quarterfinal vs. Guelph at TD Waterhouse stadium two weeks ago."
Basketball
  • U of T guard Rob Paris received a two-game suspension for a flagrant foul against McMaster last weekend. (cishoops.ca)
Hockey
  • Lakehead has already scored seven goals in a game five times this season, but as OUA goal-scoring leader Brock McPherson says, "Defence wins championships." Actually, the good offensive team which plays the best defence usually wins championships, which is why Lakehead's a little concerned about having given up six or more twice in recent outings. (TBNewsWatch)

  • St. Thomas is hoping to get a few players back from injuries and suspension heading into a big weekend for them. (Fredericton Daily Gleaner)

  • Defining people by lists of three, Gabrielle Smith edition: Martlets goaltender trying to fill the pads of Charline Labonte; tree planter; and music teacher (studying in McGill's fabulous music program) (West Island Chronicle)
Belated self-promotion!
  • It's testament to our modesty and inability to self-market that it took two weeks to point out Rob Pettapiece, Justin McElroy, and some other guy were quoted/paraphrased in a Best/Worst of the CIS article in the Macleans' university issue.

  • Founder James "Emeritus" Mirtle has some big news about SBNation's hockey blogs. (From The Rink)
Next PostNewer Post Previous PostOlder Post Home

4 comments:

  1. "The overwhelming student support on Saturday really makes Western look bad for getting zero student turnout at the quarterfinal vs. Guelph at TD Waterhouse stadium two weeks ago"

    ...In all fairness, Guelph vs. Western was a quarter-final not a Championship game. And also, how many students made it out to Queens vs. Mac? Student turn out for that was even worse.

    ReplyDelete
  2. True. It's just an opinion from another columnist. What did Ron Burgundy say?

    "Just gonna put this out there -- you don't like it, send it back."

    ReplyDelete
  3. The Mustangs take this stuff very seriously -- they were not pleased, to say the least, after the quarterfinal. Several players were also miffed at the low student turnout and lack of noise during the game.

    A high-ranking Mustang official told me "we don't deserve to host another playoff game after that embarassment."

    It was only a quarterfinal, granted. But students had to realize there was a good chance that would be the last OUA football game played in London this year -- and it was. Plus, it's not like this is the York lions we're talking about here. (my apologies to the Toronto kids) It shouldn't be a struggle to get students to support a team that is the two-time defending Yates champions and picked by many to three-peat. They sold out regular season games against Laurier and McMaster for chrissakes.

    Plus, this sort of stuff changes football games. Like I pointed out in my blog, Western blew the cadence late in the Yates last Saturday and took a penalty. They also clearly had trouble relaying calls and would have really been in tough if they had to audible anything.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mark Surya of Queen's football has played a couple of seasons of Jr. B hockey in Gananoque. Not university level of course, but nothing to sneeze at either.

    ReplyDelete