With the school year in full swing, the Victoria sports scene is hopping once again. It’s readily apparent here on campus: the Camosun Chargers have hit the ground running with a collective total of six wins in men’s and women’s volleyball. The Chargers golf team brought home gold after years of being the runner-up. There is undoubtedly something special about walking into Camosun’s Pacific Institute for Sport Excellence and hearing the roar of a crowd who have come together out of one collective interest: sports.
And it’s not just around Camosun that things are heating up: off campus, the Victoria Royals won seven of their first 10 games, and the University of Victoria’s Vikes have a ton going on as well. Plus, baseball fever isn’t just limited to what the Blue Jays managed to do this year: it’s happening on fields around town as well.
If your teams are being dominated, or if you just seem to be getting all the unlucky bounces, the venue of choice can be a numb and mournful place to be. Luckily for Victorians, our teams are firing at all cylinders of late. The city certainly responds to both success and failure, but lately it’s been more of the former for Mile Zero’s teams; here’s a rundown of some of the key sports around town and what some of the teams involved are up to (with apologies to those we couldn’t get to in this quick overview).
Basketball
The Camosun Chargers men’s and women’s basketball teams kicked off their season on October 30 in Nanaimo against Vancouver Island University. Men’s basketball head coach Scot Cuachon says that he is happy with how things are coming together but hopes to push his players a little more this year.
“We’re a little bit deeper as far as players and community, so we’re hoping to push the pace a little more,” he says. “We’re a little bit older, so the leadership hinges on a few more guys, and hopefully because of that, we won’t have any effort issues. At the same time, when you go six days a week, there’s certainly a point in that week where guys are going to be a little bit tired. But motivation and effort are intrinsic.”
Everyone has a style of play that works for them, and Carl Macdonald, head coach of Camosun’s women’s basketball team, says that it is all about quick transition basketball.
“We use a combination of quick basketball, which is called transition basketball, to score as quick as we can from when we get control of the ball,” he says. “And, of course, you have to play great defence to be able to do that, so we focus on both transition and defence.”
Macdonald, who hails from Guelph, Ontario, led the Central Vancouver Island Basketball Club to win the championship back in 1999. He’s looking forward to having a great start this year, but he is also aware of the team’s obstacles: he’s quick to point out that a big part of the problem with getting students aware of the Chargers is that Camosun is spread out over two campuses.
“Even though most of our players go to school at Lansdowne, there’s not a lot of connect between the two campuses in terms of sports,” he says. “It needs to be promoted better so that the student body knows what’s going on and when and where our games are.”
There are a few changes to the women’s basketball roster this year, including forward Jade Heavener and guard Michaela Witte.
“Our players work just as hard as the players at UVic,” says Macdonald, “or anybody who plays any sport in the city. All our players compete with as much intensity as anybody else.”
The women finished fourth in the province last year and will play their home opener against Quest University on Friday, November 20 at 6 pm at the Interurban campus, followed by an afternoon game the next day at 1 pm.
“We’re putting the finishing touches on our game and we expect to be ready to go,” says Macdonald.
Over at UVic, the Vikes players hear the squeak of their Nike high-tops in the new Centre for Athletics, Recreation and Special Abilities (CARSA) athletic building.
“It’s a world-class facility,” says Craig Beauchamp, head coach of men’s basketball at UVic. “The season is progressing really well. One of the things we can do now is attract our fans into a first-class facility and first-class entertainment.”
Despite the absence of professional sports, both Beauchamp and Dani Sinclair, head coach of the Vikes women’s team, say that Victoria is the place to be for basketball.
“Victoria is a really special place to be because of the history here with [former Vikes coaches] Ken and Kathy Shields,” says Sinclair, a former Vike herself. “What I really appreciated as a player and now as a coach is that because there’s not those professional sports in the city, there is a lot of support for amateur sports, and we get a lot of support from the community and from the student population.”
Sinclair compares Victoria to her hometown of Hamilton, which, being close to Toronto, centres largely on professional sports; however, it is also where many of UVic’s top female basketball players hail from. Sinclair says that the team, who won two of their first three games, is coming together very nicely for the 2015-16 season.
“We just flew back from a weekend in Montreal. Those trips are always really good for team chemistry,” she says. “We have five new girls. It was a really good weekend on and off the court.”
Sinclair points out that going from playing for the Vikes to coaching them was quite the adjustment, as most competitive athletes might imagine.
“It took a couple years once I started coaching at the high-school level to get over not being a player anymore. Your instincts make you want to jump on the court and get it done yourself. I’m old enough now that I don’t really feel that way anymore, so you just approach it very differently. They’re both really exciting in their own way, but as a player, you’re so much more directly involved in the outcome of the game. Being a coach is more cerebral than physical.”
The CARSA facility, which may be home to some Chargers athletes in the future if they attend UVic after Camosun, holds over 2,000 people and is just one more thing for Victoria to be proud of with respect to amateur sport.
“The culture of basketball in Victoria has been second to none over the last 30 or 40 years just because of the history of success,” says Sinclair.
The UVic men’s basketball team lost 70-88 to Eastern Oregon on October 30, then on October 31 lost 59-88 to the College of Idaho for a record of 0-2 in the Quinn Classic Tournament. Their next game is November 6 against Trinity Western, in Langley.
The women’s team lost 65-74 against Thompson Rivers on October 31, and then won 76-70 against Macewan University on November 1, for a record of 5-3. Their next game is November 6th in Langley, B.C.
Golf
Over at UVic, Vikes golf coach Justin Clews is quick to point out that golf is a unique sport because it is often more psychological than it is physical; the team even uses the services of a sports psychologist.
“She’s working with the players on the mental side of the game,” he says, “developing scenarios or how to overcome a shot if you have a bad hole. The most elite golfers are those who are the mentally strongest.”
There is a huge element of composure and discipline to all sports. (Tiger Woods’ father used to jingle coins in his pocket to teach his son to deal with inevitable mental distractions.) Clews admits that as a coach he sometimes feels “kind of helpless.”
“It’s more stressful to watch and coach, to be honest,” he says. “It’s a whole different element. When you’re a player, you have more control. When you’re coaching, it’s almost more difficult, because you can’t hit the shots. I might see the shots and I can explain what I see to the players, but whether it’s executed or not is completely out of my control.”
Clews says that teaching players how to read a putt is one of the biggest elements of coaching.
“I found that the biggest success is asking the players what they see in a putt or a shot and then just reassuring them that it’s probably the best thing to do,” he says.
Clews recognizes that as well as being athletes, his players are also students who have papers due and deadlines to meet, just like the rest of us, and that they still need an education off the course.
“College golf is pretty special,” he says. “These kids that go to school are here to get a great education. The fact that they can play competitive golf against competitive schools is a real privilege, and I think they can apply a lot of what they learn in a team situation with their teammates and the development of their game to everyday life and their career.”
The Camosun Chargers golf team competed in nationals in Chilliwack on October 3 and 4, taking home a gold medal (requests for an interview were unanswered by deadline).
Volleyball
The best offence is not a good defence: that’s just one of many lessons that Chargers men’s volleyball head coach Charles Parkinson has learned in his career. Before he made himself at home in front of drawing boards and on the sidelines, Parkinson was the captain of the Canadian men’s volleyball team, and that is exactly the experience he tries to harness.
“I spend a lot of time at the international level analyzing the film,” he says, “and I try to break that stuff down, and I talk to a lot of the national team athletes and the coaches and ask myself, ‘What can I bring back that is current at the international level, but that our guys can play? And can we adapt the systems that are being used internationally and sort of weave them into our games to make ourselves better?’”
The systems Parkinson is referring to consist of really strong serving, blocking that is equivalent to a brick wall, and pure physique and athleticism in the back row.
“We try to sort of knit together guys with different skill sets to make the whole team,” he says, “and to play a style of volleyball that is both powerful and very fast.”
This aggressive, hybrid coaching style won the Chargers the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) championships last year.
Parkinson has a true passion for helping young athletes grow, and the fact that he won the championships with a relatively small pool of athletes compared to larger cities speaks volumes to his coaching ability. He says the players are great to work with.
“We’re passionate about our sports, but we’re also really passionate about Camosun and I think those two are really strong ingredients that help put your institution on the map,” he says. “It drives more people coming here, it makes you feel proud of the school and all of those things that are positive about sport.”
Chris Dahl, head coach of Chargers women’s volleyball, points out that there are subtle differences between men’s and women’s volleyball.
“Make no mistake, when you look at the men’s game and you see how physical it can be, and how offensive it can be, we definitely want those aspects to be part of our game as well, and they are: in the women’s game, the rallies are longer. The name of the game is scoring points faster than your opposition without relying on them.”
The women had a stellar opening weekend against Vancouver Island University, defeating them in a 3-0 sweep two days in a row, for a record of 6-0. The men’s team is also on top of their game after a championship year, with a record of 5-1 so far.
“I was really impressed with our opening weekend and the crowd,” says Dahl. “The community here is great. Our next home games are November 6 and 7, and it would be great to continue to see more faces in the crowd because the athletes thrive off of that.”
Hockey
The Victoria Royals got off to a sharp start this year, winning seven of their first 10 games. After spending a week on the road in Spokane and Seattle, they suffered back-to-back losses and seemed to have trouble snapping out of it, but centre Alex Forsberg says it’s vital that they don’t let it get them down and that they stay on top of their game. Forsberg, who played for the Prince George Cougars and the Saskatoon Blades before coming to Victoria last year, is coming off his best year ever with the Royals.
“In Saskatoon, I was close to home, so it was nice to play there,” he says. “Then I came here, and this is really the first chance I got to win games every night, so I was really excited when I got here.”
Thriving off the excitement and adrenaline of the city, Forsberg had 25 points last year after playing 30 games. “We practice in the morning, which is what pro guys do,” he says about playing with the Royals. “Just little things like that; everything is a little bit more exceptional. We have more of a pro mentality with Dave [Lowery] coaching us.”
Forsberg also has a brother, Jesse, who played five years in the Western Hockey League (WHL), both with and against Alex.
“Jesse got traded to Seattle, and I played against him a few times. He took it easy on me a bit. He had a chance to throw me up a few times, and he didn’t hit me as hard as he could have,” says Forsberg with a laugh. “It was a lot of fun.”
And that accurately describes the atmosphere when you walk into Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre. Fans are dressed head-to-toe in Royals attire with hot dogs and drinks by their side. It’s an example of how sport brings people together: when the Royals score, thousands of people erupt, with some high-fiving total strangers.
“It’s really exciting,” says Forsberg.
The Royals defeated the Prince Albert Raiders 3-2 on Friday, October 30. With the win, the team now have a record of 10-5-1. The Royals’ next home game is November 13 against the Seattle Thunderbirds.
Baseball
The Victoria HarbourCats may be in the off-season, but that doesn’t mean that general manager Jim Swanson is sitting on a beach in Mexico drinking pina coladas and soaking up the sun.
“We’ve been working really hard on our recruiting, and that started before the season ended last year,” he says. “We’re hoping that we would have return players for this year, and that process continues still. Them coming to play for us next year has to mix with their education schedules. We’re confident that we’ve put together a team so far that will be stronger than what we’ve had. The key part will be to work on team aspects in May and June that will give this market the championship that we think it deserves.”
The HarbourCats were over .500 both on the road and at home last year, with a record of 29-24-1. They suffered nine straight losses early in the year but fought back with a seven-game winning streak in late June that put them back on the map. Swanson says that improving his bullpen is key.
“We weren’t as deep in our pitching last year, and pitching is what puts you over the top,” he says. “We needed to have a few more options late in the year. A huge part of what we spend our time on is growing our pitching staff and the back end of our rotation.”
Swanson also credits much of the success to the city of Victoria, which he says is unquestionably a baseball town. Come spring, many Victorians will be excited to get a hot dog and peanuts and relax at the ballpark.
“Baseball’s appeal is so much beyond the game. It’s something that families feel very comfortable with, seniors feel very comfortable with, and it’s got a great pace that allows people to enjoy themselves. Baseball has always been called a pastime, and I think that’s the right word for it, because you don’t have to deeply understand or love the sport to enjoy going to a baseball game. That’s the allure of baseball compared to hockey or lacrosse, where you have to have at least some grasp of the game to enjoy it.”
Swanson, who is a former professional baseball coach, took over for the HarbourCats in the fall of 2013; the team has since experienced huge success. Victoria led the West Coast League (WCL) in home runs, knocking 36 balls out of the park. They were also first in the WCL in attendance, with nearly 2,000 fans a game.
“We’re going to play our first home game on Tuesday, June 7,” he says, “and we’re home on Canada Day, June 30, and Father’s Day, which are highlight days for us.”