It was a tough weekend road trip for Gaels soccer. The men’s and women’s teams both earned draws against the Carleton Ravens on Saturday, but the women’s team lost to the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees on Sunday.

With all the scandal surrounding professional sports over the past few months, it’s easy for even the most forgiving fan to become disillusioned with them altogether.

The Gaels’ men’s rugby squad put on a show in their home opener Saturday, defeating the Trent Excalibur 78-0.
In the second half, the Gaels used all seven of their reserve players. One of the starters who remained in the match, fourth-year veteran Colin Alexander, scored the game’s most spectacular try. The Excalibur had the ball within 10 yards of the Queen’s goal when Mike Simmons knocked it loose with a hard tackle. Tim Richardson recovered the ball and quickly passed to Alexander, who promptly ran the length of the field and dodged several tacklers to record the try.

The men’s football team overcame a slow start to defeat the Guelph Gryphons 26-14 in their rain-soaked home opener on Sunday.

Women’s soccer turned in an impressive performance on Saturday, defeating the Ryerson Rams 2-0, and then tied the perennially strong University of Toronto Varsity Blues 0-0 on Sunday. The team had a lot to prove after winning silver at last year’s nationals.

The Golden Gaels’ basketball teams had rude awakenings this past weekend as a pair of NCAA teams gave them a lot to think about.
At Carleton University, the men’s team was soundly defeated 73-43 by the Villanova Wildcats of the Big East Conference. The Wildcats raced to a 23-2 lead and never looked back, leading 41-16 at halftime.

Probably the best way to justify raising the athletics fee is to consider the consequences of not doing so.
First, Queen’s interuniversity teams will suffer. As suggested in the Athletics Review, their current performance is not acceptable. One reason for this is the financial restriction on hiring. Most coaches are part-time and thus cannot, despite supreme efforts, dedicate themselves to their teams as much as other OUA coaches can.

One of the more controversial aspects of the recent review of Queen’s Athletics and Recreation was its recommendation to raise the Athletics and Recreation fee “to a level that puts them among the top five universities in Ontario.” This means the fee, which is indexed to inflation and set at $128.66 for full-time undergraduate students for 2007-08, would be raised to at least $163.84, the amount students pay to support athletics and recreation at the University of Western Ontario, which has the fifth-highest fee in the province.

The Queen’s Golden Gaels kicked off the new season with a bang Monday, defeating the Western Mustangs 26-20 in the Labour Day season opener.
Fullback Mike Giffin had a career-best 156 yards on 24 carries for the Gaels. Giffin also scored two touchdowns, including the game winner in overtime.

Men’s soccer head coach Chris Gencarelli was hired less than a month ago, but he and his team were already under the microscope as his soccer Gaels opened the regular season last weekend.

The University’s recently released review of Athletics and Recreation raises many questions about sporting life at Queen’s. Of the 18 recommendations made by review authors Bob Crawford and Janice Deakin, the most controversial is the “excellence model” that proposes to reduce the number of interuniversity teams to between 10 and 16.

Rugby Gael James Potter was selected to play for the Canadian U-21 team in two international friendlies against the U.S. last month.
Potter, incoming captain of the Gaels’ squad, has played for various Canadian teams before, including the U-19, U-21 and developmental sides.

The women’s soccer team hopes to build on the success they had last year, when they finished second overall in the country at the CIS Championships. However, they will be doing it without Eilish McConville, the striker with the golden touch who led the CIS with 22 goals last year.

The 125th season of Queen’s football is shaping up to be a memorable one.
Along with special season’s ticket offers and celebrations involving notable football alumni, the team aims to build on last season when it made the playoffs and upset the McMaster Marauders.
Head coach Pat Sheahan hopes his team will be buoyed by the celebration of Queen’s rich football history.

A review on the University’s athletics recommends cutting the number of teams receiving top-tier funding while increasing the mandatory athletics and recreation fee to help key sports excel.
The review, released June 27, includes calls to reduce the number of inter-university teams receiving the most funding to between 10 and 16, down from the current 24, and increase the mandatory student fee for athletics and recreation to at least $164 annually.

The recently released athletics review has garnered mixed reactions from Queen’s coaches and players.
The 36-page review of Athletics and Recreation, co-authored by former Dean of Student Affairs Bob Crawford and Dean of Graduate Studies and Research Janice Deakin, was released June 27.

Canadian striker Tosaint Ricketts recorded a hat trick in the Canada-U.S. U-20 soccer game at Richardson Stadium to become the team’s active scoring leader. The three goals helped his team to an impressive 4-0 victory over their American counterparts. Ricketts has five goals in four appearances for the team.