March Madness is in full swing in the United States. Many people spent last weekend glued to their TVs hoping their bracket didn’t get busted by another early exit from Duke University.
Unfortunately, enthusiasm for college basketball doesn’t translate north of the border. Not many people tuned in to the CIS Final Eight two weekends ago. Sure, CIS basketball isn’t as good as the NCAA—players are smaller and less athletic, and dunks are few and far between. But it’s still high-quality basketball. Acadia’s double-overtime shocker over Carleton was one of the best games I’ve watched this year.
As Canadians we need to get rid of our inferiority complex and understand that the gap between the NCAA and CIS isn’t that wide—and it’s closing. Canadian media reinforce this feeling of inferiority.
The Toronto Star ran an article last year about how badly the NCAA Champion Florida Gators beat the middle-of-the-road Brock Badgers, but failed to publish a similar piece this year when Carleton University beat the University of Alabama and Concordia University beat the University of Illinois. Sports media must recognize the CIS as a legitimate league. Thankfully, The Score has provided some much-needed coverage. Hopefully this increased attention will help to change the atmosphere at Queen’s surrounding our teams and help sports fans understand that a football game between Queen’s and the University of Western Ontario can be as entertaining as the University of Michigan versus Ohio State.
The University can help jump-start campus interest by creating a more boisterous atmosphere at sporting events.
First, while the band and the cheerleaders do a great job, it would be awesome if they could attend more varsity sports. I know they’re busy, but it certainly makes a difference in Bartlett Gym when the band’s blasting and cheerleaders are leading a defence chant.
We could also get fans more involved by creating a “hecklers’ section” at home games. The Gael Force committee attempted such a section at a few basketball and volleyball games this year, with some success. Those in the section have a ton of fun and it builds excitement in the game, making Queen’s a more difficult place for opposing teams. Other universities already have heckler sections in place and hold auditions to see who makes the cut. It would be great if we could get to that point.
An idea for West Campus sports, particularly football, is tailgating. This is an awesome football tradition where fans show up a couple hours early to barbecue, hang out, throw the football around and get in the proper cheering spirit. All we would need are a few communal barbecues in the Richardson Stadium parking lot and people could bring their own meat and drinks.
This brings us to the controversial subject of alcohol. Last year, part of Jock Harty Arena was licensed for the hockey games. The University needs to find a way to license all varsity events. Varsity games most often take place on Friday and Saturday nights during prime “pre-drinking” hours. If the games were licensed, we could draw the students who don’t attend because they’re busy getting ready to go out.
The interest in varsity sports has improved over my four years here, thanks in large part to the hard work of Home Events Co-ordinator Kelly Smith and her staff. By implementing these ideas and getting rid of our inferiority complex, I believe interest will continue to grow to the point where Queen’s can rival schools such as Lakehead University, the University of Windsor and even those south of the border.
Rob Shaw is a four-year veteran of the men’s basketball team. He led the team in blocks this season. This year he was nominated for the Jim Tait Memorial Award given to an outstanding male athlete in a team sport. This is Part 2 in the Journal’s series of opinion pieces written by student-athletes.
Please see the April 3 issue of the Journal for the last installment.
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