Kwantlen Athletics: A year in review

By Dominic Sramaty [Sports Bureau Chief]

On Mar. 25, Kwantlen’s finest athletes and coaches came together at the Cascades Hotel and Convention Centre in the heart of Langley to celebrate a year of sports.
Among the VIPs were Kwantlen President Dr. David Atkinson, Prince Carino (former Kwantlen Basketball Star), and Michelle Roots (Former Kwantlen basketball player).

Saying Kwantlen won it’s worth in medals may be a bit of a stretch. However, the amount of newly found success is something to boast about. Let us begin from the bottom and work our way up.

Men’s Soccer: Way back in April when the team came together for the first time at the identification camp, chemistry formed quickly. There were only good vibes within the team. However, as the year passed and the team slowly progressed into training camp it became apparent to all players and coaches that this year would be a struggle. By the time training camp rolled around, half of the returning players left, leaving Kwantlen with a core group of five veterans. As the first road trip approached, the returning coach told his players he would no longer be coaching them. A whole summer spent training a certain system over and over again only to be thrown into the trash. But the new coach brought vitality to the team. He was encouraging and motivational and the players responded positively towards that. But conflict arose again and the new coach stepped down, leaving the team with someone new. By the end of the season the team had only managed to accomplish a 1-0-11 record. Riad Rasheed received the MVP award. While Tom Johnston received the Academic Excellence Award.

Golf: The Eagles golf team delivered a pretty mediocre season with not much success finishing seventh in the BCCAA. The most valuable player award went to Scott Robertson who also received the Jeff Norris Golf Award.

Men’s Basketball: A lot of credit has to be given to this team even though they did not reach the BCCAA playoffs. The team got off to a slow start losing 10 of 12 games. However, the men did beat Douglas College once within that span of games but were disqualified afterwards when it became apparent to the league that the Eagles had played an ineligible player. Not to mention that by the end of the first semester over half of the team was dropped due to a lack of performance in school. However, the Eagles persevered. With five games left in the season they knew they needed a perfect recorded to make the playoffs. The men made believers out of us to say the least. The Eagles went on a 4-0 run in which they defeated Quest, Lanagara, and Capilano. It came down to the final game where they needed a win to make provincials. The men couldn’t deliver. They were steamrolled 104-76 by a furious Capilano Blues team that they had defeated the night before in the closest of affairs. Needless to say the team was crushed. Mike Davis walked away with a bevy of awards. He received the President’s Outstanding Athlete Award, was named the SIRC – Canadian Colleges’ Athletic Association Academic All Canadian, and was named the Men’s Basketball Most Valuable Player. Varinder Singh walked away with the Patrick Dooley Memorial Award. Davis and Doug Meyers were also mentioned for being named BCCAA Athlete of Week during the course of the season. Lenny Piprah received a five year completion award.

Women’s Basketball: The women had a successful year making the playoffs for the first time in four seasons with an 8-10 record. They too got off to a slow start losing their first three games. However, they bounced back with a two game win streak against Camosun College and Columbia Bible College. The team then lost four straight only to bounce back again with another two game winning streak. The women then ended the season winning three of five games. The Eagles are saying good-bye to their former head coach Gary Pawluk who served the team for two years. They are now happy to announce that Matthew McKay will be their head coach for the 2010-11 season. Taminder Dhaliwal walked away with the President’s Outstanding Athlete Award in addition to being named the most valuable player. She also accepted the Team Athletic Award on behalf of the women for the best GPA among all teams. Collectively, the women scored a 2.9. Emily Wright received the five year completion award.

Badminton: The badminton team had a very successful season winning a total of five medals. The team played in three tournaments prior to the provincial playoffs in order to qualify. In all three tournaments they did not finished lower than fourth. At provincials the team won second overall in the team event with a 14-11 record. The Eagles won bronze in the men’s doubles, and silver in the women’s doubles and mixed doubles. At nationals, the women’s doubles won bronze after losing to the tournament champions, Cambrian College. Simon Wu won the most valuable player award.

Women’s Soccer: The gem of the Eagles athletic season has to be the women’s soccer team. The women began the season with a strong performance against the University of Northern British Columbia. However, the women curtailed into a four game losing streak. What could be seen as the “TSN turning point” of their season was a convincing 4-1 victory over the rival Douglas College Royals. The women went on to split the next six games with a 3-3-0 record. It came down to the final game. All the women needed was a tie and they would qualify for the provincials. The women beat UBCO 1-0. In the provincials the women were in a difficult bracket being the last seed. However, they persevered. The women won two straight against Thompson Rivers University and Vancouver Island University in shootouts to reach the cup final. The Eagles faced last year’s champions, the Langara Falcons. The women took an early 2-0 lead and held it within the first half. However, a second half break down saw the Falcons tie up the game with only two minutes left on the clock.  The game was undecided after extra time, so yet again the Eagles went to a shootout. The Eagles won 3-2 (5-2 in the shootout). This meant that the unranked Eagles had qualified for the nationals in Ontario at Humber University. The women, not surprisingly won their first game against the hosts, Humber, in a shootout. Next up the women faced Concordia University College, a very strong team out of the Alberta Conference. The girls were out of it early as the Thunder took an early lead. The Eagles struck back late but came up short as they could not pull even. The Eagles lost 2-1. However, the women refused to go home empty handed. Two days later they played College Francois-Xavier-Garneau. Not surprisingly the game was decided in the shootout. The Eagles won bronze 4-3 in penalty kicks. Sarah Davies won the BCCAA Academic Excellence Award, Brittany McNeill, team captain, won the Joseph Segal Family Foundation Athletic Leadership Award, Sam Lewis won the Charter Bus Lines Freshmen Academic Award, and the most valuable player award went to non-other than Amelia Ng, starting goal keeper.