Chrissy Collins
Row Jarvis Row
by Elvira Labate
Immortalizing the Immoral
David Beveridge
From the Bleachers Deep in "Bulldog Country"...
Vanessa Rankin
Women's Hockey: We Have Arrived
... Or Have We?
Chrissy Collins
It's moments like the one in March that comfort me, while at the same time, confuse me, when faced with all of the inequalities between male and female hockey today. It is quite obvious that women's hockey is growing rapidly; in fact, according to the National Coaching Certification Program's coaching manual, registration in women's hockey has grown 23% over the last five years. The question that I can't get out of my head is this: why, when the quality of the game has been proven over and over, do people still look at women's hockey as a passive, "recreational" sport?
Women's hockey has become more popular in recent years after being included in the Canada Winter Games in 1991 and the Olympics in 1994. According to the CHA (Canadian Hockey Association), between 1991 and 1995, there was a 140% increase in female hockey registration.
One of the biggest misconceptions about women's hockey is that it does not contain the aggressiveness that hockey is known for. The CHA rule book, section 50(b), states that there is no intentional "body checking" in women's hockey, but this does not mean that there is no "body contact."
As a competitive hockey player at the Intermediate "A" level and a member of the Jarvis hockey team, I take hockey pretty seriously. It is for that reason that I shudder at the thought of girls' high school hockey. I think a fellow Jarvis team member, Marybeth Keefe, sums it up best by saying, "Aside from being unorganized and poorly officiated it is one of the most neglected of all school sports."
It is discouraging to step on the ice to play a game that will be officiated by a "referee" that is not even CHA-approved, but it's really frustrating to get a body checking penalty for angling someone to the boards or brushing them as you skate by. Even the CHA-approved referees have been known to hand out penalties in women's games because they, like many, have confused body checking with body contact, and because they have mistaken competitive women's hockey for a good time to catch up on their sleep.
It was one of the most painful experiences of my life to watch from the bleachers as Jarvis played the championship game versus Oakwood last February. Why was I watching and not playing you ask? I was suspended three games for fighting.
Before being suspended I had to be interviewed by a "Board of Review" that consisted of two female teachers (who clearly knew nothing at all about hockey) and was conducted in a girls' locker room. It was quite obvious within thirty seconds that they had come to their conclusions about the situation before even meeting me, but that did not stop them from grilling me in a trial-like fashion. It was shocking to me that they treated something of such insignificance so seriously.
Fighting is, and always has been, a major part of hockey, whether people like it or not (and yes that includes women's hockey). I can't help but wonder, if the same fight had occurred between two males, would they have gotten such a harsh punishment, or would they have gotten a warning from the referee and a slap on the back from their coach?
After asking a few male hockey players, at competitive and high school levels (who chose to remain nameless), if they had ever been in a fight during a high school game, I was disgusted to hear that all of them had been in similar altercations and gotten away with a five minute penalty at the most. An eighteen year old male student from Harbord Collegiate told me that, "During a hockey game about a year ago, I got into a huge brawl with like three guys from the other team. I wound up getting thrown out of the game. But I didn't get suspended or anything like that."
It's bad enough that male and female hockey are looked at so unequally through the eyes of the public, but it's really sad that the two are dealt with so differently by the officials and others that are organizing and running them."
Women's hockey is one of the most rapidly growing sports in Canada. Along with growth in registration, there has also been a large increase in public support and recognition. With the World Women's Hockey Championships being held in Mississauga next year, hopefully, Canadian women's hockey will soar to new heights, and finally receive the respect it has deserved for such a long time.
ROW JARVIS ROW
by Elvira Labate
What should most students be doing at 8 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday mornings? Those unenthusiastic few of you will say sleeping, of course, but just when I thought Jarvis had absolutely no school spirit left, I was proven wrong. This year, Jarvis students were introduced to an extra-curricular rowing league which is expected to culminate into a successful Jarvis Rowing Team in the spring sports season.
Organized by the Bayside Rowing Club, 10 schools across the GTA have been offered the opportunity to take part in a community rowing league, and Jarvis was lucky enough to be one of them along with North Toronto, Northern, Danforth, St. Patrick's and Notre Dame, to name a few.
The interest in rowing at Jarvis has been phenomenal, with 95 male and female students initially signing up for the league, and about 40 attending the first two sessions, which took place on September 18th and 19th. Two, two-hour sessions were offered on Saturday and Sunday mornings for six consecutive weekends until October 30th, when the club closed for the winter, with the "Head of the Pumpkin" Regatta ( a competitive race where the first place rowing crew had their names placed on the sacred "head of the pumpkin" at the Bayside Club). The turnout of Jarvisites at the 8 a.m. sessions was refreshing. Vanessa Rankin, a Grade 12 Jarvis student commented: "If I had to get up at 6 a.m. every morning, the only reason I would do it is to be on the lake by 8 a.m. rowing. It's a great feeling first thing in the morning."
This rowing league was designed to not only spark young people's interest in this fairly unfamiliar sport, but to also have schools introduce an actual rowing team to their students in the spring. This youth league is meant to act as training for many Jarvisites who will be planning to join the team in the spring, which Ms. Neto has been kind enough to sponsor.
A regular lesson at the Bayside Club consists of a short jog for warm-up, a stretching session and then the intense (and rather routine) placing of boats in the water, which has become second nature to many, especially the 8 a.m. crew.
Rowing is not a sport for the timid or meek; most speaking is done in the form of commands, and all tasks have to be carried out quickly and confidently. There is no room for hesitation both inside and outside the boat, because that could lead to potentially dangerous situations. Rowing is very much a team sport, and it works with everyone together, or no one at all, which applies to everything from carrying boats to the actual rowing itself. Eight-person boats are what students are rowing in, usually with a same-sex crew. This makes stroke technique, timing, and synchronization of strokes key, which will take several weeks of practice to perfect. Bayside instructors would rather students make mistakes on land than on the water, which is why much time is spent dockside, rowing and training on rowing machines.
Jarvis has never had a rowing team, and the goal of the Bayside Rowing Club is to keep the training up with the students throughout the winter, so that perspective rowers can be physically and mentally fit to race competitively with other schools in the spring. Winter training will include jogging, weight-lifting, and hopefully having access to rowing machines to prepare for the physically demanding sport.
Although the six-week program offered at Bayside costs $165, the response from students has been encouraging and the program itself has proven to be well worth it, with more emphasis on strength and technique than competition. The Bayside Rowing Club has even said themselves that Jarvis will have one of the best rowing teams in the spring, assuming interest does not taper off throughout the winter months. We can only hope that students remain as dedicated to this as they have been so far, and considering that more than half have never been rowing before, it would be an accomplishment in itself just to have a team at all. So from now on, just call the 35 of us "Silken," and best of luck to the new Jarvis Rowing Team!
Immortalizing the Immoral
David Beveridge
Every year, dozens of notable athletes commit crimes that would be considered heinous if committed by anyone else, but because they're athletes, we give them leniency. Why? What is it about these people that means they deserve special treatment?
In the last couple of years, we have had the opportunity to witness many high profile cases where an athlete has committed a terrible crime.
Throughout a large portion of the '90's, Mike Tyson was in the spotlight. Early in his career, Tyson was praised as a great boxer and was expected to go far. Then his "true colours" began to show. Over the years, he was convicted of a number of offences, including rape. Upon his release, he was allowed to continue boxing. The sum of his past actions was overlooked, or even intentionally ignored. Soon after, Tyson fought Evander Holyfield and, during the course of the fight, became enraged and proceeded to bite Holyfield's ear. After a short suspension, he was once again allowed to return to the ring.
Most recently, Tyson was allowed to travel to Britain to fight the reigning British champion. Under normal circumstances, he would not have been allowed in Britain due to his prior convictions. He was given special treatment, apparently because it was thought to be good for the community, but there was a near riot when he arrived, as people protested his admission into the country.
When is this going to stop? Why do we keep giving so-called athletes like Tyson a break when he is obviously in need of professional help? Mike Tyson is not an exemplary individual in the least. You wouldn't let him baby-sit your kids. He's a thug.
When students were asked whether Tyson should be allowed to continue boxing, some said that he should be allowed to make a living. For the most part, though, people said he shouldn't get a break.
Another problem with professional sports is the way in which the police are kept "out of the loop." An athlete can assault his fellow players, coach, or a referee and it is always kept within the league. Latrell Sprewell comes to mind. These players should have been charged with assault, and not simply be suspended for a few games.
It seems as though many star athletes are brought up to be bad people. Early on, they are singled outand placed on a pedestal from which they never come down. They have never heard the word "no." When they do hear it, they tend to flip out. How else can you explain the fact that in the past three years, 99 NFL players have been convicted of crimes?
We are a left with a sense of confusion about this double standard. Almost everyone will agree that athletes shouldn't get special treatment, but we don't know what we should do with them. It comes down to public opinion to demand changes in the way athletes are treated.
From the Bleachers Deep in "Bulldog Country"...
Vanessa Rankin
"Yeah! Yeah! We've got spirit! Yeah! Yeah! We've got spirit…" What do you think? Do Jarvisites have what it takes to support their sports teams? Do we have the dedication, commitment, and more importantly, the school spirit which breeds a sense of pride not only in athletes but also in the general population of the school? This year's pep rally proved to many that J. C. I. might have what it takes to become known as a school that has just as much invested in athletics as it does in academics.
"It (the pep rally) was twice as good as last years," remarked Jerven Ryner, a Grade 12 student. This year's pep rally was a roaring success (literally). The Student Council and the Boys' Athletic Association came together to provide Jarvis staff and students with an entertaining, exciting and explosively enthusiastic pep rally.
The turnout for this year's pep rally was definitely encouraging. In a school that normally suffers from scant attendance at activities ranging from sporting events to Spring Fest, the number of students who turned out at the rally was refreshing. "Compared to last year's pep rally, I was surprised. There were a lot of people who came out to watch," continued Jerven Ryner. The bleachers on either side of the lower gym were completely full, along with the balcony that gave students a bird's eye view of all the action below.
The action included an entertaining, "rough and tumble", staff versus students ball hockey game, in which the "old timers" bruised the pride of several star-struck Jarvis students who took part in the game by stealing the matchup. The game was fast-paced with a couple of questionable hits but nonetheless made for very lively viewing.
The action also involved a basketball skills competition, which saw not only members of the senior boys' basketball team show off their talent, but members of the Boys' Athletic Association and a few student volunteers take part, alongside staff. "It was entertaining…A lot of fun," said Anna Doubinin, a Jarvis student, of the competition.
Along with the skills competition there was a relay race, a little break dancing, and a dance competition which was certainly the high point of the rally. A few brave souls ventured out into the middle of the lower gym donning costumes in the hopes of dancing their way to a free semi-formal ticket and one lucky student won, hands down, gaining an overwhelming vote from her fellow Jarvisites. The pep rally concluded with the beginning of J.C.I.'s annual two-day invitational basket ball tournament in which our senior boys' basketball team placed third overall, beating St. Mike's in their first game, followed by a win against Winston Churchill and finally a loss against Oakland (72-65).
Overall, the pep rally was a success. It was a large step in the right direction in revitalizing Jarvis's lack of school spirit. "We do have school spirit," Anna Doubinin said after the rally, "some people really do and others don't, but you have to convince everybody to attend events and you shouldn't have to do that," continued the Grade 12 student. We still have a ways to go in drumming up the kind of support we would all like to see at every event. However if we continue to have the same type of enthusiasm that was shown at the pep rally our Bulldogs will become a force to be reckoned with in no time!
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