Before last Sunday it had been over a year since I had the unfortunate pleasure of climbing up the heart attack inducing mountain that leads to McGill University’s sports facilities. O.K., maybe that’s an exaggeration, but it’s the closest many of us will ever come to needing an oxygen mask to get up a hill.
Anyway, the point isn’t the size of the hill (I just wanted to share the experience), but rather the good fortune that Concordia had up there on Sunday afternoon. Actually, it wasn’t just Concordia’s good fortune but even that of all amateur athletics in the area.
The sight of the CFCF12 newsteam at McConnel Arena was a welcome one. It’s no secret that the biggest reason for increased coverage of amateur athletics this winter will stem from the lack of National Hockey League action to fill up nightly sports programming. But no matter the reason, we’ll take it, as there are plenty of athletes at schools like Concordia and McGill that deserve just as much attention as the Jose Theodores of the sporting world.
You can’t help but feel bad for Jonathan Dresner of the Concordia men’s basketball team, who seems likely to miss a good portion of the season, if not the remainder of it, after breaking his hand during the team’s trip to the U.S. last week. It’s bad enough when any player suffers a major injury like Dresner’s but when it comes in their final year of eligibility it hits a whole other level of dejection.
The good news about Dresner is that he’s got a positive enough attitude to hopefully keep him from getting as down about the injury as some fans might.
And I’d like to offer my congratulations to Laval for keeping the nightmare alive as they reached the Vanier Cup with a win over Laurier last weekend.
