Sports Editor Nicholas Di Giovanni gives his take on his latest in sports with his weekly Colour Commentary
Fans need to realize players aren’t bound to their teams
Should athletes be loyal? No, athletes do not need to be loyal to their teams, it’s as simple as that.
For anyone who follows soccer, there were three separate cases of “unloyal” players this summer. First, Brazilian forward Malcom was set to sign with AS Roma from French club Bordeaux on July 23, with Roma even announcing the signing on their website. The next day, while fans waited at the airport in Rome, Malcom received another offer from Barcelona, and accepted to sign with the Spanish club. Just like that, Malcom turned his back on Roma to join Barcelona.
Just a week later, Italian defender Leo Bonucci returned to the club that he left a year ago. Bonucci played with Juventus for seven years before leaving to join rival AC Milan last summer. He even scored in an away game against Juventus last season, and celebrated in front of his former fans. When Milan finished in seventh place, Juventus won the league and then signed superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, Bonucci left Milan to return to Juventus, leaving both Juventus and Milan fans unhappy.
Finally, Belgian goalie Thibaut Courtois left Chelsea for Real Madrid. Sounds like a simple move for the average soccer fan, but during Courtois’ unveiling ceremony in Madrid, he kissed the Real Madrid badge and said,“I’ve never felt like kissing a club badge until today.” It’s not Chelsea fans who were upset by this, although some did call him a snake on Twitter, but Atlético Madrid fans — Real’s cross-city rivals — the club Courtois played for from 2011 to 2014, who were angry.
So between Malcom, Bonucci and Courtois, did any of them have to be loyal? It’s easy to argue Malcom should have kept his agreement with Roma. But that’s business, and who hasn’t bailed on one opportunity to pursue a greater one?
As for Bonucci and Courtois, sports fans create this false loyalty that they believe players must follow, as if they’re bound to the same employer their whole career. Bonucci can bounce between clubs as much as he likes, especially if he sees a better opportunity with his former team. For an athlete, ditching your former team and celebrating in front of their fans is not the most respectful thing to do, but that doesn’t mean the athlete can’t return to their old team. And I seriously don’t understand why Atlético fans are so upset about Courtois when he last played for them four years ago, and he’s been with Chelsea ever since. He can kiss whichever badge he wants.
Like any other person in the real word, athletes are not bound by loyalty to their teams. Sports is a business, and some fans need to realize that.
The Concordia Stingers and Ole Miss Rebels tipped off in a preseason game in Montreal on Aug. 6. Photo by Mackenzie Lad.
NCAA coaches see little difference between Canada and U.S.
The Concordia Stingers men’s basketball team hosted three American schools for a series of exhibition games in early August. The Ole Miss Rebels, South Carolina State Bulldogs and the Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks — all NCAA Division I teams — made the trip north of the border.
The Ole Miss Rebels, who play in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) — rated by ESPN as the fifth-best conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) — played the Stingers on Aug. 6. Although the Rebels finished the 2017-18 season in last place in the SEC with a 12-20 record, they’re still considered a top team. They made the second round of the men’s national tournament — meaning top 32 teams in the nation — in 2013 and 2015.
Ole Miss head coach Kermit Davis said intense games against Canadian opponents is what his team needs. Photo by Mackenzie Lad.
The Rebels beat the Stingers 84-77, but Concordia nearly pulled off the upset when they led 45-35 at halftime. After the game, Stingers head coach Rastko Popovic said he hates losing, but was still happy with how his players competed.
“We told [the team] before the game, ‘Yeah they’re bigger than us, but size is just size, it doesn’t mean anything when you have heart, effort and energy,’” Popovic said. “It’s satisfying to know we can play with some of the top teams in the NCAA.”
The game against the Rebels, even though it was just the preseason, was high-intensity, with each side pushing hard to win. When The Concordianasked Rebels head coach Kermit Davis on why he decided to bring his team to Canada for a preseason tour he said, “For [competitive] games just like this.”
He also spoke highly of the Stingers. “I have so much respect for guys that play at Concordia,” Davis said. “Some of them worked today, got off work and came to play. They’ve had six practices. They’re privy to all the [facilities] we have in the Southeastern Conference.
“But basketball is basketball, and this is a university sport. Those guys played with a lot of energy and have a great coach,” the Ole Miss coach added.
The Stingers’ other opponents, the South Carolina State Bulldogs and Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks, each play in the weaker Mid-Eastern Atlantic Conference (MEAC) and respectively had 10-22 and 7-24 records last season. The Stingers beat the Bulldogs 80-72 on Aug. 8 and won 82-76 against the Hawks on Aug. 12.
“The basketball up here is very good, there’s a lot of talent north of the border,” said South Carolina State head coach Murray Garvin. “I believe it opened our guys’ eyes to really what it’s about outside of the United States.”
🐝🏀 The Stingers men’s basketball team shot the lights out from three-point land on Wednesday night (luckily the lights stayed on this time).
Adrian Armstrong’s savage three at the half-time buzzer even earned him some love from the SC State head coach. pic.twitter.com/xZrpJ0MwmV
Garvin pointed out to some rule differences between U Sports and the NCAA. Canadian universities play under the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) rules, while the NCAA has its own rules. FIBA rules have four quarters of 10 minutes with a 24-second shot clock, while the NCAA has two halves of 20 minutes with a 30-second shot clock. The three-point line is also a half-metre further from the rim in Canada.
“It’s a much faster and [more] physical game under FIBA rules,” Garvin adds. “The offensive game [in Canada] is very different. I think the coaching is second-to-none in terms of how they coach the offensive game.”
“Yes there’s differences,” Popovic said after the win against South Carolina State. “But at the end of the day, once the referee tosses the ball up, it’s just two teams playing basketball.”
The Stingers host the Concordia Classic tournament from Oct. 5 to 7 before starting their season at home against the Laval Rouge et Or on Nov. 8.
Main photo by Mackenzie Lad. With files from Eric Beaudoin.
The women’s hockey team won their first championship since 2005 last season. Archive photo by Mackenzie Lad.
Taking sports photos is all about capturing the perfect moment, including funny ones
The Stingers women’s hockey team had a great celebration after winning their first Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) championship since 2005 on March 4. Family members and friends of the players spilled onto the ice at Université de Montréal’s CEPSUM arena after the Stingers won 3-1 in game three against the Carabins.
The Stingers huddle to get a touch of the trophy. Photo by Mackenzie Lad.
The post-game celebration had everything you would expect in a hockey celebration: the players jumped on goalie Katherine Purchase, there were sticks and gloves everywhere, they had champagne, and they got to mob captain Marie-Joëlle Allard when she held the trophy. This is my favourite sports photo of the year because of its great timing, and even though you don’t see any players’ faces, you can tell how happy they are to win. It’s also my favourite sports cover photo of this year. Expect to see more championship photos of the women’s hockey team in the future.
Charles-Eric Legare scored three regular-season goals against McGill. Photo by Alex Hutchins.
Forward Charles-Eric Legare scored the game-winning goal in the Stingers men’s hockey team’s first game of the season on Oct. 13 while playing on the road against the McGill Redmen. The Stingers played the Redmen seven times this season, including the epic Ontario University Athletics (OUA) East final. Concordia had a 3-2-2 record against McGill, but it was the Redmen who won the OUA East final in three games, and later won the Queen’s Cup as OUA champions. Legare scored three of his nine regular-season goals against the Redmen this season. He finished the season how he started, scoring the game-winning goal in game one of the series against McGill.
The Stingers beat the Redmen twice this season. Photo by Alex Hutchins.
The Concordia Stingers football team probably wished for a different outcome to their season. After winning the first two of three games, including a 68-16 demolishing of the McGill Redmen, the Stingers nearly beat the Laval Rouge et Or in Quebec City on Sept. 24, but lost 12-8 following some controversy. Stingers quarterback Trenton Miller was knocked out with a concussion, and on one of the last plays of the game, wide receiver James Tyrrell was also the victim of a hit to the head. If either hit had been penalized during the game, the Stingers could have easily walked away with a victory. The following week, the Montréal Carabins cancelled their game against the Stingers, claiming too many of their players were sick. After all this controversy, the Stingers beat the Redmen on the road 36-10 on Oct. 14. Defensive backs Jersey Henry (#10) and Khadeem Pierre (#5) celebrated.
The Stingers had an undefeated season, until nationals. Photo by Alex Hutchins.
The men’s rugby team had a season to remember. After finishing last season with a 1-7 record, the Stingers went undefeated this year en route to a RSEQ championship. On Nov. 12, they beat the École de technologie supérieure (ETS) Piranhas in the final, 35-7. No other sport has more battles than rugby, and this picture proves it. The Stingers had to face some adversity themselves heading into the season. Moritz Wittman, Charles Debove and Lucas Hotton all returned to play after injuries suffered during the 2016 season, and all played key roles on the championship-winning team. Despite winning all their games during the regular season and playoffs, the Stingers lost both of their games at nationals in Guelph, Ont.
Frédérique Rajotte was named at the Stingers female athlete of the year. Photo by Alex Hutchins.
The Stingers women’s rugby team didn’t share the same success as the men’s team. They had a 4-3 record and lost in the semi-final against the Laval Rouge et Or. However, Alex Tessier and Frédérique Rajotte (pictured, holding ball) continued to prove why they’re two of the best university rugby players in the country. Rajotte was named U Sports MVP, scoring 15 tries, while Tessier scored a team-leading 92 points off 36 kicks and four tries. It was the last season in Stingers uniforms for the pair, who both played for Canada at last summer’s Women’s Rugby World Cup. Both are active in the Stingers community, and you can always find them supporting their fellow student-athletes at other sports games.
Madeleine McKenzie prepares to throw the ball in during a game on Feb. 4. Photo by Mackenzie Lad.
Even though this is a great picture, I find it amusing because photo assistant Mackenzie Lad is taking a picture of Stingers midfielder Madeleine McKenzie. Mackenzie with a picture of McKenzie. The soccer player, is one of 14 players on the team from outside of Quebec (she is from Calgary, Alta.). The Stingers women’s soccer team had a good mix of players from around the globe, with players from Canada, the United States, Chile, Spain, France and Algeria. First-year defender Imane Chebel, although born in Montreal, received a call-up to play a pair of games for the Algerian women’s national team on April 4 and April 10 against Senegal. She was also named to the RSEQ second all-star team for the winter season.
Carl Neill forgot to protect his goalie. Photo by Mackenzie Lad.
This picture is easily the funniest taken this season. Even though there was nothing funny about defenceman Carl Neill’s season (pictured, foreground), he forgot to protect his goalie in a home game against the Brock Badgers on Oct. 20. As a Badgers player crashed into goalie Marc-Antoine Turcotte, Neill is skating away from the incident, not looking back. In the background, it seems like forward Julien Avon-Rainville is skating up the ice, possibly towards the puck. Wherever the puck is, Neill is not skating towards it. Obviously, it wasn’t one of his best moments this season. He finished the year leading the country in points by a defenceman with 31. He was named a first-team all-star in the OUA East, and made the OUA and U Sports all-rookie teams.
Dvir Cahana had to make sacrifices for his basketball career, including walking to games. Photo by Alex Hutchins.
Dvir Cahana balances religion and basketball while cheering on teammates
The Concordia Stingers men’s basketball team have their very own Energizer bunny by the name of Dvir Cahana.
Anyone who has attended a Stingers basketball game in the last three seasons has probably noticed Cahana hooting and hollering from the bench to pump up the team.
“I try to bring energy to the team when times are difficult,” Cahana said. “It’s hard to keep a high level of energy on the court so when I’m not playing, I try to spark the team to have cohesive unity amongst ourselves.”
Off the court, Cahana maintains that high level of energy. It isn’t out of the ordinary to find him freestyle rapping, dancing or singing around campus whenever he can. It doesn’t take long for him to bring smiles to peoples’ faces.
Born in Göteborg, Sweden, Cahana and his family moved to Canada when he was only five years old. His father is a rabbi, and one of the first jobs his dad was offered was at a synagogue in Montreal.
“We came to Montreal and felt right at home,” Cahana said. “And we’ve been here ever since.”
It was here that Cahana fell in love with the game of basketball. During his early years, Cahana was always known as “the tall kid.” He used his height to his advantage and started playing basketball to make new friends.
With his basketball career coming to an end, Cahana wants to become a rabbi. Photo by Alex Hutchins.
Cahana played forward for his high school team, Hebrew Academy, in Côte St-Luc, and when he wasn’t playing for them, he played in several summer leagues. It was at this point when he started to take basketball more seriously.
“The school league is solid, but when I would play in the summer, the top players would be murmuring on the side, ‘You should play the inter-city divisions because there’s stronger competition,’” he said.
Cahana took their advice and joined the inter-city division for the Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association (YM-YWHA). His decision was met with uncertainty from his family as it led to more challenges than just tougher competition.
“My family wasn’t sure if I could play basketball at that level because, once we get into the inter-city context, I’d have to play games on the Sabbath,” Cahana said. “In order to keep that up, I’d have to walk long distances because, on the Sabbath, we’re not allowed to use electricity [or drive].”
In CEGEP, when he played for the Dawson Blues, Cahana had to walk to far places.
“I’d walk from my house [in the Town of Mount-Royal] to St-Bruno in the south, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue in the west, past Rivières-des-Prairies [in the east],” he said. “I’d [walk around] cities I had never been to like Boston and Albany [for tournaments], and just learn the lay of the land.”
Although this would seem like a daunting task for most people, Cahana said he believes it was a valuable experience in his life.
“It was important for me to figure out how to make sacrifices without impeding on my ethical compass or religious commitments,” he said.
Clearly committed to both basketball and his religion, Cahana worked exceptionally hard to earn a spot on the Concordia men’s team before the 2015-16 season.
A six-foot-three forward, Cahana said he admires NBA players like Matthew Dellavedova, who plays for the Milwaukee Bucks. Dellavedova is someone who isn’t necessarily the most skilled player on the court, but he brings grit, toughness and earns every opportunity he gets.
Similarly, Cahana works hard for his opportunities. Whether it’s waking up at 5:30 a.m. to walk to practice, or spending six hours alone in the gym developing his three-point shooting ability, he is always trying to get better.
Even more impressive, his presence is still felt when he’s not playing. The ultimate energizer, Cahana takes tremendous pride in supporting his teammates.
“I want others to experience the energy and passion I have for the game,” he said. “It’s not an individual sport where you’re doing everything for yourself. There’s this altruistic aspect where everything you do has a higher purpose for the team.”
Cahana was rewarded for all of his hard work in the team’s final game of the regular season, which was his final game with the Stingers. On Feb. 24, he played 27 minutes, the most of his three-year Stingers career in a 71-59 victory over the Université Laval Rouge et Or.
“It was an amazing feeling to represent the team for that period of time,” Cahana said. “It wasn’t just that I was playing. Every time I did something well, there was a roar in the crowd that was supportive.”
Following the game, he received a lot of positive feedback from teammates and fans.
“People came up to me to tell me that I inspired them,” he said. “That’s the most important thing, being able to influence people and have a positive impact on their lives.”
Cahana said he hopes he can continue to impact others in the foreseeable future. The third-year student is graduating with a major in political science. His goal is to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a rabbi himself.
“The role of a rabbi is a mixture of a parent and a political leader who guides the community. The suffix of that sentence is always ‘for the community,’” he said.
With a clear passion for inspiring others, Cahana seems more than ready to pursue the next chapter of his life.
Most Canadians only take an interest in curling once every four years during the Olympics. Photo by Alex Hutchins.
Mixed doubles curling is attracting a new generation of Canadians
Curling is an old sport with a long history in Canada. But a new form of the game is sweeping across the nation: mixed doubles.
Mixed doubles made its Olympic debut at the 2018 PyeongChang Games. Canadian pair Kaitlyn Lawes and John Morris captured Canada’s attention en route to a gold medal.
The skip, the leader of a curling team, tells the thrower where to aim the rock. Photo by Alex Hutchins.
Mixed doubles curling is a faster, new alternative to the traditional game. Curling normally has four players per team, and games last 10 ends (similar to innings in baseball) with each team throwing eight rocks (or stones) per end. Mixed doubles curling, as the name suggests, only has two players on a team, and each team throws five rocks per end, for eight ends.
Neil Gargul, the director of ice and property at the Pointe-Claire Curling Club, said mixed doubles is a great way for people to join curling without having to put together a four-person team.
“It’s a lot easier to make a team,” he said. “At the pro level, a [traditional] game would take two and a half hours, whereas the mixed doubles are done in an hour and a half. It’s a much faster game. There will be a lot of popularity in mixed doubles, and I know the pros are really eager to do mixed doubles, and dedicate themselves.”
The Canadian mixed doubles championship was held in Leduc, Alta., from March 28 to April 1, and saw some of the top curlers in the country form teams. Jennifer Jones, arguably the best Canadian curler of all time, paired up with her husband, Brent Laing, who competed in the 2018 Winter Games.
There are only two techniques to throw a rock: out-turn, which spins counterclockwise for a right-handed player, and an in-turn, which turns clockwise. Photo by Alex Hutchins.
Although mixed doubles curling could attract a new generation to curling, Gargul said a curler needs to be more “technically-gifted” to succeed in mixed doubles.
“You need to be a better curler to be good at mixed doubles than the team sport,” he said. “There are a lot more high-precision shots. The misses could turn into a lot of points, and that’s the exciting part; it’s high-scoring.”
A stereotype surrounding curling is that it’s a relaxed sport, and you don’t need to be in good physical shape to play. Mixed doubles curling challenges that notion, since a player throwing the rock also has to sweep, and they’re constantly moving around.
Even traditional team curling is starting to require more physical strength, Gargul said, whereas in the past, teams worried less about fitness.
“You need good flexibility, good balance and good strength,” Gargul said. “To be a good curler, you have to be in good shape.” He compared curling to golf, a sport in which athletes now focus more on their fitness.
The sweepers then do the hard work; they have to make sure the rock has enough speed to get down the rink. Photo by Alex Hutchins.
“That’s the new generation of curling, where they realize the physical fitness portion of it,” Gargul added. “But that doesn’t mean you can’t go out to curl and just have fun.”
Curling is a social sport at any level. At Gargul’s Pointe-Claire Curling Club, players from opposing teams sit down after their games for a beer.
“We have a great community at the club,” Gargul said. “Win or lose, the teams sit together after the game and you get to know all the different people in the club.”
Curling is unlike other team sports, where you might dislike your opponent during a game. Gargul said there are some rivalries in curling, but opponents at any level still congratulate each other on good shots.
“Because it’s a precision sport, you have to be in control of your emotions, and be calm when you’re throwing your rock,” said Gargul, who used to play high-intensity team sports like hockey, football and soccer. “Having a level of intensity doesn’t necessarily help you in curling.”
For university students looking to try the sport, Gargul said people can rent the ice and equipment at the Pointe-Claire Curling Club by visiting the club’s website or calling.
“Most clubs offer rentals. You could rent the ice, and a group of eight of you could go out,” Gargul said. “You will have a blast.”
Kenny Johnson needed three surgeries to repair his torn knee. Photo by Kirubel Mehari.
Three seasons after tearing his ACL, MCL and meniscus, Kenny Johnson is making his comeback
Kenny Johnson hasn’t played in a U Sports football game for the Concordia Stingers since 2015. Three years and three surgeries later, Johnson is finally healthy and set to return to the field to play in his last year of eligibility.
On Sept. 4, 2015, the offensive guard tore the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), medial collateral ligament (MCL) and meniscus in his left knee, an injury also known as “the unhappy triad.”
It was the home opener for the Stingers, and they were playing the Sherbrooke Vert et Or. It was Johnson’s second year with Concordia.
Kenny Johnson (#64, in background) injured his left knee in a game against the Sherbrooke Vert et Or in September 2015. Archive photo by Andrej Ivanov.
“Our kicker missed the field goal,” Johnson said. “The receiver for Sherbrooke caught it, so he was running down the field. I went running downfield to make the tackle, and a defender was coming at me. I didn’t see him. He blindsided me, and my knee just twisted and I buckled. I collapsed, slapping the ground […] The athletic trainers asked me to get up, and I couldn’t. It was too painful.”
“I wouldn’t wish this on anybody,” he added.
The Stingers lost that game 37-0.
It took a couple of days before the swelling from the initial injury went down. After getting an MRI scan, team doctors broke the news to Johnson that he had blown out his left knee.
“I was still in denial,” Johnson said. “Right in front of the doctor, I started crying. I straightened myself out, I called my mother—that was the first person I could call. I explained to her what happened. I was crying on the phone with her, saying ‘my football career is done.’”
ACL injuries are common for football players. A study in the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine found that 213 players in the National Football League (NFL) had ACL injuries between 2010 and 2013. The same study found that offensive guards, like Johnson, have a significantly higher chance of suffering knee injuries than other positions.
Serge Savoie and Victoria Robinson-Mozejko are two athletic therapy instructors at the PERFORM Centre, a private research facility at Concordia’s Loyola campus. They said the average wait time to receive surgery for torn knee ligaments ranges from a week to a month after the incident, depending on the surgeon. Some surgeons will want to operate right away to reduce the chance of significant muscle loss. Others would rather make sure the athlete is building strength pre-surgery to better prepare for post-surgery rehabilitation.
It took Johnson six months to receive his first surgery. Since he is from Texas, Johnson said he had trouble working through the bureaucracy to get the surgery, which is why it took so long. Once he underwent his operation in March 2016, Johnson said the results were not encouraging. The swelling never went away. He watched as the team prepared for the next season, while he was unable to properly rehabilitate his knee.
Johnson had a lot of confidence going into that 2015 season, and had set high expectations for himself. Once he got injured, Johnson said he lost that confidence. Even though the rest of the team never made him feel like an outsider, that’s how he felt.
“At one point during the recovery, I was really depressed,” Johnson said. “I felt like I didn’t have anyone to talk to […] Anyone who goes through what I went through should have someone they can go to and ask questions to—somebody they can trust. It’s such a difficult thing to go through; you can’t do it by yourself.”
Savoie said watching the team start the season while still being injured is the most difficult aspect of the mental recovery for athletes.
“That season starts, and they see all their teammates going and winning and losing, and they’re on the sideline,” Savoie said. “They get a taste of what it’s like to get back [on the field].”
“The injury is all mental,” Johnson added. “There’s a physical aspect to it, but the mental part is so draining.”
Three months after his first surgery, Johnson went back under anesthesia so doctors could try to manipulate the area surrounding his knee to deal with the excessive swelling and scar tissue. Again, he came out of the surgery not seeing any progress. Johnson still walked with a bad limp and was unable to get back to training or performing the way he had before his injury. It took another six months of frustrating rehabilitation following his second surgery before imaging technology showed Johnson still had large amounts of scar tissue left in his knee. He went back for a third surgery in December 2016 and immediately felt a difference.
“As soon as I was out of surgery, I was able to walk out of the hospital. It wasn’t a perfect walk, but I was able to walk,” Johnson said. “An hour after the surgery, I got on the [exercise] bike for like 30 minutes. I didn’t go hard, I just took it easy, but I knew right away: ‘Okay, this is the surgery that did its job.’ I gained my confidence right back, just like that.”
The comeback began after that third surgery. It has been a long process for Johnson, and the injury caused him to doubt his future in football. He said he thought about quitting, going back home to Texas, and finishing his studies close to his family. But he said that would be “too easy.” As the preparation and training for the 2018 season continues this summer, Johnson has his confidence back and is eager to finally rejoin the team on the field. As a second-year at the time of his injury, Johnson felt ready to fill a leadership role. Now, he’s just hoping to fill whatever role the team needs.
“A lot of people know I can play the game at a high level; I’ve studied the game for a very long time,” Johnson said. “I just want to come in and be a team player first before I adopt that leadership role. If it comes, I’m going to take it, but for me it’s about what I can do to help the team win.”
As dancers held both arms above their heads with hands balled up into fists, Veroushka Eugene yelled: “Now give me that attitude and drop it into a body wave!” to the dancehall class of 30 students. Eugene is one of the seven women who make up the dance crew Womanity currently competing on the show Danser pour Gagner.
“And one, two, three, four,” counted Jenna Abessolo, another member of Womanity, as the music started playing and all of the dancers repeated the choreography until it seemed they had memorized the steps.
Eugene is a dancer and a dance teacher in Montreal, with an expertise in dancehall and Afro-Haitian dances. Just like any other sport, dance takes its toll on the body. In Eugene’s case, joint weakness runs in the family, and dancing made it worse. Her left knee weakened to the point where doctors told her, in 2013, that she had to stop dancing altogether. Although she didn’t quit outright, she adjusted her approach by listening to the way her body feels during different movements and steps. Eugene’s warm-up turned into the most important part of her routine.
Born and raised in Haiti, Eugene started going to a dance school in her home country on Fridays and Saturdays at the age of three. “I haven’t stopped dancing since. I started learning classical dances like ballet and jazz with mandatory Haitian folklore classes,” she said.
While in school, kids loved to run around and play tag, but Eugene always kept to herself, her books and her dancing. Later on, she took salsa and tango lessons, and even explored the world of hip hop. Those who knew her in both school and the dance studio saw her switch from an introvert to an extrovert on the dance floor.
Veroushka Eugene described dancehall as a freeing dance, without strict movements. Photo by Mackenzie Lad.
“I would go from being this introverted girl to a confident dancer,” she said. Although she associated school with stress and bullying, Eugene felt comfortable on the dance floor. “When I was told I was a good dancer, which I’m not sure I was at the time, it kept me going. It felt like I was valued.”
When she moved to Montreal at the age of 18, Eugene wanted to start competing in Latin dance competitions, but the classes were too expensive. So, she turned to a cheaper alternative: urban dance, more specifically dancehall. After a couple classes, and her own self-teaching, Eugene stepped into the movements and music of dancehall.
“It’s a feeling. It’s not really something you have to think through,” she explained. “Of course you have to know the movements, but the way in which you feel the movement and relay it makes it special.”
By incorporating body waves and steps called “so fresh so clean” into the routine, dancers add attitude and sassiness to their performance, which is why Eugene’s classes are always very loud. You can hear all the dancers add a “Ha” or an “Aye” to poignant moves at the workshop Eugene leads every Sunday at the Amotion Dance Studio in the Plateau-Mont-Royal.
Eugene described dancehall as “a freeing dance, without many rigid and strict movements like classical dances. It allows you to express yourself physically and emotionally.” She interprets the style as if it were a release mechanism—after all, it did help her through tough times in her younger years in Haiti.
While the movements in dancehall makes it more of an art than a sport, Eugene explained that dance demands the same strategic thinking and training athletes go through. She compared dancers to tennis players who train their bodies to run in a certain direction. By the time the big game comes, they already know how to hit the ball, so they’re just focused on winning.
“Dancers do the same. We train our muscle memory so that when we perform we can focus on how to excel in the steps we do,” she added.
Eugene began teaching dancehall and Afro-Haitian dance as a freelancer until Studio Danse Montreal and Amotion Dance Studio hired her in 2012. Her choreography process happens in one place: her head. Unlike other choreographers, Eugene doesn’t rehearse every step, pop and drop in front of a mirror. Instead, she listens to a song, and plays it over and over as she visualizes the steps, the flow and the speed of the movements to the beat.
“I honestly thought every dancer created their choreography in their heads until students and other dancers around me pointed it out as special. It’s like a super power,” Eugene said. Then again, she added that it’s still all about the feeling. She chooses songs by considering the feeling she wants to relay in the dance, whether it’s partying or a more emotional performance. “I think, with time, I became more aware and conscious of my body and my movements that now I can visualize it all in my head,” she added.
Eugene learns more when she is teaching than when she is performing. “A performance is only a moment in time. It’s beautiful and I enjoy it, but teaching is a more continuous process where both the students and I grow,” she said. It took her awhile to become comfortable demonstrating the moves to her students, but Eugene has learned that there is a difference between “showing people and just showing off.”
A little over a year ago, she would have said that she’s more of a teacher than a performer. Now, as she’s competing on a dance show, she has become more comfortable on stage.
“It helps to be alongside powerful women who encourage me in my solo parts of the performance,” Eugene said. As she went back to practice with Womanity for next week’s show, the dancefloor went back to jumping up and down, and the “Ha” and “Aye” sounds echoed in the studio again.
Francis Carter pulled off an upset by winning the 68-kilogram category. Photo courtesy of U Sports.
Francis Carter named U Sports’s Most Outstanding Wrestler
The Concordia Stingers brought home nine medals from the U Sports national wrestling championship in Sault Ste-Marie, Ont., during the two-day tournament on Feb. 23 and 24.
The Stingers finished second in the team results, scoring 91 points. This was a significant improvement for the squad, which finished in fifth at last year’s nationals. The tournament was marked by gritty performances, but perhaps none as exciting as Francis Carter, who took home a gold medal in the 68-kilogram division.
Prior to his gold medal match, Carter only gave up two points in three matches. This was his third trip to the U Sports national wrestling championship. In 2016, Carter finished in fifth place. In 2017, he finished in fourth.
“I personally wanted to focus on relaxing mentally so that I could develop my tactical thinking during my matches,” Carter said about his preparation for this year’s nationals. “After [the past] results, there were no stressful expectations on me, which let me focus better on how I wanted to wrestle.”
The Concordia Stingers 2017-18 wrestling team. Photo by Liam Mahoney.
In the round robin, Carter defeated Bryce Davis from the Algoma Thunderbirds 10-0, Nathen Schmidt of the Regina Cougars 10-0, and Miles Kent from the University of Alberta Golden Bears 13-2. In the gold medal match, Carter wrestled against the Brock Badgers’s Matt Jagas, the defending title holder. The result was a 3-2 nail-biter in favour of Carter.
“I walked in knowing that my opponent had the pressure since he was wrestling to keep the title that he won last year. That gave me confidence because I had no expectations, and was instead concentrating on how I could wrestle,” Carter said. “I think that the way expectations affected the results of this tournament is something very useful to learn from.”
Carter went up 3-0 in the match, but Jagas managed to come back to bring it within one. With Jagas coming on strong, Carter grabbed Jagas’s leg to run out the clock. The leg attack allowed Carter to hold on for the first gold medal of his U Sports career.
This win drew praise from Stingers wrestling head coach Victor Zilberman.
“It was unexpected,” Zilberman said. “He’s a tough academic athlete in a very difficult program [psychology]. He set his goals and was mentally ready. He came out to every match and had some incredible performances.” Zilberman added that the gold medal match was “the toughest match of the tournament.”
Carter was named the U Sports’s Most Outstanding Wrestler.
On the women’s side, Jade Dufour, Laurence Beauregard and Amanda Savard all took home bronze medals.
Beauregard didn’t come to her first U Sports nationals with any expectations.
“This year, for me, was more about learning,” Beauregard said. “I wanted to go out there and fight hard and smart. [During the bronze medal match], I was losing at a certain point. I decided to take a couple of deep breaths and re-centre my focus on having quality attacks. This worked for me.”
Dufour knew the bronze medal match was do or die. “I was either going to be on the podium or in the stands. I did not want to be in the stands,” she said.
Vincent De Marinis and Jordan Steen also won gold medals. Samuel Barmish, Alex Moore, Frédérick Choquette and rookie Guseyn Ruslanzada all added bronze medals to the Stingers’s tally. This was the third gold medal in both De Marinis and Steen’s careers, with Steen winning in 2013 and 2016, and De Marinis winning in 2016 and 2017.
Even after three-straight title wins at the national championship, De Marinis said he doesn’t change his preparation His routine stays the same for every fight, no matter the opponent.
Fifth-year Stinger Vincent De Marinis won his third-straight gold medal. Photo courtesy of U Sports.
“I was proud of my individual performance. It’s my last year as a Stinger, so it meant a lot to me to finish my university career strong and get that last gold,” De Marinis said. “Overall, it was a great experience. I really enjoyed travelling with the team. This was the Stingers’s best team performance in my five years competing for the university.”
Zilberman was happy with the team’s performance, but disappointed that they fell short of the team title. The Brock Badgers won the national championship for the fifth year in a row, scoring 162 points, compared to the Stingers’s 91. The Stingers sent 15 wrestlers to compete in the tournament—its biggest-ever national championship squad. The Badgers sent 19 wrestlers.
“We had a great team. On a different day, in a different year, we would have won, but because we’re competing against schools like Brock who send so many athletes, that made the difference,” Zilberman said.
He added that, over the years, he has been trying to extend his recruiting. Many of Concordia’s wrestlers were groomed at the Montreal Wrestling Club, which is also run by Zilberman.
The Stingers wrestling team is already training for the Canadian Championship in Montreal from March 16 to 18. Zilberman is excited for his core group of wrestlers to compete, as well as showcase new recruits who will be making their Stingers debut, including Aly Barghout, a product of Zilberman’s Montreal Wrestling Club and former junior national champion.
Stingers forward Anthony Beauregard led the nation with 60 points this season. Photo by Alex Hutchins.
Anthony Beauregard and Massimo Carozza’s point production gave team a chance to win
It was a regular season to remember for forwards Anthony Beauregard and Massimo Carozza on the Concordia Stingers men’s hockey team. Beauregard led all of U Sports in points with 60 (19 goals and 41 assists), while Carozza’s 35 points (15 goals and 20 assists) were the most among rookies in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) conference.
The two players on the Stingers’s top line benefitted from each other’s success for most of the season. However, at the beginning of the season, both were playing centre on different lines. Beauregard, who joined the Stingers midway through last season and scored 17 goals in 11 games, had four goals and four assists in the first five games of this season. He played with a few different wingers, including Philippe Hudon, Alexis Pépin and Scott Oke.
Graphic by Zeze Le lin.
Carozza played his first five games centering Antoine Masson and Charles-Éric Légaré. He started his season well for a rookie, scoring two goals and two assists.
However, in the Stingers’s sixth game of the season, on Oct. 28 away against the Queen’s Gaels, head coach Marc-André Élement decided to mix his lines up. He put Beauregard and Carozza on a line together for the first time.
“Carozza was a centre, and we just decided to put him on the wing. He has a lot of speed,” Élement said. “Those two click together and they [had] success, and I’m really happy about their season.”
In that game against Queen’s, Carozza and Beauregard assisted on three goals together. Two of them were to Dominic Beauchemin, and the third was on the overtime-winning goal to defenceman Carl Neill. Their next game, on Nov. 3 at home against the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) Ridgebacks, the Stingers won 6-2. Beauregard had two goals and four assists, while Carozza scored three goals, all of which were assisted by Beauregard.
The way they played told the rest of the league they were a threat offensively, and they haven’t been separated since. They have played 23 games together, with Beauregard scoring 15 goals and 37 assists for 52 points, and Carozza scoring 13 goals and 18 assists for 31 points. Between the two of them, they have either scored or assisted on 57 of the Stingers’s 91 goals since they were put together, with both players getting points on 26 of those goals (Figure 1).
Click image to enlarge. Graphic by Zeze Le Lin.
“He’s such a good player,” Beauregard said about Carozza. “He has good speed and good hands, and we try to keep the momentum [going] every game.”
According to Carozza, it didn’t take much time to get used to playing with Beauregard once they were put together. They already knew each other from training over the summer, and Carozza said he developed chemistry with Beauregard after only a few practices.
“We’re really good friends. We like to joke around a lot, we’re both jokers, and we clicked right away,” Carozza said. “On the ice, we try to take it serious.”
It takes a company of three to make a line, and they’ve played with Philippe Sanche for most of the season. He scored 15 goals in the regular season, with 14 of his goals assisted by either Beauregard or Carozza, including six from both his linemates (Figure 2). Sanche missed a few games near the beginning and end of the season. When he was out, captain Hudon played on the top line.
“With both Phils—Hudon and Sanche, whoever comes on our line—we produce,” Carozza said. “It’s been easy for me. We work well together, and it shows on the ice.”
Click image to enlarge. Graphic by Zeze Le Lin.
The Stingers had success when their top line scored. When Beauregard scored a goal, the Stingers went 12-2-1. Considering their total record of 18-7-3, when he didn’t score, they went 6-5-2. As for when Carozza scored a goal, Concordia had a 8-2-1 record (Figure 3).
With so many wins attributed to the pair’s scoring, head coach Élement knows how valuable they are to the team. He said, ideally, both Carozza and Beauregard will remain with the Stingers next season, but he knows each of them could leave the team to play professionally.
Beauregard said he doesn’t know what his Concordia future holds.
“I’m just concentrated on this year,” the second-year forward said. “You never know what’s going to happen in two months or next year. I just try to be focused here.”
Carozza, on the other hand, said he wants to get his degree first. He’s currently in independent studies. He added that he has an Italian passport and would consider playing in Europe.
“I want to continue playing hockey,” he said. “Just because I didn’t get a pro contract this year doesn’t mean I can’t get it in two, three or four years.”
The Stingers play the McGill Redmen in the OUA East final, starting Feb. 28.
Ken Beaulieu is in his fourth and final season as a member of the Concordia Stingers. Photo by Alex Hutchins.
Graduating forward Ken Beaulieu describes himself as an unselfish player
A basketball player capable of performing every aspect of the game, and doing so admirably, is hard to come by. Most players tend to specialize in one or two areas—some are dominating rebounders and defenders, others excel at the three-point shot, and some are gifted at playmaking and setting up teammates.
Rarely does a player come along who can seemingly do it all, and this type of versatility has established Ken Beaulieu, a forward on the Concordia Stingers men’s basketball team, as a star and a leader.
Ken Beaulieu is known for his dunking. Photo by Kirubel Mehari.
When asked about his adaptability, Beaulieu came off as a highly coachable and open-minded player. “In my second year, I was scoring more, but this year my coaches want me to focus more on defence and rebounding, so I’ve been working more on that,” said Beaulieu, a fourth-year player.
Beaulieu’s aptitude for all aspects of basketball helped him become one of the most heavily-recruited players coming out of CEGEP in 2014. After being named a first-team all-star in 2014 playing for Cégep Édouard-Montpetit in his hometown of Longueuil, almost every team in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) was after Beaulieu. This forced him to choose between Université de Laval, Bishop’s, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) and Concordia.
Beaulieu said his admiration for the coaching style of former coach John Dore, whom he only played under for his first year, influenced his decision to play for the Stingers. Current head coach Rastko Popovic was an assistant under Dore, which helped make Popovic’s transition to head coach in 2015 easy for Beaulieu.
Beaulieu is certainly making it look easy, as his name is all over the RSEQ individual stats leaderboards this season. He ranks seventh in the conference in scoring at 12.5 points per game, third in rebounding with 7.7 per game, sixth in steals with 1.7 per game and seventh in assists with 2.4 per game. He has achieved these numbers while shooting at an impressive 61 field goal percentage. These stats illustrate just how multi-dimensional he is, while also being extremely efficient.
His athleticism permits him to be all over the place on the court.
One of the challenges that comes with being capable in every facet of the game is that, as a player, he doesn’t always get to utilize all his talents.
Ken Beaulieu said he is not a vocal leader, but would rather lead by example. Photo by Alex Hutchins.
“My coaches right now want me to drive the basket a lot more this season, to get layups and post up, so my shot has gotten worse because I don’t practice it as much,” Beaulieu said. “It can be frustrating.”
Beaulieu said his mid-range shot is currently “nowhere to be found” and that he takes considerably fewer three-point shots, which has made his shooting a little rusty. Yet, this does not create tension between Beaulieu and his coaches, as he is happy to do whatever is asked of him.
“I’m not a selfish player. I don’t come in looking to score 30 a night; some nights it’s more about rebounding and defence,” Beaulieu said. He added how much he trusts his teammates, which makes passing a pleasure for him. “If you’re on my team and you’re open, I don’t care who you are, I’m passing the ball.”
Beaulieu said when he misses his first couple of shots, it can ruin his momentum for the whole game and affect him mentally. He was quick to acknowledge this is the biggest hurdle he is working to overcome.
“The mental [aspect] is something I’ve struggled with probably my whole career,” Beaulieu said.
Although he is not very vocal, Beaulieu is aware of his responsibility to lead his team by example. He sees a correlation between his energy and his team’s, which is why he wants to stay positive around the team on and off the court. When asked how he’s attempting to improve his mentality, Beaulieu said he reminds himself of two words he hears from his teammates and coaches all the time: “next play.”
“When you miss a shot, you can’t take it back. All you can do is focus on what’s next,” he said.
Beaulieu hopes what comes next is success in the playoffs, where he said he thinks the Stingers have a good chance of winning the championship. “We’ve beat every other team [in the conference] so far, so we know we can win,” he said.
Recently, Beaulieu was named the Concordia male athlete of the week. His performances against the UQAM Citadins on Feb. 1 and 3 helped the Stingers sweep a two-game series. He had a double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds in the first game, and was one point shy of another double-double in the second. These impressive stat sheets Beaulieu continues to produce prove why he is the Stingers’s human Swiss army knife, and why they love having him in their back pocket.
Jade Dufour didn’t have an Olympic dream until grade 10, and now that’s her goal. Photo by Alex Hutchins.
Stingers wrestler Jade Dufour is aiming to win a world title
Most kids play soccer growing up. For Concordia Stingers wrestler Jade Dufour, that didn’t really cut it.
“My parents saw that I was kind of done with it, so they figured they had to find something else,” she said. “They looked into karate. Since then, I’ve always been involved in physical contact sports.”
From mixed martial arts (MMA) to Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Dufour’s parents wanted their children to learn how to defend themselves. “Thank God, because I wouldn’t mess with me or my brother,” Dufour said. “I was already used to being hit and being put into awkward positions.”
Making that transition from MMA to wrestling did take some time for Dufour because of the varying techniques and rules. However, once she finally committed to wrestling in high school in Windsor, Ont., she fell in love.
Even though she loved the sport, she hadn’t considered the “Olympic dream” to be a possibility until grade 10, when she attended the Canada Summer Games in Sherbrooke, Que., and met Martine Dugrenier, a three-time world champion wrestler from Montreal. Dugrenier is now a coach with the Stingers.
“She had come down to Windsor to train with us, and a few of [my teammates] stayed at my house,” Dufour said. “Martine was in my room. This was right after she had competed at the Olympics in London. I was freaking out. She asked, ‘Hey do want to start wrestling at the next level?’ She thought I had potential so I should continue.”
Dufour competed in the 43-kilogram weight class and won gold at that 2013 Canada Summer Games.
Jade Dufour said winning bronze at the 2016 World Junior Wrestling Championship has been her proudest moment as a Stinger. Photo by Brianna Thicke.
When it came time to choosing a university, Dufour said she didn’t hesitate.
“Concordia had the program I liked, which is exercise science, but I loved the technicality of the wrestling club,” Dufour said.
She liked the individual attention that head coach Victor Zilberman put into their training. Working on individual performances while still training as a collective team was something that separated Concordia from other programs she visited.
As an exercise science student, Dufour said she feels like she has used her knowledge in the classroom and has been able to translate it to her work on the mat. Her interest in the topic really began when she fractured her ankle in high school. Dufour went through her physiotherapy rehab, and thought healing a body was interesting. She then enrolled in a kinesiology class in her senior year of high school.
“I can relate to this so much because I am an athlete,” the third-year Stinger said. “I feel like I know what’s happening to my body better. I understand how to cope and prevent injuries myself. The two go together nicely.”
Looking back on three years with the Stingers wrestling team, she counts winning bronze at the 2016 World Junior Wrestling Championship in Macon, France, as one of her proudest moments. Not because of the medal, but because of how she feels she responded to adversity after losing her first match of the tournament.
“I had to do a 360-degree turn in my attitude,” Dufour said. “Getting over that loss and the fact that I was able to get myself prepared and in that zone—I didn’t know if I was going to be able to wrestle. It happened, you can’t go back and change it, and to be honest, I wouldn’t change it.”
Even though this is her third season with the Stingers, outside of school, this is Dufour’s first season wrestling in the senior division against other wrestlers from across the country. In March, Dufour will be competing at the National Championship in Montreal.
At the senior level, there are no beginners. Every athlete wants to make it to the Olympics, and every athlete is competing for a spot on the national team.
“Hopefully I’ll do well in my first senior year,” Dufour said. “To make the Canadian national team against all of the kids who have been wrestling for 16 plus years, it would be something else. I’ve been on the world team at the junior level quite a few times.”
To make the senior roster and join Stingers teammate Laurence Beauregard, Dufour needs to make a smooth transition from the junior division to senior. Doing so would require her to refine the technical elements of her game. In the 48-kilogram division she usually competes in, Dufour is almost always one of the smaller competitors.
“I’m wrestling people who are bigger and stronger, but if I put all the effort in, correct my mistakes and basically give it my all, [I could] become a successful senior athlete and not just a kid who was good at the junior [level],” she said, adding: “I want that Olympic dream.”
Dufour talked about what she needs to practice this season, including attention to detail and total focus during her training. “I’m going to try my [hardest] to make the team,” she said. “However, I still have work to do. I’m not just aiming for a national title; I’m aiming for a world title.”
Alexandria D’Onofrio grew up in Rivières-des-Prairies, where girls’ hockey was not common. Photo by Alex Hutchins.
Alexandria D’Onofrio has not missed a game during her five years with the Stingers
Alexandria D’Onofrio has not missed a single game in her five years with the Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team. For D’Onofrio, who plays forward, the dream of playing in university after growing up in Rivières-des-Prairies (RDP)—an area not known for women’s hockey—has been her biggest accomplishment.
“A lot of the girls on the team call me the ‘mother figure’ of the team,” D’Onofrio said. The psychology student has taken what she has learned through hockey and applied it to her own life. “Hockey has taught me discipline and maturity. There’s always an obstacle that is in the way to make you better.”
For D’Onofrio, obstacles have been very much at the forefront of her hockey life since youth. Growing up in RDP, D’Onofrio had the challenge of playing with the boys early on, until she reached the bantam level. Having been inspired by her brother who played hockey, she took to the game in stride.
“I played AA in atom and peewee,” she said. Atom hockey is for ages nine and 10, while peewee is for 11 and 12-year-olds. “Then, they made a rule that you had to switch over to girls’ hockey once there was contact [in bantam]. So, I had to switch over.”
D’Onofrio (second from right) has five goals and five assists during her career with the Stingers. Photo by Mackenzie Lad.
It wasn’t long after making the switch to girls’ hockey that D’Onofrio left her bantam team in RDP to play on a co-ed team for her high school, Lester B. Pearson in Montreal-North. She returned to play with the girls’ team in her second year of bantam, while also playing with her high school team. From there, she played midget girls’ hockey until she was recruited to play for the Dawson Blues in CEGEP.
“Dawson was a great experience, and I loved my two years there,” D’Onofrio said. “The only problem was that we only had three practices a week, so coaches don’t see you that often.”
In the 2011-12 season with the Blues, D’Onofrio scored four goals and four assists in 28 games. The team also finished second in the regular season standings and managed to win the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) bronze medal that season.
The 2012-13 season was not as good for the Blues, as they finished with a 3-16 record in a newly-created top division. During that season, D’Onofrio scored three goals and committed to the Stingers for the 2013-14 season.
“Being chosen to play in university, being able to stay [close to] home and getting picked up by Concordia is my biggest achievement,” she said.
D’Onofrio said she could see herself coaching hockey once her playing career is done. Photo by Alex Hutchins.
D’Onofrio’s five years at Concordia have been marked by a constant presence on the ice. Having played every regular-season game since her first season, she has established herself as a crucial force for the Stingers. So far, she has played over 90 regular-season games with the Stingers. If she plays every game for the rest of this season, she will have played exactly 100 games in the maroon and gold colours.
To date, D’Onofrio’s best season was in 2016-17 when she scored two goals and two assists in the regular season and added another goal in the playoffs. The Stingers lost to the McGill Martlets in the RSEQ final and finished in fourth place at the national championship last March.
D’Onofrio’s future in hockey as a player is uncertain. However, she said she believes she has a future in coaching. “We run a hockey camp at Concordia, and I enjoy it to the fullest,” she said. “I don’t see myself as a head coach right now, but I would enjoy taking on a consistent role like that.”
With half a season still remaining as a player, the focus for D’Onofrio and the Stingers remains clear—to win a championship.
“I know this is my last year. It’s the most important thing to me that our team finishes as best as we can,” she said. “Hopefully we win a medal. I’d like to top last year’s nationals experience.”
D’Onofrio takes pride in knowing that not many women from her neighbourhood have played university hockey. She credits her parents and the staff at Concordia for pushing her to be better in the face of adversity. Whether it was playing in a boys’ league or dealing with unfavourable seasons, her focus and determination have always been at the forefront in her hockey career.
“I love the sport, but I’m not sure if it’s for me to continue onwards,” D’Onofrio said. “I had five great years here, so me leaving the sport will be tough, but I’ll know that I achieved the max that I could have achieved.”
