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Q&A with Stingers football head coach Brad Collinson

The Stingers football team’s season came to a close on Nov. 2 after a 40-8 RSEQ semi-finals loss to the Laval Rouge et Or. 

It was a roller-coaster season for the team, who finished their regular season with a record of 2-6, but managed to squeeze into the playoffs. The team saw career-years from players like quarterback Adam Vance, wide receiver James Tyrrell and defensive back Khadeem Pierre. With those efforts Stingers managed to push perennially strong teams like the Université de Montreal Carabins to the edge in two close games. In those games, the team showed glimpses of a team that could be potential usurpers of what has been a historically top-heavy division.

On the other hand, this was the same team that gave up a 74-point shutout to Laval and got blown out by (an admittedly better) McGill squad. The rushing game struggled to find any footing until their playoff game, and the defense struggled at times to stop drives. The team had its issues, but some of the players were so exciting, that even in the losses, there were usually bright spots to look at.

With the 2019 football season having been wrapped for a couple of weeks now, it felt like a good time to sit down and look back on the season with second-year head coach Brad Collinson for a Q&A.

The team finished 2-6, but made the playoffs, what was your overall feeling about this season?

Overall, we took a step in the right direction. Are we there yet? No, far from it. But it’s a good step. We may have the same record as last year, but the culture and the atmosphere here is completely different than a year ago. One of our goals was to make playoffs and we attained that goal. Now the next goal is to win a playoff game. From there we’ll add another goal, then another. It’s a process, and like I’ve said from the beginning, we’re not going to skip any steps. It’s going to be one step at a time, but I think we took that first step.

Were there any players that stood out to you this season?

Jeremy Murphy as a rookie. I knew he was good. Did I expect him to have the year that he had? We always hope, but you never know. He stepped up. [Vance] and [Tyrrell] on offense, those guys had career-years. Being in your fifth year, it’s not ideal to have a change in offense, but those guys bought into what we’re trying to do and they reaped the benefits of it with their play.

Defensively, I was impressed with Derek Achaempong. As a young [defender], he improved every single day and near the end of the season, he was making plays you would expect out of a fourth or fifth year guy and he’s a second year. The future’s bright there. Overall the atmosphere and the way the kids bought into what we’re trying to do, that’s the biggest point I’m trying to come back to is we asked a lot from them, and a lot jumped in blind and weren’t too sure what to do. Some of the guys before we even had our coordinators and our coaches settled. To see them flourish underneath the new leadership has been great.

With the season over, do you have a favourite play from the season?

The win against Sherbrooke at home with that last second field goal was pretty special. I come back to the fade that Adam [Vance] threw to James [Tyrrell] against Montreal to put us in scoring position, that’s a pretty special play.

A lot of U Sports firsts for some of these kids. Jeremy Murphy’s first touchdown, Mancini’s first touchdown last week, Khadeem Pierre’s interceptions for touchdowns. Those were all special plays that I remember from this year.

Based on what you saw this year, are there any game plan tweaks you’re looking to make for next year?

We’re always looking to get better. We’re definitely going to sit down and re-look at our off-season training to make sure it’s on point with what we’re trying to accomplish. Strategy-wise, offense, defense, we’re going to review the film and see what it’s all about and see where we have to improve. But I think our schemes were pretty good. We always have to adapt, though, because teams are going to be watching our film now.

How are you hoping to replace the seniors class this year, with guys like Vance, Tyrrell, Jersey Henry and Sam Brodrique all graduating?

It’s always been a next man up mentality. You can’t replace those guys. They’re fifth year guys that bring a lot to the table. You just hope that the guys under them, that they’ve left a good footprint for them to step into by their actions and how they prepare. I actually thought those young guys took those steps and realized that’s the way you have to handle yourself as a university athlete. We’re going to go back to the drawing board and look at who we have and try to put out the best product possible. With recruiting, we’ll really define what we’re trying to do. Who’s going to be playing where, we don’t know yet. We’re trying to find better players each and every year.

Obviously, the team went through some losing streaks during the season, how do you keep players motivated and on track despite those stretches when things aren’t translating on the field?

It’s not hard to motivate these kids. It’s not a very long season, they put a lot of work into it, they know what they’re here for, they’re here to compete. They knew what they signed up for playing in the RSEQ.

It took some time for us to even score our first touchdown. It finally happened against Sherbrooke [in week five]. But the kids never gave up. We were gaining yards, we just weren’t finishing. Victories come, and it’s hard. We play in a very tough league. The RSEQ is probably the toughest in the country. We have perennial champions Laval, and Montreal is no slouch. McGill also took a big step forward this year. You saw it this year. Each and every week, there was a lot more parity. Every week you could win. When you play close games against Montreal, and get some victories against Sherbrooke, and the second game against McGill, we should have won that game.

What are some of those steps needed to close the gap between Concordia and Laval and UDEM?

It’s going to be recruiting. Our recruiting this year is going to be huge. There’s a buzz about us, sorry for the pun. I think that Concordia is an option for people now, especially in Quebec in the Cegeps compared to years past. We’ve worked hard on that.

We’ve seen every Cegep play at least once this year. I don’t think any other team in the country has done that. Especially in our conference, there’s nobody who’s done that. We went to every single spring camp this year, of the 30 Cegeps that play football, we were at every single one. I think we’ve checked some things that we wanted to do and establish some relationships in those Cegeps. It’s going to start paying off slowly but surely with some commitments coming up hopefully soon. The name of the game is recruiting.

What do you think you’re doing to separate Concordia from the other schools in this division?

It starts with recruiting and creating those relationships that we didn’t have before. We’re a great institution here, offer a lot of great academic programs that some other schools don’t. Being that option, and going after some French-Canadian kids is huge for us. There’s some very good football being played in french Cegeps, as well as english, but there’s only three [english Cegeps]. The other 27 are french. We have to create those relationships and that’s where we want to differentiate ourselves.

With Adam Vance graduating this year, do you think Olivier Roy will takeover that starting quarterback job?

It’s going to be an open competition. We have some other guys that are here as well. We’re recruiting guys as well. We’ll let it play itself out once camp starts and depending on who comes in January. For a start tomorrow though, Olivier would have the heads up on everybody.

I think the future’s bright. We weren’t too sure about that position but with him he’s shown us some good things.

Looking forward to next season, what’s one challenge you’re looking to overcome, and what’s something you’re looking forward to?

Replacing those guys that we talked about before is going to be a challenge. What I’m looking forward to is to see the progression of where we’re at. I think we have a good locker room, we have some kids that are excited about the off-season. I think it’s going to be a good year.

 

Feature photo by Mackenzie Lad, accompanying photos by Laurence BD

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Stingers’ losing streak continues with a loss to Ridgebacks in OT

“We need to get back to basics.”

That is the message in the room after the Stingers lost their fifth game in a row on Saturday night. The Ontario Tech Ridgebacks, who blew a two goal lead in the final moments of the third period to McGill the night before, fought their way back to a scrappy 3-2 overtime victory over Concordia.

Head coach Marc-André Élement let out a big sigh of frustration before answering the first question from the media after the loss. He was not frustrated with his team, not with the officiating, and especially not with his goaltending, as Sébastien Lefebvre bailed his team out multiple times during the game.

It’s injuries.

On Saturday night, seven regulars were held out of the lineup due to injuries. Philippe Sanche, Alexander Katerinakis, Jeff de Wit, Jake Fletcher, Zachary Zorn, Mathieu Desautels and Anthony Dumont-Bouchard. That’s incredibly tough for any hockey team, let alone a university one that doesn’t have a farm team. Because of all the injuries, Élement was forced to ice seven defencemen and 11 forwards.

“[Fletcher and de Wit] got hurt after last night’s game,” said Élement. “We were waiting for the doctor’s report up until the game so we had to adjust the lineup. It’s not an excuse. Tonight we battled way harder than [Friday].”

If things weren’t bad enough, Chase Harwell had himself an injury scare on Saturday. Harwell blocked a shot in the second period and immediately went off favouring his right hand but the second year forward remained in the game and said it was nothing a little bit of ice couldn’t fix.

Injuries happen, it just sucks that we’ve had quite a few lately,” Harwell said. “We’ll be alright, it’s a little bit of an adjustment but it comes with [the game of hockey].”

Élement only tipped his hand towards a timeline on Sanche when asked, saying that he’s expected back sometime after Christmas. The captain of the Stingers last played on Oct. 18, when he broke his hand in the third period after blocking a shot.

The injuries kept piling on, and have caught up with the Stingers. Their last win came on Nov. 1 against UQTR. Since then they’ve lost five in a row while only scoring 11 times in those five games.

Even before the injuries started to accumulate, goal scoring wasn’t exactly a strength of this team. Through 14 games, the Stingers average under 3 goals a game, 2.69 to be exact, their lowest total ever.

Alexandre Gosselin, who scored his first goal of the season last night, was optimistic after last night’s defeat when asked about the team’s offensive output and its potential with a fully healthy lineup. Gosselin said he believes that they will be a much more dangerous team.

There were a lot of positives to pull from last night’s loss, despite falling further in the standings and the lack of goal scoring.

One of those positives was that the Stingers looked quite good on the powerplay despite only converting on one of their six opportunities, with most of the puck movement and opportunities being set up by the defence; something that Gosselin says is incredibly important for this team.

Photo by Cecilia Piga.

“We want to create more from the [defence],” Gosselin said. “We have the guys to do it. Neill, [Lalonde], Corbeil, Bilodeau. They are all offensive guys. If we use them more I think it’ll lead to more goals [which will] lead to more wins.”

Another bright spot is that the Stingers battled for a full 60 minutes. Consistent play has been an issue for this team and has no doubt made Élement’s head want to explode at times. Friday night’s performance against the last place Laurentian Voyageurs was an ugly one, to put it lightly. Players were coasting, perhaps with the mindset that it would be an automatic win. Well, it wasn’t and they had to come up with a rebound performance, if not for themselves, for the fans that come out every weekend to see them.

Saturday was a completely different story. Forwards were back-checking hard, defencemen were making smart decisions with and without the puck, and when mistakes were made, Sébastien Lefebvre was there to bail out his team.

“It was his third start of the season. He now has one win and two overtime losses, when he could easily have three wins,” said Gosselin. “It’s just a matter of details and not for him. For everybody.”

The Stingers have two regular season games left in 2019 so they will have ample time to get healthy and ice a full line up.

Concordia will head to Kingston next week for their second and final matchup of the season against RMC on Saturday night.

 

Photo by Cecilia Piga

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Stingers fall 4-2 to Voyageurs

The losing streak continues for the Concordia Stingers men’s hockey team after they lost 4-2 to the Laurentian Voyageurs at the Ed Meagher Arena on Friday night.

It was a game of numbers last night: the Stingers overpowered the Voyageurs with shots on net, ending with 36 to the Voyageurs 27. The Voyageurs had 18 penalty minutes on eight infractions. You could say the game was aggressive, with big hits at both ends of the ice by each team — the backboards  of the rink burst open at one point – players tripping over their teammates and opponents, sticks flying out of their hands. It was that kind of night for the Stingers.

With all this, the Stingers had six power play opportunities — which head coach Marc-André Élement called “terrible.”

“We didn’t execute the power play properly and we didn’t have success,” says Élement. “If we play for 40 minutes in this league, we’re never going to have success; we have to play for 60 minutes.”

The Stingers had 12 scoring opportunities in the first, but the Voyageurs came up and scored two goals. In the second, there was a lone goal scored by the Stingers’s Liam Murphy, assisted by Bradley Lalonde.

“We want to be discipled, especially at the end of the game we had a chance to come back and some of the penalties kind of took the momentum away and gave it to them,” says Lalonde about what the team could improve on.

“The penalties were late so I think we could have done something earlier to keep us out of that position but we have to stay disciplined, especially in the last couple of minutes of the game when we need a goal.”

Players continued falling over each other for the rest of the game, and tensions were high. Little scuffles broke out almost every time the goalies stopped the puck. Concordia’s Colin Grannary got swooped up against the boards a few times. He finally got the chance to break free and make his way towards the Voyageurs’s net, only to be brought down to the ice by an opponent at the blue line. After landing on his face, the refs allowed him a penalty shot, which he missed.

He redeemed himself less than five minutes into the third with Concordia’s second goal of the game. The rest of the period, there were more penalties for each team, with the Voyageurs scoring two goals on the power play, winning the game 4-2 as the last-ranked team in the division.

The Stingers will play host to the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks tonight at 5 p.m. where they will look to end their four-game losing streak.

 

Feature photo by Alex Hutchins

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Six things we learned from Thursday’s double header against Bishop’s

The Concordia Stingers women’s basketball team lost to the nationally ranked #8 Gaiters in a blowout.

Bishop’s really flexed their muscles and showed the Stingers and their fans in attendance at the John Dore Court why they are the 8th ranked team in the nation, beating them by a final score of 79-53.

It was a tight, fast paced game through the first 5 minutes of the opening tip-off but then it fell off the rails for the Stingers. The size mismatch proved to be too much for them as they were out-rebounded 47-33, which included 19 offensive rebounds for the Gaiters.

The Stingers also shot way below par at 35.6% from the field, and only made 2 three pointers on 20 attempts. On the other side, the Gaiters only shot 41.8% but made 12 more shots from the field, mostly coming off second chance opportunities. Their rookie guard Jael Kabunda took the game by storm and introduced herself to the RSEQ division, putting up a game high 32 points. Kabunda more than tripled her team’s next leading scorer.

Here’s what we learned from the women’s game:

  • The Stingers short bench is going to be a problem for them down the stretch of the season. It’s not that this team doesn’t have talent, they simply just don’t have the (wo)manpower on the bench to give their starters a rest, only rolling 8 players throughout the game. Down the stretch of the season, that can wear on players and fatigue will set in. Nelly Owusu is recovering from a knee injury that kept her out for all of last season and is expected to return at some point this season. After Thursday’s performance, it’s evident that they need her back sooner rather than later.
  • A major bright spot for the Stingers, on a night that was bereft of them, was Sabrina Linéus. If you looked at her statline from the game, you might not find anything all that impressive. That being said, if you watched the game, you know what I’m about to talk about. Defensively, even when the Stingers were down by as much as 32 at one point, she was still giving Bishop’s issues as her compete level never dropped. She proved that she can be an effective bench player who will always give it her all, even when the game is far out of reach. That’s the type of attitude that coaches love.
  • We’ve seen these types of games before from the Stingers. Their shot selection was not the problem Thursday night — they were taking good shots, just nothing was falling for them. This game taught us way more about the Gaiters than it did about the Stingers. Last year, we saw Myriam Leclerc come in and dominate for the Stingers, so much so that it won her the U Sports rookie of the year award. Well, one year later, Jael Kabunda looks to be poised to win that award. It’s only one game into the season for the Gaiters but she had an absolutely dominant performance, finishing with 32 points and 8 rebounds. Kabunda wasn’t even a starter for the Gaiters but after that performance I’m sure she’ll be in their starting five for the foreseeable future.

 

On the men’s side of things, the Stingers fared much better against the 7th nationally ranked Gaiters. They took down Bishop’s 79-72.

The scoreline is being a lot nicer to Bishop’s than how the actual game went as the Stingers held a double digit lead for most of the game.

The Stingers played as perfect of a first quarter as a team possibly could, going 14-16 from the field or shooting at 87.5%. Olivier Simon stole the show for the Stingers as he threw down two dunks in the opening quarter — a rarity in RSEQ basketball.

Of course there was regression to the mean for the Stingers in terms of shooting percentage, but they never looked back from that first quarter. Cedric Bryan Coriolan also had one of his best performances as a Stinger, putting up 20 points, going 7 for 12 from the field, including 4/7 from three point range.

This was one of the best full-team performances I’ve ever seen from the basketball team. Here are my takeaways:

  • The Stingers are not a one man team. A lot of people have been counting out this team with the departures of 2018-19 RSEQ MVP Ricardo Monge and Garry Merisier and now it seems like this team has a chip on their shoulder to prove that they still belong in the RSEQ Championship conversation. On Thursday night, four out of the starting five players for the Stingers put up double digit point totals. The offensive depth is something to keep an eye on for the rest of the year as they have some talented players on the bench as well. This group looks poised to make another run at the RSEQ Championship and book themselves another trip to nationals and they proved that last night by taking down the #7 ranked team in the country.
  • While it was an all around great game, it has to be said, Olivier Simon has taken his game to another level this season. It’s only two games into it, but he looks like a man on a mission out there. He didn’t get much playing time in the second quarter, but still put his stamp on the game, putting up a respectable 10 points, and going 5/7 from the field in just 17 minutes of game time. I for one, believe he is worth the price of admission alone, and if he continues this level of play, he will be at the front of the line to pick up RSEQ MVP honours for this season.
  • Lastly, Adrian Armstrong is not just a three-point shooter. In a game where he went 0/5 from three point range, he still put up 14 points going 7/11 from inside the three point line. Armstrong showed off his incredible ball handling skills all game long and did not force any tough looks. Concordia’s version of Ray Allen has added another weapon to his game. He also added six assists to his statline, creating offense from everywhere. This has been a lot of smoke blowing up the Stingers’ behinds, but after a performance like last night’s, praise has to be thrown their way.

 

Photos by Cecilia Piga

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“I just want to play rugby and do my thing”

“Stan’s a thinker: he’s not overly loud, he’s quiet,” said men’s rugby head coach Craig Beemer about what he’s observed of fullback Stanislas Blazkowski his first year as a Stinger. “Obviously, he’s a really talented rugby player. He’s still young so even though he’s already got all these accolades, you can see that he still wants to learn and continue to improve.”

The 21-year-old started playing rugby for the Montreal Rugby Club when he was 11. Before that, Blazkowski played a variety of other sports: hockey, judo, boxing, and soccer among them.

After spending the first few years of his life in Melum, France, Blazkowski’s parents, who had visited Montreal when they were younger and always wanted to live here, finally made the move when Blazkowski was five years old.

“When I [became] a teenager, I didn’t know what culture I should refer to the most, between the French one and the Canadian one, especially while I lived in Montreal and all my family was in France,” said Blazkowski about how it felt living in both countries at various points in his life. “It was kind of tricky, but now I feel Canadian and French at the same time.”

In 2016, Blazkowski moved back to France and played for the Racing Club de Narbonne Méditerannée U22 team. It was a competitive environment and, even though Blazkowski enjoyed it, it unfortunately didn’t work out. This is in part – Blazkowski explained that it was a complicated situation – because the age group he was playing in was lowered by one year, and, despite still having one year of eligibility left, no one recruited him, opting instead for younger players.

Last summer, Blazkowski decided to come back to Montreal to play for the Stingers and attend JMSB as an international business student. “I love traveling, I speak three languages, I want to discover the world,” Blazkowski said. “If I can do this through my job, this would be perfect.”

Coming to Concordia wasn’t a hard decision. During his time in Montreal playing for Team Quebec over the summers while he was still living in France, Blazkowski met coach Beemer. He reached out to the head coach, knowing that Concordia was hosting the 2019 Canadian University Men’s Rugby Championship (Nov. 20-24) and that the men’s rugby team had been successful in past seasons.

Blazkowski also previously played with many other players on the team from Team Quebec and from when he played for various other clubs, such as RC Montréal, Beaconsfield and Town of Mount Royal RFC.

“[Rugby] is the kind of sport where you go to war with people and, after a game, it’s all friends,” Blazkowski said about the sport’s culture, noting the chemistry and bonds he’s built over the years. “What you share on the field, you’ll share off the field too.”

And what they’ve shared on the field is a third consecutive all-win season, claiming the 2019-20 RSEQ Provincial Rugby Championship title on Nov. 9. With a successful year for the Stingers, Blazkowski also had an epic rookie year, and was named to the RSEQ first all-star team.

“He has really high standards. He wants to be improving all the time,” Beemer said of Blazkowski. “He already is a good player but in the two, three years he’s going to be here, he’s going to be a much better player just purely based on his own drive and his willingness to be really really good.”

Despite his obvious talent, for Blazkowski, it doesn’t matter. “I don’t really care about that kind of thing. I just want to play rugby and do my thing.”

Being a full time student isn’t an easy feat for anyone and requires a lot of time management. Playing as a varsity level athlete on top of student obligations doesn’t make things easier. On top of studying international business, rugby training and practice can take up to four hours a day, four days a week, with games on weekends. All this leaves little time for much else, but Blazkowski still manages to enjoy some leisure activities such as reading, watching sports and “hanging out with the boys.”

At the end of the day, regardless of the time and work it takes, or the honours received, Blazkowski just wants to play rugby and wants to try to make it to the highest level he can.

 

Photos by Laurence B.D.

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Photo Spread: Stingers basketball teams sweep UQAM in home opener weekend

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Concordia 1, McGill 0 (OT): Stingers outlast Martlets in hard-fought game

The Stingers improve to 5-0 on the season with a 1-0 overtime win against the McGill Martlets. The team came out of the gate slow, only generating four shots on net while being outplayed by the Martlets.

Please excuse the first period, it didn’t get the memo that this was supposed to be the most exciting game of the year so far for the Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team.

“It wasn’t our best effort today,” said head coach Julie Chu. “The first period McGill dominated us. It was the little details. We weren’t really strong on our sticks, strong on the puck, swarming pucks”

By the time the first period was over, the Stingers had finished what was probably their worst period of play so far in this early season. They couldn’t generate any chances, were turning the puck over in the neutral zone, and not connecting on any outlet passes.

Even so, there were flashes of life, including a Léonie Philbert-Olivia Atkinson 2-on-1 opportunity late in the period, but no true pressure or momentum. Luckily, they managed to hold McGill to mostly outside opportunities, and Alice Philbert didn’t allow any of McGill’s 11 first period shots by her.

“We were having some trouble with our transition break out,” said Chu. “McGill does a good job forechecking, so we didn’t have as much jump. When you don’t attack as a unit, it’s harder to then have as much jump on the offensive forecheck. I think if we make some better efforts in the d-zone and neutral zone, we’ll have more jump in the offensive zone to be able to attack.”

After the dismal first period, both teams started playing the way you would expect from a game between the #1 and #4-ranked teams in the nation.

The game only really started to open up in the second period. The Stingers managed to draw two penalties early in the frame, and rallied off 10 shots in the first six minutes. The team’s powerplay woes continued though, as they went 0-6 on the powerplay. So far this season, they only have two power play goals on 28 chances.

“We’re going to have to take a look, because we got some good looks,” said Chu. “We just need to get that monkey off our backs. You get one in, and you start to get a little more confident. We’ll look at video, just to see how we’re reading the play, what are we creating.”

Going into the third, the speed picked up. As the neutral zone opened up, both teams started generating chances through the neutral zone. Both goalies held strong though. Alice Philbert finished the game with a 35-save-shutout, and McGill’s Tricia Deguire made 41 saves.

Graphic by Matthew Coyte

“I know that my team is capable of scoring,” said Alice Philbert. “The shots tonight were coming from the outside, so for me, that’s easier than those in-close chances.

But for the third time in five games, the Stingers headed to overtime. Both teams went back and forth, but with no real opportunities opening up. It wasn’t until the Stingers drew a penalty that they gathered some momentum. With less than a minute left, it was Amélie Lemay who drove home a 2-on-1 pass from Marie-Pascale Bernier to win the game, scoring the only goal of the night.

“It’s a battle always,” said Chu. “For us, we’re going to stay the course and continue taking it one game at a time. There’s so much hockey left to be played. Ultimately, we want to continue getting better, and we’re going to look at the game tape to see how we can get better for Sunday.”

The Stingers next game is at home on Sunday, Nov. 10 at 3 p.m.

Notes:

  • Damn, the RSEQ is good. There are three teams here that could easily take first place, and it wouldn’t surprise me to see whichever two make it to the national championship dominate some western teams.
  • The power play needs work, but there’s too much talent on the ice for it not to click. Expect this drought to be more of a temporary measure than the norm.
  • Disclaimer that all shot counts and stats are based on my own shot tracking.
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From terrifying to just inaccurate: A look at RSEQ mascots

Stingers mascot Buzz joined the cheerleading team. Photo by Hannah Ewen.

Ah, mascots, the unspoken heroes of sporting events.

Nothing completes a sporting event quite like a giant anthropomorphic monstrosity making their way up the nosebleeds while beating a drum. It’s dangerous work! One wrong step and you can go flailing down the stairs, or you can catch the ire of coaches and players. Let us never forget Harvey the Hound having his tongue ripped out by Edmonton Oilers head coach Craig MacTavish. Gritty has been a bad (good?) hallucination for the better part of a year. In honour of these brave men and women, we took a look at all of the mascots from each Quebec university.

Gaiter – Bishop’s University

Photo courtesy of Bishop’s University

Barney the Dino – I mean, Gaiter, is the giant purple alligator of Bishop’s University. The team name isn’t even named after the animal, but *checks notes* boot coverings? I’m all for taking creative liberties with the mascot, so I guess a purple alligator beats a pair of Timbs hyping the crowd up at games.

No mascot – Université de Montreal

UDEM doesn’t have a mascot, but if they did, it would probably be the personification of the shin splints I get walking up all the stairs on their campus.

Marty the Martlet – McGill University

Photo courtesy of the McGill Athletic Departmen

McGill went the route of basing their mascot off of the bird that graces their university flag instead of the uhhhh… Other name their athletic teams used to go by. The massive red bird wears a vest with the McGill logo on it, which I assume is mandatory for all McGill students and staff. Marty also rocks a fanny pack – unclear yet whether it’s Gucci or Supreme. Instead of pants, Marty goes for a kilt, much to the dismay of anyone looking up. Despite rocking some bold fashion choices, for some reason it’s canon that the mascot’s favourite poutine topping is duck, which I’m still trying to wrap my head around in deciding if that’s badass or terrifying.

Sherlo – Sherbrooke University

I can’t be the only one that only sees Squanch from Rick and Morty right?

Victor – Université de Laval

Laval has been an absolute athletic juggernaut the past 20 years, especially in football, claiming national title after national title. So it makes sense that they’re a little cocky. Victor, the bald eagle mascot of the university, personifies that cockiness to a tee. If I listen carefully, I can hear it telling me “on es les best suce ma bite”.

Buzz – Concordia University

Concordia’s first official mascot, “The Stinger”. Archive photo by Jonas Papaurelis.

Who could forget Buzz. The bug, the myth, the legend. Buzz has been a part of Concordia culture forever. Evolving from nightmare-inducing, to only slightly terrifying, Buzz is a constant at every Stingers game and is pretty reminiscent of that one fever dream you had when you were 7. He’s also the only mascot to not wear anything covering their lower-body like the insect-version of Porky Pig.

I also found this phenomenal Concordia promo video from 2008. And let me tell you, it’s just *chef’s kiss*. Where to even start? The horror-movie-killer-esque first person? The suit and tie? The fact that he’s (still) not wearing any pants? Wherever you tune in, it’s incredible and there are some wholesome moments mixed in there that almost make Buzz not the scariest thing in the world.

 

Feature photo by Hannah Ewen

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Stingers 5, Patriotes 1: Stingers dominate the 7th ranked team in Canada

It’s pretty uncommon for coaches to throw their lines in the blender after a win, but that’s exactly what Marc-André Élement did Friday night.

Hey, whatever works.

The Stingers came out looking great in the first period, moving their feet and battling hard. They were ready for this one.

The Université de Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR) looked good as well – like the 7th ranked team in Canada. However, that didn’t last very long. Just over two minutes into the game, Colin Grannary was sprung on a breakaway by who else than Tyler Hylland, and it was quickly 1-0 for the Stingers.

Photo by Laurence B.D.

Near the end of the period, with the Stingers not spending much time in the Patriotes’ zone, Jean-Philippe Beaulieu sent a behind the back pass to Chase Harwell and it was 2-0 for the Stingers.

Defensively, they did not give UQTR any room to work with. It was all a part of the game plan, says Élement.

“We kept everything on the outside,” said Élement, “I’ll be honest with you, we played a boring game, but that’s what you need to do when you have key injuries in your line up.”

Five minutes into the second period, Loik Léveillé of the Patriotes wired a wrister past Marc-Antoine Turcotte.

2-1. Here we go, we have a game on our hands… or so we thought.

That’s all the Patriotes would get as the rest of the game was the Tyler Hylland show. The Stingers responded with two goals off the stick of Hylland. Hylland, with his three-point performance, poll vaulted himself into a five-way tie for the OUA scoring lead.

But the game didn’t end there, as William Leclerc would also get into the action and net his first goal of the season.

Leclerc was slotted on a line with Harwell and Beaulieu, who have struggled offensively this season, but that trio was one of the Stingers’ best of the night.

We haven’t been [scoring] but we’ve been playing really well,” said Harwell. “It felt really good. This game was a big statement to the league. We could play, and [everyone knows it now].”

With the Stingers’ victory, they are now only one point back of the Patriotes for second place in the OUA East division.

Tonight they face a tough test as they are on the road against the third nationally ranked Carleton Ravens

 

Photos by Laurence B.D.

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Concordia 17 McGill 23: Despite loss, Stingers still manage to squeak into the playoffs

Down by a score with less than a minute left.

We’ve seen this situation before. The Concordia Stingers managed this type of exciting last-minute victory against Sherbrooke a couple weeks ago.

Alas, no resurrection this time.

The Stingers dropped their last regular-season game to McGill 23-17, finishing the year 2-6. But after the Sherbrooke Vert et Or lost to Laval Rouge et Or earlier in the afternoon, the Stingers still claimed the fourth and final playoff spot. They’ll play against defending U Sports champs Laval on Nov. 2.

As for this game, well, the Stingers haven’t made it easy on themselves all season, so why would this game be any different.

Turnovers. Check.

Injuries. Check.

Missed opportunities. Check.

The Concordia-McGill rivalry runs deep, and we saw it out there today. Post-whistle scrums, hard hits, chirping, and lots and lots of penalties.

Head coach Brad Collinson was clearly unhappy with his team’s performance after the game. When asked how he keeps the team grounded, he said all they had to do was “look at the score.”

Yikes.

If you just looked at the offensive stats, you saw some familiar trends to close out the season. James Tyrrell, who despite taking a nasty hit in the first quarter, managed four catches for 75 yards, finishing an incredibly impressive regular season. Rookie phenom Jeremy Murphy led all receivers with six receptions for 100 yards and two touchdown catches.

“I mean, I played a great game,” said Murphy. “But at the end of the day, we didn’t win so I don’t care.”

Finally, the individual performance of quarterback Adam Vance, who went 24/42 for 334 yards, two touchdowns, two interceptions and two fumbles. With that, the American quarterback has surpassed 2,000 passing yards on the season.

The offence struggled to gather momentum until the final minutes of play. A good run? Next play was a fumble. A nice completion? Sike, penalty flag. Luckily for the Stingers offence, its defence was there to bail them out, time and time again.

They held McGill quarterback Dimitrios Sinodinos to 9/22 for 69 yards in the air. Considering how strong Sinodinos has been throughout this season, that’s an impressive feat.

“Defence was the only reason we were in this game,” said Vance. “You gotta tip your cap to them because that’s a good football team. I know it’s discouraging to have to go out and play defence every five minutes, so you gotta respect it.”

Linebacker Sam Brodrique led the way for the Stingers with 7.5 tackles, who along with the nine other seniors, played in his final game at the Stingers Stadium. After playing in last year’s East-West Bowl, Brodrique is one of the top draft-eligible players on this team.

“It’s been great. I’ve had a lot of coaches, a lot of changes,” said Brodrique. “I hope this last change was for the best and I hope the team builds from there. Even though we lost a lot of games this year, we’re a better as a team honestly. I hope they build from that.”

This was a slugfest from start to finish. A long, drawn out affair that didn’t make for great entertainment. Then the fourth quarter. With McGill up by six points, the Stingers began their march downfield. Vance evaded sacks, made great reads, found his receivers, and even made the runs himself. This put his team with a 1st-and-10 on McGill’s 11-yard line with three attempts to win the game. First down, an Adam Vance run for six yards. Second down, an incomplete pass to Tristan Mancini. Third and final down, with only 20 seconds left on the clock, a corner pass to Tyrrell that was knocked out of the air by the McGill corner. Turnover on downs.

No one was happy about the way this game, or this season ended. But at the end of the day, the Stingers are still in the postseason. Speaking of which…

We talking ‘bout playoffs???

The Stingers will take on the Laval Rouge et Or on Nov. 2 in Quebec City. Last time these met, things didn’t go well for the Stingers. The team is hoping for a different result this time around with an RSEQ finals berth on the line.

“Back to the drawing board,” said Vance post-game. “We still have another game, we gotta go back to Quebec City and play a good football game. We’ll sob about this one tonight and get into the film room tomorrow. We got to game plan against them, we’ll probably see something similar because obviously it worked.”

“One of our goals was to make the playoffs,” said Collinson. “Now we just need to go out there and compete.”

“I think today we only played one half,” said Brodrique. “Next game, we gotta focus up and play two halves. Last time we went there, it wasn’t really great. We have to bounce back from that. For the team, having a good game against Laval would be good to follow up and this season. They have a good running game, so we gotta have a great gameplan.”

“We can’t afford to just play one half,” said Murphy. “That’s it. We gotta play better than the last time we played them that’s for sure, we can’t get stomped again.”

Notes:

  • A scary situation with James Tyrrell not being taken out of the game after a clear head-to-head hit. I don’t understand why no one on the sidelines made that call.
  • This year’s senior class included a number of key players, the list is Vance, Tyrrell, Sam Nadon, Zamaad Gambari, Jordan Hurley, Jersey Henry, Sam Brodrique, Gordi Lang, Joel Slavik, Thiery Taillon and Michael Asibuo.

Feature photo by Arianna Randjbar

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Concordia 2 McGill 1 (SO): Stingers win season-opener in marathon match

Sometimes three periods of hockey isn’t enough, and you have to go to overtime.

Then double overtime.

Then a shootout.

That’s what it took for the Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team, as they beat the McGill Martlets 2-1 at McConnell Arena in a shootout in what was a season-opener to remember.

“That was an awesome hockey game,” said head coach Julie Chu after the marathon match. “The whole team played really well. Both teams played really well, both had moments of momentum and moments to take advantage. It was a good hard fought game and we’re really happy for the first one of the season.”

McGill jumped ahead to a 1-0 lead in the second period on a goal from Jade Downie-Landry. The goal came after the Stingers were unable to convert on a pair of back-to-back power plays.

A minute later, the Stingers responded.

On another powerplay, Concordia kept the puck moving, inching forward before defender Brigitte Lagagniére found Rosalie Bégin-Cyr, who fired a wrister past McGill goalie Tricia Deguire. Deguire would make 41 saves throughout the five periods of play.

That would be the only goal on the power play for the Stingers despite getting seven opportunities with the extra attacker, including a four-minute power play that ended with the Stingers spending more time in their end than the Martlet’s.

“Our third period power plays, we needed better energy,” said Chu. “Especially the four minute one. That’s our opportunity to really take advantage of that moment. Because we had that struggle in the first two minutes of the four, we let it affect us. When you’re on the power play, technically, you fail more than you succeed.”

Across the ice, Stingers goalie Alice Philbert was forced to stand on her head a couple of times. Most notably during a botched Stingers power play breakout that led to a breakaway, Philbert stretched her pad and denied the attempt. Philbert ended the game with 32 saves.

“I thought [Philbert] was great,” said Chu of the third-year tendy. “She’s developed into a tremendous level at the university level. Her first year, she came in as a young person who needed to gain some strength and experience. I thought she was really solid today, was calm, made some big saves for us and obviously in the shootout she was really good.”

The Stingers 5-on-5 played well. Veterans like Audrey Belzile used her speed and power to generate more than a few scoring chances. Former Martlet Olivia Atkinson showed flashes of her CWHL-level skill. Rookie Emmy Fecteau was able to dangle through waves of Martlets at times. While there were more than a few solid individual efforts, rookie Léonie Philbert was one to really stand out. Playing both defence and forward at different points of the game, Philbert battled hard along the boards, managed to get a breakaway opportunity and was a general pain in the ass of the Martlets.

After regulation, the game headed to overtime. Both teams went back and forth, and both teams had chances to put the game away, but the goalies said otherwise. So off to a shootout we go.

Fecteau and Atkinson both were unable to score in the shootout. Philbert denied first two shooters as well. It was Bégin-Cyr who finally managed to put the Stingers ahead, snapping a shot five-hole as the third shooter. McGill’s Kellyanne Lecours was than calmly stopped by Philbert, giving the Stingers their first win of the season and putting an end to a low-scoring slugfest of a game.

“It was a really good team win, regardless of it ending up in a shootout,” said Chu.

NOTES

Two things:

  1.  I’m tracking shots and shot location for this upcoming Stingers whky season. It’s not going to be perfect, but should be interesting.
  2. Please inject this type of hockey directly into my veins.

 

Photos by Mackenzie Lad

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“He’s not much of a friend, he’s like family.” Jeff de Wit and Ryan Vandervlis reunite as members of the Stingers

When you think of best friends that have played together on a hockey team, Jeff de Wit and Ryan Vandervlis probably wouldn’t be the first duo to come to mind.

“We work together, we spend almost every day in the summer together,” said de Wit. “We know each other really well. He’s not much of a friend, he’s like family.”

The two Red Deer, Alberta natives haven’t played together since they were 14 years old, back in their hometown as members of the Red Deer Rebels Black Bantam AAA. Seven years later, and 3600 km away from home, they are once again reunited as members of the Concordia Stingers.

Both players were looking for a fresh start and wanted to experience life outside of Alberta, figuring a new city and new experience would be good for them.

“If [Vandervlis] wanted to go to another school, it would’ve been something we had to talk about,” de Wit said. “But I knew for a while that moving away from Alberta would be the right decision for me.”

“I think there were five or six different schools that have reached out, but this is where I wanted to be,” said Vandervlis. “It’s so different out here. There’s a lot more European, a lot more culture.”

Head coach Marc-André Élement is excited about what de Wit will bring to the table, giving the rookie a large offensive role right from the get-go.

“He has a really good game,” said Élement. “He’s a big body, he’ll bring a huge netfront presence for us on the power play.”

De Wit played five seasons in the Western Hockey League (WHL), mostly for the Red Deer Rebels. He played for three teams in his second-to-last season and struggled to find his game, putting up 20 points in 43 combined games. After moving back to the Rebels and making changes to his off-season regimen, de Wit put up a career high 27 goals and 44 points.

The Concordia Stingers are the only school in Quebec to have players from the province of Alberta. The WHL is by no means an untapped market when it comes to recruiting, with most of their players playing in the Canada-West division. But with only four Alberta teams in the division and a load of talent to choose from in the WHL, spots on rosters are limited, so Élement decided to pounce on the opportunity.

“A lot of the schools say the same things to you, so it’s a feel-out process,” said de Wit. “One thing that made it better was [Élement] took time out of his life to fly out to Alberta to see some alumni but still made time to see me and Ryan. It was super nice of him, really personal and it really aided the process.”

The players are excited to play on the same team again. Vandervlis made his debut last Saturday night versus McGill; it was his first time playing competitive, contact hockey in over a year. In June 2018, Vandervlis was involved in a campfire accident where he ended up having approximately 50 per cent of his body burnt.

After the Stingers lost to the Carleton Ravens 2-0 on opening night, Élement decided it was time for Vandervlis to get into the action.

“It was a lot of fun, it’s been a long time coming,” said Vandervlis. “To finally get back out there was awesome.”

Before his accident, Vandervlis played in the WHL as well as a member of the Lethbridge Hurricanes. After struggling in the 2016/17 regular season, Vandervlis broke out in the playoffs scoring eight goals and putting up 14 points in 17 games. The following season was cut short but he still managed to put up 11 goals and 19 points in 19 games.

Last year, after waking up from a medically-induced coma and spending 11 weeks in the hospital, Vandervlis found himself back on the ice playing in the Heritage Junior B Hockey League (HJHL) as a member of the Red Deer Vipers. The 6’3, 212 pound centre was clearly one of the bigger talents in the league, putting up 21 points in nine regular season games, and 10 points in seven playoff games.

With stats like that, the Stingers may have very well found themselves a hidden gem. At first glance of his stats, its fairly evident that he is a big playoff performer. In his debut on Saturday night, Vandervlis looked like he did not skip a beat, slotting into the lineup on the second line and logging a good amount of ice-time.

“He’s an offensive guy so for sure he has to play on [a top] line,” said Élement. “He did a lot of the little things right. The game shape is gonna come, but [overall] he did really well.”

The two Albertans were not just brought in for their scoring abilities, though. De Wit said the best aspect of his game is that he’s a 200-foot player who has a nose for the net but can bring a physical presence when needed. Vandervlis says that his “Hockey IQ” is his greatest strength as it sets him up for success on both ends of the ice.

Vandervlis and de Wit were slotted together on the same line against McGill, but it remains unclear if they will be sticking together long term as they are both listed as centres. For now though, the two are enjoying playing together for the first time since their Bantam AAA day.

“In the summer time we talked about playing together [at Concordia] for a long time,” said de Wit. “It was super cool to see that come to life.”

 

Photos by Cecilia Piga

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