Canadians go March mad

By Kaleigh Rogers
kroger7@uwo.ca

Every year around this time, a certain strain of spring fever sets in: March Madness. From coast to coast across the United States, it seems everybody has a stake in the National Collegiate Athletic Association men’s division one basketball championship — and it’s spread to Canada, too.

The annual event is the preeminent competition for college basketball in the United States and it seems everyone—from die-hard sports fanatics to those who can’t tell Vandy from Vancouver—starts placing their bets, entering pools and filling out brackets to predict who will win the tournament.

“When you have the president of the United States filling out a bracket, I think that really tells you the scope that we’re talking about,” said Greg Sansone, vice-president operations for The Score television network.

“It’s actually hard to believe that any collegiate or university sport can make it to the mainstream like it is has in the United States, especially as it relates to March Madness.”

While The Score doesn’t air current NCAA championship games, the network airs memorable March Madness games from the past with notable players including Michael Jordan.

Every year, a few Canadian-born players in the tournament are highlighted by Canadian media, but at the end of the day, this is an American competition and a college one at that. So, why the hype north of the border?

“It’s the bracket. It’s being able to have a personal investment in what you’re watching,” Sansone explained.

Coach Brad Campbell cheers on his team at a Western University men’s basketball game. Photo by Corey Stanford

“Most people couldn’t tell you Creighton from Alabama and their basketball teams over the course of the regular season. But if they have bracket in front of them, they’re going to circle one of those teams and all of a sudden have a vested interest in it. That’s what makes all the difference in the world.”

While exact figures for the number of Canadians tuning in to the championship are difficult to pin down, the number of hours devoted to coverage of the tournament speaks to its popularity. Full commentary and coverage of the championship can be found on The Score, TSN, and sports segments on CTV and CBC newscasts.

Even those involved with university athletics find themselves intrigued by the tournament south of the border.

“I would consider it one of the best events in sports, period,” said Brad Campbell, coach of the men’s basketball team at Western University.

“Basketball is an exciting sport at the collegiate level where basically every game in the tournament, if you lose, you go home. I think that adds a lot of excitement, intensity and immediacy to the games.”

He also noted the nature of the tournament lends itself to more attention as many future professional basketball players get their start—even are scouted—in this championship. But basketball buffs aren’t the only ones caught up in the madness. Campbell said this is because of the nature of the tournament.

“The universal appeal is the underdog. Every year you can see there are always underdog victories. … Non-basketball people can relate to that and it just makes for a very exciting atmosphere.”

But despite the popularity of March Madness, for some, the real excitement remains above the 49th parallel—future NBA-ers or no.

“I find the storylines north of the border extremely exciting and that’s where I invest my time and interest. There’s no shortage of great stories to tell,” said Marg McGregor, CEO of Canadian Interuniversity Sport.

“Canadians are kind of self-deprecating and there’s a misconception that if it’s south of the border it must be better, which I don’t subscribe to at all.”

A splashing good time!

The Reporter
24 hours in London: 6 a.m.–8 a.m.

By Kaleigh Rogers
kroger7@uwo.ca

As the sun comes up in London and most people are still in bed, one downtown building is bustling with an unlikely energetic crowd.

“If we knew you were here, we would have gone au natural,” quips one participant when he spies a student journalist, the only fully clothed person in the room.

It’s the 7 a.m. aquafit class at the Waterloo Street location of the YMCA of Western Ontario and the students are restless because the instructor is missing in action. As they bide their time in the whirlpool, the lifeguard on duty, 18-year-old Mo Nabavieh, prepares to teach the class himself.

“I’ve never done this before,” he admits as he raises the floor of the pool and pulls barrels of foam pool noodles out of a storage closet. A few moments later, the 80’s soft jams are cranked and the three participants who decided to stick around are easing into the pool.

“This is cold compared to the soup bowl,” jokes 66-year-old Brian Bouckley. A retired insurance broker, he tries to make it to the class five times a week. He says the water puts less pressure on his joints while still allowing for a challenging workout.

“It’s become my primary exercise. I have arthritis so I have some issues with joints and the water is good resistance,” he says.

“It supports our bodies so that it’s not as hard on the knees and the ankles where as if I was up in the gym I’d be dead.”

Today, first-time teacher Nabavieh is putting them through their paces. He starts out easy with standing leg lifts and an underwater skiing motion, but after a half hour the class switches from light aquafit to deep aquafit, which means it’s time to get moving.

The students start to walk and run through the water around the perimeter of the pool. Nabavieh doesn’t hold back – he does each exercise along with them from the deck, walking and jogging along the edge.

The class slowly starts to fill out at this point, topping out at around 20 participants—half male, half female. They make their way into the pool, shedding towels, flip flops, and the occasional walker or cane before joining in. The participants are a noticeably older crowd—one woman pauses to chat and says this is “the old people class”—but you’d never know it from their high energy.

Nabavieh keeps everyone entertained and the blood pumping with a mix of standing and running exercises and stretches, from leg lifts using a pool noodle for resistance to arm-swinging power walks through the water. It’s a full body workout for all involved.

“Being in the water gives you a different resistance than you would get in the gym,” Nabavieh explains. “Some of the exercises don’t work unless you’re in the water, so there’s a benefit from that.”

It’s not purely a physical activity, Nabavieh says, but a social one as well.

“All of (the students) know each other. It’s kind of like you’re always with your friends.”

This is evident by the chatter and laughs that fill the pool during the class. No one is afraid to joke with one another—or with the reporter—while enjoying the benefits of physical activity.

The social side is something Nabavieh can relate to himself. He’s been coming to the YMCA since he was a six-month-old baby. To him, it’s a second home that feels more like play than work—even on days like today, when he has to start his shift at 5:15 a.m.

“It’s not really going to work,” he says. “It’s going to the Y. I love it here.”

Kaleigh hits production team

Kaleigh Rogers

Kaleigh Rogers is hitting The Reporter production team this week! They’re working on the theme “24 hours in London.” Everyone has been assigned a two hour chunk of the day, where they cover something that happened during that time. She’ll be working hard to gather everyone’s story, edit, and put the next issue up on the web!

Jury still out on ‘victory lap’

By Kaleigh Rogers
kroger7@uwo.ca

The “victory lap” has recently been met with mixed reviews. A common practice for many secondary school students in Ontario—returning for a fifth year after graduation—scarcely happens in the rest of the country. After the fifth year was questioned in a recent provincial report, students and educators have expressed diverse views on whether or not this practice is a beneficial opportunity for students or just fiscally wasteful.

“When I first came to Ontario in 2004, people said, ‘Our kids aren’t mature enough to go to university after Grade 12,’ ” Ben Levin, the Canada research chair at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, said.

“But, of course, they’re mature enough everywhere else in the world.”

Levin said this trend is a hangover from Ontario’s Grade 13, only truly phased out in 2003 with the end of the Ontario Academic Credit program. But recently, the practice of returning for a fifth year—whether to improve grades, pick up additional courses or in fact mature—has been questioned.

High school students take a break from class outside Sir Wilfrid Laurier Secondary School in London, Ontario.

Earlier this month, economist Don Drummond released a list of commissioned recommendations on ways to rein in Ontario’s public spending. On the chopping block was the trend of students returning to high school after having already earned enough credits to graduate. According to the report, 14 per cent of Ontario students take a victory lap after graduating, costing the province money. Drummond recommended Ontario place a cap at 32 high school credits—two more than are required to graduate—and charge a fee for any additional credits, in order to curb the costs of students who decide to stick around.

According to Levin, the average cost of a year of secondary education in Ontario is $10,000. He said the costs of students returning for a fifth year after having already graduated outweigh the benefits.

“It’s clear to me that, given the choice, we ought to be using that money to help more kids graduate in the first place.”

But not everyone shares Levin’s outlook.

“It really depends on the path that students wish to take and sometimes they’re not exactly sure by Grade 11,” Karen Wilkinson, a superintendent with the Thames Valley District School Board, said.

The board includes 28 secondary schools across southwestern Ontario. There, the number of students returning for a fifth year after graduation is consistent with the rest of the province, sitting at around 13.5 per cent, according Wilkinson. She said she doesn’t necessarily see an extra year of school as a problem.

“I do think that it is appropriate for students in the system to have the opportunity to come back and take additional credits or upgrade marks or fit something different into their program that they hadn’t been able to fit in previous to that year.”

That’s what first-year Fanshawe College student Paige Twining did. She stayed back for a fifth year of high school in order to participate in the co-operative education program, where students get work placements to test out different fields.

Currently, she’s studying pre-health and hoping to advance into Fanshawe’s medical radiation technology program. Her co-op placement allowed her to work in the imaging department at her hometown hospital.

“Especially with the co-op, I’m glad that I took the victory lap,” Twining said. “I got more knowledge and reassurance of what I wanted to go away to school for.”

Still, the majority of Ontario students don’t opt to hang around after graduation—but it may catch up with them later.

Cassie Jorgenson, a student at Western University, started her post-secondary education after graduating from a fast-track program at a private high school in Hamilton. Combined with a fall birthday, Jorgensen found herself diving headfirst into university studies at the age of 16.

“I managed it fine because I had a lot of self-motivation to do work. Was it stressful? Yes, definitely,” she said, but added instead of a fifth year of high school, she ended up taking a fifth year of university.

“It was too hard. I felt very overwhelmed to finish my undergrad in four years, even though I could have with the amount of credits I had.”

Ben Levin, a researcher at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, believes the victory lap is a poor use of provincial funding.

But for Ben Levin, the bottom line remains: on a tight budget, the money spent on students who, for one reason or another, hang around after graduation could be better placed.

“It isn’t should we do this or not. It’s should we do this, or should we do something else with the money,” he said.

“It’s not that a fifth year is a bad thing. Many things are good things, but we don’t finance them.”

Life’s no beach during break

Kaleigh Rogers
kroger7@uwo.ca

Western University student Nicole Gibillini will most likely get a tan this spring break—a farmer’s tan, that is.

She won’t be lying on a beach or sipping fruity drinks. Instead, she’ll spend 24 hours travelling by bus, followed by four days of manual labour in the hot Louisiana sun. And she’s not being paid—in fact, she’s paying for the chance to do it.

“It is a big sacrifice to do it,” Gibillini said. “But it’s a good opportunity. I’ve gone away for reading week before and I just wanted to do something different.”

Photo from Brenna Staats; Western students helped repair a school in Peru during last year’s Alternative Spring Break.

Gibillini, a fourth-year political science student, is one of dozens of students who are participating in the Alternative Spring Break program at Western this year. The program sends groups of students, faculty and staff each year on volunteer excursions across the globe during their time off in February. Trips this year include teaching orphans in the Dominican Republic, offering medical aid in Panama, and building houses in New Orleans—where Gibillini is headed.

The trips ask a lot of the participants. They cost a hefty fee (the New Orleans trip is around $900, but others go as high as $2,500) and require a commitment to doing physical work throughout their reading week. Students wishing to take part in the experience have to pass a rigorous screening test to make sure they’ve got what it takes, said Gibillini.

Kim Solga, an English professor at Western, was a team leader on an ASB trip to Peru three years ago. She said she and the two other team leaders spent a full day selecting the students for their trip, noting it takes a special kind of person to go on these excursions.

“It takes a student who is willing to—and who has the emotional and mental capacity to—take a real risk and step outside their comfort zone,” she said.

“Every student who goes on ASB needs to understand we might be doing service work but we’re doing it in exchange for an experience that is probably of equal value, if not more.”

Along with all the physical stress of living without creature comforts in a land far from home for a week, and the difficult manual labour using limited supplies, the trips can be emotionally humbling and genuinely eye opening for students with a more privileged background, Solga said.

That was true for Brenna Staats, who also went to Peru with ASB last year.

“One of the lasting impressions I still think of now is getting to see how people in an entirely different culture live.”

Staats said she was nervous going into the trip, but by the time she came back it was at the top of the list of her most memorable and life-changing experiences of university.

Just a week away from her departure, Gibillini is nervous, but excited.

“Right now, I’m just trying to get all my schoolwork done because I have three assignments due the week I get back,” she said.

“I think going somewhere else and actually experiencing what I’ve been learning about is going to open my eyes and really make my educational experience more worth-while than just sitting in a classroom.”

The Reporter Highlights from February 14th

Kaleigh Roger’s Life’s no beach during break

Chloe Berge’s Dancers fight domestic violence

And Adam Wightman’s The joys of winter gardening

Good job everyone!!