Over the Edge + November 23, 2005 Sports and Clubs 9 The End for University Men’s Rugby Teams Men's rugby still denied a national championship by university Sport bady MALIN JORDAN THE LINK (CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY) MONTREAL, QC. (CUP) — The Concordia Stingers and the McMaster Maurauders won their respective Que- bec and Ontario conference titles, but despite their wins in Montreal and To- ronto, the two two teams wont meet anytime soon to play in a national championship. That's because men’s rugby is not an officially-recognized sport by Canadian Interuniversity Sport. “Tt’'s worse than disappointing — it’s maddening,’ said Stingers men’s rugby coach Clive Gibson, after his team de- feated McGill in the final. “There are some great old programs out there and, more importantly, there is huge poten- tial for growth if it could become a CIS sport.” Michel Bélanger, from CIS Media and Publications, said the idea is to offer, as much as possible, the same number of opportunities to females and males, : So while mens rugby isn't a CIS sport, womens rugby is because of a gender equity issue. It has nothing to do with the number of teams that play (currently women have 188 and men have 168 competing in team sports) or the total number of sports for each gen- der—with women playing in 10 CIS sports and men nine. Instead, it has to do with the number of spaces available to athletes of different genders. Because football has 45 spaces for males to play, this has to be evened out by adding more women's sports—even though they have more teams. “They're asking for gender equity, but I'm asking where the equality is for us?” said Gibson. He said it's tough for stu- dent athletes when two or three other male sports get dropped because foot- ball takes up so many places, Hailing form Quebec City, Jason Rhee, a third-year Civil Engineering student and current member of the Stingers rugby team, said he knows the why and how of it, but says it’s dis- heartening. “Its a shame, alot of guys miss out on some great opportunities,’ Rhee said. “I'm not taking anything away from the girls; I just think maybe [the CIS] should base it on the number of teams “instead of spaces.” McGill Redmen’s rugby ith Sean McCaffrey said he understands the politics behind the decision. “Tes still frustrating. A lot of univer- sities have long rugby traditions and I think it deserves a shot at a national championship-’ McGill first played rugby against Harvard in 1874 and has played them every year since, Gibson noted the CIS just voted through their next cycle of sports which starts in 2006 and lasts five years. “Id obviously like to see it as a CIS sport, but it's not going to happen until at least 2012,” he said. - According to Bélanger, curling was the only sport to make the cut and will start in fall 2006. He also said golf was 100 per cent in, but they pulled out at the last minute in order to work on adding more womens programs. Along with golf, rugby and curling, the other sports to apply were baseball, ringette, cycling and rowing. The CIS added women's hockey in 1997 and women's rugby in 1998 when the issue of gender equity began to rise, Gibson explained that the CIS uses a point system to determine which sports stay in and what sports get put out. The system is based on a variety of criteria, including the marketing of the sport, the current participation at the university and lower levels, as well as the coaching, officials and facilities available, Men's rugby placed sixth out the 14 applicant sports in points for the last CIS review. This placed men's rugby ahead of men's and women's wrestling (eighth), women's rugby (ninth) and women's field hockey (11th) — all cur- rent CIS sports. The Program Renewal Final Report by CIS concluded: “Rugby (men’s), ranked number six, was eligible to be selected, however it was passed over due to gender equity balance issues. Men's Rugby would have added 150 male roster spots. In order to have a gender balanced program the Board was looking to add a Championship opportunity that offered roster spots for women, therefore it proceeded to a lower ranked sport.” “We're scoring higher right across the board and unfortunately we're not be- ing rewarded for it,’ Gibson said. “We finish ahead of other sports—we have the last two reviews—but we lost out on both occasions to gender equity.’ Gibson said it’s the athletes that suf- fer. “The result is that we can't run proper men's programs at a lot of universities.” Gibson stressed, however, that he can't say enough for the Athletics Depart- ment at Concordia. “They support us 110 per cent, but not all universities are the same.” In fact, only Quebec and Ontario compete provincially in university rugby leagues. In Atlantic Canada and out west, they don’t even have a men's rugby league since they only compete in CIS sports, That's not to say university ball isn't played in those places, as there is much rugby ae in the west and back east. Bélanger understands the plight of one of the oldest sports in this country, and says if there was a way they could have a special rule for football, like counting it as a 15 or 20-man roster, then it could allow the CIS to welcome a sport like men's rugby. He said an outsider may ask, “How CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY / CANADIAN UNIVERSITY PRESS does it make sense? Isnt there more male rugby teams than women’s rugby teams across Canada?” The CIS mission statement is to“En- tich the educational experience of the athlete through a national sport pro- gram that fosters excellence.’ One of their sporting values is-“Integrity and fair play.’ The former falls under the CIS's re- sponsibility and the latter is for the ath- letes to achieve. The athletes exemplified their end of the deal, after Concordia defeated McGill in the Quebec final on Nov. 6. Both teams, both coaches, and numerous fans from both sides all went out together after the game to celebrate the end of a season. The Vaguely-Themed Sports Ramble Strikes Back PHOTO SUBMITTED TYLER CLARKE SPORTS AND CLUBS EDITOR There are too many sports that are basically the same, Put the ball in the net / past the goal line, make the ball touch the ground, put the puck in the net... it all seems very simple, with little to no thinking required. That's why my friends and I invented sign changing. Well, no. It isn't why we invented sign changing. It's not why we invented sign changing at all ...sign changing... I was just trying to justify this topic enough as being sports-related in order to have this article fill up space on my sports/ clubs page. The real reason we started sign chan- ging was that, as my friend Devin King puts it, “we wanted to show off to the cool kids.’ What is sign changing, you ask? Summed up in one word, it is findin- gasignwithchangablelettersandthen- rearrangingtheletterstosaysomethin- ghumerousormildlyamusing. I consider a sport, as it involves phys- ical activity, what with the running away when you see vehicles and when people yell at you, saying they've called the cops. The first sign changing expedition I took part in happened in Arborg, Mani- toba, roughly two years ago. It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. Worst, because the local church had just started locking the sign up, thanks to my friend Mat's sign change the week before, changing it to say “Jesus NS Hitler” Best, because we came up with some hilarious potential changes: “Jesus could dance” taking the lead in hilarity. We considered taking bolt cut- ters to the lock, but decided against it, as that is considered vandalism... ac- tual vandalism. We didn't consider sign changing vandalism, as we don't take or break anything. The most successful night of sign changing took place two summers ago, when my friend Kris and my brother Ryan made an expedition to Riverton, Manitoba. There were three signs in a row off of the highway, and we changed all of them, using all the letters but one 0. True, the last sign ended up saying oof donkless / No tit beasts,’ but a few made up words are commonplace in this sport. Last summer was also successful, with “I am Iron Man” topping the list of funny sign changes, This sport is only recommended to those profusely immature, and to those who wouldn't mind getting a ride in’a police car for ~ doing something incredibly stupid... basically, morons.