4 Sports and Clubs Kwantlen Men Show Heart at UNBC: But No Heart Category on Scoreboard ANDREW BAILEY EDITOR IN CHIEF A huge crowd was in at- tendance during the Men's first home game of the year. It was standing room only for those who came late to the T-Wolves matchup against the Kwantlen University- College Eagles. Standing was worth it however, as the T-Wolves gave their home crowd a ton to cheer about in their 101-79 routing of the Eagles. Although 101-79 is an impressive margin for the T- Wolves to have achieved, I cannot say enough about the grit and determination that the Eagles displayed in the Charles Jago Northern Sports Centre. They only brought six players to compete against the UNBC men, one of the best basketball programs in the BCCAA with the notori- ously biggest home crowd noise levels, Playing against a team with infinite depth in a hugely pro-UNBC environ- ment with only one sub on the bench seems completely impossible to me, yet somehow the Eagles managed to stay in the game up until just a few minutes left in the 4 quarter when they finally broke down and UNBC’s lead magnified. The first half saw the very outmatched Eagles playing lost, undisciplined defense committing a ton of fouls and leaving their spots wide open for easy T-Wolf buckets. ‘The biggest mismatch on the floor was Kwantlen’s 6'6” Forward Kevin Kokoska who was clearly not up to the challenge of marking the 6'10” frame of UNBC first year post Kevan Madsen. Madsen is listed at 6'9” but if that’s his actual height I'm a bobsledding champion, The kid plays at least 7 feet tall, Being completely outmatched by your mark from the first whistle on, whilst having no one on the bench to sub you out, must have been crippling to Kokoska’s motiva- tion. However he, like the rest of the Eagles, never quit and played the entire game, giving his maximum effort on every play. The Eagles were obviously never going to win this game, there was never a time when they achieved any type of momentum, and the patented UNBC full court press kept their offense scrambling and ineffective. But they were sure fun to watch as they tirelessly tried to keep up and stay in the game under the leadership of point guard Doug Meyers who illustrated an incredible maturity and immaculate basketball IQ considering it's just his first year at this level of basketball. Kwantlen managed to stay within 10 points of the T-Wolves up until about halfway through the 4 quar- ter when fatigue finally caught up with them and the T- Wolves were able to run away with the game, despite a rare off night for new UNBC superstar Jose Araujo who did not have his usual 3-ball precision. Coach Raimbault showed mad respect for the Eagles by keeping his start- ers on the court until the final minute, despite leading by twenty points. So although the score signals otherwise, this was a truly exciting game to witness. As is becom- ing tradition, UNBC megathlete Indebir Singh Gill was named the T-Wolf player of the game while Varinder Singh, Kwantlen’s 2™ year forward took the honours for the Kwantlen men, UNBC Young Democrats get into High Gear TYLER CLARKE CONTRIBUTOR After a few years of stagnation within their group, the UNBC Young Democrats have become active again, as exemplified January 15th during a presentation on the HST. “We want to chip away at youth apathy with regards to politics,” the group's presidential co-chair Jonathan Van Barneveld said during the HST presentation at UNBC. “We want to get more of a voice on campus. I'm sick of students saying they didn’t want to vote.’ Some issues, Van Barneveld told the fittingly small affect everyone and is therefore a shift away from taxing the rich more than the poor. “The little person is having to pay on a slew of things they didnt previously have to,’ Austen concluded, in that HST conglomerates the GST and PST into one tax, re- sulting in most things previously exempt from PST to now be charged the provincial tax. The timing to announce the new tax, without public consultation, and just after an election wherein it was never mentioned beforehand, is also dubious, Austen argues. “I think where people are told that three weeks after ‘That said, if in February the HST comes through parliament, this tax shift will increase taxes for both low income and higher income residents to the same degree audience (note the apathy hed mentioned) are felt strong- ly about by the NDP, and more specifically the UNBC Young Democrats, which will be addressed on campus. The topic at hand January 15th was HST, Van Barn- eveld explained, due to the fact that it's to cause a strain on life on all British Columbians and because it’s to have an effect on the environment. Whereas environmentally- friendly products were PST free in the past, they're to be included in the HST in the future. “It eliminates incentives to switch consumption to a more environmental way,’ he explained. Skeena MLA Robin Austen came out East to attend the event and share his personal view on the proposed HST. “T think taxes on a whole are a good thing,’ Aus- ten clarified.“I’m not one to lower and lower taxes to the point where the government cant do anything.” That said, if in February the HST comes through parliament, this tax shift will increase taxes for both low income and higher income residents to the same degree. Whereas income taxes can be levied against higher-in- come people more than lower income people, who can be exempt from taxation, consumption taxes such as HST an election this change will take place, it is not fair,’ he said. “We're going to be stuck with this unless there's a big fuss.” Although the tax shift has gone through the federal level, politicians still have to vote it in when parliament comes back into session in February. Therefore, there's still time to convince politicians to vote against it, al- though Austen admits that it’s unlikely that Liberal polit- icians will vote against it, considering it would cost them their jobs. “It's important for people to get engaged. If this is passed in the next session it'll be with us for the rest of our lives... We can change the percentage of the tax in five years, but we can't do more than that,’ Austen said. Austen, and fellow NDP MLAs Gary Coons, Doug Donaldson and Bob Simpson, will join the UNBC Young Democrats Thursday January 21 for a wine and beer tast- ing at the Twisted Cork downtown on 5* Avenue from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. Tickets are $40 each. For more informa- tion, phone 962-2020 or 614-6425. January 27, 2010 + Over the Edge T- Woes Cover Ample Spread Against Eagles ANDREW BAILEY EDITOR IN CHIEF After starting off the year by winning back- to-back against Camosun Col- lege, the Women’s UNBC T-Wolves won their first home game of 2010 fashion defeating the Kwantlen University- College Eagles 80-54. Christine Kennedy kept the elec- trifying T-Wolf offense firing on all cylinders and UNBC’s famously tenacious full court press had the Eagles scrambling to get anything going all game. road games in blowout With Kennedy's amazing energy wearing down op- posing point-guards and Kady Dandeneau’s three- point range becoming automatic, the T-Wolves are putting together yet another successful season of BCCAA basketball. The eventual blowout lead didn’t start to build until the 2°4 quarter, leaving fans with a tremendous- ly exciting 1* quarter of basketball that saw UNBC’s defense hold the Eagles to just two points for the first four minutes, Kwantlen then landed 14 unanswered points on the back of Eagle guard Taminder Dhali- wal who showcased amazing range with her jumper and quick feet on defense which lead to several steals in the span of five minutes. During this scoring spree by the Eagles, the T- Wolves displayed some of the coldest shooting I have ever seen produced in the Charles Jago Northern Sports Centre. Maria Neumann, playing her third season in a T-Wolf uniform, was particularly icy to start off the game, throwing up enough bricks from inside the offensive paint to make Lionel Richie jeal- ous. The Commodores are still topical, yeah? UNBC megathlete Kady Dandeneau also had an uncharac- teristically frosty start to Friday's match as she could not seem to buy three points during the first quarter, at one point she actually put up a 3-bomb that hit nothing but air. All the while Christine Kennedy was doing her best Rasheed Wallace, as a Celtic, impres- sion by ignoring open lanes and throwing up count- less 3-point-attempts which were successful in pun- ishing the rim with great tenacity but never lead to any actual points. The one bright spot to this otherwise dismal quar- ter was the surprisingly aggressive play of UNBC first-year forward Emily Kaehn, who has developed such a sneaky-effective rebounding prowess on both defensive and offensive boards, that she has earned the official name GingerSnake, Yeah, I know, Ginger- Snake isn’t my best work, she has red hair and re- bounds like Rodman. But it already happened, I've unleashed it, and none of y'all have a time machine to take it back, so consider it official until this paper's next sports writer comes up with something better. Things did not improve at the start of the second quarter either. During the first five minutes of the ou quarter, countless passes were rifled to player- less spaces, air-balls were abundant, and even the refs missed a blatant foul by Kwantlen guard Emily Wright who literally wrapped her arms around Christine Kennedy's torso to prevent her from run- ning to the rock. However, as was inevitable, Dan- deneau got hot, and started nailing shots with her usual precision, Neumann’ put backs began hitting, and Kennedy remembered she's a ball-movement specialist, not a shooting guard with 3-point range and UNBC'’s fast paced, devastatingly efficient of- fense was back on display, as if the first 15 minutes had been a bad-dream, The T-Wolves turned a 12 point lead at the half into a 30 point lead by the start of the fourth quar- ter while the Eagle defense stood around dazed and completely helpless against UNBC’s arsenal of long range 3-bombers and powerful lane cruis- ers. Taminder Dhaliwal won the player of the game award for Kwantlen while Dandeneau took the hon- ours for UNBC, Ski Races at Purden Hill KALI FLICK GENERAL OFFICE ASSISTANT Even with the warm weather, Purden Ski Village received 17cm of new snow on Friday, January 15“. This set up the following weekend with excellently groomed conditions to host the first northern race of the sea- son. The Prince George Alpine Ski Club accompanied with the Nancy Greene Ski League held a two day event over the weekend of January 23/24. As the first race of the year in Prince George, the hometown club had high hopes for racers and volunteers, On Saturday, Jan. 23“ there was one single run, slalom race in the morning followed by training in the afternoon. In this race only E2’s (ages 9 & 10) and K1's (ages 11 & 12) were eligible to participate. On Sunday, Jan. 24 there was a Nancy Greene Ski League Race sponsored by Rio Tinto Alcan, This race involved children from various Nancy Greene programs from ages 6 to 13, There were participation medals for all the children. Volunteers of the event were provided with a lunch, as well as those helping on skis, and were provided with a day pass to use while volunteering, Mel McMillan was the Technical Delegate, Jim Martin the Chief of Race, Stuart Garins the Chief of Course — assisted by Keon Kirby, Kerry Reimer the Chief of Timing, and Audrey Rowell the Race Secretary, Without the help of these key volunteers, races such as this one would not be possible. On behalf of the Prince George Alpine Ski Club, we would like to thank all of the volunteers and racers for participating this past weekend.