Saturday,. April 18, 1992 I don’t think Sally Willis really needs to defend the athletic program at Selkirk College. Then again, there is some question as'to why Willis chose to run the sports she did as opposed to other sports that are arguably more popu- lar in this area. So I figured it was time to don my ‘Tm a tough journalist’ hat this week and put a few pointed questions to the first-year athletic director. Actually, the inspiration for this column came from SHSS vice princi- pal Jack Closkey, who asked me most of the tough questions I asked Willis. ) In a nutshell then, how come Selkirk College put a large chunk of its athletic budget into sports like cross-country running; rowing and what was essentially beer-league bas- ketball and soccer? Point being, that there a lot of tal- ented high school athletes in this area in sports like basketball, soccer, swim- ming and golf who just won’t go to Selkirk because it doesn’t offer those sports. Well, after talking to Willis at some length Wednesday I came away convinced she is probably not fit for her job. I mean, the way she deftly and in- telligently handled the tough ques- tions was refreshing. How she rolled with the punches and came back with accurately placed counters of her own was impressive. The way she dodged potential bullets with style and wit made me smile. Willis shouldn't be slaving away in college athletics, she should be running the country! Then again, maybe she’s overqualified for that job too. Sharp as a tack and as nice as they come, Willis had my tough-guy jour- nalist hat sitting in my lap faster than my grandmother could say ‘take that thing off in the house.’ If she isn’t re- ally this good, she sure knows how to fool the press. But don’t take my word for it, listen for yourself. So Sally, why do you do the things you do? : For starters, she said, money , as al- ways, is a major factor reining in the discretionary powers of any athletic director. “There’s a lot of different things happening (in the B.C. Colleges Ath- letic Association) with the budget and the sports awards programs that are sort of leading us to try different things and be innovative with what we've got,” said the 28-year-old, who holds a Masters Degree in Exercise Physiology. Judging by her choices, being inno- vative to Willis meant stretching the Willis is doing all the right ‘Free Agent athletic buck to the limit in trying to offer something for every student in the school. Even if the sports aren’t exactly athletics by definition (in that most weren’t part of an intercollegiate format) I can’t argue with her direc- tion. “The big thing that we wanted to do is get greater participation from the overall student campus, we just don’t want to try and serve a couple of stu- dents who want to play this one sport.” And when faced with a question of why popular local sports in the com- munity like skiing and basketball are essentially not available at the com- petitive level at Selkirk College, Willis basically said ‘hold your horses.’ It’s not that the College is con- sciously opposed to running such pro- grams , she said, it’s just that it takes" things time to set up quality programs and she isn’t about to jump into a slip-shod operation. (Are you listening Mr. Mul- roney?) “If we do it, I want to do it well, I don’t want to do a half-cracked job at a whole bunch of things. If we’re going to start something we want to start it from the beginning and do it very well.” And it’s not like Willis is sitting up there in her ivory tower dictating the athletic program to suit herself. She’s been out in the community, she’s talked to those who want changes and she’s moving toward a program that can accommodate them. “We know skiing is very popular, we know swimming is popular we're starting to investigate these things be- cause that’s what we want to do, we want to run what people are involved in. Willis, to her credit, won’t make wholesale changes to a good program just because some don't agree with her philosophy. “I don’t have any regrets, I think anything that happens throughout the year you take the positive things and you learn from the negative things, and you try and keep building and making your program better.” Hey Sally, if you ever consider run- ning for office, you’ve got my vote. Chad Coupland Wayne McCarthy The Grade continued from page 15 Ettles was the major building block on a team that came within a game of making the Mark MacConnell - Awards evade local champs NEWS STAFF Asa team Castlegar Realty won all the marbles in the Trail Men’s Basketball League. But individually the players were almost shut out last week at the League's awards night. “But when you think about off title, the club’s second straight, over any individual recognition. “With the exception of Lou, who played well all year, we did not have a good regular season, but our team just turned it right around when it came to the playoffs.” ‘the -season_we__had, that __Reallty finished the season doesn’t surprise me at all,” said Wayne McCarthy, who was one of two Realty players i at the banquet. Named Most . Valuable Player in the playoffs, Mc- Carthy won Realty’s only ma- " tealty’s Lou Cicchetti icchetti was named to the League's all-star with a 7-8 record but won five Cody Dunham was named straight on the way to -the championship. The team Realty beat to win the championship, Rock Island Tape Centre, picked up most of the awards with league scoring leader Mark MacConnell picking up a pair of honors. MacConnell, who led the the league with an average of | 27 points per game, was named Most Valuable Player and an all-star, while Rock Is- land’s Barry Baker was Rook- ie of the Year and an all-star. Last year’s scoring leader and MVP, Chad Coupland, was an all-star for Victoria Place as was his teammate Ed Canzian. The Flying Steamshovel’s Most Sportsmanlike, while his teammate John Dennison rounded out the selections to the all-star team. Troy Colautti of Victoria Place was named the Most Im- proved player. The League also honored veteran official and builder Terry Coombs, who was given a plaque for his years of dedi- provincial championship for a fourth straight year. But of all the success they. achieved on the field of sport, perhaps what they were most successful at, according tq Willis, was an acrobatic jug- gling act with athletics on one hand, academics on the other. She said Small and Ettles represent the realization of the goal of the College’s ath- letic program. “Basically it was what we call striving for excellence in balancing both their aca- demics and athletics, and see- ing the value that they get out of athletics as part of their overall education I, think that’s neat because I think that they are really good role models for, say, high school students coming up. “In terms of the College, we're nurturing that type of __ person, or that’s what we’re trying to do,” Willis said. Another cross-country run- ner, Chris Owens, was a two- time winner at the awards night, taking the Jim Snook Memorial Award and the com- bined Leadership/Most Im- proved on his team. Other two-time winners in- cluded Rob Matjasic, who was named most dedicated player on the soccer team — he shared it with Will Gill— and Sally Willis Rookie of the Year on the vol- leyball team. Anna Riggio won the Peter Lemon Endowment and was named the top female Cam- pus Rec Participant. Kim Verigin and Darrell Brownlee were the first-ever winners of the Significant Contribution to Student Life Award, which was added to the ceremony this year. Brownlee was also named the soccer team’s Most Valu- able player. In women’s volleyball, Hol- ly Relkoff was named Most Valuable Player, while Castle- gar native Sherry Makortoff was Rookie of the Year and Keri Cullinane received the Striving for Excellence Award. 175 por a sis : MENS CLL ee ST Te News photo The Castlegar Men’s Curling Club honored club builder and former player George Wilson (R) by nam- ing him Curler of the Year at the Castl legar Curling Club Thursday night. Wilson was given a plaque in recognition of his years of dedication and support to the club by club member Jim Draper. NEWS STAFF The Castlegar Men’s Curl- ing Club did things a little dif- ferently when it came time to hand out its top honor this year. Instead of choosing from a pool of players who won a bunch of bonspiels, or those who collected a lot of trophies and cash, the club decided to recognize a person who made all those things possible in the first place. George Wilson, a Club founder and a major force in MORE _ WEEK will be published on Saturday, getting the curling club built, was named Curler of the Year by the Club at its awards cere- mony Thursday night. “Well, it embarrasses me a little, but it’s OK,” said Wilson, 84, as he prepared to accept the award. Men’s Club member Jim Draper presented Wilson with a plaque in recognition of his years of service and dedication and contributions to the club and the game. “What happens is you only have the recognition of the NIUSON people who win. We think George is a winner so we de- cided to do it this way this year,” Draper said. “He provided all the time, commitment, he was on all the committees. For the bonspiels he put the food on, got the en- tertainment, made sure the bar was tended, made sure the players showed up and made sure all those hot dogs who came to curl had what they wanted. He did all that stuff, so this is the least we could do,” Draper said. Sweepstakes ith the regular season now complete, the final standings to determine the grand prize winners for Fantasy Hockey Lottery decision hurts B.C. Sports SPORT B.C. “It won’t be long before we see the creation of the B.C. Car Wash Corporation, a Crown corporation to manage the neighborhood fund-raising efforts of sport and charitable groups,” said Bruce Carlson, Sport B.C. Chair. Carlson’s only partly sar- castic comments reflect the concern of the sport communi- ty over the government’s deci- sion to end the involvement of amateur sport and charities in the sale of Break Open lottery tickets. “This. decision—is another manifestation of the govern- ment building a business through the non-profit sector and then when it reaches crit- ical mass, taking it back,” Carlson said. Non-profits including Sport B.C. had built up profitable lottery wholesale businesses in the 1970s only to be forced out by government in 1983. “In the process the charita- ble sector has enjoyed some benefits but have in reality been used by government sim- ply to justify and to build a market,” Carlson said. In the case of Break-Open tickets, community groups and the pubs they use as out- lets have been partners in building a market for gam- bling in licensed premises. Sport groups and charities have depended on the extra income of the public, the $2, $5 or $10 in the donor’s pocket. But now the government is effectively cornering this mar- ket and becoming the arbiter of where the profit will be al- located. The new government will simply take these sums into general revenue, sending the community groups to the back of the line behind the bitlion dollar budgets of health, edu- cation and social services. The charitable sector will get a small share of these funds and the pool of discre- tionary dollars in each of our pockets will have dried up con- siderably. The non-profit sec- tor will have less tools to tap a shrinking market. While government agencies like the B.C. Lottery Corpora- tion may be excellent collec- tors of the public’s funds, it is costly when government as- sumes the role of determining the worth of the applicant groups and the amount of funds to be allocated. The Honorable Lois Boone, the Minister responsible for Lotteries has suggested that community groups return to car washes and bottle drives to raise their budgets. Groups could look at that as a challenge to build up suc- cessful car wash businesses. But there is no guarantee that the government won't one day create the B.C. Car Wash Cor- poration to manage the mar- ket created by those groups. Castecan TS Aw AQUANAUTS 1992 REGISTRATION Thurs. April 23 & Tues. April 28 Copy of Birth Certificate required. For further information contact registrar Sherrie Blackwell at 365-3507. SWIMMING STARTS MAY 11TH! 5! Presented’ exclusively GAGIUS! ty April 25.