What can you expect? A huge all-campus party, that just so happens to centre around a football game between the 'Birds and the University of Saskatchewan Huskies — but it doesn’t just start at kick off. In fact, the celebration started earlier this week.
The biggest problem a multi-championship team like the ’Birds would normally face is the loss of veteran players. Yet, only forwards Gabby Jayme, Hannah Haughn and midfielder Caitlin Gordon were playing in their fifth and final year of U Sports eligibility last season.
Everything went well for the first 50 minutes — we outran everyone on the gradual uphill climb through the greenery and up the muddy hiking trail. That is, everything went well until I reached the trail sign of 4 km and turned back to check on the group.
As explained by women’s division captain Sukhman Chahal, though UBC itself has many martial arts clubs at UBC, the publicity in 2015 around sexual assault on campus showcased a gap in the combative clubs available to students: self-defence.
The tournament, presented in conjunction with the Vancouver Giants, is designed to both promote intercollegiate hockey in the Lower Mainland and showcase the Western Hockey League (WHL) scholarship program.
Despite the win, head coach Blake Nill felt that the team still has room for improvement in the games ahead. “We’ve got to be more consistent offensively, finishing when we’re in the end zone. That’s something that’s plagued us for a season now."
Sunday proved a more difficult match-up for the ’Birds, as the Thompson Rivers University (TRU) WolfPack capitalized on a consistent weakness in UBC’s defence: defending the counter-attack and through balls.
UBC starting quarterback O’Connor — who averaged 324.8 passing yards per game last year — racked up an uncharacteristic 155 yards during the game. The ’Birds also had 23 penalties for a total loss of 210 yards.
A season opener usually means a new beginning and an opportunity to test out a new team — a mix of seasoned veterans and energetic rookies. But the team failed to hit the right pace early and lost the match.
This year, the ’Birds will be seeing the return of prominent players like Michael O’Connor and Marcus Davis. Joining them will be a squad of new recruits to bolster the existing talent on all areas of the field.
Photo coverage from the men's soccer home opener against University of the Fraser Valley on August 25, 2017. UBC won 1-0. The Jumpstart program brought incoming first-years to see the game as the Thunderbirds opened their season.
“It’s still early days and this group has got a lot of work [to do],” said head coach Mike Mosher. “We feel as we grow as a team, we will start to score more goals, so it’s nice to have fun that first weekend with a couple of clean sheets.”
We had no idea what we were in for, but we continued to train even more than before — I headed out on the water two, sometimes three, times a day. Our dragon boat practices began to have a state of urgency: there was no more dilly-dallying.
“What we want to be spearheading … is trying to set up a collegiate league for triathlon in western Canada or potentially here [on] the west coast, even including some of the US schools,” said Heinkel.
“There’s financial factors, but the primary reason is we want to grow and expand our product,” said Nill. “By going into a location [that is] not experienced with university football, it helps us showcase the product.”