Regular season basketball has returned to McMaster and as usual, things are looking good. After a successful campaign last season, the McMaster women’s team clinched their spot in the U Sports tournament, but unfortunately lost in the first round. Since then, the team has regrouped, added a few new faces and are ready to go all the way. The University of Waterloo Warriors stood no chance, falling 75-33 in the home opener. Led by fifth-year player Hilary Hanaka, who brought in 21 points, and fifth-year Linnaea Harper who had 12, the team looked poised and ready to rock.
New faces:
Arianne Soriano
Christina Buttenham
Koko Tsuzuki
Key Departures:
Lexie Spadafora
Melody Wyslobicky
Jelena Mamic
Adrienne Peters
Alex Verboom
Fun fact:
Back on the bench but in a new role, McMaster veteran Danielle Boiago has joined the team as an assistant coach. The Canadian University Player of the Year and finalist for the Golden Horseshoe Athlete of the Year is a great addition to the coaching staff and exactly who the girls need to take them back the ‘ship.
If the McMaster men’s team looks like a completely different team from the 2017 season to you, that's because they are. The Marauders beat the Warriors 93-75 thanks to the help of returnee Connor Gilmore, who brought in a whopping 28 points. While veteran David McCulloch and rookie Tristan Lindo also contributed to the win, bringing in 18 and 12 points each.
New faces:
Pretty much everyone. There are 10 new faces young and old added to the Marauders’ roster.
Key Departures:
11 players from the 2017-18 season are no longer playing this year, including Kareem Collins who was a key player in last year’s team.
Fun Fact:
Miles Seward, who averaged 19.1 points per game last season, was drafted number one in the National Basketball League of Canada. Though Seward and others have departed from the team, head coach Patrick Tatham has stacked the roster with fresh young talent, including under-19 World champion Jordan Henry.
Up next, both teams will face the University of Windsor Lancers at 1:00 p.m and 3:00 p.m this Saturday.
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The results speak for themselves. After being added as an assistant coach in 2010 to the Ryerson Rams, the team achieved consistent Ontario University Athletics Final Four and Quarter-Finals appearances. The Rams continued to surpass high expectations when he served as interim head coach in 2015-16 to win the Rams’ first Wilson Cup title as OUA champions.
U SPORTS, known as Canadian Interuniversity Sport at the time, awarded him the Stu Aberdeen Trophy as Coach of the Year. Tatham is the only Ryerson coach in its program’s history to be awarded the honour.
He then took a professional development leave from Ryerson for the 2016-17 season to become an assistant coach with the Maine Red Claws of the NBA Development League, affiliated with the Boston Celtics. They reached the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in its short history before losing to the eventual champions, the Raptors 905.
While McMaster has had a successful program in the past, Tatham’s hiring brings a new hope to return to the upper echelon of Canadian men’s basketball programs.
“Patrick has established himself as one of the rising stars among all Canadian basketball coaches and we are looking forward to his building on the great tradition of McMaster Marauder basketball,” said McMaster Director of Athletics and Recreation Glen Grunwald.
This tradition and established history of the program at McMaster is something that Tatham mentioned is on the forefront of his mind.
“I think that anytime you get an opportunity you get an opportunity to leave your mark on a program, especially one like Mac, it’s a no brainer. I can’t even use excited anymore, I’m so elated.”
Tatham also cited Joe Raso, who served the Marauders as the coach from 1992 to 2010 and achieved 12 national championship tournament placements, as a source of inspiration.
Since then, Amos Connolly led the team to a 151-66 record over his seven-year tenure as Head Coach, and received the OUA West Coach of the Year award in 2014 after leading McMaster to a third place finish in the conference. He will remain in the program as a Recruiting Coordinator and Player Development Specialist.
“Changing roles, while it may be unconventional, provides me the opportunity to stay connected to this great program in a way that lines up with my strengths and goals as a coach,” said Connolly.
This ability to recruit is evident when looking back at what he helped accomplish for the program. First-year players Adam Presutti and Rohan Boney won OUA West Rookie of the Year honours in 2012 and 2013 respectively. Presutti also won the Dr. Peter Mullins Trophy as U SPORTS Rookie of the Year as McMaster’s first-ever winner of the award.
“Hands down, there’s an OUA championship or at least an OUA final four birth in the next three years. There’s no ifs, ands or buts, that’s a must.”
Patrick Tatham
Head coach
Men's basketball
Though the team had a disappointing season last year, they finished with an 8-11 conference record, became plagued with injuries to top players and failed to make the OUA Final Four, Tatham acknowledged the positives he has to work with.
“The foundation of the men’s basketball program is rock solid…. I think it’s all set up in the right way now.”
Connor Gilmore, who earned a spot on the OUA First-Team All-Star list, and David McCulloch, the team’s minutes leader and a model of consistency, will both return for their fourth years. Tatham steps into his role with a young roster that wants to succeed on a provincial and national level.
Tatham’s resume, the program’s former pedigree and the current state of the team should come with high expectations. Though the team has not achieved an OUA final four since the 2013-14 season, Tatham responded with enthusiasm when asked about his expectations over the next three years.
“Hands down, there’s an OUA championship or at least an OUA final four birth in the next three years. There’s no ifs, ands or buts, that’s a must.”
Moving forward, Tatham will also be working with Canada Basketball as the assistant coach for the Cadet Men’s National Team over the next two summers.
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Correction: Connor Gilmore announced in late April that he will be transferring to the University of Ottawa.
By: Camila Stupecka
With the summer break around the corner, students are winding down in hopes of a quick and painless exam season. This is not the case for third-year outside hitter Andrew Richards and the rest of the McMaster men’s volleyball team.
A week after Mac’s bronze medal performance at the U Sports national championships, the team is back at work preparing for a new season, getting ready to come back stronger and more polished after their summer training. With the team losing key players like Danny Demyanenko and Andrew Kocur next year, Richards and his fellow teammates have major leadership roles to fill.
“I like to think I have some leadership value on the team [too],” said Richards. “In terms of sport, we’re pretty good athletes, and [my leadership] would never come from telling people how to play a game but rather as a motivational leader. As I’m getting older, I hope I can be one of those guys that leads the team in the right direction, and I think I can do that.”
His leadership skills were even acknowledged in April of 2016, when he was one of the first students ever to receive the Wilson Leadership Scholar Award, given to those who show potential and drive for change as future leaders.
“The Wilson Award has given me the opportunity to expand my leadership potential,” said Richards. “Outside of sport this year, I was involved with Mac Athletes Care, which allows varsity athletes to connect with youth in the Hamilton Community.”
His contributions to the community don’t stop there. Richards started Suited for Success, an initiative on campus to connect the Hamilton community with access to professional attire. The campaign managed to deliver over 200 articles of clothing to those in need.
Even though he is known today for his leadership in the community and as a fierce attacker on the volleyball court, Richards started his athletic career in competitive tennis although quickly realized that volleyball was his true passion.
"I realized how important it is to cherish when you can play."
Andrew Richards
Third-year outside hitter
McMaster men's volleyball
“When I played tennis, the schedule was crazy. I spent a lot of time away from home. I wanted to be part of the youth life, [spend time] with my friends,” said Richards. “I got into volleyball because of my older brother, [who plays] for the Guelph Gryphons. When I watched him play, I thought it was the coolest thing to do. And as soon as I started playing, I didn’t regret anything at all. It became my passion.”
Richards soon made his debut in volleyball, dedicating himself to a sport that had captured his attention almost instantaneously. His dedication and skill made it possible for him to gain prominent status as a player and a leader on teams like the junior national volleyball team in Canada. Moving forward, Richards began to establish his volleyball roots at McMaster as part of the men’s volleyball team.
His passion is constantly thriving and growing. Even in the face of injury, when a stress fracture in his left tibia last season left Richards off the court from the start of the regular season until the following year.
“That was probably the hardest thing I went through,” said Richards. “I came here to play volleyball [but] I had to sit and watch because I was on crutches. [I realized] how important it is to cherish when you can play and take recovering and taking care of your body seriously.”
His volleyball career was only strengthened by this temporary delay and today Richards excels not only on the court but as a dedicated and passionate leader throughout the community.
As a player, as a leader and as a part of the McMaster and Hamilton community, Andrew Richards truly is an inspiration.
The governing body for university sports in Canada signed a long-term contract with Sportsnet in 2013. U Sports was hoping to boost the profile of the league with expanded coverage and a refreshed approach. Instead, ratings are down, fewer events are being broadcast and questions surround what comes next for U Sports on television. The Silhouette looks at how we got here and what may lie ahead.
There are a number of problems facing university athletics – now known as U Sports after an organizational rebrand in 2016 – but none are bigger than the current television situation. In 2013, Canadian university athletics and Sportsnet joined forces, shifting the broadcast rights from TSN to the other sports channel. The agreement was met with some fanfare because of what it promised. Instead, the next four years would see significant changes, both with U Sports and Sportsnet, casting doubt on the viability and potential of Canadian university sport.
A reread of the May 2013 press release announcing the six-year Sportsnet television contract reveals how much has changed.
The Sportsnet executive quoted in the release, Navaid Mansuri, has not been quoted about Canadian university sport since then. The CEO of U Sports, then called Canadian Interuniversity Sport, abruptly resigned in Jan. 2015. That release also boasted that the Score – a television channel bought by Sportsnet – would “be one of the main hubs of CIS coverage”. The Score was renamed “Sportsnet 360” later that year and ditched their coverage of Ontario University Athletics football and basketball in the following year.
The release ends with a bold claim: “by the end of the six-year partnership in 2018-19, as many as 27 CIS events could air annually on Sportsnet.” Some new sports could get a national spotlight. For athletes and coaches competing in sports like volleyball, rugby and soccer, it felt like their accomplishments would finally be recognized.
To date, this has not materialized. Four years into the agreement and Sportsnet continues to broadcast the national championships and semifinals for football along with both men’s and women’s basketball – the same slate listed on that initial press release. Men’s hockey was broadcasted this year, but women’s hockey was not.
Money is at the heart of the television rights issue. In the current age of cord cutting and piracy, television networks are constantly trying to secure the rights for products that will capture a live audience. While sports is not iron-clad, it is one of the few programming options that has retained an audience. That is why you see massive contracts being handed out for the sports broadcast rights.
However, U Sports is the anomaly here. In 2013, the Globe and Mail said that U Sports was receiving $100,000 in the first year of the contract from Sportsnet. Neither U Sports nor Sportsnet would confirm that number to the Globe and Mail. This number pales in comparison to the billions of dollars brought in by other sports organizations. The rights to the National Collegiate Athletics Association’s men’s basketball tournament cost CBS-Turner $10.8 billion. The difference speaks volumes.
For the 2015 winter championship season, Sportsnet reimagined their coverage approach. Instead of having the hockey and basketball tournaments spread over a few weekends, the tournaments would be put on one weekend and all covered on the specialty channels Sportsnet 360 and Sportsnet One. This meant 20 hours of U Sports programming over a Saturday and Sunday in mid-March. Sportsnet was attempting to compete with Hockey Night in Canada during the National Hockey League’s playoff race.
"We're very supportive of university sports in Canada, but at the end of the day we're in the business of generating the largest viewership and using that to generate revenue,"
Scott Moore
President,
Sportsnet
At the 2015 U Sports Annual General Meeting, a “Year 1 Review” report framed the reformatted weekend as a success, though time has exposed some issues. Sportsnet said “atmosphere and general attendance in venue still needs to be addressed”. U Sports members echoed this sentiment, saying, “Due to small crowds, it didn’t look good on TV… This hurts the brand.”
These issues persist. Attendance at the men’s basketball tournament was extremely low in 2016, though this is hard to quantify because of a lack of attendance numbers from the organizers at the University of British Columbia. Other sports struggle to capture a live audience, reaffirming the complaints from the year before.
U Sports departments are often small shops with limited resources. This makes it difficult for schools with multiple teams competing in championships to get the logistics taken care of. Some teams have to find more therapists for the athletes; other schools need to contract out for help building media guides.
The 2016 tournament also went up against the opening weekend of the NCAA March Madness tournament, even though Sportsnet recommended they change the dates to avoid this issue. None of these events rated in the top 30 sports broadcasts for their week, getting beaten out by events like a non-major golf tournament and the World Indoor Athletics Championships.
Despite being billed as a success in 2015, this format was abandoned in 2017.
Six months after Sportsnet inked a deal with U Sports, the Rogers-owned company signed a 12-year $5.2-billion contract for the National Hockey League broadcast rights. Initially seen as a watershed moment for Sportsnet, the company appears to have overpaid for the product. According to the Globe and Mail, ratings fell by 16 per cent in both the 2013-2014 and 2015-2016 season. This led to a decline in advertising revenue.
Rogers Media laid off 200 employees in January 2016 and said all areas were affected except for the Toronto Blue Jays.
What does this have to do with U Sports? It limits the resources available to grow the league, which is what the Canadian university sports organization was looking for when it signed with Sportsnet. The agreement was framed as a partnership between the two parties, with Sportsnet providing coverage and airtime for a league looking to break out of the local communities and create a stir nationally.
The two parties have a reason to believe in that. ESPN built its empire on college athletics. In the early 1980s, ESPN picked up the early rounds of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament and essentially created March Madness. A court ruling later that decade allowed ESPN to broadcast multiple college football games, creating a television product that other networks refused to.
But the NHL hockey deal appears to have put an end to that. In 2015, U Sports members complained about a lack of “lead-in” to Super Championship Weekend, meaning there wasn’t enough pre-coverage or hype for the event
In 2015, Sportsnet had some writers writing weekly power ranking articles about men’s basketball. They also hosted Sportsnet U Recruited, a competition aimed at university students to submit their U Sports content for the chance at a scholarship. (Full disclosure: I was nominated for this scholarship in 2015.)
Now, Sportsnet will mostly repost U Sports press releases or wire stories. They have some original video content, but the U Sports page still has a story about a soccer championship from November featured on it. The Sportsnet U Recruited competition does not appear to be running this year.
However, Sportsnet did broadcast regular-season football games in 2016. According to the Toronto Star, ratings for this were poor.
With cuts to the Rogers media departments, it is no surprise to see U Sports coverage fall to the wayside. Ratings and advertising revenue could improve as Canadian NHL franchises become more competitive, though it is unclear if this will improve anything for U Sports.
Sportsnet and U Sports are locked in to a deal until 2018-2019, and public comments show some hesitation on the broadcaster’s end.
In a Toronto Star article from Sept. 2016, Sportsnet president Scott Moore spoke about the future of their relationship.
“We’re very supportive of university sports in Canada, but at the end of the day we’re in the business of generating the largest viewership and using that to generate revenue,” Moore said. “If we were 100 per cent we probably would have renewed already. We want to see how things go with this experiment.”
And if viewership and revenue are what Sportsnet is chasing, that paints a bleak picture for U Sports. Viewership for the Vanier Cup has fallen over the past three years to 243,000 viewers. The Vanier is the crown jewel of the U Sports package and interest is waning. The winter championships don’t draw well either (number five).
U Sports could be forced to look elsewhere, but Canada’s small media landscape leaves a few options. Naturally, TSN is the other option, and this partnership could be a good one.
TSN needs content after losing the NHL contract. They have the rights to some regional hockey games but have not filled the gap with original programming. TSN is also the sole broadcaster of the Canadian Football League and a partnership between TSN and U Sports could create more meaning for university football. Currently, the CFL Draft comes and goes without much fanfare, though the league is trying to address that. The main obstacle is that the draftees are just names on a list. Only diehard fans of Canadian football will have seen the players before.
In theory, TSN could pick up the rights for a small fee and broadcast one U Sports football game a week. This creates live Canadian programming and could drive interest in the CFL too.
The Sportsnet deal was met with cautious optimism by most followers of the league. That optimism has faded. Instead of galvanizing a league and putting it in the national spotlight, U Sports’ relevance has faded through the contract. Viewership is down, Sportsnet has not broadcasted more events even though that was advertised in the original press release, and the total visibility has been limited to three weekends a year. What, if anything, comes next for U Sports on TV will provide more detail on the property’s long-term viability.
By: Camila Stupecka
The McMaster men’s volleyball program finds themselves on the U Sports podium for the fifth consecutive season but in a similarly disappointing position. The Marauders fell in the semi-final before winning the bronze medal match to win their fifth medal in as many years.
Following a five-set win against the Université Laval Rouge et Or on March 17, the Marauders qualified for the semi-final game against the top seeded team of the championship, the Trinity Western Spartans – a familiar opponent.
In last year’s national championship, the Marauders fell to the Spartans in four sets in the final, settling for a silver medal. With all of this in tow, the Marauders anticipated a challenging semi-final match.
"Losing is never easy, but to bring home the bronze medal is something that we are very proud of."
Andrew Richards
Fourth-year outside hitter,
McMaster men's volleyball
Though Mac took the first set off the Spartans, Trinity Western steadied to win the next three sets.
“I think it was just a matter of execution, we know we can play at a level that will allows us to defeat anyone and we believe in our selves as a team but in that match we just didn’t execute a high enough level,” said Andrew Richards, a fourth-year outside hitter.
Mac's win over UBC marked the final game in the distinguished careers of Danny Demyanenko, Andrew Kocur, Jayson McCarthy and Seyar Karimi.
With their hopes of a national championship gone, the Mac men did not want to go home empty handed. Following their semi-final loss, the Marauders returned to the court to face the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds in the U Sports third-place match. Determined to finish the season on a winning note, Mac made quick work of the Canada West finalists in straight sets, taking home their third bronze medal in the past five seasons.
“Losing is never easy, but to bring home the bronze medal is something we are very proud of,” said Richards.
Mac’s win over UBC marked the final game in the distinguished careers of Danny Demyanenko, Andrew Kocur, Jayson McCarthy and Seyar Karimi. The four seniors were paramount to the team’s success, which completed an undefeated season in OUA play, capped off with an OUA championship win in front of a home crowd. Throughout their respective careers at Mac, they were able to carve out a culture of excellence that will be carried on by teammates such as Andrew Richards and Brandon Koppers.
Although the Marauder men fell short of the gold medal, the successes they enjoyed this season should outshine their shortcomings. The Marauder men will continue to be the perennial powerhouse in the Ontario University Athletics conference, and come next season, will hopefully make better on their national championship performance.
After defeating the Western Mustangs in five sets in the Ontario University Athletics championship, the McMaster women’s volleyball team will now head to the U Sports national championship from March 17-19, hosted by the Ryerson University.
As the winners of the OUA conference, Mac was rewarded with the number two seed in the tournament, and will play the Trinity Western Spartans in the opening quarterfinal match on March 17. The Spartans qualified for the tournament as the winner of the Canada West bronze medal match, defeating the University of British Columbia Okanagan in three sets.
“We are ready and excited to go [to nationals],” said fifth-year outside hitter Rebecca Steckle. “This is just the beginning of a hard, long road, but we are excited and it only gets better from here.”
Coming off of her Player of the Game performance, fourth-year outside hitter and OUA West First-Team All Star Joanna Jedrzejewska has expectations for herself and the team heading into nationals.
“I just want to show people around Canada that short people can do really well,” said Jedrzejewska, who stands at 5’7”. “I want to stand out, but at the same time I want to be a good influence on my team. I want to keep being a good team member. I don’t want to bring them down, I want to keep the positive energy and cohesion, and I just want to make my teammates better than when I found them.”
Even as the number two seed, their first matchup against Trinity Force will be tough. Coming from the Canada West conference, the Spartans have faced tough competition just to earn a spot at nationals. They are joined by the champions of the Canada West and the number one seeded Alberta Pandas, and by the third seeded University of British Columbia Thunderbirds. The Spartans have a history of success at the national tournament, finishing second in last year’s tournament and winning it all in 2015.
Nevertheless, the Marauders’ tough win over the Mustangs has fourth-year middle Maicee Sorensen ready for her and the rest of the team to give it their all come nationals.
“I have really high expectations for this team right now,” Sorensen said. “We want to get everything we can out of this season. We have been playing all year not to just get to nationals, but to actually do something with our national berth. We’re back now, we’re older and much more experienced, I really think we can do something with this talent.”
