Category Archives: Jock Straps and Sports Bras

Whitecaps FC Community Asset Review – Part 4

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Editors’ note: Kurt and John are firm believers that Vancouver can and should be the Canadian epicenter for growing the sport and culture of soccer football soccer. This is a self-described healthy community. We can play outside year-round, as fields are rarely closed due to snow and/or freezing. And, most importantly, Vancouver is the place to expertly develop the sport of soccer because our city’s team, Vancouver Whitecaps FC, shares this goal and so demonstrates this vision through its Club Structure and the Whitecaps Foundation, which aims to create the fittest generation of BC Youth by 2020.

As Vancouver Whitecaps FC season ticket holders, Kurt and John are well-positioned to evaluate how the franchise showcases its commitment to “be a significant community asset” – so, following every match we will reflect on this commitment by answering two questions, which are below. Sometimes we bring friends and/or family-members to the game. And sometimes those awesome friends and/or family-members write awesome blog posts about the experience.

How is the team a significant community asset?

Vancouver Whitecaps FC is not only a bicycle friendly organization, they make cycling to games easy by collaborating with The Bicycle Valet. This encourages bike riding to and from the game, which certainly aligns with the club’s vision to develop the “fittest generation of youth in BC by 2020.”

I was lucky enough to attend both home games last week and rode my bike to the games with Michelle on Wednesday and Kurt on Saturday. There was certainly some powerful community building in the lineup for the Bicycle Valet, too, as cyclist chatted about Eric Hassli’s brilliant goal (below), tips about how to get to and from the game, and how beautiful a city Vancouver is for cycling.

WHAT COULD MAKE THE CLUB AN EVEN BETTER ASSET?

With the summer season upon us and BC Place located in our city’s gorgeous False Creek/Downtown ‘hood, Vancouver Whitecaps FC has an opportunity to leverage the beauty of its community – there might not be a better place to spend summer than in Vancouver. For some cyclists, though, getting outside for exercise isn’t enough, so my proposal is that the club incentivize cycling to and from games.

What does this look like and how can it be done? Simple gestures, such as coupons or gift certificates to Whitecaps FC business partners, represent great strating points. Grander gestures, such as “Bicycle Day” or “‘Capscycle”, would go a bit further to honour the folks that travel to experience sport by, well, experiencing sport and emitting far fewer emissions en route to doing so.

So, think  about it, Vancouver Whitecaps FC. See you at the bike valet!

–

Masthead photo courtesy of Mafue’s photostream on Flickr

Whitecaps FC Community Asset Review – Part 3

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Editors’ note: Kurt and John are firm believers that Vancouver can and should be the Canadian epicenter for growing the sport and culture of soccer football soccer. This is a self-described healthy community. We can play outside year-round, as fields are rarely closed due to snow and/or freezing. And, most importantly, Vancouver is the place to expertly develop the sport of soccer because our city’s team, Vancouver Whitecaps FC, shares this goal and so demonstrates this vision through its Club Structure and the Whitecaps Foundation, which aims to create the fittest generation of BC Youth by 2020.

As Vancouver Whitecaps FC season ticket holders, Kurt and John are well-positioned to evaluate how the franchise showcases its commitment to “be a significant community asset” – so, following every match we will reflect on this commitment by answering two questions, which are below. Sometimes we bring friends and/or family-members to the game. And sometimes those awesome friends and/or family-members write awesome blog posts about the experience.

Here is our brand-new (and youngest) Correspondent, Josie Buter’s, take on Vancouver Whitecaps FC being a significant community asset.

Josie Buter - current and future world changer

How is the team a significant community asset?

The Whitecaps FC games bring people together, for example I went to the game against Kansas City and before the game I got to take part in a parade to the stadium with the Southsiders. They had chants and giant flags with the players’ faces on them, some people knew the chants and others didn’t, but it didn’t matter because you could still clap along to the rhythm of the drums they brought with them. The cheering didn’t stop outside the stadium though, throughout the whole game there were ringleaders that lead all the cheers. The whole experience was very exciting and I’ve never experienced anything quite like it before.

WHAT COULD MAKE THE CLUB AN EVEN BETTER ASSET?

Now that the men’s team has success in a higher level of soccer, where are the women? When I was younger I went to many of the women’s Whitecaps games and looked up to the players on the team, they were role models for me. For young girls it’s important to have role models, and when playing soccer it is good to have a picture in your head of what a player who plays your position or plays on a competitive team looks like. Having a local team, that would play all year ‘round would give many young soccer players hope that they can achieve their goals as well, no matter the size of the net.

Canucks Fans: relax, everything will be okay

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Matthew Grapengieser / flickr

At approximately 8:22pm (PST) last night, Jordan Stoll ended what can only be described as a strangely unimpressive playoff run by the Vancouver Canucks. Around British Columbia (and nowhere else because, well, everybody hates the Canucks and their fans) folks are waking up, again, to hockey disappointment – albeit of a different variety than last year’s riotous exit from the playoffs.

And everything is going to be okay. After all, Vancouver is one of the best places on Earth to spend your summer. So, with your time freed up thanks to our city’s under-performing hockey team, here are three ideas for you to consider as you strive to fill the void in your calendar (and possibly your soul) between now next season.

1. Go play outside. Whether you want to make your balcony more sustainable, community-garden, play some delightful disc golf, go camping, ride your bike, occupy a public space, or, for the semi-non-creative, drink on a patio instead of next to a giant screen, there are more than a million fun things to do outside on the West Coast.

2. Volunteer your time. Watching (approximately) three hockey games per week from now until the middle of June (when the Stanley Cup Finals take place) could’ve taken up almost 20-hours of your life per week. [Editor's note: the math is pretty simple - one hour for preparation/travel for/to the game, three hours to watch the actual game, 30-45 minutes to reflect on the experience and possibly cry for joy/sorrow, one or two hours of lost productivity the next day because of post-game stress and consequential fatigue]. Think about spending your 20 free hours providing some service to your community – after all, giving back feels great.

3. Watch Game of Thrones. Not into the whole “being active” or “being helpful” thing? Well, I’ve got strategies for that, too. The HBO series Game of Thrones is a beautiful fusion of The Sopranos and Lord of the Rings. And, like hockey, Game of Thrones involves dynasties competing for dominance in a “game” that is underscored by the philosophy that the “players” either win or die. Needless to say, this option will keep you out of the Sun, creatively engaged and, well, it will utilize your superawesome entertainment unit to most of its potential.

So there it is (or “there they are”). Three foolproof ideas that will help you move-on from the Canucks’ early exit while simultaneously building community in a positive way.

Have fun with it.

A Community of Madness – Final Round

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sonnet / flickr

Here’s Alex and my re-cap from Round 1, Round 2 and Round 3 of March Madness.

This final one will be short and sweet.

Partly because this year’s installment of March Madness – the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament – yielded one of my worst ever predictive performances, but mostly because it’s now out of our community’s collective consciousness and, as a blog that explores community, we must honour this. [Editor's note: the tourney was pretty boring, too - for the first time I can remember, there wasn't a single buzzer-beater and, well, everyone knew that Kentucky was going to win]. That’s right, folks, following their historic run to the championship, the starting lineup of the Kentucky Wildcats will be heading to the National Basketball Association (NBA) and their coach, in the years to come, will probably be investigated for illegal recruiting practices, which is pretty much what happened to Jim Calhoun after his UConn Huskies won the championship last year.

Go, um, sports?

Anyway, congrats to Alex and Robin for picking Kentucky to win it all. I think that Robin won (Alex, in the last three years of us doing this Robin has won twice and Michelle has won once), which was how this was supposed to happen. And congratulations to the Kansas Jayhawks for having the nicest community-building fans in the nation.

As always, this is one of my favourite series on the Gumboot, folks. And I thank you all for providing the metrics, attitude, witticisms, sportitude, and energy as we explored one of the most fascinating community-based stories in sport.

Thanks for the memories. See you next year!

A look at hockey from South America

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artbrom / flickr

I have been living in Buenos Aires for 4 years now. Usually people do not know much about Canada. Sometimes I get weird face when I say I’m from Canada even if I clearly speak with a french accent. First thing Argentineans mention is how cold it must be. Some think we don’t even have a summer. The second element most associated with my home country is ice hockey (“ice” is necessary since grass hockey is quite popular in Argentina).  The other day, I was working in a café when a saw NHL images on TV, I was very surprised since argentinean media do not even cover the Stanley cup finals –except its riots of course. Unfortunately, the TV show was presenting images from the Rangers/Devils game that started with a few fights, with the title “Ice hockey or boxing?” As too often, I felt a little bit of shame, as a hockey fan, but also as Canadian/Quebecois. It is somewhat difficult to explain to Argentineans that I enjoy watching hockey, it is a sport of speed and beauty and hockey is part of my culture. Hockey’s image here is limited to fights, violence and dirty hits, closer to Ultimate Fighting than anything else.

Fighting has been part of hockey for so long that it seems almost natural to canadian eyes. However, when you see it from the outside, it seems ridiculous, even idiotic. Try to explain to someone not familiar with north american hockey that fighting is allowed but not really because it is punished; referees let players fight, if they previously  agreed to it; and that it does not have anything to do with the object of the game (scoring goals), except maybe “change the momentum”… Believe me, it is impossible to make any sense out of it. Take any other sport, even very physical ones such as rugby or football, and insert fighting in it… it just looks silly and pathetic. I always thought fighting was not a very important part of hockey and that we could easily do away with it, but its absurdity really hit me a few years ago. I was in my hometown with my uruguayan girlfriend. She was getting familiar with our culture and asked to see a hockey game. Since I was bringing here to a small town, semi-pro game, I warned her that it could get violent. She thought I was talking about physical plays, much like rugby… she was horrified when came the staged fights, she could not believe it. There was not much I could say, it is true that if one has not been desensitized to it from a young age, it does seem barbaric.

As for anything else, change can be tough to come about. If you are old enough, you might remember the old days when car belts were not mandatory or when people could smoke in bars, restaurant and hospitals… Although it seems ridiculous now, many resisted when we collectively decided to modify these situations. I believe we came to a point fighting has to be completely eliminated from our national sport. We could not accept this kind of health risk in any other profession. We do know now that hitting someone’s head repeatedly damages his brain permanently… shocking that it took us so long to figure this one out. Still, how can we accept to see young adults hurting each other like this, for something not even directly related to the game itself, as last year’s death of a few “enforcers” forced us to see. With rare exceptions in the russian KHL, fighting does not exist in international and european hockey, nor does it in the NCAA, and canadian junior is seriously talking about banning it as well. Hopefully, the NHL will follow this trend. It might be difficult to get there, considering that the Bruins just gooned their way to the Stanley Cup. Even the Canucks have recently travelled back to the 80s by adding muscles and “enforcers” to their lineup… The biggest problem remains that some important NHL market keep selling hockey using violence. Added to the NHL extremely conservative management, fighting might very well keep making me ashamed of our national sport in front of my argentinean friends. I might have to start pretending I like baseball…

A Community of Madness – Round 3

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[Editor's note: people, the Editor-in-Chief of this blog loves basketball, higher education, community, competition, and when they all slam together in a mess of cheers, tears, body-paint, over-achievement, and ridiculously awesome excitingly uncontrollable hyperboles. Exclamation point! Over the next three weeks, John and his American-import-possibly-mustached-BFF, Alex Grant, will engage in witticisms and precarious predictions pertaining to the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. As players, teams, schools, regions, bank accounts, pundits, pride, and - yes - nations collide, you will get a true sense of what the March Madness community really means. Enjoy!]

flyingsaab / flickr

LET’S RE-CAP THE MADNESS | Round 1 | Round 2

JOHN: Well, we all went 2-4 in terms of picking the last teams standing … except for Michelle, who went 0-4 in her quest to select Final Four teams. Her formula will be forever called into question. But her energy, confidence and sense of community never will!

In other news – meh - that is the news, or at least the word, that kinda sorta describes the 2012 March Madness tournament from my perspective. Sure, there were a few big upsets during the first weekend, but there hasn’t really been the game that’s defined the tournament; there have also been three times as many semi-colons used in this “journalistic” series than there have been buzzer beaters in the tournament. Disgraceful. Even the Kansas vs. North Carolina game (fun fact: Barack Obama picked UNC to win it all, which Sean Hannity will undoubtedly use as evidence that the President is secretly controlling gas prices and is, at best, a mediocre basketball player) saw some great first-half moments, but what could’ve been the game of the tourney truly fizzled into, well, a +10 point victory for Kansas (the team I picked to win it, by the by).

Oh, and I’m sad about Michigan State – I think that this is the first time in Tom Izzo’s career where a team he coached that was ranked No. 1 didn’t make it to the Final Four. But I guess that there’s a first time for everything; for example, Ohio State is actually good this year! Semi-colon!

In any case, my conclusion for the tournament thus far is that, first, I still love the energy, poise, lack of poise, and pure basketball that these kids play and, second, I’m too old, “professional” and in possession of cooler priorities to watch the required amount of television to accurately comment on this tournament.

But that’s okay. We make up stuff on this blog all the time. Alex is from Saskatchewan, not Indiana. And Kentucky’s fourth guy off the bench is actually – literally - a Wildcat (like, the offspring of a puma and wolverine) from rural Ontario.

sleepyneko / flickr

ALEX: Well, you know what they say…two out of four ain’t bad. I believe they also say
that two out of three is nearly perfect. These two old chestnuts happen to neatly summarize my performance in both Final Four predictions, and in mental acuity for
blog article deadlines.

Well, the rock chalk has settled, and here we are. A #1, #2, #2, and #4. All in all
a pretty good year for the tournament, not least of all because Duke went down
in flames in round one. I missed the opportunity to delight at this fact last week,
so let me just share the final delicious moments for further savoring. Take that
prognosticators!!

LET’S MAKE BOLD PREDICTIONS

JOHN: Kansas all the way, baby. They’ve got all the ingredients for an NCAA championship team: outstanding guard play, the ability to stroke the three-ball, a legit seven-foot-bigman-not-named-Big-Country, stifling defense, great open-court play, and a guy who wears 0 on his jersey named Robinson that does all the intangibles with great intensity.

The only problem with the above facts is that Kentucky does all these things, too. Better even. But I didn’t pick them and my extensive research shows that Kansas fans are nicer, so, let’s go Jayhawks!

I also think that the Louisville vs. Kentucky game is going to be absolutely brutal and will probably result in several people getting hurt – may the basketball gods ensure that none of the injuries are permanent or life/career threatening.

John's Picks - Go Michigan State!

ALEX: Now let’s quickly review what’s left and partake in the yearly tradition of casting
aside all bracket-bound loyalties, and instead root based on arbitrary gut instinct!

OSU vs. Kansas – Really, I wish this was the final because either team winning the
Big Dance would be mildly palatable. However, because I like Aaron Craft, I’m going
to be rooting for OSU, even though the Buckeyes are a bunch of big-school cheaters
and a hated Big10 rival. Such is March Madness!
OSU 76 / KU 73

Kentucky vs. Louisville – I’ve never really liked Louisville for some reason. But the
searing humiliation their coach publicly suffered may have started to turn the tide
in that regard. Who doesn’t love a good insane extortion story?? The upshot here is
that it’s only a matter of time until Kentucky’s coach John Calipari is exposed as a
trafficker of human organs. Well, maybe not that, but he’s clearly up to no good.
UL 80 / KU 78

Final: I have no idea. Who knows? I’m picking Tim Tebow in straight sets.

Alex's Picks - Winning!

LET’S SAY NICE THINGS ABOUT EACH OTHER

JOHN: Well, Alex, I can only assume that your lack of chatter on this weekly forum is a result of your emotional attachment to Canada’s national sport, Lacrosse. Perhaps you’re learning the game and trying to understand how, during a really cold winter, it was transformed into hockey (dude, it wasn’t; they’re totally different – also, we stole hockey from the Mayans).

As always, good sir, it has been a pleasure exploring this important element of community with you.

ALEX: You really had a golden opportunity to rake me over the coals last week Horn.
I would have been defenseless against your biting critiques. And all your witty
statements of scorn would have been correct! Missing a deadline in the 21st century
is pure bush league. But instead you took the high road. You even complimented
my personal hygiene and my bracket picks…And this has made me very suspicious.
What’s your angle here?! Are you and Robin in cahoots? Do you two have a deal to
sell my supple kidneys to John Calipari?!?! OUT WITH IT!

In any case, provided I don’t wake up in a bathtub of ice next week (or, even if I do)
it’s another great crazy year in the books and I look forward to our next battle of
wits and words.

ROBIN & MICHELLE WILL PROBABLY WIN

ROBIN: Okay, so here we are at the end of another college basketball season, ready and poised to crown another victor.  As usual, I have remained almost entirely (and blissfully) ignorant of any happenings in the tournament.  I have dutifully turned the channel when I chanced upon some game while ellipticalling at the gym.  I have abruptly left friendly workplace conversations when the topic changed to who came out on top in last night’s game (thereby ending up on Wanda’s blacklist).  I have overtly cast the stinkiest of stink eyes at people cheering in a bar.  Yes, I have remained my most curmudgeonliest self.  That is, until Saturday.  I was ambushed.  Without warning, I walked into my parent’s house and my father told me that Kansas had just beaten UNC.  And I cared.  I cared that I had picked UNC to win the game.  And I felt betrayed that they had nevertheless lost.  How could they!?  And then I was shocked and embarrassed that I actually remembered my bracket picks.  I’m not supposed to care about this drivel.  But I did.  I haven’t yet processed all that this realization means.  I do know one thing, though.  Because I now care, friends, I am almost guaranteed next year to lose.

Robin's Picks - Totally Winning!

MICHELLE: Well, that was unfortunate…

Michelle's picks - "well, that was unfortunate"

Editor’s note: the scoring system for this particular bracket is based on the idea of exponential growth and the law of accelerating returns. So, one becomes two becomes four becomes eight becomes 16 becomes 32 becomes I can’t count higher than that. Does it make sense? No. Does this tournament? Nope.

Whitecaps Build Community with Flags and Families

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Photo courtesy of Gerry K.

Nothing like a hard fought soccer game under the open Vancouver sky. This weekend, I got to experience it first hand as the Vancouver Whitecaps took on DC United in their third game of the season. Coming off a two game winning streak, first at home against the Montreal Impact and then (miracles!) on the road against Chivas USA, there were big expectations and a heady sense of optimism about a winning streak that’d last to three games in a row. In the end, we got a tie (certainly better than a loss) – but that’s not all that we witnessed that night.

Equally powerful was the sense of community (particularly in the first part of the second half) when the Whitecaps really turned the electricity on!

It started outside the stadium. Unlike BC Lions games or even Canucks games, the community built by the Whitecaps tends to be young, diverse and the total opposite of “rough around the edges” turkeys that were made famous last summer during the Vancouver’s most disgraceful night.

Milling around the outside of the stadium, thousands of fans clad in blue and white meandered towards the gates. Few were ridiculously intoxicated or surely. Hundreds had goofy grins on their faces.There was a young family vibe to it all.

Once in the stadium, we set up close to the Whitecaps goal next to three dozen fanatical fans equipped with jerseys and dozens of multi-color flags. The super fans included a big burly Scots as well as French, Koreans, Filipinos and even a group of guys who appeared to hail from the Middle East. It’s part of what I love so much about soccer – the multiculturalism of it all. Together we sang a dozen uniquely Vancouver chants inspired by the great European clubs.

On the field, our team mirrored the diversity of its fan base. Players hailed from Brazil, Spain, China, Korea, Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica, the US and Canada. When Long Tan ran on from the sidelines in the late stages of the game, a group of Chinese fans a few seats away gave a mighty cheer.

Talk about a terrific community building event.

Header courtesy of Albumen. 

Octopi Falls 4-3 in Bronze Medal Match

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This Soccer Ball Reflects on the Fourth Place Finish for Octopi Vancouver

[Editor's note: for the record, our Wednesday night soccer experience began with five members of the Octopi Vancouver team moving the goal into position - basically setting up the field - as two administrators/supervisors from Urban Rec stood right next to this activity and sipped their coffee and made terrible jokes, which begs the question: what do our pricy Vancouver Urban Rec fees actually pay for?!]

On a crisp, clear Wednesday night at Thunderbird Stadium, a substitute-sparse Octopi Vancouver squad went down 4-3 against a very chippy The Scoring Machine “team” – other accepted synonyms for “team” in this description might include “gang” or “hooligans” or “Postmodern Peles” (the last one is my personal favourite).

The Octopi squad began the game with vigour and urgency, hitting goal posts, crossbars and narrowly missing the corners of the Scoring Machine’s net. About 10 minutes into the first half, John Horn, making a great run down the left side in the third-person, crossed the ball squarely on to the foot of dashing right-winger, Jessica Pautsch, who expertly looped it into the top corner, away from the sprawling – and quite talented as well as handsome – keeper.

1-0 Octopi.

The first half wrapped up with Pautsch on a break-away – if there were actual referees (perhaps Kinesiology students from SFU or UBC, you know, to tackle youth unemployment and student debt in BC while simultaneously providing meaningful experiential learning opportunities for the future leaders of our healthy and happy community) I’m sure that the play would have been allowed to carry on – but the non-game-specific whistle blew and Jessica wasn’t allowed to snipe her second goal of the match.

Still 1-0 Octopi.

The second half saw Octopi drop into a 3-2-1 defensive formation, which was a dumb idea, as The Scoring Machine earned a quick tally following a strong run down the left-side by one of their nicer players. In between their first and second goal, The Scoring Machine’s centre defender, Long Sleeved Black Shirt, absolutely throttled Octopi’s star striker, Erin Loxam – again, if UrbanRec employed referees the gentleman might’ve been asked to leave the game at this point.

1-1 draw.

After a blazing goal kick by The Scoring Machine’s handsome goalkeeper, All-Urban-Rec defender, Matt Kieltyka, whiffed on the ball and one of the opposing team’s players sprinted in for an unopposed goal.

2-1 The Scoring Machine.

Following some intense pressure by Sustainable Stewart Burgess and Prautsch, a The Scoring Machine pass, deflected by Prautsch, found its way to Horn’s foot – the striker made no mistake, burying the shot in the back corner. As Horn said to Kieltyka later, “karma was on our side, man – they caught a break, and so did we, because the universe wants us to win.”

2-2 Octopi (yes, we were winning).

On the heels of their second goal, some great passing between Kurt Heinrich, Kieltyka and Roger Hosking finally got the ball to under-appreciated/utilized star striker, Loxam, who promptly netted her 27th goal of the season with impressive aplomb.

3-2 Octopi.

This is where things got weird.

First, there were the antics from a bald and bearded talker from The Scoring Machine side – in no more than three minutes he took an illegal shot on goal from the post-score-kickoff, attempted to throw the ball into the net (it was a legit throw-in, but still weird), yelled at the Octopi team for diving and whining, proceeded to dive and whine himself, knocked down Burgess and Hosking at least twice, and started a goal-mouth scrambled that resulted in The Scoring Machine’s third goal. Following this experience John Horn, talking in the third-person, loudly referred to the gentleman as “The Postmodern Pele” – #amazing.

3-3 The Scoring Machine (they had the momentum and, thanks to their ample substitutes, the legs).

Only moments later, Heinrich made a stomping run down the right side and sent a perfect cross to Horn, who was waiting at the far post. Horn, in the third-person, chested the ball down and sent a cracking half-volley at the goal, which was expertly stopped by The Scoring Machine’s keeper.

The chippy play continued with Long Sleeved Black Shirt sweep-kicking the ankles of star striker Loxam – again, if there were referees in the game this player/goon would (a) not have even been in the game at this time and (b) would have been put in his place by an official, instead of an Octopi player, making a call – when Loxam said “you fouled me” the player/goon responded “no I didn’t, you slipped; now stop whining and get up.” #notaclassact #payforrefs

With little time left, Postmodern Pele got involved in another goal-mouth scramble and, somehow, the ball crossed the touch line in spite of a great effort from League MVP David Willinsky.

4-3 The Scoring Machine.

The Octopi Vancouver squad wrapped up the season with an impressive 5-4-2 record and a fourth place finish in their first season together. Other teams in the Urban Rec league best keep on the lookout for this up-and-coming soccer football powerhouse. And the Urban Rec organizers/management best be on the lookout for a strongly worded letter and pending petition that addresses their knowing sacrifice of health, safety and fun for slightly awesomer profit margins.

Great season, team!

Dispatches from Silverstar (Part II)

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Photo courtesy of nonanet

Sitting 20 meters above a steep black diamond run on the back side of Silverstar, I watched in wonder as a tiny soul slowly but surely trooped up the hill (not down it as per usual) with skis slung on her shoulder. She was accompanied by a ski-patrol guy clad brightly in red. As the Powder Gultch chair lift rotated me closer and closer I recognized with a shock, that the little figure carrying her skis up the mountain was indeed my lovely red-headed wife. As I soon learned, after skiing for an entire day and a half on a green run called Far Out, she’d decided to diversify her “easy run experience” by trying out a new run – this one on the other-side of the mountain. This wouldn’t be a bad idea, but unfortunately, my wife’s sense of direction leaves something to be desired. After following the markers for Aunt Gladys (a long meandering easy run that tracked across most of the mountain), my wife had “missed the turnoff” and ended up on Calipher – a steep black diamond populated by massive moguls. There was no easy way down.

Worry turned to panic as she stared down a steep black diamond run under the chairlift and contemplated snow-plow turning down the hill, all the while under the steady eyes of gawkers in the chairlift above. Several skiers came by and asked if they could help. One kindly gentleman from Salmon Arm named Pat (an older retiree who frequented the mountain every week) offered to coach her through the descent and take each mogul together. Even this was too scary a thought to contemplate.

Pretty soon, my wife made up her mind. Unstrapping her skis, she began a long march up the hill, tearing up under little goggles as she went. That’s when Matthew, the ski-patrol savior arrived. With constant reassurances that “this sort of thing happens a few times every year – don’t worry about it!” she trekked with Matthew to the top of the hill where Sarah, another ski-patroller waited patiently with a snowmobile to complete the extraction. It was an embarrassing journey that was made significantly less embarrassing by the considerate nature of all those around who were lending a helping hand.

After she’d been zipped back up the hill and rendezvoused with me, my wife was still regailed by the generosity and helping nature of all those on the mountain who lent a hand to help during her little personal skiing crisis.

Everyone at the mountain was incredibly nice and thoughtful and it showed how many good kind-hearted people are out there. Maybe you’d find that on every mountain, but part of me wonders if its something peculiar to the smaller and more rural ski areas.

Header courtesy of Paul Jerry

A Community of Madness – Round 2

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[Editor's note: people, the Editor-in-Chief of this blog loves basketball, higher education, community, competition, and when they all slam together in a mess of cheers, tears, body-paint, over-achievement, and ridiculously awesome excitingly uncontrollable hyperboles. Exclamation point! Over the next three weeks, John and his American-import-possibly-mustached-BFF, Alex Grant, will engage in witticisms and precarious predictions pertaining to the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. As players, teams, schools, regions, bank accounts, pundits, pride, and - yes - nations collide, you will get a true sense of what the March Madness community really means. Enjoy!]

akeg / flickr - Alex and John took things too far...

LET’S RE-CAP THE MADNESS | Round 1

JOHN: Well, it was a record-tying weekend. Only once before have teams seeded 11-15 done so well. In fact, two 15-seeds (Norfolk State and Lehigh) upset their second-seeded opponents (Duke and Missouri). And there was much rejoicing by the communities of those former two schools. Well done, fightin’ sports teams! And “go college!”

As for this little pool, well, my bracket isn’t broken, but it’s not not broken, either. While only one of my final four teams have fallen, I suffered a lot of damage within my “interior bracket” – this may or may not have been a word that I just made up (patent-pending, John Horn 2012). Vanderbilt going down to the stifling defense and sweet shooting of Wisconsin hurt, yes, but I still have my dealbreaker, Kansas, in the mix and they demonstrated nerves of steel and wily cunning as they ousted Alex’s beloved Purdue on Sunday (I heaved a great sigh of relief when they did, too).

Canadian Alert!!!

Wow. Brady Heslip is a fairly unassuming fellow. At least he was fairly unassuming until going 7/10 from three point range and almost single-handidly making Buffalos extinct in the state of Colorado. Now he’s King of Baylor and Burlington, Ontario.

Finally, congratulations to the state of Ohio. Your teams went 8-0 last weekend and that’s pretty darn great.

eliduke / flickr

ALEX: [Editor's note: as of press time, Alex Grant's 4,000 words were not filed - we can only assume that he is managing at least 453 social media channels through one integrated dashboard or making prank phone calls to Brady Heslip every five minutes and this is why he missed the deadline. Alex, next time just use Robocalls!]

LET’S MAKE BOLD PREDICTIONS

ALEX: [Editor's note: see above above].

Alex's Picks - injured bracket

JOHN: I predict that Marquette will go down in the kind of flames that are typically reserved for metaphorical descriptions of what Donald Trump’s political career goes down in. Zing! My main man Evan “The Heavy” Ferris – somehow - predicted that Florida would make it, I think, to the Final Four. Well, I don’t think they’re going that far, but they’re going to take down Marquette in the Sweet 16. Well played, Ev.

John's Picks - injured bracket

The time has come for the number ones, too. And I also predict that Wisconsin is going to beat Syracuse and, here’s the big one, that Baylor is going to dispatch Kentucky. Here’s my Final Four:

  • Baylor
  • Michigan State
  • Kansas
  •  Wisconsin Ohio State Cincinnati Ohio State

danny wild / flickr

LET’S SAY NICE THINGS ABOUT EACH OTHER

JOHN: Over the past couple of days I’ve been saying things like “three of my four teams are still in it” and “I’m doing waaaaaaayyyy better in my other bracket” – one of these statements is true. Do you know what else is true? Here’s a truism: Alex Grant is a gentleman and a scholar who not only throws great parties, but who also counts cooking, style and immaculate facial hair construction among his world-changing professional toolkit. You are a god amongst men and, well, you have three teams left in this game as well. Good luck, good sir!

Robin, well played. You clearly have the best strategy. None of my grand pappies went to college, though, so it was hard to pick the closest thing to a fishing boat off the coast of Newfoundland. Wait…was that Ulysses guy from thousands of years ago an Athenian or a Spartan? Because I think he was my great x 20 uncle.

And Michelle, well, you invested a bit too heavily in Duke stock this year.

ALEX: [Editor's note: I like to think that, at this time, Alex would celebrate his special lady's accomplishment as well as commend John for doing his best Alex Grant impression and/or hypothesizing where Alex might be right now ... prank calling Brady Heslip].

MICHELLE & ROBIN WILL PROBABLY WIN

acaben / flickr

MICHELLE: Well, this is unpredictable fun. You never know what’s gonna happen. Take Duke, for example. Who could’ve seen that coming? [Editor's note: John saw it coming]. I hope that there’s not another upset like that. Go UNC!

In conclusion, I hate March Madness and am sad that my bracket is broken. I don’t understand how my logical and data-driven selection criteria failed me. Needless to say, this – more than anything else, ever – has me re-thinking the very principles of what I call “community”.

Michelle's Picks - broken bracket

ROBIN: [Editor's note: this is the very hilarious transcript of a conversation between Robin and John very early this morning. Oh, and she's winning our pool]:

Robin: Hi John. This is the first I’ve heard about a second post from me.  I’m pretty busy at work today, and I don’t think I’ll have time to jot anything down.  I’m so sorry for whatever part I played in dropping the ball here (haha?)  Please let me know how you would like me to proceed. Thanks. Robin.

John: Do you have your bracket all marked up? Because I can just post it. And no worries, I’ll take care of the words!

Robin: I don’t….I don’t even know where my bracket is. And I haven’t been paying attention so I don ‘t even know how I’m doing! That’s my whole MO with this march madness thing. I can try to recreate it when i get home tonight. Let me know if you want me to do that. 

[Editor's note: this is pretty great, right?]

Robin's Picks - winning