Caviar dreams and champagne wishes
Finishing fourth last season in what head coach Wayne Copeland calls the Varsity Men’s Lacrosse team’s “best ever season,” the Blues have their hearts set on gold for their current season.
“We have lofty [goals], with bringing home the championship banner well within reach,” says Copeland.
Leading the team for another year will be Jon Reed-who “may be the premier long-stick defensive player in the league,” according to Copeland-and his co-captain Ian Parrag. Last season, Parrag and Piovesan led the offensive line, finishing the season with a combined 39 goals and 24 assists.
Also returning to the team are 2004 Canadian university field lacrosse player of the year Steve Hoar, and attack Dan Fleming. New talent will be found in Nick Reed, the 2004 McMaster rookie of the year, who is beginning his master’s degree at UofT. Also watch out for frosh Scott Lemke from Orangeville, who has been touted as a future star.
-MIYOKO OHTAKE
Trading bronze for gold
Coming off a huge 2004-2005 season, complete with an OUA bronze medal, the Varsity Blues women’s lacrosse team has its eye on the trophies again for this year. Although key players like Ainsley Hunt on defence, goalie Jen Charlton, midfielder Vanessa Anderson, and attack Leanne Chu have graduated, the team is still burgeoning with talent.
Returning to the team are such veterans as OUA all-star midfielder Deanne Merkley, and fellow midfielder and 2004-2005 rookie of the year Katie Godfrey. New to the team this year, and definitely worth keeping an eye on, are attack Tory Merrill, Brooke Reid in the middle, and Jennifer Jefferies on defence.
“We’ve got an energetic group of new players on the team and the practices have been going very well so far,” says coach Todd Pepper, who will lead his squad into their season opener against Brock University on September 24 at McGill University.
-M.O.
Generosity flowing like a river
The 2005 edition of the Terry Fox Run was an enormous success in anyone’s books. The amount of money raised was staggering and far exceeded all expectations.
Over $2.3 million was raised in the Toronto area alone on Sunday, which was supplemented by a whopping $3.5 million that was collected by Toronto-area students who ran their own versions of the marathon in school on Friday. Never underestimate the power of children to do great works.
Many other areas in Ontario were proportionally just as generous with their donations, which all go to funding cancer research. Over $300,000 was raised in the Hamilton-Niagara region, the run in Sault Ste. Marie saw $38,000 in donations made, and even the small communities of Timmins and Parry Sound were able to collect $20,000 and $2,000, respectively, for the cause.
Skeptics will not have their faith in humanity completely restored by these heartwarming results, but this is certainly something that everyone can be proud of. There is no doubt that Terry Fox himself would have liked what he saw on Sunday.
Over $360 million has been donated to help fund cancer research since the inception of the Marathon of Hope 25 years ago.
