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Portside drops anchor in Gastown

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By Sarah Bohuch

 

Newly opened bar offers beers and buns

Beer aficionados rejoice, for a new hall of drunken adulation has been built for the discerning taster and the novice undergraduate. Portside Pub is one of Gastown’s latest offerings, located a few blocks east of the Waterfront Skytrain station at 7 Alexander St.

When you first walk through the glass doors of the trim brick building, you’re immediately confronted with a choice of going up or down. Being chased inside by the wind and the rain of Vancouver’s winter weather, the warm glow coming from the downstairs drew me into its warm depths.

What can be found here is something more akin to the hold of a wooden ship then a bar on dry land. Exposed wooden beams and cozy tables are lit by candlelight and old midcentury harbour lights, and guests, once seated, are greeted by an impressive menu of beer. For a bar with such a good amount of square footage (this venue boasts three levels, with staff on each), the handsome tables offer surprising intimacy with no yelling required in order to have a conversation. Knowing next to nothing about beer, the wait staff were a godsend. They patiently explained what each of the varieties of beer were, why they were good, and what sort of taste they promised. There was no judgement of my lack of knowledge, but an eager willingness to spread the knowledge (and the love) of the brew.

Of the extensive varieties, I sampled three, as well as one cider: the Driftwood Farmhand Saison, the Hefeweisen Apricot Ale, the Phillips Analogue Kolsch, and the Lonetree Dry Apple Cider (for the beer haters). The cider was amazing: something you’d drink on a front porch swing, swaying in the breeze and watching the sun go down. It was summery and sweet.

The Saison was on the lighter side of beer, with a nice hops taste. Another member of the party described it as “disgustingly bland,” so to each their own.

The Apricot Ale lived up to its name and actually had a refreshing apricot taste. It was light but not sweet, with a crispy finish. The Kolcsh was the perfect beer for those not interested in hops, as it was mild, easy to drink, and quite smooth.

The food is offered in concession stand style, as items are purchased with tickets bought before hand. Each ticket costs $2, with each food item costing between one and four tickets. Painted on the front of the concession stand are three separate booths, boasting “all that dim sum,” “pulled sandwiches,” and “hot, fresh hot dogs.”

The menu includes items such as crisp pork rinds with lime and hot sauce, bao buns supplied by New Town Bakery in Chinatown, a pulled-chicken sandwich with kimchi, and classic hot dogs. Sandwiches range from pulled-beef to chicken to pork, and hot dogs can be enjoyed the old-fashioned way, or experimentally, with an apple and sage sausage heaped with sauerkraut.

They have a limited menu of food, but part of the fun is the novelty of the concession stand format, and if you’re into pulled meat, it’s definitely worth it.

The drinks more than lived up to their reputations and the unique concept was worth the visit. Portside receives a rousing recommendation for anyone looking for a good place to enjoy a hearty drink with a good group of people, or to wolf down a pulled-pork sandwich or two.

Music videos that are out of this world

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By Rachel Braeuer

 

Or maybe the people who made them are just out of their minds

1. “E.T.” – Katy Perry
I’m still confused by this one. At face value, it’s fairly simple. Katy Perry is an alien searching the universe for her lost love, who is of a different species. After tumbling through space while shrieking along to music, she finds space boy in a pile of space rubble, bringing him to life like he’s her sleeping beauty with bi-special love’s kiss.

Combined with the lyrics, though, shit gets weird in this video. Kanye West offers an intro and an interlude, and under her love interest’s silver paint job, he’s black. I don’t know about you, but a white chick singing “They say be afraid/ You’re not like the others… Different DNA/ They don’t understand you,” to two black dudes makes me incredibly uncomfortable.

And then there’s “Infect me with your love/ Fill me with your poison.” Look, ladies, I dislike male genitalia as much as the next lesbian, but male singers don’t go around singing about your battle axe wound gobbling their meat rapier in a War of the Roses themed video, so lay off the misandry. As for the alien allegory for race? It’s the 21st century – fuck right off.

2. “Lollipop” (Candyman) – Aqua
Ah, the 90s. A simpler time, when everyone was high on MDMA/ ecstasy. If you don’t believe me, watch this video. I think this might be my favourite worst video just because of the honesty. There’s no allegory for some “issue”, it’s just people singing about drugs and wanting to fuck other people while on those drugs.

Why is it set in space? Because that’s how fucking high they were. The premise is — I honestly don’t know. They were looking for “lollipops” in space? There’s a giant iguana, and then some aliens that look like the shitty drawings in your local blacklight bowling alley show up and enslave the band until their robot dealer gets them high with his rainbow laser, and then they’re all friends.

If you made it out of the 90s without a drug problem, give yourself a pat on the back.

3. “Space Man” – Bif Naked
For further proof that everyone was high on goofballs in the 90s one need look no further than this video. It’s just Bif running around a fake space station while singing. And she has a magic mirror that changes the colour of her lipstick when you kiss it. That’s it.

After listening to the song now, in my adulthood, I’m questioning the collective sanity of Gen-X. I’m pretty sure Naked is singing about wanting to be abducted. I used all of my English major skills and I can’t find a double meaning. Kanye should make a cameo at the end of this one, ‘cause this shit crazy.

4. “We are all made of stars” – Moby
This one actually made sense, despite the fact that it’s just Moby hanging out in a genuine NASA space suit with a bunch of then- washed up stars (seriously, Verne Troyer and Dave Navarro, Thora Birch and Tommy Lee — remember them?) in and around Hollywood Boulevard. Maybe it just makes more sense than the last one.

The song itself is just Moby doing what he does best: singing a hippie ballad to some synth pop music. The only real connection to stars or outer space is the fact that he says “we are all made of stars” in the chorus. Then there are stars in the video, and he’s wearing an as- tronaut suit. Ok, so it doesn’t make sense, but who doesn’t love a good montage video?

5. “Born This Way” – Lady Gaga
I admit, I had a vested interest in this song. I heard it and thought to myself “Pride 2011 anthem,” and so I liked it on that basis alone. I have no problem with the lyrics, and parts of the video are all right (I have an affinity for line dancing, paint orgies, skull make-up, and ladies in pant suits). The rest can go to hell. Or space, whichever.

I’m assuming the video’s intro is done under the pre- tense of Gaga as “mother mon- ster,” giving birth to all the gay freaks and weirdos that suckle at her musical teat. Gaga: we aren’t “your” gays; you didn’t invent us (but you are an in- spiration to drag performers everywhere).

That space-vagina birth scene is almost as terrifying as actual birth videos, but in the song’s context, it is patronizing and a signifier of Gaga’s delusions of gay grand poobah grandeur. Get a grip and come back down to earth.

Letter to the Editor – March 11, 2013

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By Joseph Lievdal

Letter to the Editor in response to “iIf wishes were horses, beggars would ride to McGill”

Here’s some math for you, David: what’s more likely, that thousands of Quebecois students from all disciplines can’t do math, or that you don’t know what you’re talking about? It’s pretty apparent that the student strike was about more than just a tuition hike.

While at first it was a fight against tuition increases, it became a critique of access to education in a capitalist economy, as well as austerity measures in general. But you probably missed that part while you were being all smart and stuff.

Furthermore, your statement that “someone else’s budget has to be slashed instead, or the province increases its debt” shows a surprising lack of critical analysis, especially coming from a student of political science. Your fantastical thinking about the motives and operations of the state displays ignorance about how the real world works.

In 2007, the Quebec government cut over a billion dollars in taxes, which primarily benefitted those with a higher income. Is it fair that those with a high income are allowed to make even more money while those with a lower income face an increasing barrier to affordable education? When taxes are cut, public spending goes down, and every time tuition goes up, a larger percentage of the population is unable to access affordable education, often affecting minorities and women the most.

Your claim that there is a correlation between the student movement and program cuts misses the point of a critical evaluation of a neoliberal trend within the education system in Canada, as well as the reality that the state clearly serves economic interests as opposed to the interests of the people.

Nothing illustrates the interests of the state better than Bill 78, which was criticized by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights as a restriction of the rights of freedom of association and peaceful assembly. Rather than address the problems being brought to the table by hundreds of thousands of citizens, the government sought to repress dissent.

And before jumping to the ‘restoration of peace’ argument, do not forget that many of the rights enjoyed by people today were won with confrontational, even violent street protests. Perhaps you will be less quick to criticize once the $41 million budget cut to higher education in BC starts to affect our university experience. Your article, very unfortunately, does not take into account a historical socio-political context.

Also, some advice: before calling students ignorant, you should perhaps remember your audience.

Sincerely,

Joseph Lievdal
SFU student

The sun rises on a new Bowie

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By Max Hill

 

The Next Day is reminiscent of David Bowie’s golden days

The successful rock and roll comeback is a rare and serendipitous thing — after 10 years of absence from the music scene, and 20 years previous making middle-of-the-road art rock, many had considered Bowie’s career to be over, and had begun to consider his suc- cesses and failures in the past tense. That The Next Day exists at all, recorded in secret and announced only two months before its release, is astound- ing; that it manages to rise to the level of Bowie’s best work from the 70s is a revelation.

But this it accomplishes: The Next Day is dark, terse, and at times inaccessible, but it also features some of Bowie’s most challenging, creative and ulti- mately rewarding work, as well as some of his most infectious and involving. The David Bowie we hear on The Next Day has weathered the storm and has come out both stronger and stranger for the experience.

Still as chameleonic and charmingly contradictory as he’s always been, Bowie experi- ments with a wide variety of influences throughout the album’s 14 tracks: from the claustrophobic, Joy Division post-punk of album opener “The Next Day”, to the Smiths-inspired anti- war balladry of “I’d Rather Be High”, to the dancehall beat of “Dancing Out in Space”, Bowie gleefully dips his toes in a wide variety of genres and styles, and yet manages to make this musical collage into something dis- tinctly his own.

His vocals are just as varied: on tracks like “Where Are We Now?” and “Heat”, each of Bow- ie’s 66 years come through in his low, fragile warble, while the youthful chirp heard in “Valentine’s Day” and the sultry snarl of “The Stars (Are Out Tonight)” sound as though they could’ve been recorded during Bowie’s golden years.

The Next Day is not without its flaws, of course: the al- bum’s musical diversity robs it of the singularity and oneness that defined Ziggy Stardust and Low, and the album’s opening and closing sections under- whelm compared to its spectac- ular middle section.

However, the album has a certain quality that Bowie has never fully perfected until now. Whereas the greatness of albums like Ziggy Stardust and Station to Station come from Bowie’s remarkable talent for performance and character, and his Berlin period is most notable for Bowie’s openness and artistic honesty, The Next Day manages to balance Bowie’s dichotomized selves — the mask and the man behind it — better than any of his previous works.

This isn’t to say that the album relies too heavily on self- reflection: given the cover, which is identical to Bowie’s 1977 effort Heroes save for a large white box in the middle which obscures his face, it’s easy to see why many anticipated an album in which Bowie would try to summarize his career and find some form of closure. The Next Day isn’t the album we were expecting: it’s almost defiantly difficult to pin down, and like Bowie’s best work, it leaves its listeners confused, exhilarated, and intrigued.

So many “comebacks” find washed-up artists desperately trying to recycle the chemical formula which once made them great. On The Next Day, Bowie always has something new to say, and it comes through in the album’s charismatic performances and unwillingness to re-tread familiar ground. Whether Bowie will make an- other LP is difficult to say — though long-time collaborator and album producer Tony Visconti has hinted at studio dates later this year, nothing seems set in stone — but with The Next Day, Bowie has solidified his relevance for many years to come, and reassured his fans and casual listeners alike that his talent for reinvention and seemingly boundless creativity has not weakened with age.

Five double features from beyond the stars

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EIC
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Cosmic journeys through classic cinema

By Will Ross

Movies set in the wild black yonder of space are a rare thing. Good ones are even rarer. But the sci-fi sub-genre’s traditional association with grindhouse cin- emas and multi-part epic franchises makes marathons a rewarding prospect.

So here are five space opera pairings to satisfy anyone’s starry eyes. Some of them are franchise pairings, some are unrelated but fitting companion films, but whichever you watch, expect luscious visuals, cosmic sound- scapes, and oodles of bewon- dered faces.

1. Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986)
A space-mining crew bring a newly-discovered alien onto their ship. Soon it grows into a murder machine, and hunts and kills off the crew one by one. What makes Alien really scary (besides the extremely dark and moody atmosphere) is that the crew are far from the derring- do adventurers of space operas gone by; they’re little more than menial workers who have to im- provise to kill their hunter.

Aliens takes an almost-identical plot structure and punches it up with guns, a little girl to protect, and a hell of a lot more aliens. It’s still a gruelling ride, but a satisfying one, and its de- piction of marines in space has been copied by just about every military sci-fi ever since.

2. Star Wars (1977) and The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
This one’s a given, but watch- ing these back-to-back reaffirms both their amazing scope and emotional vice grip. Star Wars was a pastiche-terpiece extravaganza that at once felt gritty and lived-in (the Millennium Falcon really is a hunk of junk) and spiritual, and the good humour and surge of the editing still make it fly by like no other epic.

Though Empire dropped the original’s escalation of B-movie nobilities, it more than made up for it by asking harder ques- tions and drawing from an even deeper (and darker) reservoir of feelings and character drama. And the music is still the crown jewel of John Williams’s career. Find the original versions if you can; they’re floating around on the internet.

3. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Solaris (1972)
Still rightly hailed by critics as the greatest sci-fi film ever made,
2001’s tale of man’s journey from prehistoric apes to technology- dependent colonizers to — er, something else — is still as brac- ing as ever. HAL, the ship’s com- puter gone inexplicably homicidal, is a chilling villain, all the more so because he is more sym- pathetic than the flesh and blood protagonists, and Stanley Ku- brick’s groundbreaking special effects imagery still drops jaws.

Though Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris was billed as the Russian answer to 2001, Tarkovsky was unimpressed with its icey view of human nature, and his is much more concerned with metaphysical suffering. Pyschologist and widower Kris Kelvin investigates a space station whose scientists are being driven mad by visions of loved ones long deceased, ap- parently animated by the nearby planet Solaris — which then res- urrects his dead wife, to his great anguish.

4. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
No prior experience necessary here: Star Trek had never been and would never again be so bold and intelligent as these two films. The Motion Picture’s lengthy docking sequences and tribulations over the mysteries of the universe and ever-humanizing technology owes a clearer debt to Kubrick than the original series, as it slowly unfolds a plot concerning an almost-ab- stract threat to Earth with self- conscious beauty. And for my money, Jerry Goldsmith’s score is the greatest in movie history.

Khan is a fleeter palate cleanser with plenty more pew- pew kapow. An aging, disillusioned Kirk and his crew are hunted by an old nemesis, and face a no-win scenario that ends in a heartbreaking loss. Nonethe- less, the ending is not depressing, but life-affirming, crystallized by a performance of enormous emo- tional depth and nuance by — get this — William Shatner.

5. Forbidden Planet (1956) and Duck Dodgers in the 24½th century (1953)
Forbidden Planet, the first major feature set entirely on another planet, is a sort of interstellar ver- sion of Shakespeare’s Tempest.

Twenty years after an expedition to planet Altair IV disappears, a United Planets cruiser visits to find only two survivors, Dr. Mor- bius and his attractive daughter Altaira. The crew’s suspicions of Dr. Morbius (and sexual tensions with Altaira) mount until the ex- pedition’s fate is explained in the nervy climax: a monstrous, com- puter-enabled (and accidental) physical manifestation of the doctor’s own id.

And the second feature is okay, Duck Dodgers is far from a “feature,” but besides exploding the psychology of the sci-fi hero just as thoroughly as Forbidden Planet, these seven minutes of Daffy Duck’s spacefaring alter ego are packed with as many laughs and ideas as you’re likely to see in anything. The backgrounds are as fresh and inventive now as they were in 1953, and its satire of cold war posturing and technological redundancy (e.g. Dodgers using a teleporter to go to the airport) is as smart and funny as cartoons get.

Peak Week – March 11, 2013

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By Daryn Wright

Eats
Pay a visit to Mountain Equipment Co-op and grab some dehydrated food, which is the closest you’re going to get to space food. Bring it home, quickly assemble a cardboard space ship, bring some stuffed animals inside and play out your inner child’s dream of being an astronaut. It probably won’t taste very good, and your mouth will probably quickly start watering for a thick angus steak, but at least you’ll feel better about never going to space camp and studying drama instead of following your 10-year old self’s dream.

Beats
Spaced Out Bach by Joseph Paine (I and II) are records from the 60s that sounds like something that would be playing in a bar in A Clockwork Orange. These records are basically Bach on synthesizers, or what people in the 60s thought we’d be listening to in space. The album cover is enough to merit a listen: volume I features a man in a space suit, floating around with Earth behind him, and volume II depicts a bust of Bach wearing the powdered wig and wearing an astronaut’s helmet. It may be hard to track down, but if you can, you’re in for a treat.

Theats
This week, why not take a moment to look at the stars. I know it’s still winter, and you’re probably going to be a bit chilly outside in the evening, but bundle up with a woolen scarf, bring along a thermos of hot chocolate and a friend, and find a spot where you can star-gaze uninterrupted. Maybe wander into Stanley Park, or find a spot along the beach where you can get a good view of the night sky. This is particularly good if you live somewhere rural, or have a car to drive somewhere without city lights.

Elites
Starry Nights at SFU hosts free evening star parties and events, which are open to the public. During these nights, guests are shown various celestial objects visible to the naked eye, and are invited to use telescopes to view distant star clusters and nebulae. Occasionally, there
are also themed events, including lectures on astronomical advances and movie nights. These events generally occur once a month, and are tentatively scheduled on clear days. Email [email protected] for more information.

Treats
Instead of suggesting you go out and buy stick-on stars for the ceiling of your bedroom (which are pretty awesome), I’m going to suggest you spend a
few dollars on the double bill at the Cinematheque, titled Russian Space Opera and featuring showings of To the Stars By Hard Ways and First on the Moon. The first is about the Starship Pushkin, which finds an abandoned vessel in space full of decaying bodies of humanoids, and the second is an ironic doc, mixing real and staged archival footage to uncover how Russia beat America to the moon. Both To the Stars and First on the Moon are showing on March 11, and To the Stars will have a followup screening on March 12.

Clan wins final regular season game

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EIC
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WEB-m hockey-Vaikunthe banerjee

SFU rockets past the WolfPack heading into the playoffs

By Andrew Jow
Photos by Vaikunthe Banerjee

Simon Fraser University and Thompson Rivers University are going to see a lot of each other over the coming week. The Clan’s regular season finale pitted them against the WolfPack on March 2 at Bill Copeland Arena. The two teams will also meet in the first round of the playoffs, so this game was key to gaining momen- tum heading into the postseason.

For the first time in a few weeks, Clan head coach Mark Coletta had a full compliment of players at his disposable.
The home team shot out of the gate, skating up and down the ice in continuous action for the first three-and-a-half minutes. The quick start resulted in a beautiful goal by Brenden Silvester as he corralled the loose puck off the side wall, skated into the slot and fired a Crosby-esque backhand over TRU goaltender Adrien Her- villard’s shoulder.

The Clan’s advantage in speed also led to their second goal when Ben Van Lare streaked down the left hand side and fed team MVP Christopher Hoe at the doorstep, and he made no mistake.

SFU’s feisty period carried over into the second. Joey Pavone brought SFU’s lead to three while on the penalty kill. The third-year center did all the work himself, stealing the puck in the TRU’s zone and driving hard to the net, even- tually tapping in his own rebound.

The three goal lead may have made SFU overconfident, be- cause TRU got their first of the night as they caught all five SFU players down low in the Wolf- Pack’s zone, resulting in a TRU two-on-zero where Alessio To- massetti finished off the tic-tac- toe passing play.

Thompson Rivers contin- ued their comeback late in the period, when Anthony Delong picked up a loose puck along the sidewall and rifled it past SFU netminder Evan Kurylo. SFU defenseman Mike Ball scored the biggest goal of the night 50 seconds later as his point shot found its way into the back of the net. Ball’s effort restored the two-goal lead and gave the home team the momentum heading into the third.

Although the momentum was on SFU’s side, Thompson Rivers got within one goal five minutes into the third. SFU got caught scrambling in their own zone and TRU defenseman Joshua Macdonald’s point shot was deflected in by Tomassetti. Nick Sandor responded by scor- ing SFU’s first power play goal in two games, a result of Mike Ball’s great end-to-end rush.

Coach Jim Camazzola could be heard yelling, “take the ice!” all night, and the defenseman heeded his message. The defense had been active all game, jump- ing in on offensive chances when able, causing mismatches in TRU’s defensive scheme. Silves- ter added his second of the night, sealing the Clan’s 6–4 victory.

Coming in with three straight losses and playing their first round playoff opponent, SFU needed to make a statement and they did just that. The Clan proved they were the bet- ter team, and the WolfPack will need to play three nearly perfect games to beat the Burnaby squad.

The first playoff round began Friday March 8 at Bill Copeland as Simon Fraser looked to finish off a strong season with a cham- pionship. The results will be in the next issue of The Peak.

Convicted star player pushes on

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EIC
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TRU hockey player will not be punished by the school after being convicted of assault in 2012

By Adam Williams

KAMLOOPS (CUP) — A conditional discharge — which includes one year of probation, a ban on drinking alcohol and entering bars, and $30,000 in restitution — will leave behind no criminal record. And Colten DeFrias will continue to play hockey for TRU.

It happened almost two years ago, Oct. 23, 2011, on Victoria Street in downtown Kamloops. DeFrias, who at the time played for the Kam- loops Storm of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League, was out drinking with the team following a 6–0 home win against the Golden Rock- ets and became involved in an altercation with a man named Andrew Giddens.

DeFrias punched Giddens in the mouth, knocking out four teeth and fracturing his jaw.

He was convicted of assault causing bodily harm on Dec.
11, 2012 and was sentenced earlier this month. He will face no discipline from TRU, the athletics department, or the BCIHL.

All this raises the question — what sort of standards do we hold our student athletes to here at TRU? Should De- Frias have faced punishment from TRU or the WolfPack, or is this beyond the reach of the institution?

Regardless of whether he was a member or the WolfPack at the time, if we want our ath- letes to be seen as role mod- els for the community, should DeFrias be allowed to con- tinue playing hockey for TRU? “If this were to have oc- curred while Colten was a member of the WolfPack, we would have been more ac- tively involved in a reaction,” said WolfPack general man- ager Chris Hans. “This hap- pened prior to him even applying to TRU.”

DeFrias has 12 goals and 14 assists in 20 games played this season, he’s second in team scoring behind forward Ales- sio Tomassetti.

Hans says that DeFrias has not been a behavioural con- cern whatsoever in his time with the WolfPack, but he has been made aware, as the rest of his teammates have, that there will be zero tolerance should any inappropriate behaviour occur while he is a member of the WolfPack.
All TRU athletes adhere to a code of conduct, which specifies that, “Any member of a university team whose con- duct puts the reputation of the university, teammates, coaches or themselves in a compromis- ing position may be subject to disciplinary action.”

All things considered, al- lowing DeFrias to move on and continue playing hockey for TRU is probably the right call. Though he caused a sig- nificant injury to Giddens — who has undergone five root canals since and will now need implants fashioned from bone in his hip — at some point DeFrias has to be allowed to move on with his life.

He will pay for his actions with the consequences imple- mented by the court. Whether or not those sanctions were harsh enough is a debate that won’t be touched on here.

DeFrias knows now that he’ll get no more second chances from the WolfPack.

“Once the sentence was imposed, I told Colten we ex- pect him to abide by every last condition,” Hans said. “If we see otherwise, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, but we won’t be turning a blind eye.”

Hans believes DeFrias has learned his lesson and has done a lot of growing up since the incident, supporting the team’s and the institution’s decision not to pursue further action. DeFrias expressed his regret in court this January.
“I am sorry to Andrew for the injury I caused him and the trouble I caused to his family,” DeFrias said. “I will continue to grow and learn.”

SFU blows an engine

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EIC
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By Ljudmila Petrovic

 

A gray and foggy Terry Fox Field played host to the Arizona Lax- cats last weekend, marking the sixth game of the Clan’s season.
The visiting team over- whelmed SFU with a final victory of 14–12, despite a strong Clan comeback in the final three where they outscored their opponents 10–8.

“Arizona flat out outplayed us. They set the bar out of the gate and forced us to play catch- up all game,” says head coach Brent Hoskins of Arizona. “Full credit to them and Coach Felton for travelling up to Canada and beating us in the rain on a day where they clearly wanted the win more than we did.”

The opening quarter of the game strongly favoured Arizona with a 3–0 lead, with the first two points scored by Luke Strode, and a marker from Ben Brehne.

The Clan’s first point was by freshman Alex Bohl; however, the small victory was short lived as Arizona sophomore Zach Johnson singlehandedly scored three consecutive goals and brought the score up to 6–1 for the Laxcats. The first quarter wrapped up with another SFU goal by attackman Colton Dow.

The Clan got their heads back in the game for the start of the second quarter, with SFU’s Ward Spencer bringing the score back to a manageable 6–3, shortly to be 7–3 with a goal by Arizona freshman Theodore Wolter.

The Clan wasted little time in closing the gap to a 7–5, with contributions by Sam Clare and Andrew Branting. The Laxcats
got their claws out for the final push, ending the quarter with a
9–5 lead.

The third quarter began with another burst from the Clan, thanks to goals by Dow and Spencer. Dow got another quick goal for SFU following another Arizona point by Wil- liam Stanaback.

Thescore was resting at a cozy 10-8 for Arizona until Brehne and Johnson each scored a point, leaving the Lax- cats purring with a 12–8 lead at the close of the third quarter.

The final push saw goals from Arizona’s Johnson and Ecker, starting the last quar- ter with a six-point lead by the Laxcats. The Clan tried hard to catch up, with a goal by Dow sandwiched between two Clare points. Despite SFU’s noble ef- forts, they were unable to tame the Laxcats enough to win and the final horn ended the game with a 14–12 win for Arizona.

This game moved SFU to 4–2 on the year, with Arizona im- proving to 2–2 in their fourth game this season.

Leaving little time to deliberate on their defeat, the Clan was back on the road this past weekend to play three games in Colorado. On March 9, they played No. 1 Colorado State, with another game against Colorado the next day, and they finish the trip March 12 against Virginia Tech.

Twist in history suggests big year ahead for Clan softball

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SFU loses to UBC for the first time in history on the softball pitch

By Mehdi Rahnama

The third of March 2013 will forever be a day of joy for the University of British Columbia’s softball program. It marks their first ever victory over the Clan in a competitive softball outing.

The Clan, on the other hand, will be able to look on some positives as well, taking a rather long-term approach to this out- of-conference outing. The team is continuing their development to reach past achievements and is still working on some key areas. This defeat was a loss to history more than anything else.

Certainly a classic in all athletic disciplines, the Thun- derbirds versus Clan games are more than just any other matchup. The Clan begin their conference games with a 4–9 record.

After impressing in a 4–2 win over the Sea Warriors, wrapping up their out-of-conference tour of Hawaii, the Clan seemed to be in good shape to continue their dominance over their arch rivals, the Thunderbirds.

Playing with only a few of their starters though, the Clan seemed out of luck. Offensively, “we just couldn’t get on track,” said Coach Mike Rennie. As it was the last test for the Clan be- fore their conference schedule begins, “it was a good opportu- nity to get some people some playing time.”

As the team prepares for another finish at the top, it is possible to argue that, based on statistics; they have a good chance this year.
It comes down to the coach’s record — he has guided the team to four national titles, three of them in the past 10 years, in his 18 years with the program. It took him only four years to develop a title-winning side. After the turn of the cen- tury, three more titles followed, of which the last was in 2010.

This could mean that the softball team is part of another transformation into a champi- onship-winning side. But how far have they come, and how far do they still have to go?

Thus far, since his first year at the helm, it has taken Ren- nie a maximum of five years to build a championship winning side. On paper, title or no title, 2013 is going to be a big year for Clan Softball team.

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Simon Fraser University’s independent student newspaper since 1965.

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© The Peak Publications Society

Simon Fraser University’s independent student newspaper since 1965.

For advertising inquiries: [email protected]
For promotional inquiries: [email protected]

© The Peak Publications Society