sports

Fate in divine hands

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , , ,

For Tchida, her spiritual belief were an integral part of her basketball journey, especially after a bad injury. Photo Caroline Marsh

Jared Lackman-Mincoff,
Local Journalism Initiative

Stingers women’s basketball team members put special trust in their God.

The Concordia University Stingers women’s basketball team is not your run-of-the-mill basketball team.

Your run-of-the-mill basketball team hypes each other up in the moments leading up to the start of a game, encouraging one another and getting focused on their opponent. The Stingers women’s basketball team, on the other hand, adds a moment of prayer to that, eyes closed and heads down.

Your run-of-the-mill basketball team digs in immediately during team meals. The Stingers women’s basketball team takes a moment to say grace.

Your run-of-the-mill basketball team praises each other after a win, and thanks all their teammates for their hard work. The Stingers women’s basketball team is likely thanking someone else, too.

“ They know that I’m a believer. I don’t shy away from making that known because I do believe it’s important to believe in something and to believe that there’s a higher power watching over you, protecting you, guiding you,” head coach Tenicha Gittens said.

Gittens attended Sunday school at her Protestant church growing up because her parents wanted her to be immersed in her religion. But as she got older, life got in the way and she found herself distanced from her religion—albeit unintentionally.

“Basketball, for example, we’d have games on Sundays, so I wouldn’t attend church as often on a Sunday because I’m busy with basketball or something like that,” Gittens said. “So as you get older and you start to do other things, it pulls you away.”

Despite these conditions, Gittens started making a conscious effort to get closer to God. It has become a part of her daily routine, and even finds its way onto John Dore Court.

“I don’t go to church every Sunday or anything like that, but I do take time out of my day to give thanks, to pray,” Gittens said. “I’m always praying at some point. I’ll be praying when I’m on the bench, coaching on the sideline.”

The players on her team are certainly aware of Gittens’s passion towards her faith.

In fact, even fifth-year guard Dalyssa Fleurgin knew how important faith was to Gittens before she joined the team two years ago. Fleurgin transferred to Concordia from Ontario Tech University for the 2023-24 season.

“ This is one of the reasons why I committed to Concordia for my last two years,” Fleurgin said, “because we share some similar values with [Gittens] and the fact that she believes in God was one of the big ones.”

Fleurgin attended church regularly when she was young, but also gradually stopped as she aged. At a certain point, she decided to start attending church again and got baptized in 2017. 

She often prays and talks to God, and she reads her Bible every day.

Since joining the Stingers, she has found connections with other team members who share her passion and belief in a higher power. It has made her feel right at home.

“It gives us something more that we can believe in all together, knowing that I’m not the only one who believes in God,” Fleurgin said.

One of those teammates is fourth-year centre Serena Tchida.

Tchida considers herself a “baby Christian.” She has always believed in a higher power but only started deeply connecting with God roughly two years ago.

“ I’m still, like, growing in faith,” Tchida said. “I don’t think I’m there yet. I don’t think there’s a way to get there, but I’m still growing in baby steps.”

Her relationship with God hit a speed bump when she tore her Achilles tendon during the 2022-23 season and had to sit on the sidelines for the entire second half of the campaign.

“I got mad at God because I couldn’t find anything [else] because it wasn’t rational for me: popping your Achilles during a random Thursday game doing a move that I usually do every day,” Tchida said.

Tchida eventually understood that her injury was simply part of her journey, and stopped looking for a reason to understand why it happened. She dedicated her energy to putting in the work to recover, and believing that everything would work out.

She still applies that attitude today, by “just trusting the work that I put in,” Tchida said. “And then trusting that God is going to make things work for me and being conscious of doing the right thing.”

Furthermore, Tchida appreciates that Gittens understands the importance of her faith. Before the current season began, Gittens allowed Tchida to miss practice to attend a spiritual retreat.

“She understood because she knows that I’m growing in my faith and that I’m learning, I’m still in my process with God,” Tchida said.

Gittens says that she and Tchida share a favourite Bible verse, Jeremiah 29:11, and that she connects deeply with Tchida and Fleurgin because of their strong passion for their faith.

A big reason for that is how vocal Tchida and Fleurgin are about their beliefs.

“They’re OK expressing that, whether it be via social media or otherwise,” Gittens said.

Gittens has been at the helm of the Stingers women’s basketball team since 2015, but because of her connection with God, she does not believe that her job is to simply coach basketball.

“I was put in a position of leadership and God opened the doors for me,” Gittens said. “That’s my belief, and it’s given me the opportunity to lead young women.”

Although Gittens loves to win and hates to lose, God also helped her realize that basketball is not the be-all and end-all.

“ I’m a competitor 24/7/365, but I know that it’s not all there is to it,” Gittens said. “And if my happiness or my faith or my sense of value and purpose is literally based on the big wins or the big losses, I wouldn’t be a very happy person.”

Gittens’s strong belief definitely rubbed off on Tchida, and Tchida feels she is better off because of it.

“This program really helped me get closer to God,” Tchida said, “and I’m really grateful for that.”

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Agreement to address the deficit at the Carleton-sur-Mer campus sports centre 

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , , , ,

Nelson Sergerie, LJI Journalist

CARLETON-SUR-MER – An agreement has been reached between Cégep de la Gaspésie et des Îles and various partners to address the operating deficit at the Carleton-sur-Mer campus sports centre. 

Built in 2012, the centre includes a gymnasium, a training room, and a golf simulator. 

The facility operates on an annual budget of approximately $70,000 but faces a deficit of around $40,000. According to a CEGEP analysis, only about 25% of the available time slots are dedicated to teaching and student use. Additionally, demand for the gym exceeds its capacity during 50% of the available slots. On weekends, families and the general public can rent the gym. 

In the fall of 2021, an agreement was reached with the organization Bouge pour que ça Bouge. The CEGEP reports that this collaboration has significantly boosted the sports centre by optimizing the use of space and improving the range of sports activities. 

Since the service is available to the entire population, the CEGEP entered into discussions with nearby municipalities and Service Secours to finance part of the deficit. This was followed by agreements with the Ministry of Higher Education, which is contributing $13,740, the sports centre’s portion of revenue under the agreement with Bouge pour que ça bouge, which is contributing $18,000, and the Emergency Services, which is contributing $15,000. 

The municipalities of Carleton-sur-Mer and Maria were also contacted. “The Town was in favour of supporting the maintenance of this infrastructure to keep it open to the public. It’s $6,000 per year for three years,” explains Carleton-sur-Mer Mayor Mathieu Lapointe. The municipality of Maria will contribute $4,000. 

Other potential partners have been approached, and the CEGEP is awaiting confirmation of additional funding. 

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Club d’aviron de Laval’s rowers excel at Lachine Canal meet

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , , ,

Martin C. Barry, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Although the officials in Lachine had troubles with the timing and results were not complete, rowers with the Club d’aviron de Laval finished first last weekend in women’s open quad (boat of four rowers) as well as mixed double (a boat with two rowers).

Located in Chomedey behind École Saint-Maxime at a small beach along the Rivière des Prairies known as the Berge des Cageux, the CAL is a local community sporting group that has been offering rowing activities to people of all ages and all skill levels since 1956.

Many ways to compete

In rowing, there are several boat classes in which athletes may compete, ranging from single sculls, occupied by one person, to shells with eight rowers and a coxswain (navigator).

There are a wide variety of course types and formats for racing, although most elite and championship level racing is conducted on calm water courses up to two kilometres long, with marked lanes.

The CAL was founded by a small group of German-Canadians led by Albert Conrad. He volunteered to allow the back yard of his home along the Rivière des Prairies to be used as the CAL’s first base of operations. The club has been located at its current base near the Lachapelle Bridge since the 1960s.

A long club history

When the club first started, it was known as the Montreal Rowing Club and was affiliated with rowing clubs along the waterways of eastern Ontario. The CAL holds the distinction of being the first rowing club in Canada to allow women to take up rowing as a sport.

The club offers new members a variety of programs, depending on their rowing experience, their goals, age and the physical shape they’re in. The club’s resources and facilities include around thirty boats, with some for novices, for recreational practice, as well as for more advanced members who take part in grueling competitions.

Good showings last Sunday

Around 25 of the club’s members took part in competitions held on a basin at the Lachine Canal last Sunday morning and afternoon. In addition to the women’s victories, the men finished second in junior under 17 doubles, and third in the men’s master quad and mixed double.

Club members also participated in the women’s junior U19 double and the master men’s skiff events. At the Laval News’s deadline earlier this week, CAL athletes were waiting to hear whether the club won in the U23 women’s skiff event, although the aforementioned timing problems were delaying the results.

A great overall sport

According to CAL spokesperson Florian Cys, the club’s members, numbering as many as 100, compete in rowing events every two to three weeks during the summer and into the fall. He notes that rowing gets ranked alongside swimming as one of the best overall sports for low physical impact and positive development to cardiovascular health.

“The sport is open to everyone and to all ages,” he said, pointing out that the CAL’s members hold practices near the Lachapelle Bridge almost every morning beginning as early as 6 am.

There are also early evening practice sessions around 5:30 pm for those arriving home after work. The Club d’aviron de Laval is located in Chomedey at 3676 Boulevard Lévesque Ouest. Phone: 450-687-8812. E-mail: info@avironlaval.com.

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Out-of-province tuition hikes spell trouble for Stingers, Redbirds, Martlets, Gaiters

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , ,

Sami Jahan dribbles past a McGill player during their Nov. 11 game. Photo Alice Martin

Jared Lackman-Mincoff
Local Journalism Initiative

After the Quebec government announced its tuition hikes for international and out-of-province students, varsity directors and coaches at Concordia University, McGill and Bishop’s can see out-of-province recruitment troubles on the horizon. Non-Quebec students make up a considerable proportion of the student-athletes at all three universities.

Hamilton, Ont. native Sami Jahan, one of the foremost members of the Concordia Stingers men’s basketball team, said that his university career would have looked much different if the tuition hikes had happened when he was choosing where to study.

“Looking at the kids who are in my shoes, whether they’re playing sports or even just trying to go to school out-of-province […] their landscape is going to change a lot,” he said. Jahan is a fourth-year veteran with the Stingers. The team’s impressive 2021-22 playoff run would not have been possible without him.

Jahan believes that varsity coaches will shift more of their recruitment focus towards CEGEPs. He feels that recruiting talent from out-of-province will be less beneficial for Quebec’s English universities, since they will be able to get four Quebec kids on a scholarship for the same price as one out-of-province recruit.

He emphasized that the tuition hike itself is not the only expense out-of-province students must consider.

“When you leave the province, your family has to put you in some type of residence or living situation. That’s another fee. Food is another thing. It just piles on,” he said. “If I was looking at schools in Canada and I saw Quebec’s tuition hike, my family would be like, ‘That doesn’t make financial sense when you can stay here.’”

The Stingers’ winter sports rosters put them in the best position of the three English universities. Only 20.8 per cent of the hockey and basketball rosters is composed of out-of-province and international students—whose tuition could increase by a minimum of $20,000. Non-Quebec recruits makeup 49.4 per cent of McGill’s hockey and basketball rosters, and 43.1 per cent for Bishop’s. 

Deep Saini, principal and vice-chancellor of McGill, estimated that one third of McGill’s student-athletes hail from another province. Director of Athletics at Bishop’s Matt McBrine told La Tribunethat he believes that number to be nearly 50 per cent for his institution. Most notably, 86.7 per cent of the Bishop’s Gaiters women’s soccer team comes from another province or country. Both schools fear that they will need to eliminate some varsity teams due to the hike.

Coaches at Concordia, McGill and Bishop’s had considerable advantages over their francophone counterparts when it came to recruiting out-of-province and international students, but the hike will nullify them completely.

“We’re able to recruit from out west because it’s an English institution […] and the price […] was similar to other universities,” said Marc-André Elément, head coach of the Stingers men’s hockey team. “But now with the increase, it’s going to be another game, and it’s going to be really hard to recruit from outside Quebec, that’s for sure.”

The Stinger’s men’s hockey team only has two non-Quebec players on the roster. However, the program still faces the same obstacles as others that are more dependent on out-of-province recruitment.

“It’s a bit frustrating because we have such good programs,” said Elément. “A lot of guys from [other parts] of the country […] want to come and study here because it’s a good school and everything and now we’re taking that away.”

Elément and his staff are working to find a new recruitment strategy, but they do not see a clear solution right now.

The tuition hikes could potentially create a ripple effect on the rest of the province if English varsity programs become less formidable competition or get wiped out entirely.

“It will also have an impact on Quebec sports infrastructure, something that people tend to forget,” McBrine told La Tribune in French. “If you have three universities—McGill, Concordia and Bishop’s—who are in several sports leagues, and can no longer compete, it will have an impact on every sport.”

Women’s hockey and football are set to receive a big punch. The three English schools make up 50 per cent of the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) women’s hockey conference, and Concordia and McGill form two out of five RSEQ football teams. McBrine agreed with this notion, telling La Tribune that he doubts that three francophone university programs would offer high caliber competition.

The English schools additionally form three out of seven RSEQ teams for men’s and women’s rugby. But the situation is most dire for basketball, where the trio comprises three out of five Quebec programs for men’s and women’s hoops.

If Quebec teams are no longer fit to compete against each other, then the remaining teams may need to move to the Ontario University Athletics or Atlantic University Sport conferences to maintain a high enough level of competition for varsity play.

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