Be a sport

Douglas College isn’t university. It’s not university. It’s college.

Our some 10,000+ students are known for getting in and getting out. Grab your degree, certificate, or GPA boost and then hit your next post-secondary institution. Don’t pause and enjoy the concourse. Don’t take a break out by the fountain. And definitely don’t visit the DSU.

And for some students, that’s fine. School is merely a means to an end for many—just another menial brick in the proverbial wall. School pride? For a college with a lion as our mascot, it’d always been somewhat amusing to me how little it was mentioned when I first attended.

But it doesn’t have to be that way, and I like to think that the culture is slowly but surely changing. This is my fifth year hanging about the college and, though it could be the typical self-centred “everything-new-is-happening-now” perspective so often assumed by our generation, I’m fairly sure naïveté can be ruled out on this count. More new clubs are popping up each year, and a great deal are following through with future plans, instead of being one-offs. DSU pub nights and the like typically see strong attendance. And the emergence of FROSH (now, The E.D.G.E.) in recent years has only helped bolster the steady destruction of student apathy.

All of the above is essential to beating the bad rap Douglas has put up with. But there’s one key component that can aid in this regard like no other. People like to get behind something—something successful. Something they can cheer on and feel like they’re a part of, and something that they can relate to, with highs and lows. I speak, of course, of sports.

A fairly common misconception from those who are new to the school, or who simply haven’t followed the teams, is that Douglas isn’t that good. I get it. If no one’s talking about the Royals, how good can they be? The answer: really, really good. Almost every Douglas team is among the frontrunners each year, and a strong contender to head to nationals.

So why no talk? Sure, more fans in the stands help, but someone has to start the conversation. While the Royals page (douglife.ca/dcroyalsathletics) is fantastic and you should check it out, the average student just wants something they can flip to on the way to class to keep them in the know.

So voilà. All of this is to proudly announce that Sports is back in the Other Press.

Danke danke,

Eric Wilkins