A look into why B.C. universities are low on female coaches, and what’s being done to change it

Despite a rise in programs aimed at advancing coaching opportunities and experiences for women, female coaches are still outnumbered by male coaches in every B.C. university.

TRU currently has nine male head coaches employed by the athletic department. WolfPack cheerleading has the only female head coach, but it’s a volunteer position.

“When we advertise a job … we want to try and get the best candidates that we can to apply and we want to try and hire the best candidate possible,” said TRU’s athletic director Ken Olynyk. “That doesn’t mean they’re always a male, but generally what happens is, if I have 40 applicants for a position, at the most, three to five would be female.”

Olynyk has only seen one female head coach at TRU in his 12 years as athletic director.

But it’s not just TRU that has this issue. Female head coaches are minorities at all B.C. universities.

Currently, both the University of Northern British Columbia and Capilano University have no female head coaches. UBC employs four female coaches, which is more than any other B.C. university. However, with 18 male coaches employed, females still only make up 18 per cent of UBC’s coaching staff.

It’s an issue that spans the country, said Lorraine Lafrenière, CEO of the Coaching Association of Canada. According to Lafrenière, men and women have different approaches when it comes to applying for leadership positions.

“When women apply for employment they tend to make sure that they have all that is necessary. In other words, they feel equipped to do the job before they apply,” she said, “whereas men tend to be what we might say, risk takers, and say ‘I feel like I can do this job even if I don’t feel I have all the skill set.’”

“Sometimes the other part of it is the lifestyle of coaching employment. It doesn’t always fit with some of the traditional roles or some of the roles women play in their adult life, like having children. That flexibility has been afforded to men traditionally,” Lafrenière said. “I think that has hindered women entering the profession of coaching.”

There are initiatives to get more females involved in coaching through organizations like the Coaching Association of Canada and the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and Physical Activity (CAAWS). These organizations provide women with grants, scholarships, mentorship programs and workshop opportunities.

“We’ve just gone through, with the leadership program, a series of training 25 new trainers across the country,” said CAAWS executive director Karin Lofstrom. “In the end it should be around 100 workshops around the country for women developing their leadership skills.”

According to Olynyk, TRU participates in mentorship programs when there is an interested applicant. The most recent was Natasha Little, who participated two years ago in the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association Female Apprentice Coach Program under WolfPack women’s soccer head coach Tom McManus. Little played on the WolfPack for two years and wanted give back to the team while improving her coaching abilities.

“Programs like this, whether offered to males or females, will always increase the quality of coaches, but I am not sure they will increase the number of coaches. Generally speaking those who want to coach, will,” Little said.

According to the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association website, $2,500 is given to an institution to support a soccer apprentice.

“Coaching is a difficult profession in that it’s not well-paid until you get a job at a university. I think that also becomes a deterrent for lots of people, not just females,” Olynyk said.

Olynyk said he has never seen one of TRU’s female apprentices move on to become a head coach.

But the low rate of female coaches at TRU is not something WolfPack athletes are lamenting. Both Jenna Quinton and Michelle Bos of the women’s basketball team agreed they prefer male coaches to females ones.

“I do prefer male coaches simply because their styles tend to be more motivating,” Bos said. “I notice female coaches tend to be really good with individual development, especially the mental aspect of sports.”

Review The Canadian University Press Newswire article:

http://cupwire.ca/2015/03/26/not-many-women-in-b-c-university-coaching/

One man lost on Sun Peaks for 15 hours, and how Sun Peaks is preventing further issues

The decision over whether or not to go out of bounds is something weighed by many skiers and snowboarders looking to push themselves even further.

Whether you’re prepared or not, alone or with friends, new to the mountain or a local, when you ski out of bounds you take on the risk of getting lost, getting hurt or even dying.

For Grant Tipler, the worst case scenario almost became a reality when he got lost for 15 hours while snowboarding alone on Gil’s, an out of bounds run at Sun Peaks Resort.

Tipler had trained to be a ski instructor during the 2012-13 season at Sun Peaks and returned to train as a snowboard instructor for the 2013-14 season. He’d skied Gil’s multiple times during his first season but was always with friends.

On the morning of Feb. 17, 2014, he was racing slalom before heading further up the mountain. When a man he met on the chairlift raved about the powder on Gil’s, Tipler went against his instincts and decided to go down the run alone.

He planned to take the route he knew on Gil’s, but fell and got disoriented. That’s when the man from the chairlift showed up again.

“I said ‘I’m trying to get to this route,’ and he said ‘just go down from here and you’ll be fine.’ Then he pointed out a route to take and just zoomed off.

“I went down like he said and then it just went flat. I took my board off, started walking and hiking around. I just got totally disoriented.”

Tipler climbed to higher ground and, seeing nothing he recognized, decided to follow some snowmobile tracks in the snow. He went around in circles and hit dead ends while trying to follow different sets of tracks.

Although he had a cellphone, Gil’s sits in an area without service. He had no water, no food, no transceiver and only his racing clothing and helmet. He had told no one where he was going.

“The temperature dropped to, I think, -10 C that night, which was quite lucky because the week before it was -27 C … I wouldn’t have survived, I don’t think.”

When night fell, Tipler abandoned his snowboard and kept following the snowmobile tracks.

“I did stop for half an hour. I was so tired and I got into the trees cause the wind was blowing. After about half an hour I was starting to shake. I started breaking down a little bit actually, thinking ‘I don’t want to die out here, no one will find me.’”

“I started tripping as well, later on, thinking I could see things coming. I started thinking about cougars and stuff. I kept thinking, ‘is that something in the bushes or is that something running at me?’ Eventually as the light faded, I saw the groomers in the distance. But they were far and really high.”

Sun Peaks had certain runs lit up to be groomed for the morning. It was about 11:30 p.m. when Tipler decided to climb toward the lights on the groomed runs.

“They kept appearing and then disappearing. I was starting to get disheartened and they’d appear again just as I was feeling at my lowest,” he said.

When the lights weren’t visible, Tipler followed the lighter clouds in the sky.

“The snow was up to my waist. I was dropping all the time and falling into the snow… When I stopped that’s when I started to freeze so I knew that I couldn’t stop. I never stopped walking for practically the whole 15 hours.”

“Eventually I looked into the distance. I could see, that’s a groomed run, and I was like, I’ve made it.”

Tipler made it to the hotel at 4:30 a.m. He’d been lost for about 15 hours. His friends had noticed his absence but no one had reported him missing.

He wasn’t the only person to get lost on Gil’s last season. Kamloops Search and Rescue president Alan Hobler said at least eight people were rescued last season.

Jamie Tattersfield, manager of mountain operations at Sun Peaks Resort, can recall two specifically who were lost on Gil’s.

“We had quite an extensive system of signs on there that told people [they’re] leaving the patrolled area and it also told them that they shouldn’t go there unless they’re properly equipped,” Tattersfield said.

“In spite of that, we still ended up with quite a few people getting lost in Gil’s terrain out there and the reason for that is more geographical than anything else,” Tattersfield said. “The terrain tends to pull you away from the ski area once you get below a certain point.”

When Sun Peaks expanded its boundary this season, a 4.5-kilometre fence was put up in Gil’s terrain with signage that points the way back to the resort.

“So now if you get down to this sort of terrain trap, you’re going to run into this rope boundary. Then all you have to do is follow it out and you’ll be safe,” Tattersfield said.

“Usually when people get lost it may not be lack of equipment but it’s definitely lack of thought,” Tattersfield said.

Tipler said that this was true in his case.

“It’s a risk you take anywhere you go, if you go under the rope. I knew better. I knew that I shouldn’t have gone out there without a transceiver but I didn’t really listen to my instincts,” Tipler said.

“It was a life changing experience to come that close to possibly freezing outside. It gives you a different perspective on things.”

This season, things look a little better at Sun Peaks, with no reported incidents of people getting lost.

Review The Omega article:

http://truomega.ca/2015/01/20/surviving-out-of-bounds-at-sun-peaks/

“If your boss came to you every morning and told you to ‘smarten the F up cause you’re a dumb bitch,’ would you like it? Well that’s exactly what’s happening to the referees by the parents, and fouler language than that,” said Jim Humphrey, president of the Vancouver Island Amateur Hockey Association.

Referees for all age groups and in all sports must deal with verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse from spectators, coaches and players. It’s an issue that is especially common in hockey.

Penticton police are currently investigating a case that involves a Kamloops man who allegedly threatened the referees after his son’s game.

“Inside of a hockey rink, it seems that they get a free pass, and I think the days of these free passes need to disappear,” Humphrey said.

According to Humphrey, abuse has caused hundreds of referees to quit officiating for the Vancouver Island Amateur Hockey Association over the years. Humphrey believes this aggressive behaviour is ingrained in hockey culture. He remembers multiple incidences when the police had to be called to deal with violent parents.

“The biggest one took 17 police officers to control the fighting inside the hockey rink by the spectators in the stands,” Humphrey said.

In the last month, Humphrey said at least 13 parents have been kicked out or banned from games for getting aggressive or verbally abusing the referees.

“We’ve tried many different things to try to deal with it but pretty much all of them have been unsuccessful,” he said.

But there is one thing that has been helping recently, and that’s the attitude of other parents.

“In the past parents weren’t wanting to get involved. They would just sit and be quiet and just hope the game ended. What’s happened now is that there are parents that are actually standing up in the game and they’re telling their peers to sit down and behave themselves,” Humphrey said.

Humphrey said parents have also started reporting abuse to their local Minor Hockey Associations.

“Now that this is out and parents are actually turning in the bad guys, we can investigate. Now, rather than punish all the parents, we can just take sanctions against those parents that are the ones doing the abusive behaviour,” Humphrey said.

Kamloops is not without its share of abuse incidents, either.

Jeremy Salamandyk, ex-equipment manager for TRU’s WolfPack hockey team, works as a security guard at various minor hockey tournaments in Kamloops.

“I’ve seen parents freak out. A lot of times they’ll throw stuff on the ice or they’ll have vulgar language and profanities directed at the referees. I’ve seen parents at the [Kamloops International Bantam Ice Hockey Tournament] go after the officials in the parking lot,” Salamandyk said. “A couple times I got in between the officials and the parents. Once a dad tried to get in the referee’s room and I had to grab the dad and pull him out.”

Sean Raphael, referee chief for BC Hockey, said referee abuse seems more common in minor hockey because, with over 50,000 players, it’s the most abundant level of hockey in the province. Minor hockey is often officiated by level one, or 12- to 16-year-old, referees.

“I think a lot of it is a lack of information that the spectator or the person criticizing the officials have,” Raphael said. “Rules are constantly being updated and changed. New rules are being created and old rules are being taken out on a bi-annual basis.”

A prerequisite to officiate under BC Hockey is a four-hour online course through Hockey Canada. After that there are many training opportunities for referees, from clinics to summer courses. Referees have their own coaches and supervisors who watch their games and provide feedback. Referees must also get recertified annually.

“Hockey Canada also launched the rulebook as a mobile app with a live search function on it. It’s free of charge and it can look up any rule, any incident, right through the search function,” Raphael said.

Kevin Bennett started working as a referee at age 12 and 15 years later he still loves it, despite often being the subject of verbal abuse. On March 3, Bennett was one of the referees that a Kamloops Blazers player got upset with after the game. The player pushed one of the referees and yelled at Bennett. But Bennett didn’t take it personally.

“He’s a good guy. He doesn’t mean to do it, just his emotions were high,” Bennett said. “You can’t always make them happy, but you have to call the game fairly.”

Cam Weir, TRU business student and ex-WolfPack hockey player, said he has seen verbal abuse get so extensive that it pushed fairness out of the picture.

“One coach that I had in junior had a horrible relationship with this one ref. It just seemed completely odd how one-sided every game he reffed was. There were a lot more calls against us and some of them were borderline almost made up,” Weir said.

“When you start getting on the back of a referee, they tend to create a bias, whether they realize it or not and they’re not going to give you any favour, that’s for sure,” Weir said.

In addition to coaches, Weir has also seen parents and players swear at and insult referees.

“A lot of people, a lot of players and a lot of coaches get caught up in the moment and really don’t see the ref as a person.”

According to Raphael, referee abuse has always been an issue, but the amount of media attention it gets has been growing in the past few years, and that might be part of the solution.

“We’re always looking for ways to raise awareness. We’re always trying to communicate the rules that are in place to try and prevent it from happening, and to encourage positive attention towards the officials,” Raphael said.

One of the new ways BC Hockey is doing this is through “Make the Call” contests on their website.

“We have a [video] that shows an infraction or incident that occurred and we quiz people to answer the right question with the multiple choice of what the penalty was,” Raphael said. “At the end of the two weeks we announce a winner and then we reveal the answer to teach everybody about that specific rule.”

There have been about 550 entries into the “Make the Call” contests since they began in October. The prizes have ranged from clothing to tickets to watch the Vancouver Canucks and meet the referees. Raphael said the contests have been successful and will continue on the officiating page of BC Hockey’s website.

“Unlike players, officials don’t really get to practice, so the games tend to be their opportunity to practice,” Raphael said. “Officials are constantly learning just like a player is learning. The officials are always going to make mistakes out there but they are going to hopefully learn from those mistakes.”

“We always encourage people to try officiating if they think that they know the rules.”

Review The Omega article:

http://truomega.ca/2015/03/10/refs-the-abuse-from-players-parents-and-coaches-and-what-is-being-done-to-stop-it/

Olympian Clara Hughes takes a lap with the TRU community ahead of degree ceremony

There were 130 participants in the Nov. 20 event, with Hughes leading the group. The event began at Old Main and went for two loops around campus.

WolfPack team captain Ryan Pidhirniak had the idea to create the event to raise awareness for mental health after a teammate and friend took her own life over the summer.

“After the death of my teammate, I just thought, ‘I have to do some­thing,’” Pidhirniak said.

He approached his assistant coach Sharon Munk, who is also a counsellor, with the idea. Munk, with the help of the WolfPack cross-country team and nursing student Amy Gordon, organized the first Walk/Run a Kilometre in My Shoes event.

The event was not only meant to raise awareness about mental health, but to raise awareness about the availability of counselling ser­vices at TRU.

“We have world-class people available to help kids that are strug­gling with depression or a form of anxiety. We all know how tough it gets around finals and there’s some­body here to talk to if you need to,” Pidhirniak said.

Pidhirniak said it is too soon to outwardly honour the teammate that took her own life by associat­ing her with the event, but hopes that with the approval of her family, the event can later commemorate her.

“She meant a lot to me and the team and we don’t want her memo­ry to be lost,” Pidhirniak said.

After the event, many stu­dents, including the WolfPack cross-country team, got the oppor­tunity to meet Hughes and listen to her recount her own struggles with depression.

“I thought winning medals would kind of fix me, make me feel good about myself… and it did the oppo­site,” Hughes said to media outside Old Main.

Hughes said that sports gave her a sense of belonging and even kept some feelings of depression at bay, but it was not a solution and even­tually she sought help.

“Athletic competition attracts really intense personalities…and people that may be prone more to OCD, to anxiety. Just because you’re so strong doesn’t mean you don’t have weakness,” Hughes said. “I think sport is something that al­lows people to mask the weakness a little more, so maybe people are attracted to it.”

Hughes said she knows a lot of athletes who struggle with men­tal illness and thinks that there is a greater percentage of high per­formers that struggle with mental illness.

Kayla Morrison, a first-year WolfPack runner, was diagnosed as a child with major depressive dis­order and generalized anxiety dis­order.

“I was really ashamed at first. It’s something that I put my own stigma on,” Morrison said.

Morrison believes awareness about mental illness has increased in the past few years, which helped her to become more open about her own struggles.

“The more awareness we get re­duces the stigmatization and will enable people to actually get the help they need. It may be able to reduce the more higher risks, like suicide, which is something that has been increasing in the past few years, especially in Canada,” she said.

Morrison said she knows a lot of people with mental illness who reach out to athletics. She believes team support and exercise is a posi­tive influence on mental health, and that stigmatization around mental health needs to change.

“Being sick with depression or bipolar disorder or schizophrenia or whatever you may deal with is no different than being sick with a medical illness, they are the same thing and that’s something people really need to realize,” she said.

Morrison has lost three people, friends and family members, to sui­cide in the last two years.

“There are people that die every­day because they’re too scared to talk to someone and that breaks my heart. It’s not okay and it’s prevent­able.”

Although mental illness affects people of all ages, Munk believes young people at university are par­ticularly vulnerable because it’s a transitional period in their lives.

“I do think student athletes are under their own unique stresses because they’re trying to balance school and the demands and expec­tations of varsity sports but they’re not any different than any student that has their own stresses,” Munk said.

Munk was thrilled to see all the participants that came out for the run. She also hopes it can become an annual event.

“This was a big way that we could say that we’re going to honour that team member’s memory and make sure that doesn’t happen to others,” Munk said.

“We can do our small part in helping to prevent it for somebody else by making them aware of the supports and resources that we have here on campus,” she said.

Munk’s advice for anyone strug­gling with mental illness is to talk to somebody about it, whether it’s a friend, family member, teacher or counsellor, and to get directed to professional support if it’s needed.

Review The Omega article:

http://truomega.ca/2014/11/25/now-shes-running-with-the-pack/

Kayla Morrison’s condition has not held back her ambitions as a runner

Despite being born with a condition that works against her, Kayla Morrison is determined to continue racing and improve her speed.

Morrison, 21, was born with the left side of her rib cage twisted and protruding. It’s something her doctors had never seen before.

“They’d seen people that have parts of the ribs stick out. They’d seen people with part of the ribs twisted in, but they’d never seen someone with both,” Morrison said. “I guess I’m kind of an anomaly with it.”

Morrison has been running since she was a child. In high school, she joined the track and field team and started racing.

When she was in Grade 12, she entered a race in Abbotsford, but she never got to finish it. While she was running, one of her twisted ribs slipped, possibly striking a nerve, and caused her to suddenly lose consciousness halfway through the race.

It was the first time her condition had caused her to pass out, but it wouldn’t be the last. Morrison experienced sudden loss of consciousness multiple times while working at a restaurant in Langley and once during class.

“When they slip it causes a lot of pain. Sometimes, if it hits a nerve or a muscle funny, then it causes me to pass out,” Morrison explained. “My body’s not meant for a runner. Everything is against me, but I like running.”

Morrison began physiotherapy to strengthen her back muscles. This helps hold her ribs in place and makes them less likely to slip, although the risk is always there.

After losing consciousness during the race, Morrison took three years off from running but got back into the sport when she joined the WolfPack in September. She was afraid her ribs would slip when she first started running again, but is confident in her rehabilitation.

“I’ve been working really hard. I do a lot of strength training on my back so my back’s actually pretty strong now,” Morrison said. “I know my body and now I know when I have a rib out. I know when it’s slipping, so I know when to stop.”

Another setback Morrison has to deal with is that her left lung is only partially developed due to her twisted rib cage.

“As a runner you want to be able to take a full deep breath. So that’s more of an issue than the actual ribs because I’ve been working on my ribs, but I can’t change the fact that I can’t take a deep breath,” Morrison said.

Morrison has met with physiotherapists, chiropractors and an osteopath for advice about her condition. She also has seen a surgeon in Surrey, who believes her rib cage can be reconstructed with surgery, preventing her ribs from slipping.

“It’s a very invasive surgery. It hasn’t been FDA approved yet so I’m still on a waiting list. It’s probably not going to be [approved] for a few years,” she said.

“It’d be nice to be able to be normal,” she said.

Despite her twisted rib cage, her partial lung and her three-year break from running, Morrison is faster than ever.

On Oct. 25, she ran a personal best in Abbotsford on the exact same course where she had lost consciousness three years before.

“It was kind of like redemption for me,” she said. “It was a good feeling to actually finish that race and do well and get a good time.”

Her goal is to be able to go to the CIS Cross-Country Championships next year. To accomplish this, she will have to be one of the top five female runners with the ‘Pack.

“I don’t know if it’s possible, but within the next year or so I want to be able to do a half marathon.”

Outside of running, she plans to pursue a career in mental health and hopes to stay in Kamloops, and will running and racing despite the risks.

Review The Canadian University Press Newswire article:

http://cupwire.ca/2014/11/24/running-despite-risks/

TRU researcher explains his findings; a former player shares his experiences

There is no “magic solution” for concussions, according to Jeff Dunn, who presented his research to the TRU community on Oct. 30.

“It seems like the number of concussions are on the rise, possibly with the increased interest in adolescent sport and high-performance sports,” Dunn said. “The long-term symptoms of concussions are worse if you’re younger… adolescents have a longer recovery time for concussions than adults.”

According to Dunn, most people will recover 100 per cent after a mild concussion, but symptoms like dizziness, headaches, poor co-ordination and light sensitivity can last from weeks to years.

Dunn, who is a Canada Research Chair in Biomedical Imaging and a professor in clinical neuroscience, described a concussion as a brain injury that occurs when the brain is shaken. He explained that helmets don’t protect against concussion, they only protect the skull.

Dunn said the best thing to do after suffering a concussion is to rest immediately. If there is a noticeable increase in pain, dizziness or experiences vomiting in the hours after a concussion, he or she should be taken to the hospital. Otherwise, the best thing is cognitive and physical rest. This means avoiding physical activity and avoiding light from cell phones and television.

Concussions at TRU, SFU and UBC:

Among TRU’s 190 athletes, there has already been six concussions since September, according to TRU’s athletic therapist Kevin Brechin. This already surpasses the four concussions in total from last year. The concussions from both years occurred in soccer, basketball and volleyball.

Simon Fraser University (SFU), which has about 350 athletes, has had 19 concussed athletes since August. The concussions have been across a wide range of sports including swimming, wrestling, football, volleyball and softball.

Laurie Freebairn, SFU’s head physiotherapist, explained that athletes at SFU undergo baseline concussion testing before they are allowed to begin practising their sport. This involves cognitive, co-ordination and balance tests.

“Otherwise when somebody has a concussion you don’t know what is normal for them,” Freebairn said.

“When an athlete sustains a concussion, we monitor him or her daily doing SCAT (Sport Concussion Assessment Tool) symptom checks. The athletes are also monitored by our team physician, who ultimately gives the clearance to the athlete for full participation in their sport,” she said.

UBC has approximately 650 athletes, with five concussed athletes since September, according to head therapist Scott Fraser. Although he wouldn’t release the exact statistics, he estimated that UBC has between six and 12 athletic concussions each year.

Five concussions later:

Brennan Wright, 23, has been playing hockey practically his entire life. At 15 he suffered his first concussion.

“I was cutting around the back of the net going for the puck and the opposing forward came in, jumped and elbowed me in the head,” Wright said. “It gave me a black out for about a minute. I didn’t know where I was. I had no idea what province I was in. I was completely oblivious to what happened.”

Over the next seven years, Wright experienced four more concussions while playing hockey. Each concussion was either from being elbowed or shouldered in the head in blindside hits, even though hits to the head are not allowed in the leagues Wright played in.

“My subsequent concussions were all like, the ringing in the ears, star struck, can’t see anything. I’d have a real hard time, dizziness and a lot of vertigo when I initially got these concussions,” he said.

In 2012, Wright’s first year at TRU, he received his fifth concussion while playing an exhibition game with the WolfPack hockey team. Afterwards, he visited a head trauma specialist.

The specialist told him that he was probably going to get another concussion, and that when he does, he’ll likely end up getting some mental disabilities or brain damage.

Wright took the advice the specialist and decided to quit playing hockey.

“Immediately after the [fifth] concussion, I was told to sit in a dark room for about a month. I wasn’t allowed to look at my phone, TV, anything like that because the light would be too sensitive for my eyes,” he said. “I had post-concussion syndrome for about a year. Basically, it’s the lasting effects of what a concussion is. I had trouble focusing and I had migraines.”

After each concussion, Wright would experience these symptoms for six months to a year. He also felt depressed and would sometimes experience mood swings.

“The mood swings are definitely a symptom of a concussion and I know that. I can sense when there’s a mood swing due to a concussion, because it’s really irrational,” he said.

According to Dunn, the tendency to get depression after a concussion is really high since the person concussed has to avoid friends and exercise in order to recover. He explained that it is common for a concussed person to be uncharacteristically angry and irritable.

“Concussions can change your behaviour. Every person can have a different series of symptoms. I think the changes in behaviour and depression, they’re the ones that change people’s family lives a lot,” he said.

According to Dunn, an MRI will show no difference in the brain after a concussion and getting one would be a “waste of time.” But that might change with new MRI technology.

“The new part for concussion and brain injury is called diffusion tensor imaging,” Dunn said. “There’s active research into diffusion tensor imaging, which will actually show brain injury due to concussion.”

Unfortunately, there are only a few machines in Canada capable of diffusion tensor imaging, but Dunn believes it will become more popular in concussion research and treatment in the years to come.

Until then, reducing concussions is up to the athletes and the leagues they play in.

“Right now we’re looking at managing concussions and managing rules,” Dunn said. “There is a reduced incidence of concussion in younger hockey players when they don’t have checking in the league. So there could be rule changes to help with certain sports.”

According to former WolfPack hockey coach Don Schulz, the current rules in place, like no checking from behind, no hits to the head and no jumping to hit another player, have already increased player safety.

“Body checking is a part of hockey. It would be like taking tackling out of football,” Schulz said.

Dunn believes that continuing research on concussions is important to understand why certain people recover faster than others, and the best way to keep athletes safer from concussions is to keep people educated about the causes of concussions and the recovery needed afterwards.

Review The Omega article:

http://truomega.ca/2014/11/05/concussions-hurting-your-brain-for-the-game/

... Down south there is a place untouched by the violence and chemicals of war. It lives along the sand, where the palm trees glitter with dew in the morning sun. Where the sand is gray with clay and twisted pink shells have a habit of getting up and crawling into the sea.

Pieces of plastic blow in the wind, jumping into trees, sticking between roots. The birds will find the brightest plastics, the yellow tape with black letters, and stuff it into their nests with mud and sticks.

A gray building is nestled in the sand, shaded by the warm palms, cement and plaster crumbling on the outside. The front door is ajar and the wind thrashes it against the wall, causing the doorknob to eat even further away at the old cement.

The wind blows into building through the doorway and through the broken windows. Green bills flutter around, catching on the bodies and snagging on the broken glass.

The wind dies down and a bill lands softly on a scorpion, covering it like a blanket. The scorpion weaves between the bodies, skittering through the pools of blood still cooling on the floor. The edge of the bill sticks in the blood and is dragged off the scorpion's back and drops into the puddle, the fibres soaking and disintegrating like cotton candy on a tongue.

The back of the building opens onto a large patio, complete with a bar and tables. Small splashes of blue tile peak through the sand that covers the floor.

The bar is littered with broken bottles and the body of the bartender, who lies face down, his chest pressed into glass and gin. His throat cut and blood pooling all over the bar.

Ruining the alcohol, in her opinion...

... I ran back to the house. Inside the bedroom June slept face down and motionless, and I was glad for the first time for the empty beer cans on her nightstand. At the closet I dressed in layers of my warmest clothes and made sure to grab gloves with individual fingers. My 30.30 Winchester rifle leaned against the back wall of the closet. I grabbed it and paused, momentarily calmed by the rifles severe certainty. It instilled in me a reservoir of control I scarcely experienced. The rifle is an old friend and it will do as I say. It is the only thing that will do as I say.

 Outside I sat on a frosty wooden rocking bench on the porch, staring at the shed. The only colour in the dark night came from the bursting yellow light of the shed and the sickening, dark red of Mac’s blood cooling on the floor.

 On my lap the rifle felt empty, like it was starving to death.

 It wanted to kill something.

 So did I.

 I stared at that shed for nearly three hours. It had once seemed so friendly; a tribute to team work and elbow grease. My father and I had built it twenty years ago, when this was his farm. Each nail, shingle and two by four were carefully placed by our calloused hands. My father’s deep laugh and too hard slaps on the back, our lunch breaks on the steps, our race to finish staining the sides of the little shed; we had given it life. But that handcrafted soul my father and I delivered to it had been twisted, turning the shed into a monster.

 The doorway of the shed spewed out yellow light like a broken eggshell spews yolk. At the centre of the yellow, red blood crawled toward the walls. I regretted leaving the door so widely open, it was meant to tempt the wolf back. But now the only focal point in the dark canvass of woods was the shed. It sat grinning around a mouthful of Mac, chewed up, not to be swallowed. To be flaunted. My heart hammered in my chest; the gun drooled in my hands; the shed, watching me, laughing at me. You could not save Mac. I saw the steam from his hot blood, the pool growing ever larger, growing everywhere but the corners of the floor now; the steam, whitish and ghostly, still rising in the shed’s light.

And you will not save... Her...