Listen up, York. as the sports editor for our school newspaper, it pains me to realize just how sports-illiterate our school ca be at times. I understand we’re all busy people, and following the York lions’ sports teams is likely the last thing on all your minds. So please stop acting like you do. I commonly ask people around campus why they don’t attend lions’ sporting events more often, and nine times out of 10, i get the same answer: “um, we suck at sports, haha.”
I feel compelled to explain that we really don’t suck at all at sports, even though our football team has historically been pretty bad. This seems to be the fact everyone is so hung up on because football is the only sport there is, right? And since we aren’t very good at that, why cheer for any of York’s other sports teams at all?
You may be shocked to learn this, but football players don’t play for every team on campus, so them “sucking” really has no effect on the other 14 varsity teams on campus, not to mention the myriad of other club teams.
While we’re called the lions, it seems like pride is something we are severely lacking around York. It doesn’t bother me so much that people don’t pay attention to our sports teams. I understand that sports isn’t everyone’s thing. it’s the fact every time i speak to someone about sports at York, they all seem to have come to the unanimous conclusion we’re a lost cause, which is where our pride issues stem from.
We, as a student body, have given into a groupthink mentality that York sucks — and not just at sports. We make these claims with no knowledge to back them up, using the opinions of others to justify our own, but if you’d indulge me for just a few seconds, i’d like to explain why we don’t suck at sports.
If not for a few unlucky breaks and bounces, York could easily be back-to-back Ontario university athletics women’s volleyball gold medalists, but that is a story for another day. i do have to give kudos to the dedicated students who attend their games — boy, does Tait get loud when the team is on a roll.
One last team i’d like to mention is the lions’ track and field team, who are the best of the best among their age group in canada. York had three student-athletes participate in the 2013 canada Summer Games, and all three of them came back with medals. The lions have also been successful at the ciS level, with at least one athlete winning a national gold medal for the past six years straight.
all OUA sports. So many athletes on campus don the red and white, train for months, represent our school at sporting events and win, and the majority of us on campus love to spread the gospel of how much they all suck.
If it were true, I’d be right there with you preaching, but it simply is not. We have some amazing people doing incredible things on the playing field, and i think it’s about time they got some recognition.
Ryan McCabe
Sports and Health Editor
