For the second year, the Courier visits some of Vancouver’s top athletes following their first freshman semester at universities around the continent.
We’re catching up with athletes in the NCAA, CIS and PacWest who are trying new foods and dorm styles 3,000 kilometres from home or learning new bus routes from their childhood home to campus elsewhere in the Lower Mainland. From academics to athletics, socializing and training, they all say being a university student-athlete is a big step up from high school.
Ěý
Aaron Mah
A Canadian junior champion, UCLA-Berkeley Golden Bear gymnast Aaron Mah doesn’t attend his first meet until the season starts in January but he is already taking full advantage of the privileges of being an elite NCAA Div. 1 athlete. (And exploring the Bay Area when he can.)The Magee graduate and product of Phoenix Gymnastics says he has learned the sport requires perfection in the gym so it follows in competition.
From the moment that I arrived at Cal, I instantly felt a connection with my teammates and a sense of belonging on the team. Our team is so close-knit, and I truly believe that I have found my home away from home.
One school tradition that I have embraced is the necessity for hard work. Cal is such an amazing school both academically and athletically, and I have been motivated to maintain its reputation for excellence inside and outside the gym. Our competition season runs from January through to April and I am looking forward to making a positive impact on our team's performance.
A very crucial aspect of gymnastics is that you only have one shot to succeed. No second chances. My coaches have reinforced this by increasing the amount of repetitions if mistakes are made. This increases the pressure of every turn so that we are better prepared once competition season arrives.
The best way for me to balance athletics with academics is to maintain a positive attitude. As cliché as it sounds, keeping a clear head can get you through the mountains of homework and exams that university brings. I try to set a schedule where I can do each assignment one at a time and get through them methodically.
The biggest difference between university and high school is how much busier I am now. The luxurious free time that we had in high school is gone and is now filled up with hours of studying and training.
I prefer to study at the athletic study centre, which is reserved for student athletes.
I live in a suite with six other freshman and I share a bedroom with two of my teammates. From looking at my room, you can tell how disorganized I am. My room is definitely on the messy side but thankfully, living in a suite with six other teenage males, the standards of cleanliness aren’t set very high.
On my days off, I like to spend time with friends and explore campus and the city of Berkeley. We occasionally go across the Bay to San Francisco.
Ěý
Megan Ma
Magee graduate and Â鶹´«Ă˝Ół»Hawks field hockey midfielder Megan Ma competes for the State University of New York at Albany and was named one of the best rookies in her NCAA Div. 1 conference. Maybe it’s the pre-game team selfies or the sushi she shares with friends that is key for the Lion-turned-Great Dane.
I had the usual nervousness and “butterflies” upon arriving on campus but I was also extremely excited to meet the rest of the team and begin our season playing in the NCAA. As soon I met any upperclassman, they would try and make me feel comfortable with my surroundings. Whether they were just introducing themselves, telling me funny stories about the coaches, or offering to show me around campus, each and every one of them always had a smile on their face. That’s when I knew I made the right decision to become a Great Dane.
During our season, we had a tradition that before every game — without question — our team would always take a silly team selfie to focus and lighten our moods before we left the locker room to play.
My best performance came at the America East Conference Championships. Just prior to the tournament, I was selected to the America East All Rookie Team. Eleven rookies were named from the nine teams in our conference. Our team went into the tournament feeling very excited, confident and ready to win. I think I played some of my best hockey there. Winning the conference championships was an amazing feeling.
Overall, my tackling has greatly improved. I’ve gotten more active and quicker when it comes to my defending. My hitting, being something that I’m always trying to improve, I feel has gotten a lot stronger as well. I’ve also become more confident in my elimination skills. But I am still working to improve on all my aspects of the game.
I think the most important thing my coach has taught me is not to worry about mistakes while playing. Although it’s important to stay focused on the game — you also have to relax and play to your strengths.
To stay on top of academics, I check assignment and exam schedules well ahead of time and prioritize homework. I keep the lines of communication open with my professors and remind them if I will be away for games so they are able to make allowances for me. Most of them are very understanding and supportive as long as you give them the heads up. I also make sure I eat well and on time. Sometimes it’s hard to get enough rest, but I try. A quick nap here and there really helps.
The biggest difference compared to being a high school student-athlete is playing at the NCAA level because it is much more demanding, for sure! The biggest difference is the travel. Our road trip schedule was really intense. We were on a bus trip almost every weekend and a few plane rides as well. It was busy, but totally worth all the fun times our team had together.
My favourite class right now is my Introduction to Music course. Learning about music history has made me rediscover how much I enjoy listening to classical music. You can usually find me with head phones tuned into Mozart in the athlete study hall. Music keeps me from getting distracted. It focuses me.
My dorm room style is sort of summer cottage. It’s really comfy, cozy and cute at the same time. The colors are soft and monochromatic. You would think that I am a casual, not a very uptight person, because the room does get a little messy. You would also know I love clothes and shoes because they are usually spilling out of my closet. Not to mention, you’d probably think I love strawberry pop tarts, my desk almost always has one sitting on top of it.
When I have free time, I enjoy going to movies, chilling with the other freshies or upperclassman, visiting our amazing seniors at their awesome campus apartments, and something me and a few other freshman like to do is visit the pet shop at a big shopping mall nearby to visit the cute little puppies.
I haven’t tried anything new to eat really because you can’t beat Â鶹´«Ă˝Ół»for its amazing food. But you can usually catch me on the phone once in a while ordering sushi with the other freshman.
Ěý
Jessica Hanson
The provincial high school basketball championship MVP, shooting guard Jessica Hanson spent her childhood at the War Memorial Gym, started training with the UBC Thunderbirds early this summer and is now a rookie averaging 6.7 points a game and is second-overall on the team with 22 assists in 16 games. The Little Flower Academy alumna lives on the Point Grey campus where she doesn’t join her teammates in their love of tofu.
I’m a quintessential rookie in that I understand my role on the team and I put the team before myself. As long as the team's doing well, so am I.
It helped being local. I got to spend time with [older players] in the spring last year and throughout the summer so at the start of this year I already had a great feel for the girls. The UBC football team's homecoming game was a great team bonding experience. We went as a team. In terms of embracing tradition, it’s mostly just taking pride in being a student athlete at UBC
In my best game so far, I had 18 points, five rebounds and four steals against Trinity Western University. I've had to get used to a faster paced game with a lot more information coming at me. My coach has taught me a lot about confidence and how to play a more dynamic game.
To balance athletic and academic demands, it just takes a lot of hard work and time management. The biggest difference that I have found in the transition is the amount of information I have to learn both on and off the court. The work load is heavy and the basketball side of things has much more intensity.
My favourite class would be Sport and Leisure in Society. I like to study at the Irving Library or in my dorm room, which is super neat (most of the time). It's small and cozy.
I love going out with friends or my teammates. If I'm not out with friends or in the gym, I am probably watching Netflix or sleeping. My favourite show is Friends. Any episode that Pheobe sings is always a good one!
My team is obsessed with tofu. They always try and get me to try it — let's just say I strongly disagree with this obsession.
Ěý
Kaleigh Matheson
Coming from one of the most individually accomplished high school volleyball starting lineups, York House School alumna Kaleigh Matheson already understood personal accountability but now she says she demands even more of herself. An ankle injury behind her, the University of Western rookie is setting weekly goals and eating Spoke bagels in London, Ont.
I have had a very quintessential rookie experience in that I immediately bonded with the other first-years on the team. In fact, we just rented the house we will be living in together next year. As I suspect is true for most teams, we are the ones to bring the balls to practice, set up the net, and so on.
At the beginning of the year, we did a number of day trips to bond the team. The most memorable was when we went canoeing, instructed by our assistant coach. Like a true varsity sports team, our punishments for losing the canoe races were push ups with our hand and feet resting on the edges of the boats. Not a lot of girls left the lake dry!
The biggest tradition I'd say I've taken part in thus far is probably Homecoming, or Hoco. Coming from such a small high school, it was a true testament to the magnitude of Western's spirit, which is one of the big factors that drew me to the school.
In the beginning of September, I had quite a bad ankle sprain that put me out for about a month, so I didn't get to realize the pre-season playing opportunities that first years often do. Once I was healthy, we were just a couple weeks from our first Ontario University Athletics game, so I haven't had too many opportunities to play.
When you are thrown into such a high level training environment, it's easy to get discouraged but it's just as easy to forget how talented all the girls you are training with are. It's just a more demanding practice and game atmosphere, so I'd say the biggest improvement I've seen in myself is the competitiveness and effort. One of our team mottos is that there are three things you can control: attitude, effort and communication.
More than skill, my coaches this year have taught me about drive and goal-setting. We start every week with a goal sheet that is both position-specific and general to the team. Now, when I walk into practice, I always have keys that I am concentrating on for drills and game situations. It's about learning to execute with purpose.
To balance everything, prioritization is a huge skill that you have to learn quickly because there is so much demanded of you and not enough hours in the day. What was important for me, in coming to a new place, was finding the best study spaces that work with my schedule and habits. You can always find me in the basement of the Weldon Library.
The biggest difference from high school is the dissatisfaction with complacency. The people who choose to pursue post-secondary sport are there because they have a genuine love for the game and a desire to compete, and the best way to respect that in your teammates is to contribute 100 per cent to every practice, every skill. You have to expect that from yourself, but also from everyone around you.
For the first time, I genuinely enjoy every single one of my courses. Although my business course is the most demanding, it's probably my favourite.
Well, right now in my dorm room there are snowflakes and garlands hanging from the ceiling and a Christmas wreath in the window, so you could pretty quickly conclude that my roommate and I are determined to keep the room festive! Jess, my roommate who is from Liverpool, and I also receive a lot of compliment about the world map hanging on our wall. There are hearts and a string connecting our hometowns.
Being in a traditional residence, I quickly became very close with my floor. When I'm not at practice or in class, there will always be a group of us together in the common room or our main lounge. We had a great night just recently where we all played our favourite Christmas carols and spent the night decorating our hall with paper snowflakes and Christmas decor.
New food that I love are bagels from The Spoke! A must-try for anyone who spends anytime at Western.
Ěý
Enid Au
A graduate of Killarney secondary, Enid Au crosses the city from east to west to get to class on UBC's Point Grey campus and to train with the Thunderbirds.
A week before classes began, my teammates showed all the first-years around campus. It was nice to know where all of my classes were going to be beforehand, and my teammates also threw a team get-together at one of their houses to break the ice.
It's hard to say what my best performance is to date. If I had to pick one, it would be my race at the Conference Championships in Denver, Col. It was my first race at altitude and it was cool to experience what is was like to run in conditions with less oxygen. I came in eighth, behind my teammates who were ahead of me.
It's difficult to gauge how my performance has improved since I feel I'm still transitioning into the longer distances of university cross-country races. They've grown to five or six kilometres, which are distances I'd never raced before so I'm just setting the bar as of right now. However, I do feel like my body is stronger and less prone to injury, thanks to the weight-training I've been introduced to. My coaches have placed lots of emphasis on injury prevention, and I heed that advice by doing all the stretches and flexibility exercises in the gym regiment we have.
To balance academic and athletic demands, I try to manage my time wisely. On the commute to school I do my readings or get work done on my laptop. Sometimes I get terrible motion-sickness though!
I feel the biggest difference now from being a high-school athlete is the importance of self-motivation. It’s hard to stay disciplined at practice after hours of classes and studying. Trying to hold myself to my own standards academically and athletically has been the most difficult for me.
My favourite course right now would be my English 112 course. It's extremely dry at times but I find it useful and comforting to know how to properly write a research paper before I really have to exercise that skill later on. My favourite place to study is in the Koerner Library. I like the sounds of other people working around me and I focus better.
I don't have a favourite food I've discovered yet, but I'm looking forward to trying all the food trucks on campus.
Ěý
Niko Mottus
A product of the gritty Tupper Tigers basketball program, Niko Mottus proved every coach’s mantra that hard work pays off. After he was cut from the team, the rookie busted his butt to keep practicing with the PacWest Capilano Blues, earning his way on as a red shirt and then also to the roster. After a coaching change, he had to prove himself all over again. He says, “Now I’m just your everyday rookie.”
I’m really enjoying life as a post-secondary student-athlete. After I got cut from the team, I texted the coach at the time, Jon Acob, asking if I could workout with the team during the summer and he said I could.
After that I went to every single practice and just competed with the other guys. Sometime in August I had a really good practice, and one of the guys asked Acob why I wasn't on the team — two days later he offered me a spot as a red shirt. Later on in September, Acob offered me a roster spot on the team.
A couple days after that, he had to step down because of family matters and we got a new head coach, Cassidy Kannemeyer. He told me that I had to fight once again for the roster spot or else I would be a red shirt, and I did just that. Now I'm just your everyday rookie: After practice I have to put the balls away, after games the other rooks and I have to put away the jerseys.
We didn't really have a specific initiation and there aren't really any school traditions, but all the older guys are all super welcoming and want to help you grow.
My best performance was against Kwantlen when I scored five points. My game has completely improved since high school. My dribbling skills have gotten a lot better so I now don't just play power forward, I also play small forward.
The biggest improvement in my game has got to be my shooting. Acob really helped me with my shot in the summer and now it’s a lot smoother. Cassidy has really helped me improve my basketball IQ in games by helping me see the floor and look for the best possible shot. The biggest difference in basketball is the physicality and speed of the game.
The best strategy for balancing my academics and athletics is putting in the work early. When I get an assignment, I try and slowly do it over time instead of cramming it all in the night before. That way I always have time to get to team practices and even do my own individual workouts.
High school was a lot easier because you got marks for just showing up. In university, you actually have to do long papers and assignments. It’s also tougher for me personally because I went to Tupper, which was a five-minute walk away from my place, and now I go to Capilano, which takes around an hour and 10 minutes to bus to or a 25-minute drive.
If I had to pick a favourite class, it would have to be ethics because it was fun doing big class debates. I like to study in the Sportsplex at Cap because it’s usually pretty quiet and you get some privacy.
All in all, post-secondary has been a blast and I’m really loving it here at Capilano.
Ěý
Trevor Yu
A graduate of St. John’s School, Trevor Yu chose to compete in the NCAA for the Oregon State Beavers, where in his rookie semester, he says he’s built up his confidence and improved his swing thanks to dedicated coaches and a roster of support staff and services. On the menu, Yu eats more than the average amount of Chipotle.
In what ways am I a quintessential rookie? I’ve been lost walking around campus a few too many times.
My teammates are a lot of fun. It didn’t take much to feel welcomed on to the team — I went over to a teammate’s house to watch movies the night I arrived on campus! In terms of tradition, I really enjoy going to football games. The atmosphere in Corvallis is always awesome on game days.
I played in one tournament with the travelling team this fall at the St. Mary’s Invitational. As a team, we finished third, and I placed 53rd individually.
My swing has improved a lot since junior golf. I’m hitting the ball a lot straighter than before.
My coaches, Jon Reehoorn and Jonnie Motomochi, have taught me to play with a winning attitude. I lost a lot of confidence in myself and in my game after a tough spring and summer. However, their guidance and experience has really helped me stay positive and motivated through the fall.
To balance athletic and academic demands, I try to have fun with everything — that way, nothing seems overly stressful. Coffee helps too.
I have a lot more resources and support compared to high school. At Oregon State, I have access to pretty much everything to help me perform at my best: coaching, facilities, personal trainers, physiotherapists, nutritionists, tutors, academic counsellors and advisors.
Out of the three classes I took this fall, microeconomics has to be my favourite. I like to study at the Beth Ray Center, which is open to student-athletes 24/7.
My dorm room isn’t anything too special. My roommate is from Australia and we get along really well. I guess there’s some international flair! By looking at my room, you would learn that I’m an organized mess.
When I have free time, my favourite things to do are hangout with friends, dance, and go the occasional party. Food in Corvallis is pretty similar to home. You could say I consume a lot more Chipotle and Panda Express than before.
