Pierre McGuire is slowly ruining hockey...

Ugh. If any of you have been watching the World Junior Hockey Championship, or watch any hockey games broadcasted on TSN or NBC, you've been exposed to the long-winded and often ill-timed rants of one Mr. Pierre McGuire.

Considered to be an expert analysis, McGuire is far more annoying than even the likes of Don Cherry. Sure, McGuire knows his stuff, but his analysis during gameplay is often completely unnecessary. I'm quite sure he simply likes to hear himself talk. 

Apart from his silly "expert analysis", I have one primary bone to pick with McGuire. Now Pierre, I know it's very important that the viewer gets detailed information about the players, but it's way over the top when you mention a player and tell us their home country, junior league team (and former teams if you're really on a roll) and who they've been drafted by, especially when you give us the information before telling us about what the player might just have done. That information would be nice if it were given every once and awhile. But for each player everytime they're mentioned? Come on. 

And it is not as if he stops to talk about this information. He speeds through it as if the information is part of the players name. You'd think he had the info right in front of him. Perhaps he does...

In any case, as experts on junior league hockey go, McGuire may simply be trying to outdue his more respectable TSN colleague, Bob McKenzie. I hate to say it, but trying to impress us by adding in these unnecessary quips concerning the players certainly doesn't win you respect in my books; it simply irritates me to the point whereby I cherish the wonderful times when McGuire is silent. Even the repetitive and annoying Tim Horton's ads are less intolerable, and that is really saying something.  

An ever-so unexciting ceremony...

Last night I attended Trent's Academic All-Canadian Awards Ceremony. I was lucky enough to be awarded the title of an Academic All-Canadian, but I felt the ceremony to be quite disappointing.

The university prides itself on its Academic All-Canadians (which are members of a Varsity team that maintain a GPA of 80% or better). Considering it is a school of only 7000 students and has a rather limited athletic program, Trent still manages to more Academic All-Canadians than many of the large universities throughout Canada. It is the mark of having built an athletics program that not only works well in partnership with the academic setting of the school, but also improves that aspect of Trent, as it was remarked that more athletes graduate from Trent per capita than the average student. This is something that should surely be celebrated.

But alas, it was not to be. At least to the extent I think it should. The ceremony itself was held in the multi-purpose room of the Athletics Complex, rather than one of Trent's more comfortable and luxurious rooms where other small ceremonies take place. To the credit of the Athletics Department, the room was transformed quite well. But it was still lacking. White Christmas lights can only go so far. There was food and drinks provided, but it clearly came off the shelf within the past few days and the drinks were sadly without a touch of alcohol.

The ceremony itself was quick. Only half the recipients showed up to receive their awards, which happened after a brief speech by the Athletics Director and the President of the university, Bonnie Patterson. Getting the President to come and attend ceremonies is no easy feat, but when she does come, it means the ceremony means something. And the way the Athletics Director spoke of such an award also speaks to the importance of it. But it just didn't seem like it.

I've been told that in years past this event has been considerably better. Alcohol has been served and nearly everyone has shown up. Parents, coaches, friends; it's been a big deal. But quite frankly, last night's ceremony felt wimpy. I'm not surprised people no longer show up.

I know the university likes to pipe up any award given out and that I am slightly biased in this view, but if the school really feels that this is an important award (and I believe it really is), then put some work into it and make the students feel like they actually earned a nice ceremony.

It's all in the urine...

Our volleyball team recently finished our season after a proud finish at the Provincial Championships. As we made our way to the tournament on our washroomless bus, much of our discussion about the tournament centred around the issue of drug testing, and much of it had a relatively worrisome tone.

To my knowledge no one on our team uses steroids or Human Growth Hormone or any other performance-enhancing drug, and if they are, it certainly doesn't show. You would think that for this reason our team would have nothing to fear if we were approached by a doping official during one of their random drug tests. But this is not the case.

The league that we play under has an extensive list of prohibited substances, one of them being marijuana. This drug, which contrary to the implications made by the movie How High, is in no way performance-enhancing and is actually quite detrimental to one's performance, especially in a sport like volleyball.

Regardless, pot could very well act as our team's kryptonite. There is a good chance that if a member of our team were to be tested, they could test positive for pot. I understand how using performance-enhancing drugs should be monitored by an athletic league that wishes to ensure equality on the playing field, but should their jurisdiction be extended to a substance that is rivalled if not exceeded in potency by alcohol?

I realize that marijuana has harmful effects and poses several risks to the user, which include health risks, risk to schooling, jobs and one's career. But the people I know that use dope are aware of these risks and have more to lose than being kicked off a sports team.

Using marijuana is not necessarily the right thing, but it's also not necessarily the wrong thing. It may be illegal under Canadian law, but so is underage drinking, and both are enforced by the police. But the league doesn't check for underage alcohol use.

Should an athletic league really have the authority to extend its rules to something like marijuana?

Alternative idea for the Mighty Maples...

The Leafs suck. It's true. I love them, but they really suck. They're sitting in the basement of the NHL and are showing all the signs of a team poised to miss the playoffs. Again.

Numerous theories are running rampant throughout Ontario as to what to do with the ailing club. Some say blow it up completely and restart, others think we should get rid of the old guys like Sundin and Tucker.

I'm no expert on the situation. They have enough money to do whatever they want and it won't make any difference to media contracts or ticketsales whether they win or lose. But at least they made the right move getting rid of Ferguson Jr. The next step is finding a permanent GM. Perhaps the guys at Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment should sleep over one night at the ACC and catch a glimpse of a Raptors game. They'll spot the well-dressed Bryan Colangelo hanging out in the corner of the arena, watching the team he rebuilt.

He may not be a hockey man, but the Leafs need something. Why not fork out some cash and see if he can build another division champ?