8 Langara vet set to retire, considers coaching gig Cancer survivor and five- year Langara basketball veteran Carling Muir has begun her last year as a player, but says she will consider a coaching role By DEVON MacKENZIE t the end of this basketball sea- A. Langara veteran Carling uir will walk out of the gym for the last time - as a player. The Falcon’s star is heading into her fifth and last year with the team, but Muir says it won’t be the last Langara will see of her. “T would love to come back and do some coaching. Assistant coach or something like that,” explained Muir while sitting in the gym. Muir is the first player to stay with Langara for her full university league eligibility, something that coach Mike Evans says is rare. “Carling is the first player we’ve had for five years, and I don’t know if we'll ever have another player like her,” he said. “Because we are a university transfer college team, we see players come and go within a couple of years.” Muir’s personal goals for her last season are clear. “T want to get through this year as a healthy year and finish off on top,” she said. “We have a lot of potential as a team and I think we’re only going to get stronger as we come together.” Muir was diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer almost five years ago. Before radiation, even while she was on chemotherapy, Muir lead the BCCAA league in scoring. Last year, after radiation treatment she finished fifth but for Muir, that wasn’t good enough. “T want to go out there and make a statement this year and say ‘Hey, ev- eryone that played against me last year, you weren’t getting the true Car- ling.” In terms of her health, Muir is posi- tive. “Health wise, everything has been going really good... get an MRI around Christmas time to see what the tumor is doing up there and I don’t have anything but positive thoughts about that,” she said. Muir finishes her studies next sum- mer. She is studying social service work and aspires to be a family patient counselor for BC Children’s Hospital or the BC Cancer Agency. ROXANA NECSULESCU photo Carling Muir fights off three Camosun College defenders in a preseason game on Oct. 9. in to tackle a Vancouver Island Mariner (bottom right). The tale of two soccer teams Women’s squad scores two big wins; men’s team drop two straight DANIEL PALMER photos The Langara men’s soccer team fight off opposing players of the Vancouver Island Univer- sity Mariners in a 3-1 loss on Oct. 8 at BCIT campus (above). Forward Lana Rockhill uses her lower body stength to fend off an opposing player from the Vancouver Island Mariner during the team’s narrow 3-2 victory on Oct. 8 (top right). Midfielder Stefano Mattia moves By DANIEL PALMER e Langara women’s soccer team is looking strong with two big wins last weekend, but the men’s A little bit team have yet to hit their stride of good heading into this weekend’s crucial match-ups. luck was The girls faced a two-goal deficit go- on our side ing into halftime on Saturday against for sure. I the VIU Mariners but battled hard in the second half. guess Soc- The Falcons squeezed an extra-time ecer’s a bit goal past Mariners’ keeper Shelby Walker to take the game 3-2. of a fi unny “A little bit of good luck was on our game. side for sure,” said head coach Ryan Birt. “I guess soccer’s a bit of a funny RYAN BIRT game.” Women's soccer “We said to the girls that last Satur- ead coach day we lost a game one-nil here, and we probably didn’t deserve to lose that game. And today, I don’t know if we really deserved to win the game... and we get a result and we win three-two.” Birt said they had been preparing all week for Sunday’s match against “mas- sive rival” Capilano University. “We just told them it’s going to be a battle tomorrow and that they’ve got to come prepared and it’s going to be a lot of work,” Birt said. The women certainly rose to the challenge Sunday afternoon, dominat- ing the Blues 5-1. The women look to build on their 6-2 record when they face Thompson Riv- ers University on Oct. 15 at 12 p.m. They will then head square off against UBC-Okanagan on Oct. 16 also at 12 p.m. Both games will be played on the road. In men’s action, the team worked hard but fell away from their game plan, said striker Brett Weins, who suf- fered a foot injury in Saturday’s game and was forced to watch from the side- lines Sunday. “We're a big physical team with plenty of skill and potential, we just haven’t been living up to it,” said Weins, the six foot two striker. Men’s head coach David Shankland agreed the team has some work to do. “We still haven’t hit our potential yet, there’s certainly room to improve, but we’re on our way,” Shankland said. Midfielder Konstantin Vasic scored the Falcons’ only goal from a free kick just outside the top of the box in Satur- day’s match. Weins said the team feels confident they can bounce back this weekend and improve on their lackluster 2-4-2 record when they take on Thompson Rivers University and UBC-Okanagan. “We all feel and understand that this will probably be the biggest week- end of the season and these are must- win games for us,” Wein said. The men’s team will head out to Kamploops first to play TRU on Oct. 15 at 2 p.m. Next, the Falcons travel to Ke- lowna to sqare off against UBC-O on Oct. 16 at 2 p.m. B-ball teams still finding their game After three straight pre- season losses, women’s head coach Mike Evans re- mains optimistic his team can get on track before the season’s opener on Nov. 11 By ROXANA NECSULESCU ed their pre-seasons last week with the women’s team stumbling out of the gate with three straight loss- es. Despite the slow start, women’s head coach Mike Evans remains optimistic as he sees the losses as a chance to gain more understanding in areas the team needs work. Each loss revealed a different weak- ness, which is helpful when trying to find ways to improve, Evans said after a close 67-73 loss against Camosun Col- lege on Sunday. “[We’ve] got a lot of experience with a lot of different styles of play,” said Ev- ans who has coached the last 10 years. Te Falcons basketball teams start- The women’s team dropped Friday’s game to Quest University by a final score of 65-80. The Falcons took a drubbing the next night at the hands of Capilano University in a lopsided 49-83 loss. A bright spot for the team is the play of the rookies on Sunday against the Camosun Char- gers. Rookie guard Denise Busayong stood out with a strong offensive outing while show- ing her ability to counteract the MIKE EVANS Women’s basket- Charget’s defen- ball head coach __Sive strategy. “Denise plays well for a rookie,” said Evans who was pleased with her 22-point effort, including eight in the first quarter. “She guarded their best player for most of the game,” Evans added. Evans said a key coaching strategy will be to focus on strengthening the other rookies ability to guard skilled offensive players. Evans added most of the rookies were star players on their former high school teams and they were given the green light to go for of- fense rather than focus on defence. The women play next on Oct. 14, at 6 p.m. when they host Columbia Bible College. On the men’s side, the Falcon’s beat Kwantlen University 111-78 in a scrim- mage game last Friday. The men’s team were down early by 11, but quickly clawed back finishing the first quarter 31-17. “They [made] their first three shots [which] sucked the energy our of us a little,” returning guard Elliot Mason said. “But all it took was for us to settle down and move the ball.” Head coach Jake McCallum took a cautiously optimistic approach to the result. “Tm happy with where we're at right now, but there’s a lot of work to do,” McCallum said. The men’s team resumes preseason action against the University of the Fraser Valley on the road on Oct. 14 at 6 p.m.. Both men’s and women’s regular season’s begin on Nov. 11. MEN m Oct. 14 University of the Fraser Valley @ UFV 6:00 PM m Oct. 15 Northern Alberta Institute of Technol- ogy @ Langara 4:00 PM WOMEN m Oct. 14 Columbia Bible College @ Langara 6:00 PM m Oct. 22 Quest University @ Quest 6:00 PM Source: Langara Athletics