— Women's b-ball team faces tough challenges The female Falcons will play the undefeated Cap- ilano Blues this Friday in final stretch before break By BRANDON KOSTINUK Fundamentals, fundamentals, fun- damentals. This is the key to righting the ship for the Langara women’s basketball team said head coach Mike Evans. “We have a tough challenge coming up against Capilano,” said Evans. “My hope is that we show improvement and get the fundamentals right.” The Capilano Blues are ranked 2nd in the country and are undefeated in the season at 6 - 0. Langara faces them Friday at 6 p.m. While Langara has shown signs of promise, they have struggled to fill the gap left by last year’s Pacwest second- team all-star, Carling Muir. Muir, who stood 6-1, often drew dou- ble or triple-teams by opposing defenc- es. If she didn’t score, there were others open who could capitalize, said Evans. “This year, we miss that go-to player that can takeover down the stretch,” he said, “and I’ve told my MIKE EVANS Women’s basket- ball team coach team that.” The Falcons lack size. Two players stand tallest at 5-10 so the of- fensive strategy is garnered towards small-ball where play is up-tempo and not dominated by the centre. This is a different offensive system than previous years, said Evans, but while offensive shooting could im- prove, the bigger issue is on the other end. “We press pretty good, but struggle with help-defence,” said Evans. When opponents draw the double- team it leads to open player, explained Evans. Defenders need to rotate but this doesn’t always happen. “The team practices defensive rota- tions while doubling in the post... but in games we sometimes get away from playing our system,” said Evans. “We just need to stay focused.” The best game of the year was the season opener, he said. The players stuck to the game plan on both sides of the ball and secured a 60 - 46 win over Douglas College. Canucks goalie goes to Switzerland By LEV JACKSON hile the NHL lockout is here to Wi: Canucks goalie Cory Schneider has decided to stay busy as he heads to play for HC Ambri Piotta of the Swiss Elite League. Schneider, 26, does not qualify as an imported player as he is a dual U.S./ Swiss citizen. He will join Canucks prospect Nicko- las Jensen as the only two players cur- rently playing overseas. Some other players skating in the Swiss League include NHL stars Hen- rik Zetterberg, John Tavares, Joe Thor- ton, Dustin Brown, and Logan Couture. Schneider signed a three-year con- tract extension with the Canucks this summer. EDITOR OMAR SHARIFF THE DAILY VOICE, THURSDAY, NOV. 29, 2012 8 Student has fists aimed at Olympics MIKE BABIARZ photo Evelyn ‘Lil Evil’ Calado holds up her dukes during boxing practice. She is currently focused on making it on the B.C. provinicial boxing team with hopes of making it to the 2020 Olympic Games. Evelyn Calado wants to represent Canada, but has few opponents 66 The Olym- pics would be the next step, may- be in 2020. EVELYN CALADO By TANYA HILL s soon as Evelyn ‘Lil Evil’ Cala- do stepped into the boxing ring, she was hooked. “When I first got in there, I thought I’m never going to stop doing this again, I love it that much, it was kind of instant,” said the 22-year-old human kinetics student. Currently Calado is focused on get- ting the fights she needs to make the provincials and is training to make the women’s Canadian boxing team. “TIn five years] I want to be on that international stage. lam too late for the 2016 Olympics,” said Calado. “The Olympics would be the next step, may- be in 2020.” Her family and friends didn’t have quite the same reaction to the sport. “They still have a hard time believ- ing that this is what I love doing,” she said. Calado believes that the negative portrayal of boxing in the media is part of the problem. “It’s a lack of knowledge about the sport,” she said. “It’s much more skill based, than a violent sport as deemed by society,” she said. Calado started boxing three years ago at Astoria Boxing Club soon to be Eastside Boxing lo- cated on Commer- cial and Hastings Street. Calado is cur- rently training with David Schuck who started box- ing competitively in 1986 and has : EVELYN CALADO been coaching am- Langara student ateur and profes- porer sional boxers for over ten years. “He works locally, I found him and it was awesome,” Calado said. ‘Lil Evil’ sees a bright future for her- self in the sport of boxing. “T know the girl I need to beat, I have fought her in an exhibition fight,” Ca- lado said. Calado needs to defeat Rosalia Cal- la, the current women’s B.C. Amateur Boxing Champion, to make it on the B.C. provincial team. Calado will be contending with Calla next fall. So far she has only had three fights but Vancouver has a small pool of wom- en boxers especially in Calado’s weight category. “Most females are in the 125 pound class, I fight at 106 pounds, it’s not easy to find competition,” said Calado. “Tn B.C. on the west coast there is not much competition. “A majority of my fights will be in the interior and down in the states,” she said. Calado is charging straight ahead to- wards the national championships. Once she climbs that hurdle, the world of boxing will open up many doors. “Once you reach nationals they run training camps and I’m opened up to international competition,” she said. “When you get to that national level, it opens up a lot of doors to sponsorship and fights.” Lockout has NHL bloggers put-out HL ogs HOCKEY BUZZ www.hockeybuzz.com CANUCKS ARMY www.canucksarmy.com NHL NUMBERS www.nhinumbers.com FLYING V www.theflyingv.com SPECTOR'S HOCKEY www.spectorshockey.net With contract negotiations still up in the air, blog- gers are struggling to keep their readers interested By SAM REYNOLDS ith talks between the NHL and Wi: player’s union at an im- passe, much has been said about the impact of the lockout on play- ers — but what about the hockey bloge- rati? According to web traffic measure- ment service Quantcast, traffic to Hockey Buzz, one of the larger U.S net- works of hockey blogs, has declined by 21 per cent between September and No- vember of this year — the first three months of the regular season com- pared to the same period last year. Three prominent hockey bloggers that spoke with The Voice all said that things are looking grim. Kent Wilson, CEO of the Nation Net- work, a Canadian network of Hockey Blogs, said that the lockout has pre- sented him a “couple of challenges” as a CEO. “Sponsorship is an issue,” he said. “We had five major sponsors walk away at the start of the season. “As we do operate a business and it’s tough [when this happens],” said Wil- son. Canucks Army, Wilson’s Nation Net- work blog that covers the Vancouver Canucks, has has had an “August month” — which is historically the slowest month of the year for traffic — since the lockout began. Wilson also mentioned that generat- ing content during the lockout has been a challenge, as reader interest has waned in labour update stories. Within Wilson’s network, NHL Num- bers, a hockey stats aggregator, has seen the biggest drop in traffic since no action on the ice means no stats to crunch. Kevin Vanstone, a Victoria-based blogger who publishes the Flying V, has also been challenged by the lock- out-imposed traffic cliff. “All the weekly things that drive the news cycle, like injuries or trades, have stopped,” Vanstone said. Vanstone said that traffic to his blog is now “non existent.” Lyle Richardson, the blogger in charge of Spector’s Hockey, says the lockout presents him with plenty to write about on the business of hockey — but he says fans prefer coverage of the business on the rink rather than the business in the boardroom. “The ongoing lockout saga makes it easy to find plenty to write about on the business of hockey, but of course, that’s not what really interests most hockey fans,” Richardson said. “I’ve tried to make things interesting by keeping track of locked-out NHL stars in Europe, but most North American hockey fans would prefer to see those stars playing on their respective NHL teams.” “They just want this lockout over,” he said.