as Ze, ree The men’s soccer team returning to Vancouver after a week at soccer nationals in P.E.I. sHA8NAM JESSA PHOTO Falcons kick it at nationals Men's soccer team finishes fifth in Charlottetown By SHABNAM JESSA he Langara Falcons fin- ished fifth overall at the CCAA National Soc- cer Championships last week, following a 3-2 victory in their last game against the North- ern Alberta Institute of Technology Ooks. The men’s soccer team travelled to Charlottetown, PEI. where it played four games against col- lege teams from across the coun- try. Even though they didn't come home with gold, the players were happy that they participated in the national tournament. “You cant take anything for granted. We learned from it. We're a family. We put our trust in each other and we look forward to next season,” first-year player Anmol Singh said. Team captain Joey Ratcliffe agreed that playing in the tourna- ment was valuable. “It was a great experience for the first- and second-year players,” Ratcliffe said. In their first game at nationals, the Falcons lost a lengthy battle of penalty kicks to the Humbert Hawks, one of their toughest ri- vals. The Hawks went undefeated in their next two games to win na- tionals gold. “We learned from it. We're a family. We put our trust in each other and we look forward to next season.” — ANMOL SINGH, FIRST-YEAR FALCON “They're a contender for nation- als every year. We're disappointed to lose to them in penalty kicks,” Ratcliffe said. On day two, the Falcons defeated the St. Thomas Tommies 1-0 in a game plagued by rough winds. “We didn’t win the way we want- ed to, but a win is a win,” goalkeep- er Kevin Monk said. Monk, a senior Falcon, said he felt lucky to compete at the nation- al level in his final year in college. On day three, the Falcons battled it out against the Sheridan Bru- ins for a spot in the bronze medal game, losing after the Bruins scored a tie-breaking goal in the 90th minute. Emmanuel Ekeh, PacWest’s 2018 Rookie of the Year, was awarded a CCAA All-Canadian ti- tle for combined excellence in ath- letics and academics. Fellow first- year James Millar was a CCAA Championship All-Star. Monk and Millar were awarded Player of the Match in games two and nine respectively. Second-year Taku Ota was named Player of the Match after both games five and 12. Coach Marc Rizzardo said he’s proud of how the team gets along. “They play for each other,” Rizzardo said. “Looking ahead to next year, the players are very motivated to return and win.” FALCONS VS. HUMBERT HAWKS 1-2 FALCONS VS. ST. THOMAS TOMMIES 1-0 FALCONS VS. SHERIDAN BRUINS 1-2 FALCONS VS. NAIT OOKS 3-2 Students win on principle King David High School may owe athletic success to religious studies By ADAM LEVI T he principles of Judaism have been passed down for thousands of years and the players at King David High School have been using those principles to win games. ‘The junior boys basketball team won a championship for indepen- dent schools last season. David Amram, the school’s athletic direc- tor, said he’s noticed that his more religiously focused students tend to perform better. “There are always one or two kids who were a little more spiritual or a little more religious who were al- ways on our winning teams,” said Amram. For King David’s Rabbi Stephen Berger, sports can act as a valuable tool for teaching principled values. “The game is not the end in it- self,” Berger said. “It’s all the dif- ferent lessons that game brings out, like the ideas of team, sportsman- ship and others.” At the Jewish Community Cen- tre in South Vancouver, recreation- al sports leagues are based on the same principles as those at King David. “Of the 140 members in our hockey league around 80 per cent of them are Jewish,” said the cen- tre’s athletic director Kyle Berger. “I think that’s a pretty impressive number. For the community of just over 25,000 [Jewish people] in Greater Vancouver, that’s not a bad number to have of actual Jewish participants.” There may not be a long history of successful Jewish athletes, par- ticularly in professional sports, but the high level of interest within the community makes at least one rabbi envious. “My son’s hockey coach gets ev- eryone at 6 a.m. ona Sunday morn- ing. I can't get anyone,” Dan Mos- kovitz joked. “I wish that some of the kids at my synagogue were as religious about religion as they are about sports.” Dribble toward t Falcons feel optimistic despite a tough loss on Saturday By NATHAN GAN fforts outweigh results, ac- E cording to the Langara Falcons women’s basketball team after a tough loss against the Okanagan Coyotes at Langara College last Saturday afternoon. ‘The two-point loss was hard- fought thanks to point guard Alexa Leynes with 21 game points and Stephanie von Riedemann who earned the most rebounds and as- sists with nine and five points. Leynes said that close games that end in losses mean much more to the integrity of her team than spir- itless wins. She mentioned a previ- ous game against Columbia Bible College, where the Langara Falcons were victorious with a score of 61- 50, but Leynes felt personally that the team play was lacking. “Today, we lost by two points, but it felt like a tie game. We worked so hard for it,” Leynes said. The Langara Falcons served a weaker first quarter, scoring 11 points to the Okanagan Coyote’s 16 points. The team showed a re- surgence after intermission, scoring 18 points in the third quarter. Eloise Faehndrich, who is playing her third year for the Falcons, said the comeback is mainly due to their discussion during the game’s inter- mission. According to Faehndrich, the team often jokes that the third e future quarter tends to be the team’s weak- est. “The critical point is always com- ing out after our half-time talk, and I think we've been getting so much better every game at [overcoming weaker third quarters], so it’s nice to see that,” she said. Saturday’s game also marked the fourth match for PacWest with the Falcons’ new coach, Curtis Nelson. Nelson has two decades of coach- ing experience and was named the association’s Coach of the Year dur- ing Douglas College’s 2012-2013 season. Nelson said that significant growth towards consistent team- work is integral and that numbers wont shake them. “Win or lose: that’s just a result. ‘The process we're in right now, ’'m very pleased and happy with the girls, and I know that we're going in the right direction,” Nelson said. Alexa Leynes against the Okanagan Coyotes. NATHAN GAN PHOTO