THEVOICE | 8 Falcons land in third Basketball team loses semifinals at PacWest = By WILLIAM CROSBY 4 Mhe Langara Falcons fin- ished with bronze at this year’s PacWest men’s bas- ketball championships held last weekend in Nanaimo. The Falcons defeated the Camo- sun College Chargers 82-71 on Saturday, after losing their semifi- nal game 96-85 against the Doug- las College Royals the previous day at Vancouver Island University. Falcons forward Harry Brar said the team was disappointed with their finish given the strong overall year they’ve had. “Personally I think we should have done better. We should be playing in the finals,” Brar said. “Nobody wants to play in the third- place game especially considering we had a really good year.’ The Douglas Royals came in first place with a score e.. re 76-59 against the VIU Mariners on Saturday. | Falcons’ coach Paul Eberhardt said that even though the Roy- als defeated them Ravi Basra é ‘ MEN'S BASKETBALL in the semi-finals, PLAYER the Falcons have beat them before. “We know we were capable of perhaps winning it all. I think we're disappointed but we're happy to finish with a win,” Eberhardt said. Douglas Royals’ coach Joe En- evoldson said anytime their team competes against Langara it’s go- ing to be a difficult win. “They're very run and gun and your'e going to have to be able to keep up with them offensively.” “They're very well coached and they've got a lot of talent there. We were just fortunate that we rebounded the ball very well,” En- evoldson said. This was also a good year for Fal- cons player Ravi Basra who was selected to the tournament all-star team— a distinction only a handful of players in the tournament will receive. “The top five of the PacWest tournament gets selected for the tournament all-star so it’s a pretty good honour,” Basra said. BRONZE MEDAL GAME STATS HARRY BRAR 15 points, 4/5 from three-point range RAVI BASRA 7 points, 11 assists, 9 rebounds HARRY LIU 14 points, 6 rebounds GRADDY ZUBAIDI 12 points, 5 rebounds GRANT GALBRAITH 6 points, 6 rebounds THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 2018 | EDITOR MYRA DIONNE Sportsnews erseverance and discipline are two qualities a 16-year- old karate national cham- pion has mastered. Yushi Nakajima who trains at West River Karate in South Van- couver, will be defending his title in kata, a series of detailed patterns and movements, at the 2018 Karate Canada National Championships starting March 9. He will be joined by nine other members from the dojo at the championships. His competition is especially challenging this year because his opponent is older, more experienced and has a black belt, unlike the brown belt wrapped around Naka- jima’s waist. Kenny Lim, a sensei at West Riv- er Karate, has been training Naka- jima for the past With blue . . eight years and mats, bare “Black belt is a white said he knew his feet and a mw | pupil would be banner of belt that never gave up. successful. British Co- — KENNY LIM, SENSEI “Nakajima lumbia worn across his heart, Nakajima stands poised in training as he prepares to defend his karate title. “My expectations are to truly do my best. I have prepared a lot and trained a lot over the past two months so I am just hoping for my best performance,” said Nakajima before practice. has the ability to know what he wants and go for it,” Lim said. For the young apprentice, training starts at the dojo five to six times a week and ends at home where he practises karate in his garage. Nakajima attends an Interna- tional Baccalaureate program which offers rigorous courses that are fa- Yushi Nakajima, a South Vancouverite, trains at West River Karate. He will be defending his title in an higher age category at the 2018 Karate National Champi- onships in Halifax beginning March 9. He will be travelling with nine other students from the dojo who are all part of the provincial team. 4i/AnoA PooLE PHOTO 16-year-old South Van karate champ prepares to defend title = By AMANDA POOLE voured by colleges. He has a heavy science and chemistry course load and is often the last one at home to go bed. Unlike team sports, where every- one shares a loss or a win, in karate, the loss becomes personal said Na- kajima’s father Kaz. Before becoming so successful, his son swallowed his share of losses. “He wanted to practise more and finally he got to win,” Kaz said. Nakajima said in all honesty he can be lazy sometimes, however, his accomplishments and sensei speak louder. “Black belt is a white belt that never gave up,” Lim said. New bat laws for Little Leaguers | Ruling body requires standard bat be used across the board = By GABRIELLE PLONKA outh Vancouver Little League players will be forced to retire their baseball bats and purchase new ones for the 2018 season in order to comply with changing equipment standards. All Little League players must play with official, “wood-like” bats, approved in January by the board of directors of Little League In- ternational, the world ruling body. Approved bats will be labeled with USA Baseball stickers starting this season. USA Baseball was asked to come up with a standardized bat to make the game more uniform across all leagues. As such, the change will affect all affiliated youth leagues. “It takes away the technical advan- tage where kids could buy the most expensive bat, just to get the biggest hits,” said Paul Steele, president of South Vancouver Little League. “It makes it so that you have to have the skill to actually do it.” Steele said the change will add fairness to the game, but it will be an expensive switch-over for many families. “There’s going to be quite a few parents who, I think, are going to be a bit hesitant,” Steele said. South Vancouver Little League vice president Moto Mukai said there isn't a major difference in price between the bats, but having to re- place an old bat with a new one is an added expense. “Some people call it a cash grab to sell more bats,” Mukai said. “Most of us just deal with it [...] if we have to buy new bats then we buy new bats.” Kevin Fountain, director of media relations at Little League Interna- tional, said Little League Canada cannot reject the new rules. “As with any change, you're always going to have some concern and push back,” Fountain said. “We're doing our best to assist and provide resources.” South Vancouver Little League players will have the option of us- ing a team bat if they don't wish to purchase their own. Mukai said that with the new bats, some play- ers will struggle to hit as far as they did before, making it challenging for players to hit home runs. Baseball all clinic in uver Feb. 27.