8 THE VOICE, THURSDAY, OCT. 27, 2016 EDITOR JAKE WRAY SS poris Empty stands at Falcons: matches Langara sports teams say they have barely any fans cheering them on at games By MELANIE GREEN could have used support from its fans Saturday when it lost 5-1 to the Quest Kermodes while attempting to secure an unlikely playoff berth. The soccer team isn’t the only Lan- gara sports team that doesn’t have many fans at its games. In fact, all of the teams listed under the Falcon’s umbrel- la report low fan turnout, with just fam- ily members or friends in the stands. “To be honest, I don’t even know who the Falcons are,” said Robert Bin- ning, a Langara student and a sports fan. T: Falcons men’s soccer team The Langara Falcons include golf, basketball and soccer teams. Denise Busay- ong, facilities as- r4 4 sistant for athlet- ics and Jo be intramurals at Langara, said in honest, I an email “I be- don’t even lieve we don’t get more sup- know who porters at the the Falcons games simply because they are are not aware that we do have var- sity sports.” She said there ROBERT BINNING LANGARA STUDENT were large post- ers in Building A with full schedules, but people rarely read them. Marc Rizzardo, men’s soccer coach, said his team was “Out of sight, out of mind,” because they don’t train or play on campus. They play at Musqueam Park, which is approximately 15 min- utes away from campus by car and approxi- mately 25 min- utes by bus. Langara stu- dent Alex Reaper said “There’s not really much ad- vertisement, and SYD GOYAL : Intramurals unless _ they’re player super interested, who’s going to watch the game? If you’re not involved nobody is going to really go, which sucks.” Reaper said he recalled seeing a soc- cer schedule in front of the cafeteria that had a game scheduled in Squa- mish, which was too far for him. Syd Goyal is a Langara student who plays weekly intramural games. “Not [many] people show up because they’re busy with coursework and they also work. There’s not any advertisements,” he said. Goyal took a photo of the intramural calendar when it was posted the first week of the semester, but he said it was quickly taken down. According to Rizzardo, other schools also see low turnout. “Tt’s not like the States, the culture is different,” he said. ® Falcons’ Tally t% WOMEN'S SOCCER MEN'S SOCCER W-D-L W-D-L 6-4-2 1-9-2 Ranked: 3rd Ranked: 5th WOMEN'S BASKETBALL MEN'S BASKETBALL SEASON OPENER: SEASON OPENER: Oct. 28 6 p.m. Oct. 28 8 p.m. at Langara College at Langara College File photo Preston Wong lunges for a birdie at the PacWest provincial badminton championship in February, when Langara still had a team. PacWest axes badminton, leaving Langara and other teams adrift By CLARE HENNIG nce a force to be reckoned with, and the reigning team provin- cial champions, the Langara Fal- cons’ badminton team has dis- solved after the provincial league dropped the sport. PacWest, B.C.’s provincial college sports league, removed badminton from its roster after an unsustainable drop in provincial teams. The problem is that too few B.C. col- leges have competitive badminton teams, according to Carly Scarr, de- partment assistant for athletics and in- tramurals at Langara. “We used to have a strong league with six or seven institutions. That slowly dwindled down until last year,” she said. “It’s not really a viable league when you only have three teams com- “Because there was no more bad- 4 4 minton, I decided to take a year off and peting.” Scarr said the college fully supports badminton and wants to maintain a team somehow. Badminton has been a significant sport at the college for decades with photos of the team’s victories, going back as far as the 1970s, displayed out- side the gym. Prior to this setback, the badminton team at Langara had a great reputation that drew some stu- dents to the college. “Badminton at Langara was one of the main reasons I went to Langara in the first place,” said Preston Wong, who played on the team for two years. Wong left Langara last semester af- ter the cancellation was announced. work full-time,” Wong said. Bonnie Cheng, one of Langara’s as- sistant badminton coaches, said SFU and UBC also have teams that could compete in PacWest, but there were rules preventing college and university teams from competing against one an- other. Cheng, along with coaches from other schools with badminton teams, are attempting to come up with a work- around. “Because there is no PacWest, and a lot of student athletes want to keep badminton alive, we’re trying to start a club league. Basically, not with Pac- West, but a college and university league where we can all gather and compete with each other,” she said. Because there was no more badminton I decided to takea year off PRESTON WONG FORMER LANGARA BADMINTON PLAYER Basketball teams ready for fresh start Men’s and women’s teams ended last season on a low note, hope to rebound for a stronger playoff run 1 Tu r Falcons guard Timmie Choi lobs a shot during practice. By EMELIE PEACOCK has just begun and the Falcons are preparing for another shot at the PacWest provincial championship af- ter a disappointing finish last year. Both the men’s team and the wom- en’s team were eliminated in the first round of the championships last sea- son. This year the women are a rookie team with 11 new players and a new coach, while the men’s team is more ex- perienced with nine returning players. Winston Brown took over as head coach of the women’s team when his predecessor, Mike Evans, stepped down this spring after 14 years of coaching the team. Brown said he has implemented on- and off-court changes to get young players ready for the sea- son. “We’ve incorporated in our practices more working out, more agility, more shooting. So that’s the on-court stuff. We've also implemented study hall and tutoring to make sure that they do take care of that student aspect of the game,” said Brown. The changes are paying off, said Brown, with several successful exhibi- tion games played and no injuries go- T: B.C. college basketball season ing into the season, compared to five injuries this time last year. The new team is positive about their chances for making it to the PacWest champion- ship. “T think there’s a possibility we can make it to the provincial final if we work hard and I feel like with this team, with everyone’s motivation, whatever we want to do we can get there” said guard Adina Oprea, return- ing for a second year with the Falcons. Men’s head coach Paul Eberhardt is positive about the maturity and cohe- sion he sees among his players. “The thing I really like about this group is they are really selfless, they really care about each other and about the team and I think that’s just as im- portant a characteristic as anything else,” Eberhardt said. Ravi Basra, guard and last season’s PacWest rookie of the year, is aiming for a national win. “T feel a lot more confident going into this season. Everyone has a lot more experience under their belt so I’m look- ing forward to what happens next,” Basra said. Both teams play their first game of the season on Oct. 28 at Langara Col- lege.