Last week, the Carleton men’s soccer team made it to nationals. Even though the team ended up in fifth place, it was a great accomplishment that received a lot of praise, and rightly so. It was more evidence that Carleton is an amazing sports school with modern athletic facilities and teams that usually dominate their opponents.
But there’s one thing holding Carleton back from becoming an even better-known sports powerhouse: It refuses to acknowledge student athletes who excel in sports that aren’t deemed important enough to designate as varsity.
There’s no denying the fact that our varsity teams are good, and that they deserve our support.
Just look at the track record of success: last year, the women’s fencing team won its third Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Championship title. In Nordic skiing, the men finished third in the OUA and the women finished fourth. Men’s rowing took home OUA silver. Women’s water polo just won four games at the Queens Invitational, and is now undefeated with a 14-0 record – not a bad start for a team trying to win to win their ninth OUA banner.
And who could forget basketball? The Ravens men basketball team has so much prestige that it attracts players not only from Canada, but also internationally. It produces all-stars, professional players and, according to a recent Charlatan article, it may even be the only route to the NBA for Canadian Intercollegiate Sport (CIS) basketball players. More than that, with seven championships in nine years, the team is on track to set a record for most CIS titles.
All of these teams are great, they have great players and amazing coaches that are fueled by us, the Ravens fans. Another thing they have in common is that they are all varsity teams who are supported with lots of marketing and funds by the administration. The varsity teams here are top notch, but they’re not the only teams on campus.
Equal attention should be paid to competitive club teams, who are just as good. Their track record is just as impressive as the varsity teams’. Last year, two Ravens baseball players were nominated for the best pitcher and best hitter awards in the Canadian Intercollegiate Baseball Association. The men’s lacrosse team has made the playoffs in 16 of the last 21 seasons. In that time, they’ve earned the Division II Championship McDonald Cup twice and had two seasons were they finished third and fourth, respectively.
If you don’t think the competitive club teams are that good, look at the women’s rugby team. It was designated a varsity team this year. In case you missed it, the team won the last game of its season 69-7 in a huge game for the entire team.
If you need evidence of how much less attention competitive club teams receive, look at the Go Ravens website. It is relatively easy to find schedules and team stats for all the varsity teams. The link for competitive club teams is at the bottom of the page, and its information it’s almost never updated compared to the pages for the varsity squads. This can easily discourage people from joining these teams because they are harder to find and some people might come the conclusion that the teams may be out of date or lacking proper training equipment. With all the new athletic buildings, this should not be the case.
There needs to be an acknowledgement that Carleton is an amazing sports school, not only for varsity teams but for everything from archery to ultimate frisbee. Here at Carleton our competitive club teams do not get enough recognition.
Carleton will be a top athletic school for many years to come. And I only hope all teams get the recognition they deserve!
— Patrick Oakes,
first-year geography
