Jan. 22

Home Court Kind to Dinos
By Wayne Thomas

The Calgary Dinos, like every other team in Canada West, find the grueling travel schedule a serious challenge in the won-lost column. 8-0 within the friendly confines of the Jack Simpson Gym, and 5-3 away, so the boys are happy to back in Calgary for a couple of weeks. It’s not that they don’t enjoy the lustre of junkets to hot spots like Langley, B.C., Regina, Lethbridge, Brandon, and our provincial capital, glamour spots all, but they certainly prefer ‘The Jack’.

If you want a treatise on the home court advantage, just ask Dinos Assistant Matt Skinn, who wrote his Master’s thesis on the subject. (Hey! Everyone needs a good, unique topic *Editors Note - I somewhat resent this!*!) Lets assume sleep, food, bus and plane travel, unfamiliar gyms, hometown refs (did I say that?), strange routines, and too much face time with Dean ‘The Candyman’ McCord (see food) are among the mitigating factors.

Here in town they get to luxuriate in their palatial locker room, which Coach Vanhooren and a few of the lads lovingly refurbished this past summer. This sanctuary is a far cry from the row of PE lockers we in the Chuck Taylor All-Stars Era were treated to, and an upgrade from the concrete closet Coach
gary Howard commandeered back in the ’70s. Coach Vanhooren has been tinkering with this space since he arrived from Medicine Hat, but this year may be the first season in which he is eager to show the room to potential recruits. It really helps to be done with the ‘Biology Experiment Couch’ in the Soccer-Swim Team area, which had enough mold to serve the research needs of the Med School. Players also don’t miss the unknown liquid dripping from the ceiling, the 25 year old sweatpants and 2 year collection of lunch leftovers draped over the lockers in that outer area cared for not at all by the Wrestling Team.

Basketball isn’t all about what you see on the court every weekend, and the improvements in the team room facilities have put the players in a better frame of mind, but probably don’t account for the 13-3 record … perhaps Henry Bekkering, Tyler Fidler, Jeff Price and our other talented additions are more responsible. Still, the new digs, paid for largely from team fund-raising , are just another way of improving the program, and a nice place to return to after a week away.

Notes …

-Biggest game of the regular season in CIS Basketball? Has to be the MBNA Capital Hoops Classic between the 5 time National Champion and undefeated Carleton Ravens and their cross town rivals the Ottawa Gee-Gees. Organizers expect a crowd of 12,000 plus and it should set a record for the largest crowd ever at a CIS game, including Nationals in Halifax.

-Other ‘Big Games’ this week include…

- Alberta at Saskatchewan for a pair to decide 2nd and 3rd in the Central Division behind the Dinos.
- Victoria in Burnaby to face the mercurial Simon Fraser Clan, who have a chance to make that move up in the Pacific Division which
Coach Clark promised in October.
- Regina at Winnipeg
- Acadia visits St. FX

-One of the questions for Coach Vanhooren is ‘Do you rest some of your starters over the next couple of weeks in preparation for tougher games to come?’ You don’t want to overlook any opponent, but it may be a time to heal some nagging hurts, and give them a mental break as well. Apparently Brandon did this last Friday against Lethbridge in preparation for the Dinos the next night.

This week at home on Friday …Dinos vs. Fraser Valley Cascades and Saturday …Dinos vs. Thompson Rivers Wolfpack Both games are at 8:00 pm.