Cover Story 13 Cover Story a New Day For
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Cover Story 13 COVER STORY A new day for SPORTSBy Sean Fitz-Gerald, Journalism ’00 IT’S NO SECRET THAT OUR VARSITY TEAMS HAVE STRUGGLED TO WIN, GREAT INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCES ASIDE. BRIGHTER DAYS ARE AHEAD WITH A NEW FACILITY AT MAPLE LEAF GARDENS AND THE DETERMINATION OF ATHLETICS DIRECTOR IVAN JOSEPH, WHO BRINGS HIS WINNING ATTITUDE TO RYERSON SPORTS AND RECREATION van Joseph was only three months old when his father left Guyana. His mother left a year later, handing him over to his grandparents so she could move to New York. Carmen Joseph had no boots, no winter coat and no desire to splinter her family, but the factory job she found was crucial in helping to fund her husband’s university education in Canada, and their shared dream of a better life for their children. Carmen lived in a little rented room while her husband studied hundreds of kilometres away, first at Nova Scotia IAgricultural College, and then at McGill University. She and Ivan Sr. only saw each other over the summer months and had to follow their son’s growth through the accounts of those they left behind in Guyana. “My grandmother, being a wise woman, who could never read or write, saw something special in him,” said Carmen. “She would tell me, ‘You know, this little boy’s going to go very far.’ With all the little pension she got, she sent him to private school back in Guyana, and would often give him errands to go to the bank, to let him count her money and make him in charge of her business.” Four decades later, a needy BlackBerry fussing on a desk deep inside Ryerson University hints at the result of those sacri- fices. Joseph oversees a somewhat larger business now, in his second year as the school’s Director of Athletics, and plans for the downtown campus seem to echo his parents’ determination. Joseph wants to make the university into an active, athletic hub, featuring winning teams and an engaged student body. At the centre is a new athletic facility, approved by students in a referendum last year, which he says will become the “cor- nerstone, a foundation for what we’re trying to do.” The iconic Maple Leaf Gardens will be the site of the new Student In his second year as director Recreation and Athletic Centre. of athletics, Ivan Joseph aims to ▲ forge a reputation for athletics equal to that of Ryerson’s academic programs. RYAN ENN HUghes, IMAge ArTS ’07 WWW.RYANHUGHES.CA Cover Story 15 COVER STORY In Joseph’s mind, the outcome is solid. Last March, teams are successful in inter-university play. “I do believe almost 75 per cent of student voters agreed to increase that the success of varsity teams helps the reputation of the annual fees, by $126 to $187, to help fund the project. university,” Levy said. Those fees will not be collected until the much-needed Joseph came by the desire to succeed honestly, after facility opens. watching his parents fight to gain a foothold in Canada. “We’ve got one gym, we have no arena and we have no Fresh out of university, and with his young family reunited soccer field,” Joseph said. “Our gym can’t host regulation and squeezed into a north Toronto apartment, buying a car national tournaments. The best teams don’t want to come was out of the question for Ivan Sr. So he had to improvise play in our volleyball gym. Why would they want to?” to get to his job on a farm in Maple, Ont., 35 km north of Sports Ryerson has still been able to attract some of the best Toronto – he hitchhiked. On the coldest days of winter, he athletes. Rower Matt Buie won the under-23 men’s sin- would arrive at the farm with icicles on his moustache. gles championship at the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta The farmer was impressed. Within a year, he had invited and Rec in St. Catharines in August. In October, Buie and row- Joseph’s family to move into a rambling, drafty farmhouse. ing partner Philippe Roy won the Ryerson Rams rowing There were chores for everyone, including little Ivan. STATS team’s first-ever Ontario University Athletics (OUA) gold “One of the things from being on a farm is that he was medal, in the men’s heavy double race at the OUA cham- doing chores from an early age,” Ivan Sr. said. “By the time Varsity sports teams 11 pionships. The OUA also named them all-stars, the first he was about 12 or 13, he was taking his part in running a time OUA has selected all-stars in rowing. shift. In the summertime, you can be working from 6 a.m. Soccer star Andrea Raso became the first female athlete until 10 p.m. – no overtime.” Varsity athletes 200 in Ryerson history to be named to an All-Canadian team His son is now married, with three children of his own. when she was selected as a second team Canadian Inter- Joseph’s family lives in Aurora, Ont. partly because of To- Number of hours university Sport (CIS) All-Canadian (see sidebar, page 17). ronto’s steep real estate prices, but also because “I had to men’s basketball And Boris Bakovic, already the all-time leading scorer in live in the country.” team practices each Ryerson men’s basketball history, led the CIS in scoring last He has toured other cities since moving back from a week 15 season (27.3 points per game). career in the United States, including Hamilton, where “I find that the university’s academic reputation has McMaster University recently opened the David Braley Next new varsity sport grown by leaps and bounds,” Joseph said. “I hear the num- Athletic Centre, a $30-million facility with areas for high- women’s hockey ber. It’s 70,000 applicants for 5,000 freshman spots. Our performance athletes mixed in with more general use sec- reputation? Number one in aerospace engineering. Num- tions such as its cycling and fitness studios. Cost for alumni to join ber one nursing program, number one journalism program “I don’t want an athlete-only high-performance centre,” the RAC $315/year – all of these.” Joseph said. “It has to also meet the recreational needs of His goal is to do nothing less for his department. our students. And that is the balance you have to fit. Yes, “I want that reputation to be associated with our athletic we’re talking to our athletes. Yes, we’re talking to our in- Cost for alumni program, where people hold us up as the standard bearer,” tramural athletes as well. But we also want to talk to our and students to he said. “I want us to be first-class in the things that we do.” general student population.” attend varsity games Joseph has the full support of Sheldon Levy, Ryerson’s The new facility will have a hockey arena, a fitness cen- Free (with ID) president. tre, a high performance gym and basketball and volleyball “Both sports and recreation are an important part of courts. Intramural teams 108 what I would call the opportunity we give students for “I want the typical student to see us as a valued part student engagement,” Levy said. “When we talk about an of their academic experience,” said the 39-year-old, who Intramural urban campus like Ryerson, we quite often use the term played an integral part in building an elite soccer complex participants 2,000 ‘commuter campus’ and, very quickly, we also find every at Graceland University in Iowa, where he was director of excuse why the students’ engagement with the university soccer operations and a professor in physical health and is really only connected to the courses they take.” education before jumping to Ryerson. Most popular Some students increase that connection by joining a If Ryerson students said they wanted their new athletic intramural sport club. Many, he said, enhance the connection through facility to include wireless Internet access and a smoothie indoor soccer with sports and recreation. kiosk, he would add them too, saying involvement outside almost 400 players There is also a benefit for the university’s profile if its the classroom is how students create memories. N I New intramural sports ELOQU team table tennis and P Opposite page, above: Bakovic, the all-time leading scorer in Ryerson’s men’s basketball history, led the CIS in scoring last season NE I (27.3 points per game). Left, volleyball player Tommy Nguyen. innertube water polo ST ri PHOTO CH.