Sports

<p>Alex Valerio was a hard working student athlete, and she is looking for the same effort out of her new team. “You can teach technical ability, but you can&#8217;t teach work rate.  The harder you work, the luckier you get,” Valerio said. Born and raised in Ottawa, Alex Valerio is joining the women’s soccer team [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The St. Thomas athletes&#8217; faces brightened the campus last Monday morning with their rosy cheeks and tan lines, but if you ask any of them, the sunburns were worth it. Last Sunday afternoon, STU athletes participated in a charity beach volleyball tournament for Right To Play. Although many of the 60 athletes in the tournament do [&hellip;]</p>

<p>By now, all the try-outs for the sports teams are just about done at St. Thomas University, and all the rosters are getting finalized. Some people know they are going to be on a team. Others will be pleased to find out they made it. The rest may end up throwing their Xbox controller through the [&hellip;]</p>

<p>St. Thomas Tommies men&#8217;s hockey coach Pat Powers didn&#8217;t feel his team was ready for Monday&#8217;s preseason Battle of the Hill against the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds, won 4-0 by UNB. “When we’re facing an elite team like UNB, we’ve got to be extra ready,” he said. “It’s not your typical exhibition game. [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Despite the game being interrupted by two half-hour delays due to thundershowers, St. Thomas University Tommies men’s soccer coach Darren Cann still feels the Holland College Hurricanes was the better team in Saturday’s game at Scotiabank South Park. “They were the better team on the day and they deserved to win,” Cann said following STU’s [&hellip;]</p>

<p>St. Thomas University&#8217;s women&#8217;s soccer coach Alex Valerio said amateur mistakes in the first half ended up costing STU in their 4-0 loss to the Holland College Hurricanes. It was the team&#8217;s first home game of the regular season and Valerio&#8217;s first as the Tommies&#8217; head coach. She compared the Tommies’ errors to buttons on [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Maintaining exercise routines and watching diets often seems irrelevant during the hot summer months. However, that’s not the case for St. Thomas University’s student athletes, who find it important to stay in shape while beating the heat. Second-year student and men’s rugby player Andrew Daniels admits that working a full-time job that involved heavy physical [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The first day I cried was that Saturday. After 16 years, my team was going to the quarterfinals in the biggest soccer event on earth, the World Cup. The sports announcer was almost crying of happiness, saying “GOOOOOOOOOOOOAL, scored from a country called Colombia, a crack shot named James Rodriguez, he gave us a painting [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Mary O&#8217;Neill is taking a hike, and a pretty long one at that. She and her mother are taking three weeks to hike across Spain. It&#8217;s a pilgrimage known as El Camino de Santiago, or the Way of St. James. This will be O&#8217;Neill&#8217;s first time doing the trek, but her mother has done it [&hellip;]</p>

<p>When Jordan Bachynski changed his Twitter handle to @BLOCKshynski at the end of March, it fit like his size 14 basketball shoes. He didn&#8217;t come up with the nickname himself. The 7&#8217;2&#8243; Bachynski just finished up his fourth season playing basketball for the Arizona State University Sun Devils and in his final year averaged an [&hellip;]</p>

<p>So, you want to play sports this summer? When you&#8217;re breaking out your cleats be sure to grab your water wings. Everyone has their go-to summer activity. For some it&#8217;s camping, for others it&#8217;s drinking heavily &#8211; although those two can be done together. Personally, I love playing sports and keeping active (but I have [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The annual athletics banquet gives STU&#8217;s athletes a chance to shine after everything is said and done. And shine is what Kelly Vass and Jason Cannon did. Jason Cannon finished his second year on the men’s volleyball team and was named Male Athlete of the Year for his excellent play. He helped make his team [&hellip;]</p>

<p>As the buzzer sounded on March 1 at the ACAA men’s conference playoffs, it marked more than just the end of a basketball season. For three of the Tommies, it meant their time as St. Thomas basketball players was up. David Dolan, Nathan Mazurkiewicz and Corey Delong are all wrapping up their fourth year at [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Just because he&#8217;s a professional hockey player doesn&#8217;t mean Yuri Cheremetiev doesn&#8217;t have homework. The STU student signed with the Fayetteville FireAntz of the Southern Professional Hockey League on March 14. Cheremetiev was contacted by FireAntz head coach Emery Olauson, dropped everything, and spent a full day travelling to North Carolina to join the team. [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Many athletes, by nature, like to win. For Hilary Goodine, it’s in her nature. It started in grade five, when Goodine first started playing basketball. Even then she was a winner, as her mini team won the provincial championships. Back then, basketball wasn’t her top priority. In grade 11 at Tobique Valley High School, Goodine [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The St. Thomas women’s basketball team made history on Mar. 15 when they won the team’s first silver medal on the national stage. The Tommies have competed for a medal the three previous years, but this is the best they’ve done. “It’s crazy to think about how different our year has been compared to every [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Playing their strongest and giving the best teams in the country a serious challenge is what the STU women&#8217;s hockey team is going to take away from their first shot at nationals. St. Thomas hosted the CIS women&#8217;s hockey championship at the Grant Harvey this weekend, giving the school an opportunity to showcase its talent [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The St. Thomas women’s basketball team knew the road to a CCAA national championship was going to be hard. The first game was Thursday night against the host Champlain Cavaliers. The gym was rocking and Tommies head coach Fred Connors had trouble communicating with his team due to the noise. He started pulling his timeouts [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Athletes coming out as gay has been a hot topic recently. Michael Sam, a high-profile football player, recently came out. His performance throughout the season earned him a spot on the All- SEC team. Jason Collins, the first openly gay NBA player, just signed a new contract with the Brooklyn Nets. But Mitchell Peardon, a St. [&hellip;]</p>

<p>It’s the most wonderful time of the year! It’s better than opening Christmas presents, and sweeter than candy on Halloween. It’s March Madness. It’s the time of year when all the best college basketball teams in the United States compete in a do-or-die tournament. This tournament has a little extra sweetness for Canadians. This year [&hellip;]</p>