Be Like MacEwan

There was palpable excitement throughout Canada West when Grant MacEwan University received its membership to join U SPORTS and the Canada West Conference from the ACAC. As with any expansion team, the level of competition got stronger and it was expected that the MacEwan Griffins would need time to adjust, and they've been showing improvement over each of their first two seasons in Canada West. While the playoffs have eluded them thus far, there's good reason to believe that they'll battle for a playoff spot once again this season. While it seems that they're building their program in a very step-by-step way, they've already blown the competition away in one off-season regard that seems to be an annual thing for them.

If there's one thing that broadcasters and staticians can never have enough of when looking into teams and players' careers, it's information. Whether it be historical information, insights into statistics, stories about players and the program, or a host of other things, people like myself use disseminate and use this information to craft stories, examine trends, and make predictions. During my time as a broadcaster for Canada West, there wasn't enough information that I sought to make broadcasts better.

I say all that because finding historical information on teams was nearly impossible when I started, and it slowly got better as time creeped forward. It's still sorely lacking for a number of teams which makes talking about accolades, achievements, and records a lot harder, but the MacEwan Griffins are making broadcasters' lives a whole lot better by providing one document annually: the MacEwan Griffins record book!

Honestly, major kudos go to the Griffins and their athletics department for producing this document annually. Having their program's history all the way back to the inception of the program in 1999 makes for a great read, and they really go through all sorts of numbers and situations. This is the kind of information that I craved when I was in the booth, and MacEwan is doing a great job in supplying a well-crafted document about their program.

And that leads me to ask what of the other eight teams? For programs with all sorts of history and accolades, you'd think they'd have a annual record book available online somewhere, right? Imagine not being able to look up all sorts of facts about the Alberta Pandas' six-year run in the U SPORTS National Championship finals from 2002 to 2007. Or looking up all the great scoring records that Hayley Wickenheiser amassed in her time with the Calgary Dinos. Or finding out who sparked Manitoba's run in 2005 to a bronze-medal finish at Nationals.

The reality is that none of this stuff exists in one place like it does for MacEwan. None of the other eight Canada West programs have the depth of information in one document that a broadcaster or writer can consult like MacEwan does. And, quite frankly, it's downright ridiculous that some programs don't have a record book like MacEwan does.

You can spare me the talk about limited resources and cutbacks in athletics departments as well. This should have been happening for some time across Canada when it comes to all sports programs, but it would seem that there wasn't much priority put on broadcasting as I've witnessed from my travels. That's not to say the records books couldn't still be produced, but the need for them to be at broadcasters' fingertips never really was realized. That means that blogs like this and the occasional registered U SPORTS website will have pieces that need to be cobbled together just as I did with the results of all teams that have played at the National Championship.

Maybe I'm that guy who will fill that niche on occasion thanks to my passion for the women's game. I try to provide timely updates and statistics I find useful to everyone who stops by here, but this could be accomplished so much easier if eight Canada West programs simply did what MacEwan does without being asked. Or begged. Or complained about on a blog.

In saying that, full kudos to Lindsay McAlpine as the Athletic Director for keeping this annual endeavour going, and to the staff working at the MacEwan Griffins Athletics Department for compiling and publishing their record book annually. There is no such thing as too much information when it comes to sports information, and eight other teams in Canada West should be following your lead. Well done, MacEwan, from this blogger who knows where to find any and all info about your women's hockey program!

I challenge the rest of Canada West to do what MacEwan did: publish your record book for women's hockey. Start with this one sport that became a national championship sport under the CIS/U SPORTS banner in 1998, and work from there. It might take a month or a year to put this together, but any effort is better than no effort. If you want people to talk about all the good things your programs have done, give them a place where they can find that info.

Be like MacEwan, Canada West. If nothing else, do it for your players and programs so that we, as writers and broadcasters, can tell better stories. The fact that it hasn't been done by a lot of programs with histories longer than the MacEwan Griffins makes me wonder what is actually important to those individual programs.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!