Last games are always sad, but these athletes didn’t even know it until it was over.
In the 2018-2019 women’s basketball season, the McMaster Marauders won the national title for the first time. In the 2019-2020 season, they made noise in the playoffs, but couldn’t get by the first-seeded Western University Mustangs, losing by only one point. One additional basket at any point in the game could’ve changed that, but it was too late.
Having come off two back-to-back strong seasons, the 2020-2021 season could’ve come with another title push. Unfortunately, the women’s basketball team will miss the chance this season and for some fourth and fifth-year students, they will never get that chance again.
Sarah Gates, a member of the team who was named a third-team all-star last season, spoke out about a fifth-year player who won’t get their chance to play again.
“For our one fifth-year on the team, she didn’t even know her last game was her last game and that’s heartbreaking . . . We couldn’t even have a big celebration for her and everything she has been through as an athlete at McMaster,” said Gates.
“For our one fifth-year on the team, she didn’t even know her last game was her last game and that’s heartbreaking,” said Gates.
Missing the final year of eligibility has been difficult on many athletes, not just from the women’s basketball team. Brandon Chong, a fifth-year athlete on the men’s baseball team, discussed his final season, disappointed with how it ended.
“When we ended, I was injured actually, as I had hamstring problems, so I didn’t play as much as I could . . . I wish it didn’t have to end like that. At least one more at bat,” said Chong.
“When we ended, I was injured actually, as I had hamstring problems, so I didn’t play as much as I could . . . I wish it didn’t have to end like that. At least one more at bat,” said Chong.
When asked about the missed season, he added that he would miss playing with his team.
“I was hoping to get a healthy season at least and get to spend the last games with my whole team, because everyone has been great. The coaches have been great and we worked really hard for this,” said Chong.
The baseball player also stated that he will miss the Ontario University Athletics championships.
“We had a really good team — just the way that our team looked, it was just like man, we have a chance this year,” Chong added.
Chong not only missed his final year due to virtual learning, but the last season he played ended in a disappointing fashion, having not been able to finish on the field with his teammates. Certainly not the way he expected his university career to finish.
Joshua Nardini is a four-year member of the men's basketball team. Between the missed season this year and the uncertainty headed into the next season, he might be another athlete that won’t have his final opportunity to play ball. However, he shared a very different perspective in these difficult times.
“It is unfortunate the situation that everyone is in, especially in terms of our situation of athletes not being able to have that opportunity to have that final year, or that one shining moment. One thing this pandemic has given me is a lot of perspective and if the worst thing that has happened to me this year is not playing basketball, then I’ll be okay,” said Nardini.
"One thing this pandemic has given me is a lot of perspective and if the worst thing that has happened to me this year is not playing basketball, then I’ll be okay,” said Nardini.
If Nardini had in fact played his last university game, his last time on the floor would have come as a 44-point loss, certainly not the way someone would prefer to finish their university career.
That is the unfortunate reality for many graduating students, who didn’t realize they had played their last game until it was over. They won’t ever get that second chance to redeem themselves, or have that one big game they always dreamed of.
The McMaster alumnus story of Alex Anthopoulos, a Canadian kid turned major league GM
Alex Anthopoulos is a Major League Baseball front office executive most well known for his time with the Toronto Blue Jays and presently, the Atlanta Braves. Anthopoulos is a native of Montreal, Quebec and grew up a big fan of the Montreal Expos baseball team.
His love of baseball brought him into the Expos organization, where he found himself in a voluntary role as the team’s “mail boy.” It was a small role for someone with big aspirations, but it proved a significant stop on the route to a larger role.
Sorting fan mail has nothing to do with baseball operations, however, it was the foot in the door that Anthopoulos needed. It gave him the opportunity to get into the stadium, meet others within the organization and talk baseball. Through this, he managed to impress some of the scouts that he had an opportunity to talk to, which is how he got his big break.
Anthopoulos managed a busy schedule year-round, working with the team over the summer while completing a degree in economics at McMaster University in the early 2000s. In 2002, he joined the Expos’ scouting department as the team’s assistant scouting director. However, he would leave the team to take up a new opportunity that would have a substantial impact on his career.
In 2003, Anthopoulos would be hired into the scouting department of the Toronto Blue Jays. In 2005, he was promoted to assistant general manager under the guidance of J.P Riccardi. Three years later, Riccardi was fired, with the McMaster graduate taking the reins at the age of 32.
During Anthopoulos’ six-year career with Toronto, he made what many believed to be aggressive moves for the team. He started his career by moving Roy Halladay — who many have considered one of the greatest Blue Jays of all time — to the Philadelphia Phillies.
He shed the once thought of “unmovable contracts” of Vernon Wells and Alex Rios. He would sign unproven stars Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion to long term contracts. R.A Dickey — the recipient of the 2012 Cy Young, given to the league’s top pitcher — would later be brought to Toronto coming off his award-winning year.
Anthopoulos would acquire Josh Donaldson prior to the start of the 2015 season, and he had become the Blue Jays’ first MVP winner since George Bell in 1987. At the midway point in the season, he would have one of the craziest trade deadlines in MLB history, acquiring Cy Young winner David Price, and perennial all-star shortstop Troy Tulowitzki. He would bring back a buzz to Toronto, and the team would make their first playoff appearance since 1993.
Following the 2015 season, Anthopoulos would leave the team for a new opportunity with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
"I don't know that I've had to make a harder decision in my life . . . I just didn't feel like this was a right fit for me going forward,” said Anthopoulos to Business Insider.
"I don't know that I've had to make a harder decision in my life . . . I just didn't feel like this was a right fit for me going forward,” said Anthopoulos to Business Insider.
Source: In their 1st & only meeting, new Jays prez Mark Shapiro scolded Alex Anthopolous & staff for trading so many top prospects this yr
— Rick Westhead (@rwesthead) October 29, 2015
He would spend the next two seasons with the Dodgers before joining the Atlanta Braves as the team’s general manager. In his three seasons with the Braves, they have won their division three times, but have fallen short of the championship trophy each year.
Their furthest push came during the 2020 season, led by the national league MVP Freddie Freeman; however, they fell one game short of the World Series. Going forward the team remains in championship contention, as Anthopoulos looks for the final piece to get them over the hump.
Rachel Katz often shares her cooking and baking with other people. After a time, people began to tell her that she should start a food blog. While Katz decided a blog would be too much to handle whilst being a full-time graduate student, she figured Instagram would be a manageable platform. So last summer while she was working one job and had relatively free evenings, she started her food Instagram, Fork in Progress.
On the account, Katz shares photos of the recipes that she’s tried. Unlike many other food accounts, her unfiltered photos project accessibility and make anyone scrolling feel like they could get in their kitchen and make the same meal.
The recipes that Katz tries are not necessarily easy, but she believes basic kitchen confidence can be applied to make more complicated recipes. She looks for recipes with very specific instructions that she can follow along with. She also looks for versatile recipes that she can add her own flavours to. In her captions, she highlights her innovations and provides tips.
One benefit to Instagram for her is the interactivity. It is easy for her followers to ask her questions and provide feedback. The platform also makes it possible for her to share step-by-step videos that break down the recipes into easier steps. This is to prove to people that anyone can learn how to cook delicious dishes.
“I was frustrated with a lot of students… saying ‘oh I have no time to cook’ or ‘I don't like cooking’… [But] food is so important, food is delicious and there's a kind of pride that you get from making your own food that you don't really get from anything else,” Katz said.
Katz understands how difficult balancing food with student life can be. The McMaster grad lived in residence in her first year where the meal plan limited the choice she had over what she ate. In her second year, she shared a six-person student house with a tiny kitchen. In both years, she didn’t feel like she had a fully functional space where she can cook her own meals.
For Katz, this resulted in patterns of disordered eating. In her second year, she committed to recognize these patterns in herself so she can create healthier eating habits. Preparing her own meals has been one tool in repairing Katz’s relationship with food.
In her third year, Katz moved into a two-person apartment with a nice kitchen. In her new kitchen, Katz explored cooking more. Working at the Silhouette also encouraged her as she began to regularly bake for the office. This practice allowed her to receive feedback on her food and grow as a baker.
“I don't use words like clean… or like detox, cleanse… [T]here are all of these other food bloggers out there who use those lines and a lot of recipe bloggers who have these crazy extravagant recipes. But there wasn't really anyone to fulfill the student niche for people who wanted to cook actual meals but didn't really know where to start,” Katz explained.
While developing a healthy relationship with food is important to Katz, food is also a tool that she uses in her relationships with others. Cooking is an activity that she likes to do with family and friends. Her food-related memories stretch all the way back to her childhood.
Katz grew up eating a lot of homemade meals. She is inspired by her mother, who is an accomplished home chef and baker. Not only does she adore the chocolate chip cookies that she grew up eating, but she also admires her mother’s diligence. Her mother can spend months trying to perfect a recipe.
Now an adult, Katz is making her own food memories, many of which include food she’s made for others. For her, cooking for people is a way of shaping their experiences for the better. By making a caramel corn cake for her partner’s birthday, she was able to make the day more memorable. When she makes her mother’s birthday cake this year, she will make that day more special.
However, as the name of her account indicates, Katz is still growing her skills in the kitchen. She wants her followers to continue learning, experimenting and trying new things.
“[H]aving a name that has associations of things that are not quite perfect, that I'm still learning but it doesn't mean that I don't know anything, I think… that embodies the mentality that I'm hoping I can encourage people to take with food and feeding themselves,” said Katz.
For this reason, Katz is not focused on monetizing Fork in Progress, as she and her followers operate within a student budget, she does not want to promote products that are inaccessible. While she would consider a column in a publication, she believes the account can only remain authentic by staying fairly small.
As long as she’s a student, Katz wants to continue spreading positive messages about food and cooking. She wants Fork in Progress to show students that they can make their own cakes and eat them too.
[thesil_related_posts_sc]Related Posts[/thesil_related_posts_sc]
Over the last two years, Halima Al-Hatimy, a former McMaster University public health grad student, has launched multiple Ontario human rights complaints against McMaster and Hamilton Health Sciences.
She also has legal proceedings against McMaster officials Patrick Deane, Wanda McKenna, Sarah Dickson, Glenn De Caire, Joseph Zubek and constables Tyler Rogers and Peter Broz.
Al-Hatimy’s issues with the university first materialized in 2017, before her anticipated departure to Ghana with “Waters Without Borders,” a program facilitated through a partnership between McMaster and the United Nations University.
Photo C/O Halima Al-Hatimy
The day before Al-Hatimy was expected to leave, the university informed her that she had been taken out of the program’s trip as a result of her presumed plan to bring medicinal marijuana overseas.
Thirteen days later, Al-Hatimy filed a human rights complaint against McMaster and the UNU.
“The administration asked me to sign an affidavit saying that I wouldn’t take medicinal cannabis with me illegally. It was riddled with criminalizing language, telling me that I had to promise I wasn’t going to traffic, import, export or illegally purchase illicit drugs or substances. I was traumatized by the experience,” she said.
Al-Hatimy is firmly convinced the university discriminated against her on the basis of “race, age, disability and use of medicinal cannabis.”
Thus far into the proceedings, the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal has affirmed Sarah Dickson’s involvement in the case but cut out the UNU and David Wilkinson, McMaster provost and vice-president (Academic).
Al-Hatimy said the university has been “extremely aggressive and uncooperative” over the past year.
In particular, according to Al-Hatimy, McMaster’s campus-wide smoking ban instituted in 2017 directly tore away her demand that the university construct a medical cannabis policy to protect users on campus.
Since launching her complaint, Al-Hatimy also filed for reprisal and organized two anti-smoking ban protests, one off-campus and the other in the Health Sciences Building.
“Both times, I was racially carded. The police showed up and walked straight to me. The guy beside me was white and smoking his medical cannabis. At the time, they didn’t know he was a licensed user. They just saw an older man and a younger student with a megaphone. You’d think they’d card him first, but they carded me,” she said.
When walking in the McMaster University Student Centre on another occasion, she said she was harassed by Joseph Zubek, the senior manager of McMaster security services.
“He showed me pictures that he had of me on his phone. He said they started an investigative police file on me,” she said.
In addition to lodging human rights complaints, Al-Hatimy has launched an application for reprisal for three counts of racial profiling, intimidation and harassment.
Upon entering the impending proceedings, Al-Hatimy said she feels hopeful.
“I have a strong case, I have evidence in my favour. I have witnesses. I’ve connected with other students who have also been bullied by the university and I have evidence of their stories that I’ll be presenting to the tribunal,” she said.
Gord Arbeau, the communications director at McMaster University, told the Silhouette that McMaster is committed to being inclusive, respectful and harassment-free.
“The university’s policies and procedures support this commitment, including providing medical accommodations to members of the community,” said Arbeau, on behalf of the university’s respondents in the proceedings.
On March 29, Al-Hatimy and McMaster officials will attend a case management conference that will consolidate her applications. From there, cases will be combined and a hearing will be scheduled.
[thesil_related_posts_sc]Related Posts[/thesil_related_posts_sc]
A few days after this issue is printed, I’ll be a McMaster alumna. I’ll have crossed the stage at the FirstOntario Centre, I’ll have shaken Patrick Deane’s hand and I’ll have a degree. This has been something that I’ve been looking forward to for four years, so why am I so anxious about it now?
Prior to this past year, there had never been a time where I wasn’t looking forward to graduation. That’s not to say I haven’t had some of the best of times over the past four years. I’ve been lucky enough to be met with some incredible opportunities, meet phenomenal people and to be able to learn how to think much more critically. But a mix of the late night cram sessions, caffeine induced tear-fests in Thode and the general pressure of pursuing an undergraduate degree while working full-time often got the better of me, and I couldn’t wait to get out of here.
Fast forward to fourth year, where I’ve spent the better part of these past twelve months grappling to make sense of leaving university. I still absolutely haven’t, and am unsure when or whether it will make total sense to me. I genuinely don’t want this to be over.
It’s an exciting time, most definitely, being faced with this much opportunity. As the class of 2018 is facing the inevitable fate of questioning what’s next, we’re also faced with a chance to write our own narratives and to own the experience that comes with this big step.
It’s also our time to be reflective. How have the past four years changed me? Where do I want to be four years from now? Am I ready for what’s next?
I don’t know the answer to any of those questions, and the fact is that at this very moment, I don’t have to.
Now, more than ever, is the time to take this opportunity and run with it. It’s our time to take the jump in the deep end, not knowing where our feet will touch. It’s our time to take the long way home, to purposely get lost and to find our way back with more stories under our belts.
It’s our time to live these mega cliches and to experience life on our own.
There is no universal plan and honestly, that’s the best part. The world is big and the anticipation of finding out what it has in store for us is overwhelming. But that’s the point. The endless possibilities that come with life after Mac are ours to explore.
While I’m sure I’m not the only one struggling to make sense of it all, the fact is that we’re in this together. We’ve made it through these past four years with resiliency and there is no doubt in my mind that we’ll keep shining for years to come.
[feather_share show="twitter, google_plus, facebook, reddit, tumblr" hide="pinterest, linkedin, mail"]
“What are you doing next year?”
As graduation looms over the graduating class of 2016, we are confronted with this question asked by friends and family. For some, the answer is straightforward — I’m going to graduate school or I have a job lined up. But for many the answer is barely known, and the future consists of silhouettes you can scarcely make out. Throughout our lives and especially in our time at McMaster, we’ve all gone through momentous periods of change, where we’ve matured and begun the process of becoming a functioning adult. But now it seems like none of it compares to what’s coming next after we throw our graduation caps into the air.
For many, graduation will be the first time that our lives are not following a linear narrative, where we’ll be tossed out into the job market with our student debt, where we have to look for a place to rent and where we have to finally learn to do our own taxes. I’ve been told that it’s not easy, and as someone going through this same process, I don’t have comforting words to say, except that we should approach it with optimism and excitement. If we have to go through this period of transition, we might as well try to make it fun.
Haven’t spoken at length about graduation with quite a few of my friends, one thing I noticed was that some jaded people approach graduation with disappointment and cynicism. I’ve heard many variations of the “I’m going to graduate and wipe my ass with my Bachelor of Arts because that’s all it’ll be good for.” To these folks I want to say that you shouldn’t discredit everything you’ve learned in your years at McMaster. It may not have been the key to a job and adulthood as promised, but it was not for naught. Beyond your academic growth, think of the relationships you’ve made, all the things about the world that you’ve learned. Without my time at McMaster, I would be blissfully unaware of what intersectionality means, and still subscribe to an overly simplistic and insufficient understanding of oppression. University made you a better person.
Was university what I expected? Not really. I was told that I’d make lifelong relationships here, and while there are a few people I love dearly, the truth is that I probably won’t talk to a majority of the people I met at Mac once we go our separate ways back to where we’re from. In the first year after graduation, visiting Facebook and LinkedIn will be difficult as you see where all your friends are going and you feel the need to compare yourself and see how you stack up on an arbitrary scale. You won’t be in the same place anymore, all working towards the exams in April.
On top of all of this, there’s the usual deluge of assignments and tests due in March, as well as the realization that you’re going through a lot of lasts: last midterm, last formal, last coffeehouse. It’s a difficult time, but you’ve already made it this far.
There’s no two ways about it; we’re leaving a community that was probably the most understanding and accepting. You’ll never experience this again. But like Dr. Seuss said, “Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.”
[thesil_related_posts_sc]Related Posts[/thesil_related_posts_sc]
