As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads around the world, decisive and necessary measures have been taken to slow the spread of the virus. On March 23, the Ontario government announced that all non-essential services would be required to close for two weeks. These closures, while necessary, will have major impacts on all sectors of society. The current pandemic is effecting operations for our various sports teams due to closures of facilities and team operations. As precautions being taken against COVID-19 increase and uncertainty about the future remains, McMaster Athletics must be prepared for a long road ahead.
Let’s begin with recruiting. Naturally, recruiting revolves around one-on-one and in-person contact with the athletes, and often involves coaches watching athletes competing. With school closures expected to last much longer than anticipated, many high school athletics teams will not see the end of their seasons.
These closures would mean that crucial areas of competition, such as city championships, provincials and nationals, will no longer take place in sports such as rugby. Therefore, the previously available opportunities for varsity coaches to base recruiting decisions on are no longer an option.
Stefan Ptaszek, the head coach of McMaster Football, remarked that while many of the main talents have already been scouted for next year’s team, large high school level tournaments can give many players the opportunity to step up and get noticed by scouts. The playoffs often see several players step up on their roster and perform at a higher level. For some, these opportunities have unfortunately been lost, and with them, chances for scholarships.
The moments in the postseason when an athlete’s performance counts the most could be among the deciding factors for a player making it to the collegiate level. With regard to scholarships, for some students such deciding factors could have been the difference between attending university or not.
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This was further acknowledged by Daniel Pletch, the head coach for the men’s rugby team at McMaster. He agreed with Ptsazek’s concerns that obstacles to recruitment could affect an entire incoming class of students.
“The real challenge will be the 2021 recruits, as it’s looking unlikely we’ll have a spring high school rugby season. This means identifying the top high school players will be a bigger challenge, especially finding those ‘late bloomers’, who pick up the sport later in high school, and really rely on their grade 12 seasons to develop,” Pletch said.
According to Ptaszek, around 30-50 students per year receive scholarships for their efforts on the football team, which is roughly a third or more of the entire team. It’s clear that scholarships are an integral part of university athletics. The scholarships offered for being on the football team, for example, are held if the student retains a 6.5 GPA or higher. With the added stress and mental pressure the pandemic is putting on everyone, it is not inconceivable to think that this could affect athletes’ grades due to greater mental strain and less access to campus resources.
Official sports bodies have also taken a stance on recruitment. U Sports released a statement on March 16 declaring that it was putting a three week minimum moratorium on recruitment. This would not allow any travel, in-person visits or one-on-one contact with high school athletes, furthering the difficulty to create and harvest new relationships with budding student-athletes. With that being said, “non-contact” measures such as phone calls, video conferences and social media contact are allowed.
Both Pletch and Ptsazek also made remarks about another main area which will be greatly affected: physical conditioning. Due to city closures and the need to practice physical distancing, it is harder for athletes to access commercial gyms and university athletic facilities. For example, on March 16 the McMaster Pulse announced it was shutting its doors for several weeks and that all athletics services in the David Braley Athletic Centre were also shutting down. Athletes who cannot afford outside facilities or personal equipment may find it harder to remain in shape for the season.
While public health guidelines must be adhered to in order to reduce the risk of harm as much as possible, the closure of sports, schools and athletics facilities has the potential to deeply affect the lives of student-athletes everywhere.
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After a convincing victory against the York Lions by a score of 54-14, the McMaster Marauders inched one step closer to a perfect season. Last year, winning the national championship, Mac finished 7-1 in the regular season and this year’s perfect result so far is, in fact, an improvement.
Approaching this weekend’s homecoming game, Mac has a chance to improve on their result from last year. The injury trouble experienced by this team has been notable; regardless, the Marauders have responded with spectacular play, making the injuries simply a bump in the road.
“Regardless of our injuries issues, we try to push and get better every week. The quest for the Yates cup is not one you can succeed at every week if you don’t try and get better. Instead of focusing on who isn’t there, we try to focus on developing on who is there,” said Head Coach Stefan Ptaszek of his team’s resilience so far this season.
Mac’s injuries have been less notable this season due to the sizeable contribution from players like running back Kaesean Davis. “The big thing with the injuries to Chris Pezzetta and Jimmy hill has been he development of Kasean Davis. Everyone sees the great open field funning, but its pass protection and the things that are harder to spot which make this kid special. He can pick up a linebacker blitzing full speed, even with his limited experience. He has been a joy to watch,” said Ptaszek.
It is not just the offence that needs help either. The defence has experienced its fair share of challenges as the usually dominant secondary has had some bumps and bruises. According to Ptaszek, “Our secondary is a little dinged up and you are seeing the emergence of our younger players filling in the roles. Some of these young kids can play. We are getting great play from a very good rookie class.”
It may be the veterans, it may be the rookies, but something about this team is different and unique, even from last years history-making squad. Obviously, a 6-0 team is one with a plethora of solid players. But only 12 men can be put on the field at once. Maybe McMaster has something else in its arsenal.
“At the end of the process, to earn first place and have home advantage during the playoffs. We are definitely aware of this and we need to win one of the next two games to guarantee that. Hopefully a sold out crowd at Ron Joyce will help us do that,” said Ptaszek of his upcoming weekend.
“We want to continue to grow that culture, loyalty and develop that fan base not only now but throughout the playoffs. Having home field advantage, including a possible national semi-final on campus is important. That 13th man is going to be a big help as the competition gets tighter and the margins for error get smaller,” he continued.
The support of Mac fans has been electric this year. Something about defending a national championship has translated into a campus wide appreciation for football that didn’t even exist a year ago.
Ptaszek is thankful for this, and commented, “Playing our tougher opponents at home has been amazing. Getting to play our tougher opponents at home was great, and the fans were a big part of that.”
This weekend, McMaster will look to live up to the expectations of the team and the coach: a sold out stadium of cheering and passionate fans. At the same time, those crazed fans are excited for what they have come to expect - a sizeable win at Ron Joyce.
The game itself will kick-off at Ron Joyce on Saturday, Oct. 13 at 1 p.m. and with a victory, the Marauders will clinch home advantage in the playoffs, a luxury they did not have last season, and we all know how that one ended.
Brandon Meawasige
Assistant Sports Editor
Striving for the pinnacle of university football in Canada and facing an unknown opponent, Head Coach Stefan Ptaszek and the McMaster Marauders travel to Moncton, New Brunswick this week to represent the OUA as champions in the 2011 Uteck Bowl on November 19.
Ptaszek, in his sixth season as bench boss, has coached the Marauders to the program’s first OUA title since 2003.
The 2003 championship, and Mac’s previous three in a row, were coached by Western’s current head coach Greg Marshall. By winning the Yates Cup, Ptaszek has joined Marshall in the upper echelons of McMaster’s football history.
“Its been a great week, the well wishers from former presidents, former athletic directors, alumni and the greater marauder football family have all taken the time to say congratulations, how impressed they are with the 2011 season and wishing us the best of luck going forward,” said Ptaszek of the accomplishment.
However, as he will tell you, it is not the coaching staff and their accomplishments that will drive this team forward. “It’s not about us [Coaches] lifting a Yates Cup again, it was all about watching these kids lift the Yates Cup for the first time,” he added.
Unfortunately, such is the rigor of CIS playoff football; the Marauders must put the Yates victory behind them and look towards their next game.
Lining up opposite to Mac on Saturday will be Acadia Axemen, who have had an interesting trip to the Vanier Cup semi-final of their own.
Essentially, neither team was touted as the conference front-runner until after the championship game. The losing teams in both cases, Western and St. Mary’s, were heavy favorites prior to and during the season.
That being said, the Uteck Bowl features two very worthy participants this year pitting a Mac team loaded with firepower on both sides of the ball against an Axemen squad that won 5 of 7 major individual awards in the AUS.
“They are a very well-coached, disciplined team with playmakers at every level of both the offence and defence as you would expect from a championship team" Ptaszek said of the Axemen, whose coach, Jeff Cummins, won AUS coach of the year.
Ptaszek and his staff have a very tough team on their hands this week, needing to prepare for something they haven’t faced yet in the playoffs; a star quarterback with the talent and skill set to take control of an entire game.
The case can be made that Acadia’s pivot and AUS offensive most valuable player Kyle Graves will be the toughest test for McMasters defense all season. “He has a strong arm and he can run the ball really well and has had a fantastic year,” said Ptaszek.
“The OUA is one of the best conferences in the country and it gets you ready for all kinds of football. Playing Austin Kennedy and Donnie Marshall gets you ready for a Kyle Graves,” added the coach.
One thing is certain, no matter the success of the 2011 Marauders; it will be difficult to find Ptaszek taking any form of personal credit. Even if his defence does manage to stop Graves and his team wins the game, he will surely find another Marauder whom to credit with an amazing performance. This cohesive, unselfish, team- oriented way of doing things precipitates into the style of play that has made his team so successful.
A quality that may have gone unnoticed if not for the series of setbacks endured by the team this year. Forced to play without Kyle Quinlan for three games, the Marauders had to account for the absence of their offensive heart and soul.
For a team centered on one or two players, losing those players would be disastrous - think about the affect of removing the legs of a table.
Losing their starting running back Joey Nemet, cornerback Joey Cupido and Quinlan just to name a few, Ptaszek needed to work the pieces that remained; a predicament that not only threatened the well being of a few games, but the entire 2011 season. Not for lack of personnel, however, a backup quarterback and rookie running back are not traditional picks to carry a powerhouse team to the championship.
The Marauders not only managed to get by, instead, the team dominated the conference this year, seamlessly transitioning from line up change to line up change.
Going into the Uteck Bowl, Mac is as healthy as ever and Ptaszek will be able to use the full of extent of the weapons at his disposal.
With the focus now on the Vanier Cup, every decision is bigger and the consequences magnified.
It’s not about numbers and achievements for Ptaszek at this point, but about his players and their chance at glory, especially the nine seniors on the roster. Having had a chance to watch them lift the cup was a special moment for the coach. “Watching Matt Peressini lift that Yates Cup, as a fifth-year senior, was about as cool a thing as you will ever see.”
For all involved, lifting the Vanier would be the best possible outcome.
