DANTH BEAT

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Peter Gordon and Paula Edwards UPEI Athletes of the Year

Sports Editorial

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The person also mentioned ‘that the Lady Panthers in her/his opinion were ignored by the lo- cal media. Having had contact

with most of the media mem-.

bers this past year I would have to say that is and is not true.

I don’: know if this person ever took the me to read another maritime ::.per besides our own

but Women’s basketball does not receive a great deal of press in pa- pers such as the Chronicle Her- ald or Times Transcript. On the other hand the local papers give our women’s team a great deal of coverage. There always is a

pre-game report and game story as well as other. features such as player profiles, awards banquet reports, and what they are doing type of things. Our Lady Pan- thers are the envie of many teams in the AUAA as far as coverage is concerned.

However on occasion they do seem to be ignored by some medi- ums and that does bother me. I can remember on one occasion I sent out a large packet of in- formation regarding the Women’s team beacause they were play- ing three games that weekend and the men were only playing one. I turn on the radio and all I hear is when the men are playing and who their playing against. That frustrates me, but there is not a whole lot I can do about it. On the whole, however, the Lady Panthers receive favourable press by our own media as opposed to unfavourable.

In regards to the Gem cover- age of the Lady Panthers, until I started writing stories on the Basketball teams last year there was no coverage. On most oc- casions when I have done stories

on the teams I have given the.

Women top billing over the men.

On other occasion’s when I did a story sometimes I would only do one and that one would be on the women, so I have to disagree that I don’t give the women fair cov- erage. a

The person also mentioned that she/he thought perhaps I didn’t feel that women’s basket- ball was exciting. That is to- tally false. Until. last year I had never attended a basketball game at UPEI, Men’s or Women’s. The first game I went to was a women’s game and I went specif- ically to see the Women and not the men. Since then I have not missed a game Women’s or Men’s.

I think Women’s basketball is just as exciting as men’s and have had many discussions with peo- ple as to why more people do not attend women’s games. Anyone who attended the game against U.N.B. on noisemaker day cer- tainly would have to agree with me.

And as far as prefering Men’s basketball to women’s again this is not true. I am currently writ- ing for basketball P.E.I. and have covered many High School games the majority of them girl’s. Also during last summer I wrote at least three if not four articles for the Guardian concerning the Lady Panthers and the success they achieved last season when they finished fourth in the coun- try.

In finishing if I caused any ill feelings because of my cover- age on the CIAU’s I’m sorry but by now you should know that it wasn’t done on purpose. If you think my reasons for doing what I did aren’t sufficient enough and would like to make some changes yourself feel free to come on down to the Gem, I’m sure we could use the help!

A UPEI Basketball Matthew Beardsley

Fan

Paula Edwards, Peter Gordon, the UPEI Outstanding Athletes of the Year

Female and Male

Peter Gordon and Paula Ed- wards were named the Outstand- ing Male and Female Atletes of the year for UPEI at the An- nual Awards Banquet held at the Charlottetown Hotel.

Gordon in his third year at UPEI racked up an impressive list _ of awards on his way to winning she award for the second year in a row. He shared the award with Hockey Player Tony Haladuick last year.

Gordon was voted the Auaa MVP, the MVP of the playoffs and was named a first team All- Canadian marking the first time a UPEI player has ever been named to the first team. He led the AUAA in free throw percentage this past season shooting a hot 90% from the bonus strip.

He was one of the key reasons

for the Panthers finishing as high as they did this year. peg his

acceptance speech he took time to thank three teammates who helped him to realize his dream of playing university basketball. Gordon recognized’ = Cur- tis Brown, Mark Roberts ; and Alonzo Wright as three players who had helped to make UPEI a basketball power in the 80’s.

Gordon also took time to rec- ognize the efforts of head coach George Morrison who many felt should have won the Coach of the Year honors. Gordon said that he thought the people who voted for the award made a mistake in their selection and that Morrison was

more deserving of the award. As ©

proof of that, he noted that this season’s team had the best year record wise of any UPEI or Saint Dunstan’s team. It is doubtful if

anyone in attendance felt differ-

ently about what Gorden said.

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UPEI’s All-Canadians: Left to right: Men's basketball, Peter Gordon, Women’s fieldhockey, Debbie White, Men’s hockey, Bob Giffin.

Paula Edwards won the Out- standing Female Athlete Award for the second time in her out- standing career. Edwards also won the award in 1985-86.

Edwards had an equally strong list of credentials that made her se- lection no surprise, She was named the Most Valuable Player in the Rodd-UPEI Classic and for the AUAA Women’s Basketball championships where the Lady Panthers won their third straight title.

Edwards was instrumental in the Lady Panthers magnificent season which saw them finish sec- ond in the country, the highest position ever for a UPEI -Ath- letic team, Edwards always saved her best games for when they were needed most and was un- stoppable when the game was at its most tense moments

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