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For avid readers of The Cadre, I imagine many of you would have read my article concerning the "Quiet Dignity of Field Hockey" in the last issue (issue #4 - Oct 19). For those of you who either don't know any members of the field hockey team or were perhaps comatose, you may not have been familiar with the fact that this article upset many members of the team to the point where they were begging the periodicals man at the library for my picture and cell phone number. Of course, I found this rather flattering at first — it's not every day that groups of women are try- ing to find my number ~ but then I realized the team was after me to stomp my head as if I had just publicly decried the entire feminine sex. Indeed, it reached the point where my friends and acquaintances were calling me, e-mailing me and stopping me in order to warn me to hide, as if I had just killed a member of the Russian Mob.

I couldn't have imagined a more ludicrous scenario. I went back and re- read my article and wondered what I had written in it that would justify me having to go into the Witness Protection Program. Finding nothing other than my usual innovative sort of sports journalism, I boldly went and posted my information on the Weblogs@upei, asking anybody with said concerns to call my cell phone or e-mail me. That being done, I sat and waited to be called and berated.

Alas! No such call or even e-mail came. The only call I received from anyone was from my all-knowing editor, who told me he thought there was nothing wrong with my article, but who had received a scathing let- ter from the captain of the team. It cited my faults, including that I had depicted Vicki MacLeod as being shy, and that I stated "Don't expect me to try out” in reference to the field hockey team.

I have nothing against Vicki MacLeod. In fact, I quite like her, and think that she is a bright young individual with a multitude of athletic talent not limited to field hockey but stretching into basketball as well. Insofar as my comment to not trying out for the team, it was nothing against field hockey, rather more of a reflection that it's a tough sport, for which we have only a women's team. To that I did not properly iterate this, | apolo- gize.

Girls, and more specifically the field hockey Panthers, I am all for the Panther cause. It's why I got into this job. | want to congratulate you, along with all other UPEI teams, on your season and ask you not to con- sider this as an attack, but as a defense of my journalistic credibility. Don't like what I have to say? Write The Cadre as Maureen and Chelsey have and tell us what you think, because we could use the submissions. When it comes down to it, my primary concerns have and always will be the welfare of our teams and of our newspaper.

bench. "I know he's a PEI player,” said Justin. “But that

Why People Get Injured in Sports

It's a pretty simple answer, really — people get injured in sports because games get too intense. Emotions fly around as the players do, and often injuries result not from the malice of another, but from the athlete over-exerting him or her self. However, some- times an athlete will intentionally injure another player, and it is at this point that we all shake our heads together and say, "Boy, did they ever cross the line this time. When will they learn?"

You know what? They won't. It's because when I punch somebody, nine times out of ten how hard | punch them doesn't matter. It's where and when I hit them, whether the victim was expecting it.

I attended the PEI Rocket game on Saturday, October 23rd, and after the end of a melee in front of the Rocket net, PEI goalie Jonathan Boutin smashed down on the head of a Drummondville player with | his blocker. Hard.

The entire crowd quieted as Boutin was given a mere two minute penalty for his action. My friend Justin turned to me as the Drummondville coach appeared to have eighteen simultaneous strokes from the

Jonathan Boutin www.peirocket.com

deserves a suspension.

You know why he wasn't suspended? No injury, The Drummondville player got up and skated away. If Steve Moore had have done that after the Todd Bertuzzi hit, then that wouldn't have been an issue either. Sure, Bertuzzi would have gotten a penalty, but if anyone thinks he would have gotten even a quarter of the suspension that he received, you don't know sport. When you play sport, it isn't whether you intend to injure, it's whether you do or not. Your intention will get you a penalty, but it's chance that deter- mines the victim's injury — and your suspension. Malice determines penalty — luck determines injury.

Case in point: about a week before the Bertuzzi/Moore incident, Philadelphia's Mark Recchi was smashed in the face by Ottawa's Martin Havlat. Do you remember the sus- pension he got? I don't either, and it's because Recchi was wearing a visor. He skated away, and the story barely got any coverage because Recchi was “okay.”

Riddle me this: If I decide to get loaded, get in my car, and smash into you as you walk down the street but you get up and are "okay," is the judge going to let me off? You bet your ass he wouldn't. You say I can't compare getting hit by a car and getting a cheapshot? Ask Steve Moore about that one, I'm sure he'd be more than happy to answer from behind some tubes and a neck brace.

Get some integrity, refs. Someone needs to call this crap.

UPEI Cadre October 26, 2004 page 17