Is it time for Canadian universities to offer athletic scholarships?

[Federoy]

I've always wondered why CIS (Canadian Interuniversity Sport) universities don't offer athletic scholarships. I'm sure there are various reasons why they don't, but by not offering them, I think Canada puts itself at a disadvantage in terms of developing basketball talent since the country doesn't have a legit pro league to do so. The benefits of creating athletic scholarship opportunities for Canadian players would be tremendous:

* Although some Canadian players might still prefer the larger stage of playing at top flight US programs (Duke, UCLA, Kentucky etc.), if scholarships existed, there are plenty of Canadians that would rather stay close to home and play for a provincial or hometown team.

* By keeping most of their more talented players in country, CIS schools would elevate the level of play throughout the country and it would give Canadian coaches an opportunity to develop that talent fully so that players can go on to have pro careers and contribute to the national team.

* As more Canadian talent floods into national universities, it could really be a financial windfall for the CIS if it choose to market and promote its schools as the level of competition got better.

[JGX]

One of the Canadians here could maybe give a better explanation but I do think there is some level of athletic-related aid available at Canadian schools.

A related question is whether you are going to give athletes special consideration in university admissions.

I can't see high-end players staying in Canada. A lot of them these days move to the US during their high school careers.

The Toronto Star did a really good series a few years ago where they followed around an inner-city Toronto HS team. It included this discussion, which I think is somewhat related:

Basketball is a tool - like fashion, music and language - that they use to forge a black identity in a white country.

This identity is Caribbean by heritage, American by choice and Canadian by default.

Ten of the 12 players on Vanier's senior basketball team are black, but none of those 10 guys is "Canadian."

It doesn't matter that they were born here. They identify with the country in which their parents grew up.

So Oliver and Nedrie, both born in Canada, call themselves Guyanese. Ajani James is from St. Vincent. Kyle Reid, Daniel Smith and Daniel Fuller all are Jamaican.

Keenan Gordon even claims he was born in Jamaica. Press him and he confesses he was born at Toronto East General.

Of course, the mainstream black identity doesn't require Caribbean heritage. If you're not born with it, you can always adopt the culture.

Andrew "Drew" Lomond does it. He's the only white player on the team. His dad is from Cape Breton and his mom from Scotland, but he speaks with a faintly Jamaican cadence. So the phrase "Prince, what happened to you," becomes "Prince, whapm tyuh?"

"Another guy grabs the rebound," becomes "next mahn grabs reboan."

And, like many black teens in Toronto, he ends a lot of sentences with the word "still." "I'm getting tired, still," he might say. Or, "I've got to fit in, still." Or, "I played nice, still."

Sometimes, maybe after a big win, Drew - the only white player on the team - and Oliver will slap hands and spew straight Jamaican patois.

They have a pet saying: True seh, yuh knoh seh bahd mahn a' tink seh' 'im bahd, but 'im nah bahd. 'Im tink seh 'im wicked, but 'im nah wicked!

The words themselves don't mean much: "This guy thinks he's bad, but he's not bad," roughly translated.

But the phrase highlights the pervasiveness of Jamaican culture among Toronto's youth. Sometimes guys on the team joke that Oliver wishes he were Jamaican.

But nobody wants to be too Jamaican - because then they'd be freshies.

So, they're American, too. Many of the players on Vanier's team picture themselves living in the U.S. someday; some because they want to live in a city with a large black population, others because U.S. money is worth more than Canadian money. For most of them, basketball is the ticket.

Drew and Nedrie both plan to land basketball scholarships to U.S. universities this spring. Oliver and Brian plan to next year, as do teammates Daniel Smith and Daniel Fuller. Brandon Prince, Oliver's younger brother, has no plans for a basketball scholarship but still wants to move to the U.S.

"As long as the money's green," he says.

Kyle Reid visited Atlanta once and fell in love. Ask him where he was born and he sighs. "Canada." Ask him where he wishes he was born and he doesn't hesitate. "The States!"

But birthplace doesn't matter. African-American culture is like Jamaican culture: It's pervasive and it's up for adoption.

Some guys, like Keenan Gordon and Tyrone Harbans, listen to reggae. But if the Jean Vanier Mavericks had a movie, the soundtrack would be hip-hop. Stop one of them at random and listen to what's on his headphones. It's hip-hop. American rappers. If it's not Jay-Z or 50 Cent, it's Freeway or Nas.

Here is the link to the series: http://www.morgancampbell.net/natlNewspaperAward.php

[Federoy]

One of the Canadians here could maybe give a better explanation but I do think there is some level of athletic-related aid available at Canadian schools.

A related question is whether you are going to give athletes special consideration in university admissions.

I can't see high-end players staying in Canada. A lot of them these days move to the US during their high school careers.

The Toronto Star did a really good series a few years ago where they followed around an inner-city Toronto HS team. It included this discussion, which I think is somewhat related:



Here is the link to the series: http://www.morgancampbell.net/natlNewspaperAward.php

Great article. To some extent, I think you're right. Lots of Canadian kids have moved Stateside to pursuit high school and college careers (prep star and Canadian Corey Joseph of Neveda's Findley Prep Academy comes to mind). But I do think some would prefer to stay home if scholarships were available to them. The shifting of academic standards to favor athletes would probably be one of many obstacles to getting scholarships instituted at Canadian universities.

Any thoughts IBN Canadians?

[kaiziken_pinas]

it would really increase the sport's popularity and raise the level of competition

[Hepcat]

A related question is whether you are going to give athletes special consideration in university admissions.

That's the aspect that really troubles me regardning the question of athletic scholarships. Schools/universities were created/designed to offer an academic education. Sports are supposed to be an extra-curricular activity.

This identity is Caribbean by heritage, American by choice and Canadian by default.

Brandon Prince, Oliver's younger brother, has no plans for a basketball scholarship but still wants to move to the U.S.

"As long as the money's green," he says.

Kyle Reid visited Atlanta once and fell in love. Ask him where he was born and he sighs. "Canada." Ask him where he wishes he was born and he doesn't hesitate. "The States!"

But birthplace doesn't matter. African-American culture is like Jamaican culture: It's pervasive and it's up for adoption.

That's something I've long suspected and this article confirms my suspicions. The Canadians who pursue athletic scholarships in the States aren't doing it for a chance to get an education and degree without financial hardship. They're doing it because they prefer to be American rather than Canadian. They're punctuating their rejection of Canada. And it's confirmed later when so few of these (particularly basketball) players have no interest in playing for Team Canada.

The more Canadian (as opposed to American) any sport/league is, the more likely I am to support it. That's why I've never been able to embrace either the Toronto Blue Jays or the Raptors as "my own". They're not. But for an accident of geography (actually Americans wanting our money), these teams are American. Moreover I also dismiss fans of the NFL here in Canada as American wannabees. I've been a CFL fan since 1959 and it's Canadian not American football that's part of my own cultural heritage and identity.

It's sad that so many Canadians don't value the cultural details that make us unique and different from both Americans and Brits.

[Hepcat]

My son enters this year. And in this, he is helped by the student help service https://assignmentbro.com/uk/do-my-homework in which they write his personal essays and check his other works. And I am more than sure that my son will use this help even when he enters. He has big plans for sports. I think he will succeed; I'm proud of him.

So a "student help service" writes your son's personal essays? I call that cheating.

Meanwhile you're "proud" of this? Let me tell you that my father wouldn't have been proud had I been cheating at school. Shame and anger would have been his feelings.