2008 will be remembered for Stephenson's success
By Michal Tellos
Sports Editor
January 14, 2009
 2008 was, perhaps more than usual, a year of tremendous highs and disappointing lows for the University of Windsor Lancers.
Nearly every each team experienced something totally new. Some said hello to new faces who made an immediate impact, and others said goodbye to athletes who will be sorely missed.
However, despite its share of adversity, the Lancers have much to be proud of. And if not, lessons were learned to improve in 2009.
Generally, the teams that would have been expected to do well did so, and the teams that perhaps weren’t, also followed suit. There were of course, as always, exceptions, both on an individual and team basis.
Here are some of the biggest stories and highlights of Lancer athletics in 2008:
Football
Lancer football, unfortunately, did not encounter much team success in the 2008 season. They finished with a 3-5 record, which included losing five of their last six games. The team was plagued with inconsistency on offense and defense, which peaked in a 58-5 loss to the Western Mustangs near the end of the season.
But the most shocking game of the season was the home win against one of the nation’s top teams, the Ottawa Renegades. The Lancers just edged the Rens by a mark of 40-38 - 35 points came in the second quarter - to stun the entire OUA.
Despite embarrassing losses and surprising wins, the team welcomed a gifted rookie quarterback in Sam Malian, and bid farewell to a superstar running back in Daryl Stephenson.
Malian started every game for the Lancers, and his maturity in just his first year was certainly notable.
Stephenson, already a nationally decorated star in the CIS, completed his journey to be the best when he became Canada’s all-time leading rusher, characteristically, in a losing team effort at home against the Guelph Gryphons. He was even immortalized in the form of a bobble head in honour of the feat.
Stephenson had received essentially every honour that a player in the CIS could receive throughout his career, including CIS Rookie of the Year, and the Hec Crighton Trophy. Despite these awards, he never completed his foremost quest to win a Championship.
Perhaps the best way to describe the 2008 football season is inconclusive. Many questions arose at the disappointing conclusion, and according to Lancer staff, a reboot of the program and its strategies is needed.
Amid these discussions of needed change, the season was also notable for the small amount of controversy that arose toward the end.
Rumours dogged Head Coach Mike Morencie, including some as peculiar as him being replaced by Athletics Director Gord Grace. These notions were dispelled by Grace.
Morencie was also involved in a written debacle with Windsor City Counsillor Alan Halberstadt in the Windsor Star, with Halberstadt expressing his disappointment that a weapon such as Daryl Stephenson was never utilized to its full extent.
Track and Field
As it has been for many years, the Lancers track and field program was hugely successful in 2008.
The season was highlighted by the OUA Championships, which was hosted by Windsor. The Lancers swept the podium, winning in both the men’s and women’s category. The women’s team scored 174 points to beat Western who scored 157. The men’s team won by an even greater margin, scoring 170, with the second-place team scoring only 117.
Going into the event, the success was expected for the men, who were ranked first in the CIS, but it came as a pleasant surprise to the women who were ranked fourth, behind Guelph and Western, both of whom were beaten by the Lancers.
The Lancers then travelled to Sherbrooke University in Montreal, Que. where they faced tough competition but nevertheless came home with a bronze medal. They were seriously set back by Matt Sinclair and Andrew Coates tripping over one another in their race, and, instead of their usual top three finish, neither placed high enough to score.
Jamie Adjetey-Nelson was a star for the Lancers not just on a university level. He took part in the Canadian Olympic trials, hosted in Windsor, and nearly made the team. He achieved the B-standard, but fell to his number one rival from Toronto, Massimo Bertocchi.
Rookie standout Erika Reiser also competed in the Trials, which doubled as the Canadian Track and Field Championships. Reiser had a personal best season in which she broke personal records that she later exclaimed hadn’t changed since grade 11.
Andrew Coates, Lancer veteran and OUA gold medal winner, was one of a few very notable graduates on the year.
Basketball
It was a time of great activity for the basketball department - for both the women’s and men’s team.
The women’s team experienced their best season in history, finishing with a record of 14-8, allowing them home court advantage for the first time ever.
The team was led to the OUA West conference finals, where they lost a 64-53 game to the McMaster Marauders. The Marauders were ranked first in Canada at the time, and had given the Lancers trouble all year.
Throughout the season, the team had many firsts. Dranadia Roc led the Lancers in scoring, finishing sixth in the OUA with an average of 16.64 points per game.
Men’s basketball had similar success, with an outstanding regular season record of 17-5. They were thus in a strong position to defend their Wilson Cup championship from the previous season.
Rookie import Iva Peklova, originally from Prague, Czech Republic, was also a huge asset to the Lancers, and she was recognized for her talents and given the OUA Rookie of the Year. She averaged 10.2 points and 9.7 rebounds per game. The six-foot-four Peklova finished second in the OUA in total rebounds, and nationally she had more offensive rebounds than anyone else.
Lancers men’s basketball team routed the competition heading into the playoffs in the 2006’-07 season. Leading OUA West division, they were given a bye in the quarter-finals, which matched them against the Western Mustangs in their first game of the playoffs. The home game did not go nearly as well as planned for the Lancers, who lost by a shocking score of 77-71, leaving the jammed St. Denis Centre in dead silence.
It was simply a case of bad luck as the Lancers shot very poorly from the field and the free throw line, while the Mustangs did not.
The disappointing end to an otherwise fantastic season was also difficult as it saw the exit of Lancer veterans Ryan Steer and Kevin Kloostra, both of whom were enormous leaders for the team.
Steer, however, proved to be an excellent ambassador for the Lancer basketball program, as he went on to sign a professional basketball contract in Germany with Wurzburg.
Despite the quick end to the season, Steer, Head Coach Chris Oliver, and Greg Surmacz were recognized for their achievements.
Oliver was recognized for the second consecutive year as the OUA West Coach of the Year, while Steer and Surmacz were named first-team all-stars.
Surmacz finished third in the OUA in scoring, scoring an average of 19.45 points per game, while Steer led the league in assists per game, with 7.43.
Cross Country
2008 was a season of rebuilding for Head Coach Dennis Fairall and the Lancers cross country squad, with a handful of leading runners graduating or moving on the year before.
With what was available, Fairall commented that the team did the best it possibly could have.
Early in the season, the team travelled to Orlando, FL to compete in a tournament in Disney World, and, surprisingly, the men came in first, beating out 37 NCAA schools, while the women came in second. There, Dave Weston came in first overall, while Hannah Eberhard came in eighth.
The two main events of the season saw absolutely horrid conditions, beginning with the OUA Championships in Kingston, ON on Oct. 25. Fairall described this race as the worst weather he had seen in his 24-year coaching career.
The men finished with a silver medal there, while two women were named team all-stars. The team ran without Dave Weston, the men’s statistical leader, who missed the event battling serious illness.
The entire team hoped to have him back for the CIS Championships in Quebec City on Nov. 8, but he was not well enough to complete the race, and the event marked a sad ending for an otherwise fantastic Lancer career.
Quebec City won the bid to host the event in honour of the city’s quadricentennial celebrations. The race itself also had a significant cultural context, as the course was run on the grounds of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. Fairall noted the difficulty of the course, which did not couple well with the disastrous weather conditions, which included cold and wind.
Next season will prove to be promising, as the local crop of young high school runners is very rich, and has been widely scouted already. Fairall stated that many of the young men and women have already expressed interest in joining the Windsor Lancers.
Hockey
Both hockey teams faced considerable adversity in their last season, but men’s hockey was particularly in the limelight for its poor performance and administrative issues.
Windsor competed in one of the most difficult division in Canadian Interuniversity Hockey with powerhouses like Lakehead and Western dominating the league. Windsor had a meager six wins in 28 games, and were in last place of their division and the league with 13 points.
The season concluded with the resignation of Head Coach Pete Belliveau, which came amid complaints of a lack of funding or focus on the hockey program.
Belliveau was only one of two coaches in the OUA that worked on a part-time basis, and many believed that the Lancer record reflected that.
Shortly after the resignation, the athletics department put hockey under the microscope to see if it was worth keeping.
Ultimately, it was kept, and Kevin Hamlin, a former St. Clair College coach, took the position on a full-time basis.
The women’s hockey team found more success, as they finished sixth overall in the standings, grabbing onto the final playoff spot available, where they were set to play the Guelph Gryphons in the quarter-final.
The team was previously in a higher position, but they let a few of the stretch games slip away from them.
In the quarter-final game, the girls fell behind early, and although they kept it close, they could not close the gap, ultimately losing by a score of 3-1. Manon Davis had the lone Lancer goal.
The game was the final for Windsor’s Teresa Rawlings.
Soccer
There was little positive to say about either the men’s or the women’s soccer team in terms of results, but because they - particularly the women’s - were largely in rebuilding, they deserve honourable mentions.
The men’s team failed to make the playoffs for the first time in a few years, and they did not, actually, even come close. They ended the season with a seven-game winless streak to cap off the season at 2-7-5, worst in the OUA West.
They were handily outscored in several of their games. Ryan Wise led the team in scoring with just four goals on the season - the league leader had 13.
Women’s soccer was getting used to a new coach in Angelo Verardi, but the results yielded were not much worthy of discussion.
Despite not winning a game throughout the entire season, the women managed to place second-last in the OUA West, posting a record of 0-9-5, beating out Guelph who went 1-12-1.
Naturally, they too did not make the playoffs.
The Windsor squad struggled seriously on the offensive front, as they failed to score a goal in nine games, never scoring more than two. No forward of the team was in the top 20 for OUA scorers.
Men’s Head Coach Steve Hart and Verardi will have a busy scouting season leading up to the fall, and they are also currently playing in an indoor league.
Rugby
After losing their most talented player of the squad, a former OUA all-star, not much was expected of the Lancers rugby team that was heavily reliant upon rookies. The team finished with just one win, five losses, and one tie, and was obviously far from a playoff berth. Many of the losses were complete blowouts, although there were a few final frame failures. Poor stamina and fitness, particularly in the younger players, really hurt the squad in 2008.
Head Coach Andrew Ciavaglia felt that the team always stood a chance to beat any squad, but they were hurt by determination and serious defensive lapses.
The off-season marked a time to put serious work into fitness, which was the team’s biggest overall problem. The team had the chance to play a handful of Division I schools, such as Michigan State and Michigan, after the OUA season, and they found some success against them. They even managed to beat Michigan.
The team was also supposed to play Notre Dame on their home field, but the event had to be cancelled.
Although the scoreboard did not reflect it, the season ended on an up note as their defense tightened and consistency improved.
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