September 9, 2015

OMEGATHE

THOMPSON RIVERS UNIVERSITY’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER

ISSUE NO. 01

SEPTEMBER 9, 2015

VOLUME 25

Ω

In case you missed it–news from the break

Learning in a foreign landWith pitfalls all around you, set yourself up for success when studying abroad

The hardest part about getting ready to study abroad is picking where to go. I would strongly advise

not going with your first choice. At first I thought I would study in France, where I have been before and could practise the French I haven’t used since high school. But when it came time to fill in the form, I found myself writing Thailand. I knew that being in my third year, I would probably not study abroad again, so I decided to pick a place that intrigued and scared me in equal measure.

Most of the other students that studied abroad for the same semester chose to go to the U.K. or Australia. While I would love to visit either of these places, I couldn’t understand why so many people would choose countries so alike to Canada. The point of studying abroad is to broaden your horizons, and push yourself outside your comfort zone. You have the opportunity to not just visit, but live, nearly anywhere in the world. What’s the point in going to a place with the same language and similar culture?

Going to a totally foreign country, es-pecially if you are alone, can be incredibly intimidating. As I sat in the cab from Suvar-nabhumi Airport to my hotel, I wondered what on Earth I was thinking. My only contact was a Thai student I hadn’t met. As soon as I had checked into the hotel and had a solid place to stay, all my doubts disappeared. There is nothing like the feel-ing of confidence you get by being able to figure things out on your own in a foreign environment. • CONTINUES page 5

NDP leader Tom Mulcair made his pitch to Kamloops voters during his visit on Sept. 1. • Page 2

NDP leader pitches to Kamloops

WolfPack women relaunch CIS efforts Everything will be alrightCatch up with what you missed in TRU news over the summer break • Page 2

Last year hurt, but things are already looking up and hope has returned • Page 7

Is the paper new to you? Maybe just the look? Let’s sort you out • Page 3

WHAT’D I MISS? BET IT ALL ON THE ‘PACK HELP, I’M LOST

WWW.TRUOMEGA.CA @TRU_OMEGA·· · FB.ME/TRUOMEGA A B Γ Δ Ε Ζ Η Θ Ι Κ Λ Μ Ν Ξ Ο Π Ρ Σ Τ Υ Φ Χ Ψ ΩNEW ISSUE EVERY WEDNESDAY

FEDERAL ELECTIVES THAI SOMETHING NEW

Ranching course launches at WL campus Bad time to have a stubborn leader

Philosophy major not working out? Put some beef in your diet and start ranching • Page 4

Harper’s promise to bring in 10,000 from Syria hinges on his re-election – why? • Page 3

LITTLE COURSE ON THE PRAIRIE OPINION

SEPTEMBER 9, 20152 NEWS

Hundreds of NDP supporters packed the ballroom at the Coast Kamloops Hotel to hear NDP party leader Tom Mulcair make his case to Kamloops.

The ballroom was at capacity and supporters also filled the hallway outside as Bill Sundhu, the NDP candidate for the Kam-loops-Thompson-Cariboo riding gave the opening address.

“We will elect the first socially democratic government in Can-ada’s History … It’s only 48 days until we defeat Stephen Harper,” Sundhu told the crowd.

Sundhu went on to criticize Justin Trudeau’s stance on

Bill C-51 and promise a bal-anced budget if the NDP forms government.

“Nowhere is the call for change as loud and as clear as in B.C.,” Mulcair said as he took the stage to thundering applause following Sundhu’s speech.

Mulcair’s promises to support-ers included better funding for the emergency crews that battled wildfires this summer, resto-ration of door-to-door mail deliv-ery and a two per cent reduction in taxes on small businesses. Mulcair also used the rally to repeat his criticisms of Harper’s $800 million advertising budget and Bill C-51.

Mulcair was also supported by NDP candidates from surround-ing ridings: Angelique Wood of

Central Okanagan Similkameen, Jacqui Gringras of North Okana-gan-Shuswap and Richard Can-nings of South Okanagan-West Kootenay.

Kamloops has been a Con-servative riding since 2000, but the NDP under Michael Crawford was in second place in 2006, 2008 and 2011, each time within about 15 per cent of the leading Conservatives. Local NDP supporters can also draw on Kamloops’ constant NDP support throughout the 1980s and 90s for encouragement in the upcoming election. Nelson Riis won five consecutive elec-tions for the NDP in Kamloops between 1980 and 2000. Kam-loops voters even supported Riis through the 1993 federal election

which saw only nine NDP MPs retain their seats.

According to a poll published by EKOS Research on Friday Sept. 4, the NDP is currently polling in first place. Based on the question “If a federal election were held tomorrow who would you vote for?” The NDP garnered the support of 30.2 per cent of respondents. But according to this poll, their lead is shrinking, down 3.4 percentage points from the poll conducted on August 28.

A major issue of the campaign has been electoral reform, with both the NDP and the Liberals promising to abolish the First Past the Post system that is currently in place in favour of proportional representation systems. In recent days, the

Syrian refugee crisis has also emerged as a contentious issue, with both the Liberals and the NDP criticizing the Conservative policy on refugees.

The NDP has built their campaign around promises of greater government spending that would provide Canadians with $15 a day childcare, $15 an hour minimum wage for federal government employees and full restoration of door-to-door mail delivery. Mulcair has promised a balanced budget despite the new spending. Both the Con-servatives and the Liberals have criticized the NDP’s promises in recent days by producing figures that suggest a balanced budget would require more taxation to offset the new spending.

Students are sparse on campus over the summer, so we cut back our paper production to once per month, but if you weren’t around, here’s what you missed.

B.C. student unions look at split-ting from national union

Canadian Federation of Stu-dents-British Columbia held its semi-annual general meeting in August and voted to investigate what it would take to split from the national branch.

The impetus for the split comes from contentions some B.C.

members have with the national organization. The B.C. executive committee even demanded that the national organization no longer associate with several former CFS executives.

TRUSU’s VP external Amber Stor-vold commented that TRUSU was in support of all of the motions put forth, saying that “As a province, we decided that the behaviors of the national office were inappropriate.”

Leaving CFS has proven to be difficult, with several individual student unions ending up in court over their attempts to leave.

CFS-BC will consider and investigate the matter until its next semi-annual general meeting in

December.For more on this story, see our

August 26 issue of The Omega or read the stories online.

--with files from Jim ElliotUniversity announces plans for

sexual assault policy after victim is turned away

Jean Strong went to a TRU counsellor claiming she had been sexually assaulted in 2012. She says the counsellor only told her that she should consider changing schools, and that she didn’t receive any support.

Just days after Strong’s story emerged, TRU announced its plans to implement a sexual assault policy at the university, along with

a sexual assault prevention and response task force.

More and more schools across the country are starting to develop their own sexual assault policies, when most recently, 24 colleges in Ontario said they would adopt policies to deal with victims of sexual violence.

For more on this story, read the July edition of The Omega or visit our website.

Low enrollment effectively ends digital design program

The Department of Digital Art and Design has been absorbed by the department of Journalism, Communications and New Media and its enrollment has dropped

dramatically, effectively ending the program for the time being. The last cohort of students to pass through was made up of just seven, where a full class would have been 36 students.

“It’s hard to argue that the resources are being well used with numbers like those,” long-time instructor Troy Welch told The Omega.

One of the issues that lead to smaller class sizes was the other competition in B.C. Dean of science Tom Dickinson noted that TRU was competing with Emily Carr Univer-sity and some private institutions.

--with files from Jessica Messerer-Trosin

Jim ElliotNEWS EDITOR Ω

Sean BradyEDITOR-IN-CHIEF Ω

Mulcair makes his case to Kamloops voters

In case you missed it: stories from the summer break

Hopeful NDP leader on top in the polls, but it’s still early in a long campaign

Mulcair’s rally at the Coast Kamloops Hotel was filled to capacity. Mulcair made a brief address the next morning before moving on with his campaign. (Jim Elliot/The Omega)

WWW.TRUOMEGA.CA 3OPINION & EDITORIAL

The middle of an election is a bad time for a leader to be stubborn. But nonetheless, he is. Stephen Harper made a campaign promise before the election call that if his party was re-elected to government, he would bring another 10,000 refugees from Syria and Iraq to Canada.

With recent events, however, as three-year-old Alan Kurdi tragically washed ashore and was set to end up in Canada, everyone has started asking, “Why wait?”

He made the campaign promise on Aug. 10, which might seem like a long time ago with how quickly the refugee crisis has come to light. But really, the crisis isn’t new at all. In 2013, Conservative government

said it would settle 1,300 Syrian refugees before the end of 2014. It didn’t do that until March of 2015, however, and now it feels like they’re starting that slow process all over again, this time with a much larger goal and no more urgency to complete it.

Meanwhile, rallies and protests calling for faster action on the matter have broken out all over Canada. The rallies were held under the banner “Refugees Welcome,” and appeared in Van-couver, Calgary, Toronto, Regina, Saskatoon, Ottawa, Montreal and more.

But the Conservative govern-ment has rarely been one that reacts to protests or the perceived will of the majority. Another good example of this is how the government stubbornly refuses to launch an inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal

women. The pressure has been steady and growing, and yet its haunting presence doesn’t even warrant a whisper on the Conser-vative campaign trial.

Going back to the refugee crisis, there’s another example that shows a government refusing to respond to the will of the majority. An internal poll conducted by Citizenship and Immigration Canada on Oct. 14, 2014, revealed that 62 per cent of Canadians agreed that refugee claimants should receive the same health care as Canadian citizens. Confining the responses to those between the ages of 18 and 24, the number shoots up to 81 per cent in agreement.

There are certainly dissenting opinions. News site comment sections are filled with calls to keep refugees out of Canada, especially those from the Middle

East. Even the biggest proponents of accepting more refugees will admit that a mass intake means more risk of bringing extremists into Canada, but there are few who are asking for the slow trickle we have now to turn into wide open floodgates. The system in place should be able to accom-modate more. And if it doesn’t, it should be scaled up to do so.

The issue certainly won’t sway Harper’s base of voters, but undecided voters are going to have a hard time seeing anything positive that Harper is doing on the matter. They’ll have to look at these rallies, see more of these heartbreaking images, hear more of these heartbreaking stories, and look at a leader who will only act if he’s re-elected, as if the fate of thousands is just another piece of electoral leverage.

[email protected]

Hey, so like, what are you, a frat?Er, nope. Not that there’s

anything wrong that. I know lots of people in frats. Some of my best friends were in frats. I feel like we’re getting off track and overly defensive though, having just met each other.

This is The Omega, the inde-pendent student newspaper for Thompson Rivers University, where you’re probably currently reading this.

We put out a paper every Wednesday. It’s written by stu-dents for students (and the rest of the TRU community). You’ll find campus and student news, sports updates, arts and culture and more.

We also pride ourselves in being named after the only three-sylla-ble Greek letter of the alphabet. Except Iota, Epsilon and Upsilon. Who uses those, though, I mean really. I sure don’t. No way.

If you’re into physics or an electrician, you might also know us as the symbol for resistance. This doesn’t really translate into us being a newspaper, though, so I don’t know why I brought it up.

Alright, sounds good. What if I wanted to write something?

That’s all it took to win you over? If so, great. If you want to write for us, first you should prob-ably write to us. You can reach the editor by writing to [email protected] or dropping by our offices in Old Main office OM2691.

What do I get in return?Are you really going to make

me do the whole “experience is its own reward” thing? Do I have to tell you the same thing every internship/volunteer coordinator is going to tell you?

Unfortunately, I do. Although we have paid staff positions, those are typically filled by the end of the previous year for the following year. Nonetheless, contributors are our favourite people, and there’s always the odd chance at perks, like getting into events for free, a gift card as a thank you, or maybe even bigger (cash) rewards at the end of the year. More on that later.

Oh right, the “experience is its own reward” speech. You know what? It’s kind of true, and I do my best to make it worth your while. You’ll get whatever feedback you ask for (and probably more), your name in the paper, and a nice fancy line to put on your resume to show future employers that you did a lot more than coast through your post-secondary education.

If I write for you, can my parents leave embarrassing comments once it’s posted on your website?

Proud parents are our number one source of commenters, so yes, absolutely. Hi Mom!

A bad time to have a stubborn leaderHarper’s promise to bring another 10,000 refugees needs to happen now

ΩA B Γ Δ Ε Ζ Η Θ Ι Κ Λ Μ Ν Ξ Ο Π Ρ Σ Τ Υ Φ Χ Ψ Ω

What is this? And why?And who put a copy in my hand?Sean BradyEDITOR-IN-CHIEF Ω

With an est. 83,000 refugees, the Zaatari camp in Jordan supports nearly as many Syrians as there are people in Kamloops. (U.S. State Dept.)

THE OMEGA STUDENT NEWSPAPER • PUBLISHED SINCE NOVEMBER 27,1991

Editor-in-Chief

News Editor

News Editor

Arts Editor

Sports Editor

Copy Editor

Production Coordinator

Contributors

Sean Brady

Jim Elliot

Wade Tomko

Marlys Klossner

Cameron Doherty

Annie Slizak

Rachel Wood

-

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFINDUSTRY REP

FACULTY REPSTUDENT REPSTUDENT REPSTUDENT REP

Letters PolicyLiterary and visual submissions are welcomed. All submissions are subject to editing for brevity, taste and legality. The Omega will attempt to publish each letter received, barring time and space constraints. The editor will take care not to change the intention or tone of submissions, but will not publish material deemed to exhibit sexism, racism or homophobia. Letters for publication must include the writer’s name (for publication) and contact details (not for publication). The Omega reserves the right not to publish any letter or submitted material. Opinions expressed in any section with an “Opinion” label do not represent those of The Omega, the Cariboo Student Newspaper Society, its Board of Directors or its staff. Opinions belong only to those who have signed them.

All material in this publication is copyright The Omega and may not be reproduced without the expressed consent of the publisher.

Publisher and Board Editorial Staff

Publishing Board

Cariboo Student Newspaper SocietyTRU Campus, Old Main, OM2691

900 McGill Rd, Kamloops, B.C. V2C 0C8Phone: 250-828-5069Advertising inquiries:

www.truomega.ca/advertiseor email [email protected]

Sean BradyChristopher FouldsCharles HaysKim AndersonMason BuettnerVacant

] `

^ É www.TRUOmega.ca

instagr.am/truomegafb.me/truomega

@TRU_Omega

Sean BradyEDITOR-IN-CHIEF Ω

SEPTEMBER 9, 20154 NEWS

Looking for work on Campus??

HAVE AN APPROVED student loan?

Want to Earn $10.45/hr? Check Out the TRU WorkStudy Program

Positions Include:

§ Research & assist with projects & campus initiatives § Schedule and plan for events and festivals § Sell tickets and usher guests at the Theatre § Act as a student peer resource/tutor

Find these jobs – and over 100 more at

the TRU Student Awards & Financial Support Office (Old Main Building)

Open to all full-time students currently approved for a government student loan, the Work Study program provides students with valuable paid work experience. Applications and eligibility guidelines are available at www.tru.ca/awards/work-‐‑study, or visit the TRU Student Awards & Financial Support Office (OM 1631, 250-828-5024).

As early as next January, TRU’s Williams Lake campus will be offering a new diploma program in sustainable ranching enterprise. Meant to address the needs of local farmers and ranchers, the program will focus on the sustainable management of natural resources and building strong agricultural enterprises in the region and elsewhere.

The program will allow students to gain experience in areas such as livestock and ecosystem manage-ment, all the while providing a platform to design and experiment with different ranching enterprises. In addition, it will provide real-life work experience as students will be required to participate in ranching operations throughout the region.

A first of its kind in B.C., the program is expected to bring students together from farming communities across the province and abroad. Brian Garland of TRU Grit, a group of local business owners who sponsor students, said that currently, if students want to learn sustainable ranching prac-tices, they have to study in Alberta, despite B.C.’s sizable agriculture industry. Likewise, a solid ranching diploma program could become something both Williams Lake and the TRU campus there are recog-nized for.

The idea for the program came from the Cariboo Producer Field School Series conducted between March 2012 and April 2013 by the Cariboo Cattlemen’s Association and the TRU Faculty of Science. Their final report stated that

“producers in the Cariboo region would like to continue to develop their skills and expertise in produc-ing quality grass finished beef, by optimizing the use of their natural resources and reducing their input costs.”

Since then, the Ministry of Advanced Education has provid-ed TRU with one-time funding of $154,000 to help deliver the program. Though an additional $286,000 is still needed, program coordinator Gillian Watt is optimis-tic, as all funders have responded positively to the program’s develop-ment thus far.

“Built by industry, for industry,” the program ensures that students

will learn to design enterprises that fit the local environment and re-sources, while still making a return on their investments. An industry advisory committee will oversee the development to make sure it meets the needs of local ranchers and farmers as well.

Although considerable attention will be devoted to local challenges such as beef, sheep and winter feed production, students will be able to apply their knowledge to the industry in any region.

The program will take approxi-mately two years to complete, most of which will consist of eight-hour days split into an online segment and a “hands-on” segment where

students will gain work experience in the field. Courses will explore a wide range of subjects, from business strategies, marketing and product costing in “Sustainable Enterprise,” to grazing manage-ment, wildlife interactions and plant needs in “Environmental Sustainability.”

Field seminars will be held every Friday on farms around Williams Lake, where students will learn and work with specialists in specific subject areas. But not everyone has to be enrolled to participate in these field seminars, as they will be open to local producers as well.

Given Williams Lake’s large agricultural industry, the program

is expected to attract a fair number of local students, who will have the benefit of increasing their expertise in ranching while still supporting their families and farms. Inter-national students and students from elsewhere in Canada will also be accepted. They will have the benefit of being paired up with host ranching families to gain addition-al experience.

Although the program is still waiting on approval from the TRU senate to move on to the commu-nications and curriculum devel-opment process, the program’s developers are hopeful that it will start next January, with the latest start date being next September.

Feeling at home on the range in Williams LakeTRU Williams Lake campus prepares for ranching program launch in 2016

Williams Lake ranch land will help students learn how to tend the land. (David Prytula/Submitted)

Wade TomkoNEWS EDITOR Ω

WWW.TRUOMEGA.CA 5ARTS & CULTURE

CONTINUED (COVER)The first stages of studying

abroad are all about planning. Your classes, housing, flights, budget and visas will all be planned out in a short period of time.

When you arrive, I recommend leaving yourself unplanned time. Whenever I travelled to a new place, I always gave myself the first day just to wander aimlessly. In Chiang Mai, in the north of Thailand, I walked around the Old Quarter with a friend made that day. We found a delicious smoothie stand. We went down

a back alley and found a hidden oasis-like coffee shop. We joined in with some old ladies doing a Tai-Chi style workout who asked us to come again. The best sur-prise was at one of the temples, where they had an Ask-a-Monk program, where we could sit with an aspiring monk and ask them any questions we wanted. This was by far my best experience at a temple. My friend was able to ask some questions she had about Buddhism, and I found out more about the daily life of a teen who has pledged his life to his religion/philosophy. Some of the best adventures you’ll have will be completely improvised.

It is not guaranteed that you will have a good time all the time. It’s scary, moving across the

globe, and it can be lonely. At one of the events that the university put on for international students, a friend from the university’s other campus said she had talked to a girl who was studying at my campus and had been having a really hard time making friends. Knowing the girl’s first name, Andrea, I found her online and invited her to dinner with one of my Thai friends. As I spent more and more time with Andrea, she told me that she never thought she would be one of those people who don’t have an awesome time abroad. She was in engineering, and the only other international students in her program were a group of German girls who kept to themselves. This was nearly halfway through the semester.

I was walking around with Andrea when we ran into the group of German girls. Frankly, they were very welcoming and friendly and I couldn’t under-stand why Andrea hadn’t already befriended them. Andrea had become so defeated in the first few friendless weeks that she couldn’t see that her isolation had become her own doing. The bottom line is that you’ll get what you put into the experience.

The worst part about the process is waiting. After you’ve sent in your application, and the next semester inches closer, it’s excruciating. Many students won’t get their official accep-tance letter from the university abroad until a month or two

before they plan to attend. Once you’ve made it to the week before departure, you’ll wonder where the time went.

TRU’s study abroad program is non-competitive, so anyone who wants to go can. The first step is to go to a Study Abroad informa-tion meeting, the first of which is on Sept. 14 at 1:30 p.m. in room IB3037 in the International Building. Apart from the study abroad staff, there are also study abroad ambassadors, who can help with everything from pa-perwork to culture shock. There are five meetings every month, and you can find all the infor-mation you need at www.tru.ca/studyabroad or drop by the study abroad desk on the third floor of the International Building.

You don’t have to be a rap fan to love Straight Outta Compton. The biopic follows the young Dr. Dre, Ice Cube and Eazy-E as they form the iconic rap group NWA.

The aspect of the film that everyone can’t stop talking about is the casting. Every actor either looks exactly like the person they play, or has their mannerisms down pat, even down to the Snoop Dogg and Tupac cameos.

The standout is O’Shea Jackson Jr., who plays his father, Ice Cube. The resemblance is uncanny. A powerful scene has Cube taking a baseball bat to his label’s office after being denied a promised advance. In the scene, Cube talks about

having a kid on the way. This of course ended up being the actor himself.

Jason Mitchell (Eazy-E) and Corey Hawkins (Dr. Dre) also give great performances along-side the passionate Paul Gia-matti. The brotherhood between the boys cements the film and has you rooting for them even if you disagree with some of their decisions.

While you will hear NWA’s greatest hits several times, they are never played in full, giving you just enough to get the nos-talgia pumping without getting tired. Seeing that the film covers several action-packed years in only 147 minutes, there are definitely side plots that get lost in the shuffle. We see Dre’s baby mama decide to move away with his son early in the film, and they are never seen or

heard from again. Many critics have also pointed

out that the film leaves out some of the things that the real rappers don’t want to remind the public of, like Dre’s history

of domestic abuse. The timing of its release is

beneficial to its success. NWA was formed around the time of the Rodney King beating, and issues of police using excessive

force have been headlining the news recently.

Straight Outta Compton is a 4 out of 5 star heartbreaking yet hopeful film that’s a whole lot of fun.

Risk and reward in studying abroad

Film review: Straight Outta Compton

The first day of school can be scary, but what if you’re also in another country?

The story of NWA omits some of the less favourable details, but still entertains

Thammasat University international students at Kanchanaburi Elephant Park – just one of an endless amount of experiences to be had abroad. (Marlys Klossner/The Omega)

(Universal Pictures)

Marlys KlossnerARTS EDITOR Ω

Marlys KlossnerARTS EDITOR Ω

SEPTEMBER 9, 20156 COMICS & PUZZLES

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1. This party leader pledge to decriminalize pot on his

first day

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7. The local Liberal candidate for Kamloops

9. The opinion piece on page 3 calls him out for

inaction on refugees

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4. This party tries to go right down the middle, usually

6. In Canada, they're the party to the right

8. A party left of centre, more orange than red

10. One of 34 Liberal MPs, he visited and spoke at

TRU in 2013

11. The local Conservative candidate for Kamloops

12. He wrote a $90,000 cheque to Mike Duffy

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WWW.TRUOMEGA.CA 7SPORTS

It was a trial by fire for the WolfPack women’s soccer team last year as they competed in the highest level of Canadian univer-sity soccer for the first time.

After making the jump from the PacWest conference to the top league of Canadian Interuni-versity Sport (CIS), the WolfPack struggled to a record of 1 win, 10 losses and a draw. Throughout the offseason, head coach Tom McManus, his coaching staff and all of the players took the lessons they learned from a difficult year and worked hard to come back ready for the 2015 season.

Defense was an area of strength last year for the Wolf-Pack, with the team surrendering one goal or fewer in six of their twelve matches. Any strong defense ends with the person between the posts, and goal-keeper is a position that will see a change as Emily Edmundson,

starter for the last four years, graduates.

Despite losing a player as important as Edmundson, expect the quality of play in net to barely miss a beat this year, as fifth-year keeper Taylor Shantz transfers to TRU from Quest University, where she started the last three years. McManus was contacted by Shantz about the possibility of her coming to play for TRU during the summer and was thrilled to add her to the team.

“I was very happy to have Taylor come in, she’s a good goalkeeper – and she can lead the way now,” McManus said.

Moving slightly up the field we find a defense that features a nice blend of experience and new players. One of the players leading the charge from the back will be third-year defender Sarah Seebach, a transfer player who comes to TRU after playing two years with the Carleton Ravens in the CIS. McManus really likes the CIS experience that Seebach

brings to the team. “She’s very mature, a very good

player who will do well.”McManus favours the 4-2-3-1

formation, which enables him to deploy five midfielders on the pitch. With two defensive mid-fielders and three playing further up, the hope when utilizing this formation is that the extra body will allow the team to win the all-important possession battle in the middle of the field.

“This year I look towards the bench and I can see people who I know I am very comfortable putting in,” he said.

It will be the play of yet another player that transferred to TRU this season, fifth-year midfielder Brianna Powrie, that will have a big say in how TRU fares this season. Powrie will play the crucial role of linking the defensive midfielders with the attacking players.

After scoring just nine goals last season, offense was some-thing that McManus focused on over the summer as an area that

he really wanted to see the team improve in.

“Strikers were what my main goal was, to get people who are quick, who want to shoot fast,” he said.

A familiar face will be one of those looking to provide the WolfPack with that spark up front. McManus described fifth-year forward Katie Sparrow as “the key to our strike force because she’s so quick, and she creates opportunities for other strikers.”

Sparrow will be hoping for a healthy season after an inju-ry-riddled 2014 severely limited her playing time. With a healthy Sparrow, the additions of fifth-year forward Danielle Fauteux and first-year player Marisa Men-donca all lining up beside fifth year Jaydene Radu, McManus feels as though the offense is the most improved position group coming into the year.

As the 2015 women’s soccer season begins, it is clear that this is a team that is ready to

take to the field and see a vast improvement on their play from last year, through the addition of new players and the fact that the players from last year’s team are now acclimatized to the fast pace of play and rigorous travel associated with the CIS.

For the first time in school history, the WolfPack women’s soccer team made the trip across two time zones to play in the province of Manitoba this past weekend. Games against the University of Manitoba, as well as the Winnipeg Wesmen were on the schedule and TRU will be making the return trip in relatively good spirits after winning one and losing one.

Up first for the WolfPack was a challenging game against the University of Manitoba Bison, who finished last season with a record of 4 wins, 4 losses and 4 draws. The game got off to an auspicious start as the action was forced to move to the Bison’s indoor soccer complex due to a severe lightning warning in the area.

Manitoba took a commanding 3-0 lead before halftime with second-year forward Bruna Mavignier, who tied for third in goals scored in Canada West last year during her rookie cam-paign, scoring two goals and adding an assist. The second half proved to be a more even affair with TRU pushing to get back into the game, but to no avail. WolfPack Head Coach Tom McManus spoke to TRU Athletics about the difficulty his team faced playing on the indoor surface.

“Manitoba was playing the long ball into corners and was used to crossing the ball. It took us a bit of time to adjust,” McManus said.

Manitoba would add an insur-ance goal in the 80th minute to

see the game end with a final score of 4-0.

TRU found far greater success in their second game of the season as they triumphed 3-1 over the University of Winnipeg Wesmen. Getting out to a quick start is always key when trying to bounce back from a loss, and the WolfPack managed to find that quick start when fifth-year forward Jaydene Radu scored just seven minutes into the

match. The first half contin-ued to go the WolfPack’s way as third-year defender Kindra Maricle found the back of the net in the 24th minute before Radu added her second goal of the half just two minutes later. Winnipeg managed to pull one goal back on the stroke of halftime but the TRU defense would tighten up from there as they managed to hold off the Winnipeg attackers for the rest

of the match. McManus spoke to TRU Ath-

letics about the importance of his team’s depth.

“It was a much better effort this afternoon, we got everyone into the game as well which is a good sign.”

Fifth-year midfielder Brianna Powrie was distributing the ball well throughout the game as she tallied an assist on all three of TRU’s goals.

Coming home from the trip to Manitoba having registered a “W” in the win column has to be looked at as a success for the WolfPack, as it took them ten tries to get their first victory last season. The team will be back on the road next weekend as they travel to Edmonton to play the University of Alberta before crossing back into B.C. to play the University of Northern British Columbia.

WolfPack women regroup for new year of CIS play

Team fares well in Manitoba weekend play

Last year’s rough start left the team with a 1-10-1 record, but they’re hopeful not to repeat that this year

Cameron DohertySPORTS EDITOR Ω

TRU’s Jodi Hutton rushes after the ball during Saturday’s game. (Kelly Morton/University of Winnipeg Wesmen Athletics)

Cameron DohertySPORTS EDITOR Ω

Women’s soccer head coach Tom McManus (TRU Athletics)

THE OMEGA SEPTEMBER 9, 20158

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September 9, 2015