Howlers honorary captain and former star on CTV's award winning series "Corner Gas" (Sgt, Davis Quinton) will host his 9th Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Awards tonight in Winnipeg Manitoba,  to be broadcast live on APTN (Aboriginal Peoples Television Network).

Inaugural "OVAL VIEW" by Ian Mc Laren. This will be regular feature on this Howlers facebook page. This column is the expressed opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Dog River Howlers Rugby Club.
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Treat Your Children Well
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Opening with congratulations to the National Women’s side for their runners-up medals at the recent World Cup. And belated congratulations to the Men’s 7’s program which finished an unprecedented 6th in last year’s IRB 7’s series. The men’s team also showed well at the recent Commonwealth games and only a red hot home side from Scotland kept Canada from advancing to the final eight and a chance to play for medals and meaningful hardware.

On the other side of the ledger is the performance of Canada’s Senior men’s side who have lost recent tests to Georgia, Japan and the arch-rival US. The manner of defeat somewhat troubling has not only are those sides ranked or were ranked below us but large leads were squandered in a couple of those matches.

All this being said and many talking points that could emerge from any one of these topics, I think I will head in a different direction and say that Rugby Canada is wasting it’s precious resources putting money into any one of these programs and indeed any program in Canada that does not focus on developmental rugby for children.

The long term athlete development model that is currently used across all Olympic sports in Canada, designed to deal with the realities and challenges of athlete development from ages 4 and up.

During the phase of 8-12 year olds, called “the Golden Age of Learning” it is stated that deficiencies in technique can never be completely overcome, if not taught properly and reinforced during this crucial time frame.

In Canada most of our players do not begin playing rugby until their early to mid-teens, exceptions being British Columbia and to some extent Ontario. What this means for our national team development is that our athletes are going to hit a ceiling in terms of their technical ability that leaves them unable to perform at the highest level.

For years with the senior men’s program our team has been defined by fitness, toughness, and defence but not usually attacking flair. The reason may be that our athletes simply can’t do the things that players from countries where they start younger can do.

So how do we take rugby from an after thought sport for teenagers to a first choice sport for children? We all know the problems of geography, weather, lack of a knowledgeable public, and many more. Hockey and soccer are now both year round sports even for young children, basketball and volleyball are becoming that way.

Resources need to be focused on developing programs and by that I mean leagues. Kids want to play games and be a part of a real teams, this idea of having a weekend jamboree where at the end the kids in the red shirts play the kids in the blue shirts is not going to make life long rugby players of our young athletes.

Pouring money into our men’s 15 programs makes little sense. At the senior level we can strive to be a 10th ranked country and occasionally beat the likes of Scotland or Italy but never come close to the top tier nations, like South Africa, England, France, Australia, or New Zealand.

At the age grade levels a late start by most of the athletes from outside BC and Ontario, means that many players are not ready for any sort of international competition and the teams are national in name only. On the women’s side while the sport's success generated some publicity on TSN. However this does not translate into increased numbers or long term success.

Remember that in 1996 Canada was the top sprinting nation in the world on the men’s side, holding both the 100 men’s gold and the 4X100 relay gold. There was no corresponding explosion in Canadian track and field.

The reality is that the Canadian women have finished in the top 4 at four of the last five RWC and more money will not correspond to much of an improvement because there really isn’t very much more room for improvement.

So the money needs to go to the kids!

There are 14 Howlers (Bears -5, Blues - 3, Wolf Pack - 4 and the Rock - 3) on the 4 CRC teams are in action today . The Prairie Wolf Pack take on The Atlantic Rock in the Calgary Rugby Park at 1:00 pm and the BC Bears host the Ontario Blues at Klahanie Park in North Vancouver also at 1:00 pm. HOWUUUUUUUUUU !!

BEARS ROSTER:
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HOWLER 1. Noah Barker (James Bay AA)
2. Micha Govorchin (Burnaby Lake RC)
3. Cody McClary (Port Alberni Black Sheep)
4. Callum Morrison (UBCOB Ravens) (c)
5. Shea Wakefield (UVic Vikes)
6. Luke Campbell (UVic Vikes)
7. Chase Kelliher (UVic Vikes)
8. Admir Cejvanovic (Burnaby Lake RC)
9. Sean White (James Bay AA)
HOWLER 10. Patrick Kay (Uvic Vikes)
14. Justin Douglas (Abbotsford)
HOWLER 12. Mike Fuailefau (Castaway Wanderers)
13. Connor Trainor (UBCOB Ravens)
14. Caleb Hansen (Vancouver Rowing Club)
HOWLER 15. Sean Ferguson (UBC Thunderbirds)

Reserves:
16. Andrew Lackner (Burnaby Lake RC)
17. Garrett Garbe (UBCOB Ravens)
18. Scott MacKay (Burnaby Lake RC)
19. Chris Chalmers (Abbotsford)
HOWLER 20. Thyssen De Goede (James Bay AA)
21. Nathan Yanagiya (Capilano RFC)
22. Bryan Tyrer (UBC Thunderbirds)
HOWLER 23. Jorden Sandover-Best (UBC Thunderbirds)

BLUS ROSTER:
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1. Doug Wooldridge
2. Ray Barkwill
3. Tom Dolezel
4. Haddon Murray
5. HankMcqueen
6. Lucas Rumball
7. Alistair Clark
HOWLER 8. Seb Pearson
9. Andrew Ferguson
10.Shawn Windsor
11. Jake Webster
HOWLER 12. Derek Daypuck (C)
HOWLER 13. Jordan Wilson-Ross
14. Dan Moor
HOWLER 15. Lucas Hammond

Reserves:
16. Jacob Rumball
17. Sawyer Herron
18. Rob Brouwer
19. Scott Dunham
20. TimRichardson
21. Rich Lebel
22. Jamie Mackenzie
23. Andrew Coe

WOLF PACK ROSTER:
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1. Peter Houlihan
2. Matt Harrison
3. James Smith
4. Evan Olmstead
5. Ian Huston
HOWLER 6. Clay Panga
7. Kyle Gilmore ©
8. Jeremy Kyne
9. Jake Robinson
HOWLER . Gordon McRorie
11. Graham Turner
12. Dustin Macpherson
HOWLER . Nick Blevins
14. Adam Bontus
15. Shea O’Hallahan
16. Ryan Ackerman
17. Ryan Kotlewski
HOWLER 18. Casey Reed
19. Spencer Massiah
20. Steve Arnold
21. Adam McQueen
22. Brandon Harrison
23. John Moloney

ROCK ROSTER:
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1. Frank Walsh
2. Jordon Power
3. Steve Cutcliffe
4. Chris Browne
5. Grant Crowell
6. Toni Wodzicki
7. Mike Hamson
8. Owen Parfrey
9. Tony Pomeroy
HOWLER 10. Patrick Parfrey
HOWLER 11. Robert Wilson
12. Colin Alexander
13. Emil Sehic
14. Patrick McNicholas
15. Alex Rogers
16. Alex Forrest
17. Bob Rogers
18. Tapiwa Rabwi
19. Zach Fitch
20. Matt Murphy
21. Mark Sweeney
22. Charles Debove
HOWLER 23. Tim Hart

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With the latest Howlers driven fundraiser (August 18 Hope's Home Howl in Regina) they have helped to raise over $1,000,000 since 2007 for a variety of "worthy" causes. HOWUUUUUUUUUUU !!

WHERE DOES THE MONEY GO ?

Rugby related
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- Men and women's Canadian National Rugby Teams

- Canadian First Nations rugby

- Saskatchewan Rugby Union (development)

- Prairie Wolf Pack Rugby Club

- Canadian rugby coaching clinics

- Numerous young aspiring Canadian rugby players

- Canadian rugby match officials

- Cuban rugby (adult and youth)

- Philippine's children's rugby

- Afghanistan rugby (adult and youth)

- Colombian rugby (upstart club in a very poor barrio)

- Rwandan rugby (adult and youth)

- Ugandan rugby (Gulu people)

- Lebanese rugby (an aspiring club)

- Fijian rugby in villages

- Mexican youth (school in Cancun)

- South African underprivileged schools rugby

- Thailand youth rugby in slums (program run by ex Canadian international Eddie Evans)

Non rugby related
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- KidSports which supports kids with limited financial resources to participate in sports programs.

- Help purchase a wheelchair accessible van for quadriplegic former rugby player

- Canadian First Nations education

- Multiple Sclerosis

- Prostate cancer

- Cuban orphanages

- Somalian refugees

- Shelters for abused women and children

- Prostate cancer

- Children with learning challenges

- Feed the homeless and sick in India

- Support a number of people fighting cancer and other illnesses

- Early learning centre that provides extended respite services for medically fragile children

- 2011 Haiti earthquake victims

- Comprehensive Youth Treatment Program for boys ages 11 to 16

If so contact Karl at - karl_v_fix@hotmail.com

2014 Itinerary
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Wednesday December 10- arrive in Tobago in the morning West jet flight from Toronto arrives in Part Of Spain Trinidad at 5:54 and we continue on with Caribbean Air at 7:40 arriving in Tobago at 8:00 am.10:00 am training followed by afternoon bus tour of the Island

Thursday Dec. 11- morning training followed a boat booze cruise

Friday Dec. 12- morning training and afternoon free to do your own thing

Saturday Dec. 13 - tournament

Sunday Dec 14 -tournament

Monday Dec. 15- tournament beach party. Players also have the option to go home that day.

Tuesday Dec. 16- Air Caribbean flight at 1:45 am to Port Of Spain and connect to West Jet flight to Toronto leaving at 6:55 am

Cost per person - pay your own flights plus $750.

What does that $750 include:
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Transport to and from games
Accommodations right on the beach (double occupancy)
Wednesday Island tour
Thursday Island boat booze cruise with meal
Monday tournament party including food and beer.
Tour t-shirt

Flights each person books and pays for themselves . Right now West Jet lists the following prices: to Port Of Spain , Trinidad.. From there it's a 20 minute $8 return fair plane ride to Tobago.
Toronto $550
Quebec City - $731
Montreal - $768
Regina - $924
Calgary and Edmonton - $999
Vancouver - $1,070
Victoria - $1,080
The Caribbean Air flight from Port Of Spain to Tobago return is $48 US.

Tobago 2013
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151765302341254.1073741849.514726253&&l=c93a877ef4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L10AwwOKch8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUiJ4G-2kic#t=86

Tobago 2012
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151134704471254.432785.514726253&&l=7b907693cd

http://youtu.be/_Bm0iggVUX0O