Because of this, Hockey Canada will likely be sent a series of recommendations by the study’s authors to ban physical contact in peewee. Author of the study, Dr. Carolyn Emery, a sport epidemiologist and athletic therapist as well as a hockey coach and parent, said more than 1,000 game-related injuries and 400 concussions could be prevented each year in Alberta alone.

Cochrane Minor Hockey President Blake Fleming said the study’s findings are valid and should be taken seriously by all those involved with the game.

“I think hockey’s going to have to pay attention to what (Emery) has to say,” Fleming said. “And what she’s saying is hit hockey is substantially riskier than non-hit hockey.”

While Fleming said Cochrane Minor plans to wait and see how Hockey Canada and Hockey Alberta react to the proposed ban, at least two local coaches who teach the game at senior levels believe removing bodychecking from the peewee ranks would be a mistake.

Bodychecks in peewee hockey, like this one laid on Bow Valley Timberwolves winger Andrew Forster, right, last October could soon be outlawed if Hockey Canada accepts the recommendations of a recent University of Calgary study. Photo by Jeremy Nolais

Dana Boothby coaches young adults on the Junior B Cochrane Generals and has also had three sons come up through the Cochrane Minor Hockey system. He said the longer kids wait to begin bodychecking the more likely they are to hurt themselves or others.

“The way I see it is you need a certain amount of time to learn a skill,” he said.

Boothby said he feels studies like the one led by Emery tend to focus on a few “remote examples.”

Boothby added that his sons progressed through the bodychecking training just fine.

Kevin Willison, head coach of the Edge School Prep team in Springbank, echoed Boothby’s comments.

“It certainly is tougher at our level to teach them how to bodycheck than when they’re younger,” Willison said.

Willison said even at the atom and tyke age levels kids are constantly running into each other.

“It’s really about teaching kids how to protect themselves,” he said. “Also, when you talk to scouts a lot of them fault kids who are unwilling to play in the high-traffic areas.”

To gain their results, U of C researchers compared the frequency of injuries in Alberta peewee hockey to Quebec peewee hockey, where bodychecking is not allowed. Fleming pointed out that elite players in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League don’t seem to be at a disadvantage despite learning to bodycheck at a later age.

“That would suggest that certainly for the elite player it doesn’t make a difference,” he added.

Despite this, Fleming said he is not advocating for a ban on peewee checking, he is simply suggesting the U of C study be taken seriously.

All coaches with Cochrane Minor Hockey have to gain Hockey Alberta accreditation and all peewee players must participate in a hitting clinic before being allowed to compete.

Both Fleming and Boothby said there is a very natural progression through the various age levels in the current system.

“Still, the evidence suggests that kids are getting hurt more than they should be,” Fleming noted.

Boothby said as long as precautions are being taken, he sees no problem with continuing to allow bodychecking in the peewee game.

“Bodychecking is a part of hockey and it’s not going anywhere.”

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“I don’t really cry normally but I just started right there on the court with about a minute left,” recalled the 22-year-old hoops star, who was playing for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies. “It was the best result I have had in my five years.”
Wilson’s personal achievement aside, the Huskies’ bronze was the first-ever medal in women’s basketball for the school.

“We were ranked high all year,” Wilson explained. “We were a quick team and were very deep and able to play a variety of players. When someone didn’t step up someone else would.”

Originally a volleyball player, Wilson became attracted to basketball because of its physical nature. She finally decided to give the sport a shot in high school, joining the Cochrane High Cobras.

Wilson’s leadership and poise on the court would quickly draw the attention of coaching staff at Calgary’s Mount Royal College (now University) and she was recruited to play Alberta Colleges Athletic Association ball after graduation.

After two years with the Mount Royal Cougars, Wilson got a shot at Canada’s top post-secondary league with the Huskies.

“All of the girls were bigger, it’s crazy,” Wilson said of the transition to the university ranks. “They’re bigger, better and stronger.”

Wilson hit the gym constantly and built up 20 pounds of muscle over her three seasons with the Huskies.

“I had to learn to shoot a lot better and just be a bigger and better player.”

All of the Cochranite’s hard work would pay off, as Wilson developed into a consistent weapon for the Huskies, averaging nearly six points and four rebounds per game in her final season.

Now, the young Cochrane athlete has sights on earning a professional contract with a European league. If that doesn’t work out, she plans to fall back on her sociology degree and hopefully work as a police officer in Calgary or Saskatoon.

“I have played on a team for four years that I travel to Europe with,” Wilson said. “We are planning to go again (to) compete against club teams and national teams. From there, I will probably e-mail coaches, hire an agent and try to get my name out there.”

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The smile smeared across Dione Wearmouth’s face gave it all away.

With two podium finishes at Skate Canada’s Alberta-NWT/Nunavut STARSkate Championships — Wearmouth’s biggest competition of the year — the 10-year-old Cochranite could barely contain her excitement.“It was really good for me,” exclaimed the young skater, who officially took silver in the pre-introductory interpretive category and bronze in the preliminary 10-and-under free skate competition. “It was a pretty big competition and I was skating against a lot of other girls so I am really happy with my result.”

Wearmouth admitted that her performance in the preliminary free skate final didn’t go quite as well as the day before when she participated in the runoff qualification round.

“I fell during a big jump and I didn’t think my spins were quite as good today,” she said.
“I just had to keep going because I realize I have to make up for that element if I fall.”

Wearmouth’s poise on the ice is what left her mother, Jana, beaming with pride.

“I just tell her to relax and pretend everybody’s in their underwear,” Jana said, “and she does that, she stays calm and does it like she has hundreds of times.”

In the free skate runoff, fellow Cochrane Skating Club member Sydney Perron bested Wearmouth and went on to finish fifth in the finals. Wearmouth said there is a fair amount of friendly competition between the two training partners and it helps make them better skaters.

“We kind of have that tension between us,” Wearmouth said. “She skates pretty good and she tried really hard.”
Besides Wearmouth and Perron, Cochrane Skating Club had a number of other top-10 showings at the STARSkate championships, held March 4-7 in Airdrie.

Beth Alison captured gold in the adult gold free skate competition, Alyssa Soloski placed fourth in the junior bronze free skate and ninth in the introductory interpretive group. Jase Ritter — the lone male Cochrane skater at the competition — was also fourth in the pre-preliminary free skate, Molly Tingler placed sixth in the silver interpretive competition and Siera Dube was seventh in the preliminary 11 and over free skate.

Cochrane Skating Club coach Kathy Sutherland said she was impressed with the determination shown by all of her young skaters.

“It’s really good to see them doing really well,” Sutherland said. “They’re going out there and really fighting for their skate.”

The Cochrane Skating Club will now shift focus to get ready for its annual carnival March 20 at the Cochrane Arena. This year’s theme will be High School Musical with shows at 2:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.

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The defending Olympic champion in women’s moguls, Heil was widely pegged by the media as most likely to win Canada’s first-ever gold medal on home soil.

And while the Spruce Grove native fell just short, taking home a silver, her ex-coach Murray Cluff, who resides in Cochrane, was very impressed with her performance.

“What was really tough for me was that I couldn’t do anything,” recalled Cluff, who helped steer Heil to gold at the 2006 Games in Turin, Italy and watched her 2010 title defence on TV.

After placing second in her Olympic qualifying run on Cypress Mountain, Heil skied nearly flawless in the finals but American Hannah Kearney, who won gold, was simply better, Cluff said.

“It’s so tough to stay on top for five years, the year before the first Olympics and then the next quadrennial,” explained Cluff, who owns Cochrane’s Treetop Pet Resort and coaches locally. “The younger people aren’t just watching, they’re learning and trying to knock you off.”

Cluff said he spoke with Heil in the weeks leading up to the Olympics and that, while she admitted to feeling some pressure, “she was always the type of person that embraced pressure. No matter what she was facing she always excelled.”

Cluff also believes that having the spotlight focused almost solely on Heil helped Quebec’s Alexandre Bilodeau sneak in to snatch Canada’s first gold in the men’s moguls competition the next night.
On the competitive skiing circuit, Cluff often shared a room with Bilodeau and said no one is more deserving of the recognition he is receiving.

“He’s a pretty special guy,” Cluff said. “When he was talking about his brother (Frederic Bilodeau, who has cerebral palsy) being his inspiration that was from the heart that wasn’t for show. (Alex) was blessed with physical ability that his brother doesn’t have and I think that’s why he goes all out when he competes.”

Looking forward, Cluff plans to keep in close touch with Heil, whom he coached for 10 years, as the two run an introductory moguls clinic every year at Sunshine Village.

“She won the silver . . . there’s no embarassment in finishing second at the Olympics,” Cluff said. “Of course she was disappointed those first few moments but then she thought I finished second and that’s pretty special.”

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Local lugers Tristan Walker and Justin Snith serve as perfect examples of how age is just a number. At 18 years old, the two will compete together in the Vancouver Olympics before thousands of Canadian fans. Regardless of what happens on the world’s biggest athletic stage, Feb. 17 will be a day the two will never forget

Tristan Walker and Justin Snith were fearless daredevils growing up.

There was simply no tree too high, no jump too steep and, needless to say, there were a number of scrapes, bruises and broken bones along t he way.

So it’s no surprise to their parents that the two 18-year-olds will now compete in the Olympics in luge, where athletes fly down an ice track at speeds in excess of 140 kilometres.

“(Tristan) enjoyed being off the ground more than on the ground,” recalls his father Bruce Walker. “He used the garage door as a ride, he would stand on the back of it and someone would push the button.”

Snith’s father, Steven, has similar memories of his son.

“He was a pain in the ass,” Steven joked. “No, he was a pretty good kid. He was always doing something, playing sports, trying something new.”

Tristan, a native of Bearspaw, took his first run down a luge track when he was nine and Justin, who lives in Calgary but has family ties to Springbank and Cochrane, followed close behind at age 10.

Both were technically too young for such a high-risk sport at the time, but they both quickly fell in love with it and enrolled in introductory camps at Canada Olympic Park.

The basic fundamentals of luge are simple enough, athletes lay on their backs and rocket down a track using their calf muscles and shoulders to steer. The athlete who reaches the bottom of the track in the fastest time is declared the winner; high-level competitions are usually decided by just thousandths of a second.

Coaches were quick to recognize the potential in both Tristan and Justin and the two were selected for Canada’s junior luge program as singles sliders.

After some success as individual competitors, the young sliders were paired up in 2008 and instantly became good friends both on and off the track. Their competitive chemistry came almost instantly, Justin recalls.

“We are good friends. We do have that bond, but it also has a lot to do with the fact that we think similarly on the sled,” Justin said. “We’ll drive similar lines, we’ll try similar things. I think that really helps too.”

When competing, Tristan is on top and charged with steering the sled on the right line while Justin is tasked with rolling out of each turn smoothly to maintain the highest speed possible.

With only 20 runs under their belt as a doubles team, Tristan and Justin surprised everyone by placing second at the Canadian Championships in early 2009 in Whistler. It was at this point that the two athletes, who weren’t even old enough to vote at the time, realized a trip to the 2010 Olympics might be possible.

“We were sitting there after in the place we were staying in Whistler going ‘We’re second in Canada and there’s two doubles teams that go to the Olympics, we have a shot at this,’” Tristan recalls.

After a strong rookie season on the junior World Cup circuit that saw them win bronze at the World Championships in Nagano, Japan, Canadian coaches decided to test Tristan and Justin on the senior circuit for a few races.

It was determined that the young duo would need three top-20 finishes on the World Cup to qualify for the Vancouver Games.
“The original plan was to take us to the first three races on the senior circuit and then send us to junior for the second half of the season,” Tristan recalls. “No one expected us to qualify.”

Making the situation even tougher for the young sliders was the fact that on the senior circuit only the top-10 ranked sleds gain automatic entry into World Cup races. The other competitors, like Tristan and Justin, are forced to partake in qualifying runs at each event through the Nations Cup circuit.

Tristan and Justin returned to familiar ground for their debut on the senior circuit last November, placing second in qualifying and 13th overall in the World Cup at the season-opening event at Canada Olympic Park. They followed that up with a 17th-place showing in Innsbruck-Igls, Austria, and another 13th-place performance in Altenberg, Germany — where they also finished ahead of Canada’s top luge doubles team, brothers Chris and Mike Moffat, for the first time.

The duo’s unlikely quest was completed; they had qualified for the 2010 Games.

Justin, who will be Canada’s youngest luge competitor at the Games, describes the time since learning he would be competing on the world’s biggest athletic stage as a “huge whirlwind.”

“Tristan and I are just flying by the seat of our pants,” he said. “We’re just trying to enjoy the ride, hang on and see what happens. Honestly it hasn’t fully hit me yet.”

The two took some time off from the World Cup circuit in early December to train on the official Olympic track. Tristan said a realistic goal for the Olympics is a top-10 finish, something they have not accomplished to date on the World Cup circuit.

“Really my goal is to have two solid, clean runs,” Walker said, adding that if the two finished in the top 10 it would be “unreal, absolutely unreal.”

Wolfgang Staudinger, head coach of the Canadian national luge team, said a top-10 finish would be amazing for his young protégés.

“They’re extremely dedicated, they do everything for the sport,” said Staudinger, who himself earned a bronze medal in luge doubles at the 1988 Calgary Games for West Germany. “They did an awesome job during the summer getting ready for the season and they do lots of technical work. Having said that, they have a lot to improve on and now that they have raced with the big boys they know what they need to improve on and have a long road ahead of them of course.”

One clear example of this dedication came when Tristan was diagnosed with the H1N1 virus last June.

Although he was very ill, the young athlete refused to take any medication for fear of being drug tested.

“He always has to be careful, whether it’s medication or risk of injury,” Bruce said.

“He joked to me that cutting the lawn was too much of a risk because he might cut his foot or something,” Bruce added, laughing. “I told him not cutting the lawn would have a higher risk of injury.”

If all goes well and the two sliders are able to stay healthy, Staudinger said he is very excited to see what they can accomplish going forward. The veteran coach noted that luge, which made its Olympic debut at the 1964 Games in Innsbruck, Austria, has been dominated by a handful of countries over the years; however he believes Canada’s fortunes in the sport are slowly changing now that the country has two training facilities — Calgary and Whistler.

Of the 108 Olympic medals awarded in men’s and women’s individual luge, as well as doubles, all but four have gone to athletes from Germany, Austria, the Soviet Union or its successor nations and Italy.

Currently, three of the top four positions in the World Cup doubles overall standings are occupied by German pairs. Tristan and Justin sit 21st in the overall rankings, however, they skipped two events to focus on training.

Tristan said luge receives a great deal more exposure in Europe than in Canada and athletes are groomed from a very young age.
“Their ski hills actually have toboggan runs on them, so they take toboggans down the hill,” he said.

“The same way we have ski lessons in school it’s mandatory for them to try every winter sport.”

Bruce added that the most impressive part of his son’s accomplishment might be that some of the top competitors on the World Cup circuit have been sliding since before Justin and Tristan were born.

“Some of the guys they are competing against are true legends of the sport,” said Bruce, who admitted to spending many late nights watching the online feed of his son’s World Cup times while he is off competing in Europe. “I don’t know if it’s really dawned on (Tristan) what an accomplishment this is.”

And although luge has given him more than he could have ever dreamed, Tristan conceded that his sport can be very dangerous at times, something he and Justin found out the hard way earlier this season when they crashed at a World Cup stop in Winterberg, Germany.

“People always talk about football as being a game of inches, this is a game of centimetres,” Tristan explained.

To avoid injury and perform well at the Games, both Tristan and Justin agreed that consistency is key. Each doubles team will take two runs down the Whistler track Feb. 17 and the sleds will be ranked according to their combined time.

You just have to take it like any other run,” Justin said. “We have had training runs there, we know we can slide well, we know we can pull a fast start there, which has been a problem for us.”

The two Canadian sliders will also have another advantage over their international competitors at the Games, as Bruce estimates 60-70 of Tristan and Justin’s closest friends and family will be on hand to witness their Olympic debut.

“When he goes by we’ll probably only see him for about 14 seconds of the run,” Bruce said. “But there’s so many people going out there. It will be fun.”

Family and friends aside, Justin said the community support in general has been overwhelming. One recent example of this came when he and Tristan were met with overwhelming cheers from thousands of fans at the Springbank Olympic torch relay celebration in January.

“It’s constantly building,” Justin said. “I have been blown away these past couple of weeks ever since the Olympic announcement with how many well wishes I have gotten. It’s been truly surprising.”

Steven, who met his wife Andrea while the two were attending Springbank High School, said his son’s dedication to his sport of choice has been remarkable and that he deserves all the accolades he will receive in Whistler and beyond.

“I am sort of taken aback by how good of shape he’s gotten into and how much he’s really taken to it — he really enjoys it and the people he is with,” Steven said.

And while there will be millions of people watching from all over the world, Tristan said that he intends to be completely focused on the task at hand when he lines up at the top of the track in Whistler.

“You don’t even think,” he said. “You have done so many imagery runs of the track you know exactly where you are at all times.
“As soon as the visor goes down, you know everything that needs to happen in the next minute.”

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The signs of a gifted young hockey player are all there.

A team-first mentality, the ability to compete against more experienced players and a knack for putting the puck in the net. And the best part of all is that she’s just 14 years of age.

Yes, Cochrane’s Samantha Sutherland is a coaches’ dream, just ask her current bench boss Mikko Makela.

“She’s a very good player, very skilled, everything’s good,” said Makela, current hockey director and head coach at Warner Hockey School in southern Alberta where Sutherland debuted this season. “She’s a ninth grade player who plays like an eleventh grade player.”

After roughly 50 games with Sutherland under his direction, Makela — a Finnish professional hockey player who spent six seasons in the NHL between 1985 and 1990, has already declared her the most skilled 14-year-old female hockey player in Canada.

“That’s what I believe, there are maybe other people who think a little differently about some other players, but I’m not too far I don’t think,” he said.

Sutherland made the jump to the Warner Warriors midget team directly from peewee hockey in Cochrane. Competing with her team in the Junior Women’s Hockey League — featuring elite teams from all over North America — often forces the 5’2”, 122-pound forward to line up against players as much as five years older than her.

None of it seems to have slowed down her offensive production, however, as Sutherland sits third on Warner in scoring with 21 goals and 21 assists — an even split for a player who prides herself on her playmaking skills.

“I try to always work hard every shift and try to set up good scoring chances for my team,” Sutherland said. “I try to control the play as much as I can.”

Sutherland said her first year at Warner has been better than she ever imagined.

“Being away from my family took a bit of time to adjust to but everyone involved in the program here is so nice and has been so supportive to me, they are like my second family,” she said. “Also, adjusting to playing Midget AAA was a real challenge because the play is so fast and most of the players are quite a bit older than me.”

As well, the small-town atmosphere in Warner, which at a population of slightly more than 300 people makes Cochrane seem like a metropolis, has quickly grown on Sutherland.

“Everyone in the town knows us and says hi, it makes you feel special,” she explained. “If you come to a home game on Saturday night you will see a lot of Warner pride and fans who haven’t missed a home game in six years.”

Now, Sutherland will take a brief hiatus from Warner and head north to the Lakeland Region for the Alberta Winter Games Feb. 4-7. There, she will serve as captain on a Zone 2 girls hockey team featuring seven fellow Cochranites.

It will be the young forward’s second trip to the Games as she helped Zone 2 capture silver in 2008.
Zone 2 head coach Claude Vilgrain, a former NHLer in his own right who now coaches the Calgary Bantam AAA Outlaws, said choosing Sutherland as his captain was a no-brainer.

“She has the experience, the skill level, awareness and hockey sense that is above her age level,” Vilgrain said. “She is a very smart player and very driven player as well and that helps.”

Other Cochranites on the team are Hannah Olenyk, Emily Potts, Cylenna Alexander, Andie Boeckman, Channia Alexander as well as netminders Jade Walsh and Kirsten Chamberlin. Chamberlin, specifically, was a surprising selection for the team as she is just 11 years old — the minimum age required to participate in the Games.

“We just had no choice but to pick her, she did what she had to do,” Vilgrain said of Chamberlin, who stops pucks for the division-leading Cochrane Rockies Tier 1 Peewee girls team of the Rocky Mountain Female Hockey League.

As for projections on how his team will perform, Vilgrain said they will be competitive but face stiff competition from the Calgary players on the Zone 3 team — including his own daughter Cassandra — and the Red Deer team representing Zone 4.

“Chemistry is the key,” he said. “The teams have to come out of the gate pretty quick and the ones that are able to do this will be the most successful.”
Sutherland, meanwhile, is excited for the competition to get underway.

“I just try to lead by example and try to keep the team positive and focused on playing our best,” she said. “If you are out there working hard the whole team will work hard.”

And if she has it her way, Sutherland hopes that hard work will someday lead her to Division 1 college hockey and possibly a spot on Team Canada.

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Cochrane archer James Webster doesn’t need a mirror to correct the finer points of his pre-shot routine, his twin brother Mark does it for him.

The two 15-year-olds, who have been perfecting their skills with a bow every day for roughly seven years, are classified as mirror-image twins, meaning they are identical, but James is right-handed and Mark is a lefty. This setup works well in archery practice because the two face each other when they line up to fire.

“It’s about having fun. We don’t care who comes first as long as the other is second,” James said. “It’s like we have our own personal coaches who watch us while we watch them . . . I think if I didn’t have my big brother to help me I wouldn’t be where I am now.”

Mark, who is one minute older, said that if he and James had it their way they would practice 12-15 hours a day or more.

Their infatuation with the sport began at a non-electric amusement park back home in England. Just eight years old at the time, both Mark and James spent most of the day firing traditional longbows at an on-site range.

“They must have stayed there for three hours. They didn’t go around the rest of the park,” recalls the twins’ father Tony Webster.

Tony signed the boys up for at a nearby club where coaches quickly determined that the two were naturals.

In September 2008, the Websters moved to Cochrane and Mark and James became members at the Cochrane Archery Centre. They practice twice a week in Calgary and daily in the basement of their house where Tony has setup a makeshift range.

“Back home the coaches had a lot longer to work with us and they taught us the basics,” Mark said. “Out here the coaches are really good, they have worked with the Koreans who are the world champions.”

Now, the twins’ seeming obsession with finding the bulls-eye has earned them tickets to the Alberta Winter Games, held Feb. 4-7 in Alberta’s Lakeland region, where they will compete in the ages 15-17 recurve bow division.

Scores earned by fellow archers from around the province are not made public so Mark said it will be very interesting to see how he stacks up to the competition.

“Consistency is the key,” Mark said. “You have to be like a robot and concentrate. If even one of your steps is off — your foot’s off, your grip is too high, where you rest the string to your chin, anything — it can throw you off.”

James added, “There’s just so many variables, there are so many things that can go wrong. That’s the fun of it, being able to perfect everything that could go wrong.”

While many archers have switched to a high-tech compound bow, James and Mark prefer the tradition recurve style because it requires more skill to perfect and is the only discipline contested at the Olympics.

“It’s a dark side because it’s ridiculously easy,” Mark said of the compound bow.

“There’s a magnified scope and you pull a trigger, you’re not shooting normally, it’s like a gun.”

Beyond the archery range, the Websters said they have enjoyed life in Cochrane a great deal; both Mark and James attend school at Cochrane High.

“We went to a few schools and they didn’t feel right but we went there and it was perfect,” James said of his school. “There’s no other place we want to be.”

The twins said they view the Alberta Games as a building block to bigger things in the future, as both have dreams of representing Canada in archery at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

“We live in Canada and we want to shoot for Canada,” James said.

And, staying true to their brotherly bond, neither Mark nor James was willing to declare himself better than the other.

In Britain, James was club champion, but Mark was more consistent week-to week.

“It really depends on the week,” Mark said.

“There’s no real way to determine who is better,” James added.

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Technology evolves at lightning speed and in a world where presently you can talk via webcam to a friend halfway around the world or draw millions of viewers to a video shot on a cellphone no bigger than your palm, it is often impossible to predict where we will go next. As renowned communications scholar Marshall McLuhan once put it, “Societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the media than by the content of the communication.”

Darren Krause, editor of Metro Calgary, has attracted more than 350 followers to his Twitter account, which he uses to generate story ideas, interact with readers and find sources.

Twitter photo

For local media outlets like Metro Calgary, the key to successfully integrating social media into a business model is simply reacting and building upon the latest trend, according to editor Darren Krause. For example, his publication is heavily involved in Calgary’s Twitter community — where estimated figures put the number of users locally in the tens of thousands — using the tool for everything from generating story ideas and finding sources to interacting with concerned readers. But that’s simply the preferred approach for today, and Krause is well aware the Metro’s social media strategy could change in a heartbeat.

“We have yet to discover what the next best social media tool will be — so it’s difficult to say what the relationship with it will be from a media perspective going forward,” Krause said. “What I can say with some amount of certainty is that traditional media’s relationship with social media will continue to expand and new avenues to collaborate with and engage readers will definitely be uncovered.”

And while Metro Calgary’s Twitter account (@metrocalgary) has more then 850 followers, Krause has taken the tool one step farther and created his own account (@Darren_Krause) that allows him to both conduct business and also show a bit of his personality. He says the greater a publication’s exposure, the more likely they are to succeed in the social media realm.

Content overload

“Social media in itself is an exercise in repetition and oversaturation,” Krause said. “For example you see the same thing ‘retweeted’ (a term used when one Twitter user reposts content published by another in hopes of generating further response) on Twitter dozens of times even though most people have seen at least one of the tweets already.”

And the fight to gain exposure on Twitter and other online forums is not just coming from larger scale publications like Metro. Local bloggers like Michael Morrison, creator of Mike’s Bloggity Blog, can be found interacting on various social media sites every hour of every day in hopes of attracting newcomers and communicating with established followers.

“I don’t think people anticipate how much time it takes to do this,” said Morrison, who started the Canadian entertainment blog in 2006 and has spent an average of three hours working on it each day since on top of his regular full-time job. “The key is to constantly have fresh content up for returning visitors and that takes a lot of time every day.”

Morrison has also begun his own trials with new social media practices, including conducting a “Twitterview” with Canadian artist Jann Arden earlier this year and using Facebook to garner votes for national media awards. For all of his efforts, the New Brunswick native’s site has earned the title of Canada’s No. 1 entertainment blog twice at the Canadian Blog Awards and now averages roughly 15,000 page views each month.

“It’s been increasing every month,” Morrison said of his web traffic. “I always said, because it’s so time consuming, that if I ever noticed it fall off even slightly that I would finish it off but over the past three years that hasn’t happened once.

Mike Morrison, creator of Mike’s Bloggity Blog, does not hide from public view, appearing on television routinely and writing for National Post blog The Ampersand.

“Initially it was just a way for me to keep writing and stay in touch with my friends and family. I never intended it be so successful.”

Turning hype into dollars

Morrison admits that his blog has yet to bring in any significant revenue but says plans are underway to capitalize on the commitment of his dedicated readers.

“I am still learning all of the technical aspects of a blog. I have felt for the last six months that I probably could be making money out of this. I just have no idea how to start,” Morrison said, noting that the site is currently undergoing a professional redesign in hopes of drawing interest from advertisers.

If upstart bloggers in town like Morrison are able to start cashing in on their perceived success it would likely come at the expense of larger publications like Metro, the Calgary Sun and the Calgary Herald; however, Herald columnist Robert Remington doesn’t seem too worried.

“Unlike many casual bloggers, we are schooled in legal issues related to copyright infringement, youth law, libel, defamation, contempt of court, etcetera,” said Remington, who has been with the Herald since 2003. “And unlike many bloggers who cowardly hide behind a cloak of anonymity, we put our names out there so people know who we are.”

Credibility debate

The issue raised by Remington concerns the credibility of blogs, and Morrison admits that he constantly fights to maintain the reputation of his work.

“I don’t think necessarily if I broke a story that people would believe it right away the same way they would with the Herald or the Sun,” Morrison said, noting that he often has to provide a written letter of intent and references before being granted accreditation to cover events. “I think as more of the older reporters get out of the business that blogs will continue to grow and gain more credibility.”

As well, Morrison does not hide behind his words. in fact, he does quite the opposite. His blog writing has garnered attention from publications like the National Post, which now enlists him to write an online entertainment blog called The Ampersand, and Entertainment Weekly. Morrison also appears as a regular on Breakfast Television, a morning show put on by Calgary’s CityTV, where he weighs in on the latest news concerning Canada’s entertainment industry. He has never faced a lawsuit for something printed on Mike’s Bloggity Blog and believes the fairness and accuracy of his work will continue opening doors in the future.

“I think my blog, based on the feedback that I have gotten, is more what people are thinking but don’t necessarily say,” Morrison said. “I think I have the luxury of being able to write whatever I want without an editor or anything like that.”

Remington, meanwhile, remains skeptical that the blogging community can have any significant impact on traditional media outlets, noting that the Herald is constantly evolving with technology and now provides readers with dozens of blogs of its own, covering everything from tips for new parents to the latest happenings in the world of curling. The columnist himself also updates his own blog, robertremington.wordpress.com from time to time.

“As for traditional journalism being replaced by social media, I have this to say: some guy at home in his bathrobe isn’t going to spend $15,000 on a lawyer for the right to attend a refugee deportation hearing or to get access to exhibits in a young offender trial,” Remington said. “Traditional media organizations do that on a matter of journalistic principle. If there comes day when they can’t afford to do that because the economic model is broken — and it’s happening now — it’s the public that will ultimately suffer.

“It’s the dedicated full-time journalists that are doing the heavy lifting, like knocking on the doors of suspect gang members and tracking down accused Ponzi scheme scammers in Central America. That’s something society isn’t getting from the vast majority of bloggers and tweeters.”

Adding to Remington’s feelings on the matter, Metro’s Krause finds the notion of any downfall in his industry as a result of social media amusing, saying if the media does fail, “It will be the fault of the media companies themselves — not because of the advent of the Internet and social media.”

Instead, Krause reiterated that publications like his must strive to keep up with the latest online trends and react accordingly, something he believes is not necessarily being done well at this point.

“Most media companies have yet to realize and embrace the uniqueness of each platform — be it print or online — and how both can be used to complement and enhance one another rather than be carbon copies of each other,” Krause said. “Will Twitter and Facebook fade out? Perhaps, but they will no doubt be replaced by something else. Individual social media platforms may ebb and flow but social media is here to stay. It will continue to evolve and innovate as technology and creativity integrate.

“The beauty of social media and the Internet is ability for individuals and organizations like ours to create, collaborate and innovate — and engage our readers in the process.”
Part 1:Social media’s ‘evolution’

Part 2: The race for Calgary online supremacy

Related stories:

1. Engaging the Masses: Social media’s ‘evolution’
2. Engaging the Masses: The race for Calgary online supremacy

Watching his stepson ride to a second consecutive national amateur superbike title, veteran racer Clint McBain couldn’t help but feel a sense of immense pride.

“Oh man, just to see his progression throughout the year and he’s getting quicker and quicker, it was amazing,” McBain said of his 16-year-old Cody Matechuk. “He goes out and doesn’t just win but he dominates. He sets a lap record, which is a focus for qualifying, and then in the race he’s so mature for his age.”

Matechuk added the Amateur 600 Sportbike class championship to his title in the SV650 series last year as the superbike season concluded Sept. 6 at Shannonville Motorsport Park in Ontario. McBain, meanwhile, wound up third in the Parts Canada Superbike Championships final standings behind Saskatoon’s Brett McCormick and overall winner Jordan Szoke of Brantford, Ont., who picked up his sixth national title.

Matechuk was quick to credit a great deal of his success to the teachings of his stepfather.

“He mainly gets me pointing the right way. He helps me by teaching me riding positions and lines and just how to communicate with the mechanic and all that,” Matechuk said. “Right from the start he has been helping me and has made me into a better rider.”

Matechuk came into the seventh and final stop on the superbike circuit in Shannonville with a commanding 44-point lead over his nearest rival, Longueil, Que.’s Sebastien Tremblay, and rode his Suzuki GSX-R600 safely to a second place finish, easily locking up the championship.

“He could have won the race, but the championship has got to come first and he worked so hard all year long, so why risk it when you don’t have to?” McBain said.

Looking ahead, the adoration displayed by both McBain and his stepson could quickly shift into a heated rivalry as Matechuk is set to turn pro next season, putting the teenager in direct competition with the man who taught him so much about his high-octane sport of choice. If the rivalry was to materialize, it would be the first father-son showdown in the history of North American superbiking.

“It’s pretty cool, it’s never been done before so I think it will be fun,” Matechuk said of racing against his stepfather. “The plan is to beat him but we’ll see where I end up.”

Much like his stepson, McBain didn’t exactly hold back competitive edge when asked about next season’s potential scenario.

“It would be tons of fun for me, at the same time I would go out and try to win as bad as it sounds . . .,” McBain. “He has got to earn his stripes. He’s young, just getting started, I have only got a few years left.
“Hopefully we get enough budget to set both of us up next year but it will be interesting that’s for sure.”
Budget shortcomings have become a constant nuisance for the McBain’s Acceleration Race team. Support from local establishments like Cochrane Dodge has made it easier to cope, however, McBain and Matechuk still constantly find themselves playing catch up with other teams.

“We always have spare parts to put the bikes back together but what we lacked this year was manpower,” said McBain, whose pit crew consisted of just a technician and his brother. “Because we ran two riders and Cody ended up being in title contention all year, if we both crashed on a Saturday we didn’t have enough manpower to put both bikes back together in time.”

Furthermore, finding time to train and fine-tune their equipment is a luxury, as both McBain and Matechuk live in Cochrane but their bikes remain out east during the offseason. Compound all of this with a few last-minute rule changes by circuit organizers and the odds quickly became stacked against the privateer Acceleration team at the outset of this past season.

“It put us behind the 8-ball a little bit at the start, no question,” said McBain, who has raced on the national circuit every season since 1999. “It took a few rounds for me to get going, shake off the winter rust.”

Budget issues aside, there is still nothing that excites McBain more than ripping his Suzuki GSX-R1000 around the various tracks on the circuit, at times reaching speeds over 300 km/h.

“It’s very exciting, we’re on two wheels, not four, and there’s no protective cage around us and there’s often crashing but nine times out of 10 people never get hurt,” said McBain, who himself was left with a sore behind after a nasty spill in Shannonville. “It’s the safest place to ride a motorcycle, believe it or not. Sure, the speeds are high but you are wearing protective gear . . . when you do crash it’s usually on a low-side, meaning you fall inwards and let’s face it we are almost all the way over anyways so it’s not a long ways to fall and you just slide out. On the streets if you do that and hit a car or a curb or something it’s lights out.”

Once again drawing comparisons to his stepfather, Matechuk claims to be a thrill seeker himself, whether it be aboard his superbike or a snowboard in the offseason.

“It’s just the adrenalin ride, I love it,” he said. “Doing something no one else has done before, it’s a rush and that’s why you do it. You just risk it all and hope everything goes well.”

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