{"id":7720,"date":"2013-10-02T09:00:55","date_gmt":"2013-10-02T16:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=7720"},"modified":"2013-10-10T14:25:11","modified_gmt":"2013-10-10T21:25:11","slug":"camosun-chargers-celebrates-two-decades-with-gala-alumni-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2013\/10\/02\/camosun-chargers-celebrates-two-decades-with-gala-alumni-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Camosun Chargers celebrates two decades with gala, alumni games"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Saturday, September 28, the Camosun Chargers had a reunion-like party to celebrate 20 years of the college\u2019s sports teams. Not only did the college\u2019s athletics department unveil their new logo and mascot, but there were also alumni games and a social gathering, all of which meant a great deal to Camosun recreation and athletic coordinator Graham Matthews, who has been working at the college for the whole 20-year span that the Chargers have been around for.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow to describe it in words? You\u2019ve got me stumped here,\u201d says Matthews. \u201cIt was exciting because these people have come through the programs and some have gone onto careers in athletics. To see how our program has helped them to move on to different parts of their lives made for heartfelt moments. It was very exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matthews says that seeing everyone together again was like a big reunion that went beyond a shared love of sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like one big team that hadn\u2019t seen each other for quite a while, and it was a chance for them to get together and mingle and chat and share pictures of their experiences or their families,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Ladies and gentlemen… the new Chargers mascot (photo by Camosun College AV Services).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the alumni that showed up was Greg Wallis, who played with the Chargers\u2019 mens basketball team from 2004-2006. Wallace says the alumni games were a lot of fun, even if some of the ex-players weren\u2019t able to keep up with the current Camosun athletes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe game was a lot of fun and a great chance to see what this year\u2019s team was like and to get to play alongside guys I hadn\u2019t seen for awhile,\u201d says Wallis. \u201cFitness was a bit of an issue for some of us; after the first quarter things kind of went downhill from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

All joking aside, Wallis says that the event was a great opportunity to play catch-up with some old faces.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was fantastic to get to see a lot of people I used to play with and I thought everything went very well,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Chargers women\u2019s basketball coach Brett Wescott says that the event also served a practical function: some much-needed practice for his team before the exhibition season starts on the October 5 weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe played well for the first 25 minutes, but we did not show up for the last 15 minutes as we almost gave away a huge lead. We just have to put together a more consistent effort and get better at executing our systems of play to be more successful,\u201d says Wescott.<\/p>\n

Chargers men\u2019s basketball coach Scot Cuachon views the alumni games as a good time and nothing more, and says coaching against the alumni team was an interesting experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, there was cautious optimism,\u201d jokes Cuachon. \u201cI don\u2019t think we did anything we were supposed to do, but that\u2019s okay.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the most successful coaches in Chargers men\u2019s basketball history, Gord Thatcher, coached the alumni team.<\/p>\n

\u201cGord has been an idol of mine through the years, and I\u2019m glad he didn\u2019t have a lot of time to prepare, let\u2019s put it that way,\u201d chuckles Cuachon.<\/p>\n

Matthews says that despite years–decades, even–passing since last seeing some of the faces, he didn\u2019t have a hard time recognizing the people who showed up. Once a Charger, always a Charger.<\/p>\n

\u201cI recognized most of them,\u201d he says. \u201cSome looked a little older, but they still had the same youth and vibrancy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another Chargers event on the same weekend, the inaugural Chargers Athletic Scholarship and Hall of Fame Dinner, raised over $20,000 through auctions for student-athlete scholarships.<\/p>\n

The inductees to the Chargers Hall of Fame were former Camosun president Liz Ashton, former Chargers men\u2019s volleyball head coach Linda Henderson and Chargers alumni Wallis (men\u2019s basketball) and Martin Reader (men\u2019s volleyball).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Saturday, September 28, the Camosun Chargers had a reunion-like party to celebrate 20 years of the college\u2019s sports teams. Not only did the college\u2019s athletics department unveil their new logo and mascot, but there were also alumni games and a social gathering, all of which meant a great deal to Camosun recreation and athletic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,15,114],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-campus","category-october-2-2013"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7720"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7815,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7720\/revisions\/7815"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}