Brittany Benn races 60 metres for her league-leading thirteenth try. Brienne Stairs scores her fourth field hockey hat trick of the season. Tamara Bell wins the OUA scoring title in her rookie hockey campaign.

And no one is watching.

No one seems to care.

Such is life for a female athlete at the University of Guelph. Faced with the arduous task of competing for attention with their male counterparts, the accomplishments of many of Guelph’s outstanding female athletes get lost in boxscores and anecdotes. Their fan base, consisting of little more than parents and a few friends, offers encouragement, but the lack of sideline support is evident.

And yet, these women remain relentlessly committed to their crafts, even if no one is there to see it happen.

And believe me, it happens.

Unbeknownst to many, the U of G is home to some of Canada’s most prolific female athletes, whose individual and team accomplishments regularly exceed those of the men’s teams. Their level of commitment is unparalleled, their level of skill virtually peerless.

At one point from late September into early October, a Gryphon female athlete was named CIS Athlete of the Week three times in four weeks. Consider this for a moment. At that time, a female athlete from Guelph was better than any other woman in the entire country, 75 per cent of the time. On each occasion, it was a different athlete from a different sport. Gryphon women don’t just dominate a couple of sports- they dominate manysports.

But regardless of the magnitude of their games, don’t expect to see Rogers television covering these women’s events. They’ll be off, knee deep, in a football broadcast, seeking to draw attention to a sport that already has more than its fair share of supporters. And the women play on.

“I would suggest that this is a historical problem,” said University of Guelph athletic director Tom Kendall. “Unfortunately, there are some male sports that both the media and the public are attracted to, no matter what is happening. Football, men’s basketball and men’s hockey are examples of this.”

Women’s hockey goaltender Chelsey Roy agreed with Kendall’s sentiments.

“Take a student who isn’t really a sports fan and ask him/her if they’d rather watch a men’s hockey game or a women’s hockey game,” said Roy. “More often than not, they’d choose the men’s game, unfortunately.”

Media attention to women’s sports is a fickle and sensitive subject. Traditionally relegated to secondary status, few outlets have made concerted efforts to break the mould and devote their attention to covering female athletics, blatantly ignoring the accomplishments of these remarkable individuals.

“For women’s teams to draw a large crowd, they have to win. But that’s not always the case in men’s sports,” said Kendall. “That’s an unfortunate reality but it’s just the way it is.”

But if winning is the crowd-drawing formula, where is the support, Guelphites?

“I believe students prefer to attend men’s games because of the entertainment factor,” said hockey winger Jessica Zerafa, the OUA’s leading goal-scorer last year. “If you go watch the men’s hockey team, you are more likely to see a huge hit, which is what people want to see. The women’s game focuses on finesse, which might not be as appealing.”

The Ontarion has spent much of this semester seeking to draw attention to female athletics on campus, including highlighting their accomplishments and quashing negative stereotypes associated with women’s sports. But after seeing the limited number of people that turned out for Saturday’s OUA women’s rugby final on the campus Multipurpose Fields, one can’t help but wonder if these messages have fallen on deaf ears.

Last weekend, three Gryphon women’s teams played in their respective OUA finals. These three teams, the cross-country, field hockey and rugby squads, all emerged victorious – a triple gold weekend for Gryphon women’s athletics. The rugby win was played in front of a relatively sparse crowd, nearly half of which were Western Mustangs supporters. The Guelph Multipurpose Fields, where the game was played, was in terrible condition and didn’t even feature an on-field scoreboard. Can anyone see the football team putting up with a situation like this?

The field hockey team, despite having an undefeated record, was forced to travel to London for their provincial title game. These women do not even have their own campus home field. Every weekend, they traveled across Ontario for league games.

And every weekend, they continued winning.

The cross-country team only runs one home race each semester, the Vic Matthews Open in early September when one might think that school spirit should be at an all-time high. Sadly, the Guelph fan support was relatively limited. On that occasion, four Guelph women finished in the top five.

Last weekend, many Gryphon women were playing in the games of their lives, having reached the pinnacle of their sport. With two of these teams having to travel to other schools to play, this sounded like a great opportunity for the University’s governing athletic body to organize a support group to travel with the team and offer support, right?

Not so fast. Instead of rounding up fans to travel to these women’s championship events, the Department of Athletics organized a bus trip for Gryphon fans to travel to the football game in London, a game that was ultimately lost by the struggling men’s team.

“We put a lot of effort and a lot of money into promoting our [women's] sports, and especially those that are being successful,” said Kendall. “On any campus though, it just doesn’t seem to stick.”

“Last year, the Athletics Department put a lot of effort into promoting our playoff games and we shattered attendance records – almost 900 people at one of our home games,” said Roy.  ”Imagine if that type of marketing continued throughout the season.”

Kendall and his staff will say that progress has been made in terms of cultivating student interest. He’s right. Kind of.

“We address this issue on a weekly basis, to be honest with you,” admitted Kendall. “We have event management meetings and at the end of every season, our marketing department meets to discuss how we can do it better.

“We’ve certainly connected much better over the last two years with our residences. That’s been a huge improvement,” he said. “This is why you see so many more kids coming out to Homecoming. We’ve made some in-roads there.”

The issue here, however, is that this new student interest has been generated to support football, already the U of G’s most well attended sport. The football Homecoming game was played on Sept. 26 at 1pm. The women’s rugby Homecoming game: Sept. 26 at 1pm.

These women never even had a chance to attract support for their sport. All the students were on the next field supporting the football team. Brilliant scheduling! While 8, 000 students cheered their inebriated faces off at Alumni Field to see the Gryphons fall 41-39 to the Western Mustangs, the women’s rugby team, in front of no more than 100 people, cruised to a 29-0 shutout victory over Brock.

I applaud the Athletic Department for recognizing that this is an issue. I applaud the student population for supporting the Gryphons football team. But come on, there’s a lot more to this school’s athletic program than just football.

Kick the ‘women’s sports are boring’ stereotype to the curb, already. Women’s sports are pretty damn exciting. And here’s a new one: They win too. By a lot.

“During the playoffs last year, several of my friends came out to watch just because I had invited them,” said Roy. “The response I got afterwards from everyone was ‘Wow, I’ve never been to a women’s hockey game before and I actually had such a good time, it was a great game.’”

The OUA title that the women’s rugby team just won was an incredible achievement. Despite the poor field conditions, adverse weather and relative lack of sideline support, you will never see a more excited, proud and overjoyed group of women than the Gryphons championship team from Saturday. When the final whistle blew, the jubilant Gryphons stormed the field to celebrate. It was a display of happiness that you couldn’t help but feel good watching, yet a display that few cared to see.

“It’s a cultural thing,” added Kendall, a former women’s basketball coach for 22 years. “Canadian college students are not tuned into sports, generally. They don’t see it as an interest or something that they support. Who knows why that is?”

I find myself struggling with the same question.

Millions of Canadians tune in to watch Hockey Night in Canada every Saturday evening; many of these viewers are university-aged people. If you’ll plan your evening around an NHL hockey game, why not do the same for your campus varsity women’s team, especially a winning team? Do the Leafs really need any more fans these days? A university sporting event is a far more intimate and engaging experience than a professional sporting event and don’t write off the level of talent until you see it for yourself.

These women can play.

Despite the rugby, cross-country and field hockey seasons coming to a close with national championships this weekend, there are still countless opportunities to offer support for your Gryphon teams as new seasons begin and current campaigns continue.

The women’s basketball regular season gets underway tomorrow evening at the W.F. Mitchell Athletic Centre on campus. The volleyball and hockey seasons are now in full swing, the swimming team still has three more local events and the track and field team will host two big events on Nov. 22 and Feb. 12, showcasing their talents.

These Gryphon athletes would appreciate your support and you’ll be amazed of their talents. Don’t let them go overlooked any longer.

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