Nous Sommes Prêts

Look at this schmuck. Look at his dumb smile. This guy thinks he’s made it. That he’s in the clear. You can almost see him thinking, “I’m free! Now my real life can begin!” What a moron. If he only knew that he was about to spend four years getting a useless Masters degree and end up stuck at a dead-end job with no hope of owning a broom closet (let alone a house) in his own hometown, this doofus would be sprinting back to the registrar’s office to change his major (again) and put off graduating for the next twenty years.

In case you haven’t clued in yet, this chump is me. I’m a graduate of Simon Fraser University. And I’ve decided to write a blog about the SFU Clan. Because I’m an idiot.

Nobody cares about college sports in Vancouver. Or, to put it gently, almost nobody cares about college sports in Vancouver. The Canucks are the big dawg in the local sports scene, and for the odd few who aren’t hockey fans, we have the Lions and the Whitecaps. Yet despite the fact that many residents in the Lower Mainland are graduates of the two major local universities (SFU and the University of British Columbia), there is very little interest in their respective sports teams. Certainly nothing that even comes close to the fervour surrounding American college sports.

So then why, you might ask, would I dedicate myself towards something that has a tiny, if not microscopic, audience? It’s not just because I’m a sports fan (which is true). And it’s not just because I’m too poor to go see the big league teams (also true). It’s because I’m starting to think I missed out on something fun and I’m worried that everyone else is missing out on it, too.

I was a student at SFU from 2005 until my graduation in 2009. I lived with my parents in Vancouver, not on campus, so every day I would take the bus up to SFU for my classes, then immediately bus back home when they were done. There I made a few friendly acquaintances, but never needed to make new friends, since I still hung out with my pals from high school. I wasn’t really interested in hanging out on campus and checking out what social events were happening. I didn’t even realize we had a pub until my last day of classes. For my entire time as student at SFU, I ignored the student community around me.¹ And despite being a sports geek, I was oblivious to SFU’s own sports offerings.

But now I’m ready to rectify my mistake! Partly because I have no choice. I love watching live sports, but as your typical impoverished liberal arts graduate, I can’t afford to see the Canucks regularly. I can’t even afford to see the Whitecaps or the Lions. But by golly, I can just barely afford to see the Clan!² So I’ve decided to start going to SFU Clan games this fall, checking out a game each week. I’m going to get that college experience that I should’ve had ten years ago.

This won’t be a great place to find the latest news or detailed analysis on Clan sports. That isn’t really my thing.³ This is instead a journal of what it’s like to be a fan of the Clan and follow the various teams throughout the year. My hope is that past and current SFU students (and anyone else, for that matter) will find these ramblings entertaining enough to be inspired to go see the Clan for themselves.⁴

So I invite you to join me as I try to get a bit of the SFU experience I missed out on. I swear this isn’t an early-onset midlife crisis.

Go Clan!

NEXT WEEK: We kick things off with a rivalry game as the Clan hosts their crosstown rivals from UBC in an exhibition women’s soccer match.

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1.  “SFU has a student community?!” ↩
2.  Of course, it would be a lot easier to afford if SFU introduced alumni ticket prices… (hint hint) ↩
3.  And by “that,” I mean “hard work” and “actual journalism.” ↩
4. My other hope is that repeatedly saying that I’m a “fan of the Clan” doesn’t get me put on an RCMP watchlist. ↩