The Toronto Star from Toronto, Ontario, Canada • 74

E10 TORONTO STAR TUESDAY DECEMBER 14 2004 Lou Marsh Award ootball Marsh a reality check Dave Perkins tw 1 Kjs goal simple: keep improving Lou Marsh Winners 2004: Adam van Koeverden 2003: Mike Weir 2002: Catriona Le May Doan 2001: Jamie SateDavid Pelletier 2000: Daniel Igali 1999: Carolyn Brunet 1998: Larry Walker 1997: Jacques Villeneuve 1996: Donovan Bailey 1995: Jacques Villeneuve 1994: Myriam Bedard 1993: Mario Lemieux 1992: Mark Tewksbury 1991: Silken Laumann 1990: Kurt Browning 1989: Wayne Gretzky 1988: Carolyn Waldo 1987: Ben Johnson 1986: Ben Johnson 1985: Wayne Gretzky 1984: Gaetan Boucher 1983: Wayne Gretzky 1982: Wayne Gretzky 1981: Susan Natttrass 1980: Terry ox 1979: Sandra Post 1978: Graham Smith Ken Read 1977: Guy Lafleur 1976: Sandy Hawley 1975: Bobby Clarke 1974: erguson Jenkins 1973: Sandy Hawley 1972: Phil Esposito ilion 1970: Bobby Orr 1969: Russ Jackson 1968: Nancy Greene 1967: Nancy Greene 1966: Elaine Tanner 1965: Petra Burka 1964: George Hungerford Russ Jackson 1963: Bill Crothers 1962: Don Jackson 1961: Bruce Kidd 1960: Anne Heggtveit 1959: Barbara Wagner Bob Paul 1958: Lucille Wheeler 1957: Maurice Richard 1956: Marlene Stewart Streit 1955: Beth Whittai I 1954: Marilyn Bell 1953: Doug Hepburn 1952: George Genereux 1951: Marlene Stewart 1950: Bob Mcarlane 1949: Cliff Lumsdon 1948: Barbara Ann Scott 1947: Barbara Ann Scott 1946: Joe Krol 1945: Barbara Ann Scott 194419431942: In memory of Canadian athletes who died during World War II 1941: Theo Dubois 1940: G6rard 1939: Bob Pirie 1938: Bob Pearce 1937: Marshall Cleland 1936: Dr Phil Edwards than even terms for 364 days a year then decide once we get into the Lou Marsh selection room that the playing field is level again We can debate this as being proper or improper all we want and perhaps we should But the reality difficult as that might be for some to accept Petitclerc was in the group that made it to the final vote There was a ruckus last week when she and Perdita elicien tied for the national track and field honour and pride ultimately refused to allow her to accept equal billing certainly her right It make her feel any better that she made the fi nal Marsh list and elicien She could have won and she got votes But van Koever den got more and he wins He be unanimous but not news No one ever is not booing you hear Louuuu as in Lou Marsh He was the long ago legendary sports editor of this newspaper in whose name yet another con troversial award has been ad ministered this one to kayaker Adam van Koeverden now for ever remembered as outstanding athlete for 2004 On the surface it resembles a slam dunk in an Olympic year to name the Canadian who had the best results at the Games In his case the paddler won a bronze medal and then a gold medal baubles at the time you might remember that were like rain in a Canada wide med al desert His performance left him a tick or two ahead of fellow The wise men and women on the Marsh panel yours truly in cluded were faced with a collec tion of outstanding accom plished athletes who simply jump up and separate themselves by their achieve ments at least from each other In van case it be comes a matter of not so much strength in numbers but safety in them Of the 13 ballots enough had him either in first place or on the 1 2 3 podium that he won on the breadth of his appeal to the voters as much as the strength of it There were arguments put forth to varying degrees of warmth on behalf of hockey star Martin St Louis baseball ers Jason Bay and Gagne who had another great year Olympic golden types Muenzer and Shewfelt the Steve Nash and wheelchair racer Chantal Petitclerc It turned out to be Petitclerc who was the subj ect of the great est debate as seemed likely go ing in ive Paralympics gold medals is a job well done by a veteran athlete and if we the vot ers (to start with us) treated wheelchair sports on an equal basis with the so called able bodied sports she would have won this award in a romp But we rightly or wrongly so she Sports editors across Canada or even former sports editors do not spend the money air time newspaper space or man power to cover things like the Paralympics at anywhere near the level we do for the main stream sports Sad or not a fact So it would be disingenu ous at the very least to treat these events as being on less Olympic gold winners Lori Ann Muenzer and Kyle Shewfelt in balloting among the eight final ists Someone used the word medi ocre to describe them as a group but not right at all nothing mediocre about an Olympic gold medal Is van Koeverden a grabber winner? Not really no de serving as any one of the eight would have been but he have camps of angry mailers operating either for or against him not like a year ago when Mike Weir and Eric Gagne split the proceedings very near ly 50 50 Weir winning by a nose hair in that vote and by an entire nostril across the country in the Canadian Press poll The closeness of the race only fur ther enraged those (on both sides) who saw it as a ridicu lously easy choice Tyrone Willingham opened abox and found a golden whistle a gift from University of Washington president Mark Emmert and athletic director Todd Turner He slipped it aroundhis neck and blew a shrill chirp Just like that Willingham was back to work thought the first order of business should be to test it just to make sure it was as true as I knew it would Willingham explained yesterday in his first' remarks as new coach Two weeks ago Willingham was fired after going 21 15 in three seasons at Notre Dame file first full time ighting Irish coach in 70 years who was not' allowed to finish his first con tract Afewhours before Willingham was introduced at Washington New England Patriots offensive coordinator Charlie Weis re placed him at Notre Dame Weis promised to give Notre Dame an arrogant attitude and turn the ighting Irish into an intelligent hard working nasty football team hate to include the but that is part of being a win ning football Weis said as he was introduced in South Bend Ind yesterday as the new Irish coach Contract details were not released Weis says his job is to raise ex pectations and win games No tre Dame posted back to back winning seasons since 1997 98 Tough academic stan dards and a difficult schedule have been blamed for the de mise of the most sto ried football program Weis who will remain with the Patriots through the end of the season said he believe any of that think that the people who complain about those things are looking for Weis said Washington plays host to No tre Dame on Sept 24 Willing ham and the ighting Irish beat Washington 38 3 this season I aware Notre Dame is on the Willingham asked breaking into a playful smile am but that will not be the focus With the years of ex perience I have in this game I know the most important game is the next game We open with Air Willingham agreed to a five year deal worth $143 million (US) in guaranteed annual sala ry with $600000 in incentives that could boost it to $2 million annually His base pay is $425000 The Huskies believe Willing ham can restore the sagging football program to na tional prominence and clean up a mess left by an ugly divorce with former coach Rick Neuhei sei who was fired in July 2003 for gambling on NCAA basket ball Washington is coming off a 1 10 season under Keith Gilbert son the worst record in school history Willingham is the Hus third coach in four years about time we had a clean safety Wallace said came in with coach Neuheisel and I really wanted to play for him Then that happened and ANDY CLARKREUTERS ILE PHOTO at last summer's Athens Olympics or his Willingham lands at Washington Weis gets at Notre Dame Van Olympic gold and bronze medals hold broad appeal to voters Any one of the eight finalists for award could have been deserving choice this year Adam van Koeverden paddles toward a bronze medal finish in the men's 1000 metres at last summer Athens Olympics ror accomplishments van Koeverden was voted this year's winner of the Lou Marsh Award over a field of deserving candidates that includ ed from left Chantal Petitclerc Jason Bay Kyle Shewfelt Steve Nash Eric Gagne Lori Ann Muenzer and Martin ot louis hired by Huskies 'r 1 4 A' KJfRM V'fcA' i 4 mkhb BHP99H HSEBH IWE BtH 8fe3i SSi I I'xTi 11 Imai aKjagl mi i i V'JSA Marsh rom El sports editor Lou Marsh an ex cellent athlete as well as an NHL and boxing referee at the start of the 20th century believe I won the same award as Terry ox I think I deserve it my favourite Canadian athlete of all said van Koeverden A kinesiology major at Mc Master University van Koever den was busy yesterday trying to squeeze in some study time for an exam tomorrow between all the interviews and congratula tory phone calls He has had a chance to attend his fair share of dinners since his Olympic suc cess but is most enjoying the opportunity to share his medals and story with schoolchildren go into an elementary school and have the kids scream their heads off when I show them my race and other races and to talk about how important school is those are the things going to look back he said The remarkable thing about van Koeverden is that really just getting started He men tioned yesterday like to compete through the 2012 Sum mer Olympics at which time still only be 30 He said he think of his career in terms of how many Olympic or world champion ship medals he might win about he said goals change so simple keep im proving and keep competing at a high level They equate to tangible things like winning a gold medal at the Olympics All I want to do is race my Van Koeverden certainly did that at the Olympics irst he won a bronze medal in his spe cialty the 1000 metres the same event in which he cap tured silver at the worlds the year before He a medal favourite the next day in the 500 metres but pulled off the race of his life to win gold remember going as hard as I could through the first 250 me tres and then thinking next 50 seconds are the most important of your he said the next 70 strokes I worked to make everythinghap pen I think about win ning a gold medal I just thought about putting my best race to One of the adjectives most used to describe van Koeverden is cocky He has a definite edge to him and is outspoken but he feels often been mislabelled by the media what you get from my attitude all I am is confident in my training I say cocky I still get nervous go ing into a race Cocky is going in to a race thinking already won it I have the utmost respect for my Van Koeverden a fanatic when it comes to liis training pro gram is angry about the recent BALCO drug scandal and the claims by lab owner Victor Conte that athletes win Olympic gold without drugs comments drive me absolutely said van Koeverden biggest thing that affects me is I get asked about it just because some a hole from BALCO who is ba sically nothing more than a tax evading drug pusher tells the world all athletes are on drugs accusing everyone stood on a podium All I can say is Tack it up He This going to jail and ev listening to what he The voting panel consisted of representatives from the Star Canadian Press the Globe and Mail National Post Toronto Sun Montreal La Pressethe Edmon ton Journal CBC CTV The Score and Prime Time Sportsan 590 coach Gilbertson happened I think this could be a chance to be the right Emmert and Turner praised Willingham for his integrity and reputation for discipline saying it was important to find a coach whose teams succeed academi cally and fit within the universi overall mission His ties to the West Coast helped too Willingham was 44 36 1 with a Rose Bowl appear ance at Stanford from 1995 01 time for the University of Washington to return to being the said Willingham who recalled the Huskies always playing tough and wearing down his Stanford squads I understand it that is a vicious ASSOCIATED PRESS.