Lopsided scores pose problems for teams

A York University sports psychologist says high-school coaches are doing major harm to student athletes by not preventing lopsided and outrageous game results, reported the Toronto Star Feb. 2. Frances Flint, a former coach and athlete who has worked with the Canadian Olympic Association, said coaches have other objectives than allowing their teams to run up results which, she claims, often end in youngsters withdrawing from sports. “This is a learning environment and we seem to be copying the wrong message that is often portrayed by the professional leagues,” said Flint, who has been on the faculty of York’s School of Kinesiology & Health Science for the past 28 years.

“Coaches are missing the boat in moral and ethical development of these young people,” she said. “Allowing lopsided scores poses problems for both teams, and coaches have a responsibility to tell their athletes to play hard, cut the showboating and to play with respect and dignity.” Flint said there could be other intentions for coaches than to condone players scoring points when the outcome has already been determined. “Coaches know how hurtful it can be to lose by a ridiculous score and what they don’t realize is that it can turn off players and, rather than learn skills, develop a hate for other players and teams,” she said.

Ontario’s governing Liberals are expanding the premier’s largest political fundraiser of the year, despite vowing to limit the influence of money on politics last election, reported The Toronto Sun Feb. 2. Robert MacDermid, a political science professor in York’s Faculty of Arts, said American disclosure rules require political parties to reveal who gave how much to a campaign even before the election is held. “Here it takes a year before citizens can get access,” he said.

Ontario municipalities are getting $1.9 billion in federal gas tax revenues and that could mean a “modest” expansion of Toronto’s transit system, Mayor David Miller says. The improvements could include new buses, subway cars and an overhaul of the streetcar fleet, reported the Toronto Star Feb. 2. The money that the city will collect under the deal will go “predominantly” to the Toronto Transit Commission, which Miller called “the biggest hole in our budget.” While the TTC is studying the possibility of expanding the Spadina subway line north to York University and Steeles Avenue, officials have said the gas tax money is essential for more modest goals in the 10-year capital budget, including buying new hybrid buses that pollute less, new subway cars and upgrading the streetcar fleet.

The Canadian Marketing Hall of Legends has picked the crème de la crème of the country’s marketing industry – including York marketing Professor Alan Middleton – as inductees for its first year on the awards scene, reported Strategy, an advertising and marketing industry publication, in its Jan. 20 issue. Middleton was inducted as a mentor, an individual who, through philanthropy or academic position, has provided others with the opportunity, inspiration or ability to pursue excellence in Canadian marketing. Karl Moore, a management professor at McGill University, earned his doctorate in 1995 under Middleton at York’s Schulich School of Business. “He was a source of encouragement and wisdom. Beyond his teaching he also spends extraordinary time outside the classroom advising, encouraging and guiding his students, current and former alike. Alan Middleton is simply a superb teacher. ” And Tony Altilia, who worked with Middleton at Enterprise Advertising Associates, said Middleton “has a real natural affinity and love for the business. When he went into the academic world he probably found his true calling because he was always a student of marketing even when he worked in the agency world.”

• Julia Creet, English professor in York’s Faculty of Arts, was interviewed on CBC Radio’s “The Current” Feb. 1 during the show’s historical look at satire. Creet teaches a course on satire and quotes the opinion, “non-fiction is the new satire.”
  
• Peter Paolucci, a vampire specialist and a lecturer at the Centre for Academic Writing in York’s Faculty of Arts, discussed the fascination with vampires of two of the teens charged with killing a 12-year-old boy, on “Global News” Feb. 1.