Travel makes the program stronger
July 5, 2010 - Regina Leader-Post
By Ian Hamilton
Leo McGee probably could have been a travel agent.
As the head coach of the University of Regina Cougars men's and women's wrestling teams, McGee regularly sends athletes around the globe to compete in international events.
Lisa McKibben of the Cougars is to head this week for Nicaragua, where she's to represent Canada in the Pan-American junior championships. She already has been to Austria this year to compete in the Austrian Grand Prix.
Later this month, Connor Malloy and Jasmine Slinn of the Cougars are to venture to Hungary for the world junior championships. That duo also competed in May in the International Junior Champions tournament in Turkey, and Slinn participated in the German Grand Prix later in May.
They're not the first Cougars to compete on the international stage -- and they won't be the last.
"Sometimes athletics can be a tremendous educational tool," McGee said Sunday from Guelph, Ont., where Malloy and Slinn were competing in the Canada Cup meet. "The athletes get to travel and see the world and learn all about it.
"Then there's the competition in what is the off-season for the university team. It keeps the kids training, which isn't always possible during the school year. If you keep kids training, the collegiate team benefits from that."
"(Taking trips) has been great," Slinn added. "It's an opportunity to experience the best athletes in the world and different cultures as well. It definitely has made me grow as an athlete, too, being able to experience different styles and how other people wrestle."
In McGee's eyes, sending wrestlers around the world should make his program grow, too.
"To have a strong program, you have to have the strongest kids," he said. "Even when the university season is over, the wrestling season goes on. It's continuous because you've got all of these kids trying to make provincial teams and national teams. When other kids see that and see what our athletes get to do, it helps us draw the better kids."
Getting the University of Regina name out there doesn't hurt either, although McGee doesn't expect to see a sudden influx of Turkish wrestlers just because Malloy and Slinn went to Ankara.
"The local kids are the foundation of our program," McGee said. "If you need a striker or a goaltender or a wide receiver, you go get one. But the nucleus of our program is the Saskatchewan kids.
"I think kids realize they don't have to relocate to get these opportunities. They see they can do it right here."
Malloy finished fourth in the men's 74-kilogram division at the Canada Cup, losing to a Korean wrestler in the bronze-medal match. Slinn lost to a Canadian and an American in her two preliminary matches in the women's 48kg division and failed to advance to the medal round.
Jesse Reed of McGee's Cattown Wrestling Club also was in Guelph, where he competed in the pre-junior Canada Cup. Reed, who is headed to Brazil this summer to represent Canada in the Pan-Am cadet championships, won the bronze medal in the men's 50kg class in Guelph.