Dankochik’s Draftings: Sporting history can’t be ignored

Ask any sports fans, and they’ll have opinions.

Opinions on who will win the upcoming big game, opinions on players they like, opinions on coaching decisions – opinions galore.

Well, after a few years here at The Carillon, it’s time for me to throw my hat into the opinion ring.

For those who don’t pay attention to bylines, this is Cassidy Dankochik writing, the sports editor of The Carillon. Since arriving in Steinbach I’ve been to hundreds of local sporting events and have probably written over 1,000 articles.

I didn’t just pick sports as a preferred beat at random. When I’m not at an event for work, I’m probably watching a professional game, listening to a sports podcast, or reading other coverage on sports.

And in those readings, I have found a troubling lack of something I introduced a while ago into The Carillon’s sports coverage – an acknowledgement of basic history.

Sporting history is an amazing thing. So many trophies and awards are named after luminaries or influential builders as a way to remember their contributions to sport.

Those names don’t matter if you’re in your 20s or 30s and have never heard them before. That’s why at the end of any article I write about a local athlete winning a trophy named after a person, I include a small blurb about who the award is named after.

Although I recognize this probably won’t become standard for other writers – I really think it should – what does needs to become more common is leagues sharing their own history when awarding their honours, especially if the athlete or builder has become less well known with the passage of time.

It’s why I enjoy reading Wes Keating’s sports flashbacks which run every week in the paper so much. There’s shared connection to the sports editors of the past I feel every time his weekly piece arrives in my inbox.

I was impressed when Dominion City’s Denton Mateychuk won the Bill Hunter award, given to the WHL’s top defensemen. At the bottom of the press release announcing the victory, the WHL included a blurb on Hunter, and why the award was named after him.

While I was vaguely aware of Hunter’s history, the quick dip into the establishment of major junior in Western Canada was a welcome refresher for me, and actually relevant to today as NCAA rule changes appear set to change junior forever in the same way Hunter did when he helped found the WHL.

This is despite the fact Hunter is a well-known name comparted to most of the awards I hear about.

I didn’t have to desperately head to Google, digging deep into a provincial sport hall of fame or small archived articles to figure out who he was to the WHL. It was right there on the page for all to see. I commend the league for doing that and I wish every sporting institution would do the same.

I feel there is a lack of knowledge of our shared sporting history, and I will always to my best to share it when appropriate.

Cassidy Dankochik is the sports editor of The Carillon