0:10 Welcome to On The Rise, the show that covers torontonians that possess great athleticism. I'm Emily Pardo, 0:17 and I'm Kathleen Francisco. With the Blue Jays and Toronto FC season in full swing and Maple Leafs making it to the playoffs, there are a lot of athletes that go unnoticed. 0:28 And here on On The Rise, we really want to focus on the underdogs of our community. 0:33 Today we'll be talking about female empowerment through roller derbying, the Ryerson men's basketball team and their record breaking season and how yoga can be beneficial for mental health. 0:49 The sport of roller derby isn't a sport that is often being talked about. Throughout the sport's long history it has transformed from a marathon on wheels to an empowering female fight to the death. For these female athletes, the Toronto Roller Derby League offers them something no other sport can. Emily you talk to them last month, right? 1:08 Yeah, they're called the Death Track Dolls. I caught them last month and this is what they had to say. 1:20 On a Wednesday night in March, the air is cold and the sun is almost set. 20 women trickle into a cluster of warehouses in North Toronto. They meet in one particular gray building into the bunker inside the warehouse, tape outlines a track and a clusterathlete stretch and chatter as they wait for practice to start. As skates are laced up, and helmets are adjusted, the 20 women that had traveled all the way to Downsview are transformed into hard hitting focused athletes ready for a fight. But for many of the women here, being a team member on the Death Track Dolls, means more than just playing a contact sport. 2:00 Hi, I'm Arly. My derby name is Argyll and this is my first year on a home team. And last year I played on the farm team. Roller derby is so much more you know like gender inclusive and body positive. Everyone here is looking to smash the patriarchy and fight for feminist freedom and I love all that so I fit in real well here. 2:26 The women begin their warm up first off the track and then on. Flying around the mark out areas on their wheels. 2:36 My derby name is Wheeta-bitch. Well, most people just call me weedy. I'm generally a blocker, sometimes a pivot, and I'm cool Captain this year for the death track doll. It's just really great to see women on the track doing badass things. You see women look like different tattoos, different haircuts. And also it's an exciting sport where women are aggressive, you know, and everyone's like, oh, so like you hit and I'm like, yeah, actually, we do.. 3:02 My very first game, I was called up from the farm team to play against the Death Track Dolls. And it was either Wheetabitch or Batman, because they both hit me hard. And I don't know which one of them it was, but one of them broke my ribs and it was phenomenal. And I was so scared of the Dolls ever since I'm so glad I am on our team. 3:24 It's a feminist sport, now there are men's roller derby leagues. But I remember hearing a while ago, you know, like I watched the men but it's just not the same as a woman who play sports who you know, played basketball and didn't get as much play time because I was a girl. And who still even at this age playing racquetball have come up against sexism. It's really great to be in a sport where it's for women, it's run by women, and that's really celebrated. 3:48 My Derby name is Jigowatts and I'm one of the blockers on the Death Track Dolls. I fell in love with the sport from the first time that I ever watched it because it was just so empowering. Like, hey, look at these bad ass chicks whoo can do this stuff. It's crazy. 4:09 I came to my first game when I was about six months pregnant. I needed some feminism because I was feeling really pregnant and I was hooked immediately. I knew it was something that I wanted to do, but I wasn't quite ready yet. And then a couple years later, one of my friends wanted to see what it was about and invited me to come to the the fresh meats info session. And I said ah I don't know, and said, you know, you have to cut this Okay, fine. And then I was suddenly in a room full of my best friends that I never knew I had or needed. 4:41 It doesn't matter what background you come from, what you look like, what your body type is. It's all assets that can be used towards this game. I come from a ballet background, and the balance and stability comes in handy and it's something that I acknowledge that I can pass on to my team. 4:59 As both teams line up on the start line, their whistle blows and they're off. The crowd cheers as their favorite jammer fights her way through the pack, and glides around the track as she scores for points for her team. 5:11 The thing that I love about this sport is there's not one ideal body type. Everything has its own advantages, like all of our body shapes, and all of our sizes can be celebrated and can be used as assets on the track. For me, it's really also brought about a lot of confidence and body image. I remember growing up and being like, Oh, these jeans don't fit, my thighs are too big. Whereas now I don't even bother trying to buy jeans anymore. And my thighs and like yeah, my thighs are really big, but they're awesome. And they can move these other people on the track. And so you know, I never thought that I would be wearing booty shorts in front of a crowd and now I'm pretty comfortable in it. 5:51 I threw out my scale. I stopped caring about the how much I weighed, which is really great. It was really freeing. It was a really freeing moment for me. 6:03 I've always struggled with my weights and being on the Death Track Dolls. I've actually lost 50 pounds in the last year. It's crazy the amount of work that you have to put in and it also Just made me realize how unique I am and so powerful as a woman, like I can do anything. 6:25 And one of the really great things is that it's a really fast growing sport. So actually, the majority of places across Canada actually now do have some form of roller derby league. 6:37 I'm a grad student so next year, I could end up moving anywhere, wherever I get hired. And that fear of having to make new friends is gone because I know wherever I go, there's gonna be, you know, roller derby there. It's just it's given me a lot of confidence. Not feeling like I'm a freak all the time because I know there's 100 other people like me out there. I feel like I have a community and like not just here in Toronto, but like a global community. 7:03 Cheers echo around the warehouse as the game comes to a close. Yeah, oops, take one more lap to high five their fans lining the track. Winning the game is just an added bonus for the Death Track Dolls. Being part of Toronto roller derby means being a powerful woman on wheels. 7:27 It's really great to see that feminine stereotypes are being beat through sports, especially with roller derby. 7:33 It really is. I could tell when I met these women that they're extremely passionate about their sport and what it can do for women watching the sport as well as playing it. You know you can learn a lot about sports when you watch a game. Usually the biggest focus at a game is of course the game itself. 7:50 But one man has proven time and time again that if you can't make it to a junior hockey league game, his commentary will make you want to follow along online regardless. 8:00 Stephen Ellis had an opportunity to chat with him. 8:20 Goal in the first period... 8:22 There were hundreds of people in attendance, each of them eager to see if the Toronto Patriots could repeat as OGHL champions. After just two periods of play with Toronto, leading three nothing against Kingston, it was getting clear that they were the favourites to do it all again. Then there was four. Then there were five. Finally there were six. Time was ticking down and Toronto was ready to bring a hockey championship back to the city. So it was played by play man Jamie Neugebauer. 8:50 And for the second year in a row the Toronto patriots, back to back champions here in 2015. 9:02 A staple of the junior hockey since getting his first job in the league in 2011, with his voice being lent to hundreds of live broadcasts for live streaming service Hockey TV over the past few years. 9:12 The goalie kicked off the net as the goal was going in. That is an absolutely outrageous call! Hope someone from the league is watching that. 9:26 Hockey was always his biggest passion. Like many Canadian kids, he dreamed of playing in the NHL, specifically for his beloved Toronto Maple Leafs. But also like other Canadian kids, the dream died early. Jamie mainly played ball hockey and took part is some other hockey camps. playing the game was never really in the cards for the energetic commentator. 9:44 Matthew Cairns, you can really skate here is Cairn's going live. And they score. Welcome to the Patriots! 9:58 Before getting involved in commentary, Jamie wrote for a couple of small blogs before eventually contributing articles to sports net, among others. Jamie got his first job in hockey, the OHL's Kitchener Rangers, acting as a staff writer for the 2007-2008 season. A former sports journalism student at Centennial College, Jamie was brought on to volunteer for former OJHL the Vaughn Vipers by former head coach and general managers, Jason forte. A guy he'd become great friends with later on. Once the team folded in 2012, Jamie joined the North York Rangers the team he'd stay with until they were eliminated by the Oakville Blades during the 2017 OJHL playoffs. Jamie's love of the OJHL was clear from the beginning. He wants to be involved in as many ways as possible. In the following five years, Jamie would go on to work for the Toronto Patriots who won two titles of them on the mic, the Newmarket Hurricanes, the Oakville Blades the last team who would go on to commentate. 10:50 That one is a forward pass given away to Robert Ward, probably the wrong guy to give it to here's the breakaway. Ward shoots, scores! 10:56 Steve Mitchell a camera operator in the OJHL has known Jamie ever since he started in the league. 11:01 I've known Jamie about six years now I was with him from day one when he called his first ever OJHL game inVaughn. The very first outing was a little bit shaky, he improved as the season went on, and I really consider him to be the top announcer in the OJ. 11:19 But after spending the last six years of his life calling Junior A hockey games, Jamie's time in the OJHL is coming to an end. Jimmy recently got engaged to his fiance earlier in the hockey season. With that he had a major change. He decided to move to Regina for the upcoming year, leaving behind a legacy that has gone unmatched for any announcer to ever grace the league. His love for the game is something that is evident through his work covering four teems this past season, there is no doubt that Nugee, as he's called, is an extremely busy man. He had many memorable moments during your time in the league, but his first game provide a highlight he laughs about to this day. 11:51 My first ever game, absolutely exhausted and went to triple overtime. Crazy game I was absolutely dead tired, no professionalism. And in the third overtime there was a stop play where a Queen's University player physically like on purpose just body check a referee from behind and and basically just kind of destroyed her. Being exhausted and having no experience, I started laughing because I thought it was kind of funny. Didn't want to get hurt and obviously only the referee did but the funny thing about that situation was there was all these reviews obviously with the Ontario University athletics board and university about suspending that Queen's player and the broadcast included me laughing about the situation. 12:35 Jamie has left a big impact in the league and the people he worked with. He appointed Jake Howard is color commentator in Oakville to be his replacement in North York for the upcoming campaign. Jake loved his enthusiasm for hockey and had no complaints about working with them. 12:49 No, I'm not going into a big thing about how nuts he goes, showing you his true passion and love that he has for this hockey. For this game in general and the Oakville Blades especially. He just has a passion that you can find every day. 13:03 Jamie will remain a commentator in the near future working with the University of Regina Rams starting next season. But for the thousands of people who have listened to him over the past few years, there's unlikely that we'll find anyone so enthusiastic to bring fans junior hockey in Ontario. For the hockey house, I'm Stephen Ellis. 13:21 Wittacker makes a move. He shoots, he scores. Mathew Wittaker wins it in double overtime. And the Rangers take this one from behind! It's a four to three win. 13:38 Wow, best of luck to Jamie. I'm sure he's going to do big things in Regina. What a great guy. 13:44 Yeah, I'm sure he's gonna make a great impact on a lot of athletes. You know being physically active can take a toll on you both physically and mentally. It's important that people take care of themselves. Yoga has been a go to and popular fitness practice for many athletes. While offering physical fitness benefits, yoga also provides a chance for mental and emotional healing. Rashmia Elenkswaren spoke with yoga instructors about their personal journeys. 14:17 Hi, I'm Gabriela. And I'm one of the owners at Mocha Yoga Etobicoke. I started my first time on the mat was sometime in 2003. I was in Australia as an exchange student. And at that time, it was a very challenging time in my life, and I was struggling with an eating disorder and so some mental health issues with that. So I came back to Toronto and told my mom, I was struggling with some things and got some, some help. But what I fell into was the yoga practice and I was motivated by physical reasons, thinking, Oh, I'm going to sweat and this is going to be good for me, you know, weight wise. But in the end, what I ended up learning was that it helped transform how I talk to myself, in my mind. 15:14 My name is John Fortayn, and I am an owner as well as one of the teachers here at Power Yoga Canada. And my practice started from as a physical compliment to training for an Iron Man. And as I started to do my practice, on a more regular basis, I found that it went from being a quote, physical practice into one, which shifted all of my other training mentally. So if I have, if I have cues around me emotional cues that, that at one point in my past may have triggered me, through my practice, I'm aware, I'm more aware as those start to arise and be able to being able to manage them more proactively rather than reactively. 16:02 Hi, I'm Donna Sellers. And I offer therapeutic yoga, and I had been been doing been in the corporate world for a long, long time. And it was extremely stressful, very painful on an emotional level. Because I felt that there was always a disconnect that I was going through the motion of going through, going to work, getting a paycheck, putting food on the table helping to put food on the table for for my kids. But there was always a disconnect. I didn't want to be there. I and so when I finally reached a stage in my life, where I really started to ask whether I wanted to die like this, whether this way, you know if I died tomorrow? Is this what I wanted to be doing? And the answer was a resounding no. 17:07 My name is Laura McLean, and I'm both a therapeutic yoga teacher and a registered yoga teacher. I was actually diagnosed with an autoimmune disease called rheumatoid arthritis and I couldn't do a lot of physical activities, so I started with chair yoga, when I started and realized I could do a lot more than I expected I could do, especially the fact that it didn't have to get down on the floor. I felt really, really good. The meditation and breathing techniques also helped me a lot. Because when you're diagnosed with something like that, often your self esteem goes, you wonder where am I going to be in five years. 17:49 In society today, we are so caught up in the need to look good, the need to be good, the need to go fast. The need to we're working, we're working to fit this this industrialized, commercialized society, that yoga is a practice in your yoga mat size of 24 by 72 inches just allows you to turn inside and let go of needing to be a certain way at all. 18:17 When you start to move with awareness, something called interoception. So you're bringing your awareness into the body into what's happening in your body in your mind. When you start to bring that awareness and practice with that awareness, it actually changes the nervous system it has it's a very beneficial practice if you're suffering from anxiety or depression, if you have chronic pain, because in those states, the nervous system is ramped up. It's like it gets super excited. And so how do you bring that down? Well, yoga, encompassing breathwork, encompassing meditation, and the movement as well all helped to bring the nervous system back into balance. 19:04 We all struggle with something and we can all beat ourselves up and talk negatively to ourselves. The negative self talk regardless of if you're struggling with that particular disorder or not, is common. And so what the practice did is over time, is that that voice started to become kinder and kinder. And so when I'm kinder to myself, I'm not going to be mean to myself for you know, doing x, y, and z. 19:46 Yoga is such a great way to relax and relieve some stress. 19:50 Yeah, that's very true. And for most university students, balancing school life and fitness is a difficult task, especially around this time of the year. As the calendar turns to April exams and final papers begin to take control over your life. And the seductive costs of Netflix can be overpowering for those who want an easy and forgettable study break. 20:12 At Ryerson, fitness junkie and entrepreneur, Nick Corniel is trying to make fitness that easy and forgettable study break, his app Trainer Plus might just do it. Connor Houston has the story. 20:26 I was born into fitness, I think is the best way of putting that. 20:29 For most people, fitness is one of the great dividers of our time. You either love it, or you hate it. Enter Nick Corneil, a lifelong fitness junkie and entrepreneur who really, really loves it. For Corneil, fitness is more than just a hobby or profession, it's a lifestyle. And it's been that way for as long as he can remember. 20:49 My mom ran gyms my whole life growing up. So I was sort of like babysat on the side of aqua aerobics classes and, and just, it was something that was always a part of a part of my life a part of our lives. And obviously, that fitness and sports really closely correlated together to being active, being fit. And, you know, that was I played sports, my whole childhood growing up, which, you know, led to led to me playing some professional, professional football when University was done, and then settling into the fitness industry after that, as a trainer and gym manager ops manager eventually. So it's always been, I tell people, you know, I'm 35 and I've been in the fitness industry for 35 years. 21:27 When you've been around any industry, as long as corneal has, you start to notice some problems. And he certainly did. These experiences made him realize that a change needed to be made. 21:36 Well, I mean, I think the seeds of it, were watching, watching my mom work really long hours for really crappy pay in this industry was, I think the start of it, we need to something, something wrong with that. And then when as an athlete, I was a coach and athlete and had people overseas, like I said, but played in Switzerland. And so half the off season, I'd be half the year I've been Canada have the European Switzerland, and I coached teams across the ocean, and they to be an offsetting offseasons. And I'd be like mailing spreadsheets and stuff, so you saw the need for pretty quickly there. But then when I retired and settled in as a personal trainer, I first started working at Goodlife, and absolutely hated the business model. How it worked, how personal training work, how the actual helping people didn't really work. So that's what that's what the genesis of of trainer plus kind of came from my firsthand experience. Even running those gyms, I knew I was always going to do something in the tech space in a company like this. So it was really just a couple years of researching, okay, where where is why is fitness so broken? And where is that pain? And, you know, how is it, how's it fixed. 22:38 After leaving good life, Corneil's passion for both fitness and tech soon led them to Ryerson's DMZ, sparking a partnership between the school and trainer plus last year, but I mean, I'm in the DMZ. And we were looking for partners of ours and had an introduction to the head of the head of the facilities here, the head of recreation. 22:56 And I mean, he said he'd seen a number of technologies come through, but none that had sort of, they saw the direct value in right away, because I mean, their mandate at Ryerson is engagement of students. It's not it's not to make a million dollars, it's how can we help more students get more fit. And so our tool gave them a way of doing that without feeling like they had to pressure and squeeze a bunch of money or sell a bunch to, to to the students themselves. So it was a natural, a natural fit there. In terms of just proximity, and and and value alignment. 23:23 What is that value you ask? Corneil says that the apps flexibility and accountability are some of its biggest draws. 23:30 But we build as a fitness history and planning tool. So I mean, it captures all the relevant data from you know, your first consult or assessment that you put in there. And then it's really easy for trainers or for yourself to build and prescribe workout plans that you get on mobile, and then very easily track all those workout plans and get all that data all stored in one place. So basically, we close the feedback loop between the trainer and client around all that relevant information. So it's creating these new ways that seeing personal training being delivered and sold in that sense. What I would, what I would caution against is just thinking that you can do it on your own, you know. There's a million solutions out there, p90x bodybuilding.com, all that stuff. At the end of the day, everyone needs a plan that's customized to them. And usually people aren't intrinsically motivated. So you need some help from the outside to keep you accountable, keep you motivated to get into that to change that into a habit and change that into a lifestyle. So don't be shy to look for help. It's a very you know, there's also the whole you know, the ego thing especially of youth and thinking, you know, you can do anything on your own. But yeah, don't don't be shy to get help. And if not, I mean talk to us, we can also trainer plus help help connect you with with other trainers that are outside of that that realm as well. 24:41 I try and go once a week. Margo Rubin is an RTA major at Ryerson. While she doesn't use trainer plus as of yet, she sometimes struggles with the same problems that it aims to help solve, time and motivation. I like I try and go more than once a week, but right now, it's just been really busy with midterms and things like that. I just recently moved downtown too, so I'm just it's been hard to fit into my schedule. For students like Ruben, Corneil says that there are many services that the Ryerson recreation department and trainer plus offer if you sign up to trainer plus yourself and build your own workout, you can book 30 minutes with one of the trainers for them to review and help you with your workout plan. So if you want to be on your own, that's great. If you want to get a full assessment and planning session from a trainer, you're first space is 30 bucks. I mean, it's a service that we like I have. I have this service on the side and we charge $150. for that service, Ryerson rec is charging $30 to help students get started. 25:37 Evan McCabe, a personal trainer at the Mattamy Athletic Center for the past five years, knows the everyday struggles that students face in fitness. He says that the apps $30 plan has been one of the most positive aspects for Ryerson students. 25:49 So what's really beneficial about that is like our cheapest trainer personal training package is about $330 where with a lot of students in debt, it's just they can't afford that. So trainer plus kind of offers this $30 option, the $60 option, this $120 option, so it's really beneficial for those that are on a very tight budget budget. 26:09 Well, there you have it Ryerson students, you're not alone in your fitness struggle. If you're having trouble getting off that couch, or finding a productive study break, maybe trainer plus is for you. After all, its founder really does love fitness and maybe you can learn to love it too. 26:27 I hope students take this wonderful opportunity and use it to stay healthy and active. Ryerson provides so many resources that students should really take advantage of. There's just so many. 26:37 You know, it might not look like it. But Ryerson has a pretty great athletics program. Now that the basketball season has come to an end, and graduation is around the corner. Ryerson men's basketball captains Juwon Grannum and Adika Peter- McNeilly reflect on their past five years as Ryerson Rams and why this year was exceptionally special for the both of them. On The Rise's own Kathleen had the opportunity to talk to both of the Ryerson captains. Take a listen. 27:17 We knew how good we were, so it was all about proving to everybody else how good we were. 27:28 It's amazing winning back to back. That was our whole bowl. We're gonna have two batters we're gonna have something that we're going to pride ourselves on for the next couple years. 27:47 I mean, this year was crazy to say the least. [Cheering] My name is Juwon Grannum, and I'm a fifth year men's basketball player on the team. I'm majoring in economics and business management program and I'm from Mississauga, Ontario. 28:20 My name is Adika Peter- McNeilly. I'm number 21 on the Ryerson men's basketball team. I'm in my last year and I study sociology. 28:29 The season was I mean, I guess I'll say a little bit of a roller coaster. At first, we have our best start. Personally, I was a little bit banged up and you know preseason, we lost a couple games we might have should have won. 28:45 Coming into the season we're preseason ranked top 10 we're at number 10 and that gave us extra motivation but as the season went on, we started getting better and start winning games. And from February on we're playing our best basketball. 29:00 We've improved a lot you know, not just from like individual standpoint but like just playing as a team and just doing what we have to do to win. Like the past years like it's been the exact same thing but you know, I just feel like this year is just special and just the way that we played. This year was also special because like we were at Carlton you know I no one beats Carlton at Carlton and we managed to do the unthinkable. And you know we won on their home court cut their match like it was a great feeling you know? 29:31 Our whole goal is to put ourselves in the best situation to win Ontario. I felt like the whole seed the whole the whole season we did that. The moment we got to that game it was just played free. We played our style just knowing that you did something back to back years and I always remember we went to the locker room and we had to speak as we put Drake back to back on. 29:49 [Music: Drake - Back to Back] Oh man. Oh man. Oh man. Not again. Yeah. 30:11 This is my first time ever in Halifax and it was electric. Like, you know, from what I've heard, like they have like such rich basketball history. And you know, the city loves the sport. 30:23 The fan base there was ridiculous. I remember like, I just see in the crowd and you don't see that many empty seats. You know playing in Canada sometimes it was not not a big fan base there, so to have that there was amazing. 30:37 It was packed like 8000 fans, just all cheering going crazy. And you know, we have our little like 20 Ram pack and like a little group of people and like it's like us against the world. 30:49 I remember there was a time in a game where I think it came up they they made a dunk and the crowd was going so crazy, couldn't hear ourselves it was that loud. Kind of motivated the guys to win and, you know, pull through and be the underdogs even though we were the number one seed coming into the tournament. We wanted to be the first team at Ryerson to win a national championship and we felt like we had a good chance to Carlton is a really good team, no wonder why they won the last seven championships in a row. 31:20 We beat them, we beat them the week before coming to Nationals. And we almost knew like we were expecting them in the finals and through the flow that game like they kind of took us out of our offense and then we have to battle back battle back. 31:34 We went down I think it was 24 in the third quarter, but we never gave up. We came back we got it down to six. The worst part about is watching them celebrate over there and having all the cameras full face them while you have to stand up. So it was kind of sad at how I had to hold back my tears because, you know, it was one of those ones, which is just a game. 32:02 I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit upset. You know, we do all this trying to get the gold and but like, honestly, like, there's nothing to be mad or sad about, you know, we had a great season. Obviously, we fell short at the end. But you know, it's no small feat. Like there's 43 teams in the whole entire league kind of thing and like to be number two, that's nothing like to like shrug your shoulders about you know? We've reached a new level of success that like the men's basketball program here Ryerson has never reached before. And you know, I'm thankful that like I was able to experience with the team, but like, at the same time, like you know, I hope for the future generations or the future Ryerson players that they surpass us. You know, it's cool knowing that like we're the most winningest team in history, you know, being nationals three times in a row. First time ever getting silver medal, first time ever getting OUA medal, first time raising a banner in the gym. Like, those are some pretty cool feats, but you know, all records are supposed to be broken. And you know, I hope that Ryerson Rams of tomorrow are able to surpass us. For the guys coming back next year, and for the next like couple years, like, just remember the feeling of like that defeat and how it felt. How you felt in the change room, still being able to hear them celebrate all that stuff, like you know, it sucks, but at the same time, just use it as fuel and you know, get them back. 33:25 We know what it takes now to win a national championship. So in the summer when you guys are working hard, just remember envision that and get it for all of us all the guys who are at Ryerson before who put in the time. 33:43 Wow, what a powerful end to university. Kathleen, did you get to see any of their trophies or medals? 33:50 Yeah, I did. I got to wear Juwon's medals actually. 33:53 That's awesome. 33:54 Yeah, I'm so proud of the boys for winning silver at nationals for the first time in Ryerson history. It's such an amazing way to close out Juwan and Adika's careers here at Ryerson. They are two really great guys. 34:07 And on that note, we've come to the end of our show. Thanks so much for listening and to be sure to tune in next week. I'm Emily Pardo. 34:15 And I'm Kathleen Francisco. We'll catch you guys next time for the athletes of Toronto. This is On The Rise.