OCAA funding not consistent across the province

The Humber Golden Hawks have won four consecutive OCAA Championships, including two National titles in a row

 BELLEVILLE – Sports is a business. Business is about making as much money as possible. For the Ontario College Athletics Association, sports are about a chance to let students participate in athletics to encourage higher enrollment and provide the school with positive publicity. Part of trying to get the top athletes to wear your school uniform is the recruiting process; coaches driving all over the province, and even out of the country, to convince players to make a life decision about their education and possible athletic career. But what if a school doesn’t have enough money to send coaches all over the province to scout the very best? The teams suffer and the school has to work with the best they have.

Is it fair for schools like Mohawk College, located in Hamilton with a population of 520,000, to have a budget three times larger than Loyalist College, located in Belleville with a population of 50,000? Loyalist College athletic director Jim Buck has just $5,000 for eight sports. The money covers the cost of team meals, traveling, hotel rooms and sending the coaches to recruit players. Buck says a big factor into getting a bigger budget is student enrollment. He believes if schools like Loyalist offered a more diverse range of programs, it would attract more athletes and bring in more tuition money.

“Some schools are offering a maximum of $2,500 (in bursaries). If we could go out west and recruit kids and guarantee kids that met the requirements $2,500, that would allow us to get more kids, better athletes and become more competitive,” said Buck, who was the assistant athletic director for 21 years before becoming the head athletic director at Loyalist in 2008.

            The simple solution is enrollment. Loyalist currently has 2,800 students, ranking them 12^th out of the 20 schools in the OCAA. The more students you have, the more programs the school offers. Therefore the more money the school generates. The top college in Ontario in terms of enrollment is Seneca College, which has just over 21,000 students attending their four campuses. Seneca has 153 programs compared to Loyalist’s 68. Sheridan College, located in Oakville, has 15,000 students and offers over 130 programs and are coming off a provincial championships last season in Men’s Basketball. Athletic director of Sheridan and Head Coach of the Men’s basketball team Jim Flak says while they don’t necessarily have a recruiting budget, they have a different method that doesn’t break the bank.

            “The majority of recruiting is done by phone and on-line through email. I think that provincially and nationally, it would be a better idea for us (and the Canadian Interuniversity Sport) to divide ourselves into conferences that have like-minded educational philosophies, as well as similar budgets,” said Flak, who won his first OCAA basketball championship last season, in an e-mail conversation.

            While Loyalist has a set budget, schools like Algonquin College’s athletic department provide the student bursaries that Buck does not have at Loyalist due to the low number of enrolled students. Algonquin Women’s basketball Head Coach John MacInnis says the bursaries are a huge advantage when recruiting players.

            “The athletic department has money that they make available for student bursaries for people that maintain a certain average. The $2,500 is mandated by the league, so that’s the most you can offer for the year,” says MacInnis, who has been the Head Coach since 2008 and was named the OCAA Coach of the Year in 2012.

            While schools’ athletic directors may delegate money for bursaries, Mohawk College in Hamilton has their athletes pay a student fee. Head Coach of the Mohawk Men’s basketball team Brian Jonker says they have no money delegated to recruiting.

            “We have limited meal money. Players pay an athletic fee of about $125 and they don't pay for rooms, transportation, or uniforms. It would be nice if there was a level playing field but you will never see that for a long list of reasons,” Jonker explains, whose Men’s basketball team won the National Championship in 2012, in an e-mail conversation.

            For the colleges that are not located in high-population areas, growing enrollment will always be a problem. Schools like Humber College reap the benefits of being located just 20 minutes north of Toronto, and have won 45 OCAA Championships, including two national titles since 2004. So it seems that the key to victory isn’t necessarily which school has the most money, but the location of their campuses.

            While Sheridan, Algonquin and Mohawk do not necessarily have a budget, cash-strapped little schools like Loyalist will have to find other ways to play with the big dogs, so to speak. Athletic directors in the smaller towns will have to take the Moneyball approach and do their best with the resources that are provided.