The SPJN program’s favourite worthy cause

Adrienne South, SPJN class of 2010, with former NHL and WHA goalie Dave Dryden, at the Memorial Cup Fan Forum in May 2011. Dryden, whose brother Ken Dryden also was an NHL goaltender, is the chair of the Sleeping Children Around the World board of directors.

            Since we launched the post-grad Sports Journalism program at Loyalist in 2008, our students have generated over $1,200 for our favourite charity, Sleeping Children Around the World.

      SCAW was founded in 1970 by the late Murray and Margaret Dryden and continues to be operated out of the Dryden family home in Toronto. It receives no government funding, relies solely on donations, and every dollar donated is spent on bed kits for children around the world.

      A travelling team of SCAW volunteers recently visited Pune, India, where 5,000 bed kits were distributed.

      Every December, an “anonymous” donation is made to SCAW based on SPJN students’ scores in the weekly current events quizzes.

      If you’d like to learn more about SCAW, or make a donation, you can do so on-line at www.scaw.org or by mailing a cheque to: Sleeping Children Around the World, 28 Pinehurst Crescent, Toronto, Ont., M9A 3A5.

Loyalist sports journalism talks

Behind the Play is a weekly sports talk show on 91X hosted by students in the post-grad Sports Journalism Program at Loyalist College in Belleville, Ontario.  Each week a group of students gets together to give you their opinion on the top sports of the day.
Here's the October 21st edition of the show. 
Behind the Play - Oct 21-11 by 91X

Sports Journalism Students and the Leafs

(Photo by Dan Nyznik)

SPJN students interview Toronto Maple Leaf goalie James Reimer at the "buds" practice session at CFB Trenton October 12, 2011.


The Toronto Maple Leafs used a week long break to give back to the community. The Leafs held three practices last week that were open to the public at the RCAF Flyers Arena at Canadian Forces Base Trenton.  The team entertained fans with drills, a scrimmage and a shootout.

Off the ice the players socialized with fans, gave autographs and took part in some team building exercises including a flight aboard a C-17 Globemaster Transport plane.  They were also involved in a number of media scrums and Loyalist Sports Journalism students were there to cover it for assignments and 91X, the CRTC licensed FM radio station at Loyalist College.

On the road again … with Adrienne South

(Adrienne South, SPJN class of 2010, was a host at the Memorial Cup Fan Forum in Mississauga, Ont., in May 2011. Adrienne is shown with Ron Ellis, a right winger for the Toronto Maple Leafs from 1964 to 1981)

Adrienne South, SPJN class of 2010, was back in Belleville recently as a member of the broadcast crew for Rogers TV in Kitchener. She was in town to cover an OHL game between the Belleville Bulls and the Kitchener Rangers.

South has been an analyst for the pre- and post-game show on Rogers TV since 2004. She also has been busy working as a Webcast host for SportsCanada.TV.

She covered the women’s Under-25 World Wheelchair Basketball championship; the 2011 Jack Donohue International Classic men’s basketball tournament; a men’s World League volleyball qualifier between Canada and Puerto Rico; and the Canadian women’s national volleyball team when it hosted The Netherlands in Hamilton, Ont., in August.

During the Memorial Cup festivities in Mississauga, Ont., in May 2011, South hosted a panel discussion involving OHL and NHL alumni including Ron Ellis, Red Kelly and Dave Dryden.

New dual credit sports option now open to JOPB students

Are you a student in Loyalist’s three-year journalism program?

Are you interested in sports?

    If so, you may be eligible for a new dual credit option that combines the three-year Journalism – Online, Print and Broadcast (JOPB) program and the post-graduate Sports Journalism (SPJN) program.
This accelerated plan is open to qualified students in their third year of the JOPB program. The option allows them an opportunity to earn two college credentials in three years, rather than four.
    To be eligible, a JOPB student must maintain an average of 75% with no failing grades in their first- and second-year JOPB courses. The student would then pursue a combination of JOPB and SPJN courses in their third year, before taking additional Web-based Sports Journalism courses in May and June.
    Upon successful completion of the prescribed course work, a student would graduate with a JOPB advanced diploma and a Sports Journalism post-graduate certificate.

Sports Journalism program has a new play-by-play professor

    Rob Snoek has joined the SPJN faculty as the part-time instructor for our play-by-play courses.

    Snoek has been the sports director for Durham Radio Inc., in Oshawa, since 2006. He also does radio play-by-play of Peterborough Petes’ OHL games on FM 90.5.

    From 2003 to 2010, Snoek provided play-by-play of over 500 games involving the OHL’s Oshawa Generals for CKDO Radio.

    He’s also been a commentator for Olympic and Paralympic Games for CBC television.

    Snoek graduated from Seneca College’s Radio and Television program with high honours in 1989 and represented Canada internationally as a track and field athlete.

Where are they now?

Catching up with some recent SPJN grads…
Kristen Shilton, SPJN class of 2011
            Kristen Shilton, winner of the G.P. Hunt faculty award in our class of 2011, is now attending graduate school at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York.
            Kristen is focusing on sports communications and is also a research assistant for Dennis Deninger, a former producer at ESPN, who’s working on a book about television sports that will be published in December.
            “Things down here are insane, but awesome,” Kristen said in an e-mail this week. “Living in the States has been an adjustment, but I am really enjoying it now, although I get plenty of jokes about my supposed accent.”
            You can read Kristen’s work at the following link: http://www.thenewshouse.com/blog/sus-group-californians

Megan Burke, SPJN class of 2011
            Megan Burke has been a full-time reporter at The Recorder and Times in Brockville, Ont., since she completed the Sports Journalism program in the spring.
            Initially, Megan was covering news, but she recently has been re-assigned and is now doing a mix of news and sports, including hockey and football. You can check out Megan’s recent hockey story at: http://www.recorder.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3315970