Friday, November 14, 2008

CIS Corner: Stinson makes a cross-over move

Notes on our athletes/teams of interest in The 613 ...

Golden Gaels:
Graduating football player Scott Stinson is going to be putting his size and soft hands to use in another sport, as he's joined the Queen's men's basketball team.

Stinson, at 6-foot-7, is equal in height to the hoops team's two tallest players, Bernard Burgessen and Pat Beswick, and with that tight end's body, provides some of bulk under the boards. The word out of Kingston is that he is expected to become a 12-minute-a-night reserve forward who can get a lot of rebounds once he's in game shape.

Stinson will dress tonight for the Gaels in Guelph . Coincidentally enough, he was injured when the football team played the Gryphons -- although it is not clear if he'll see the floor. I'm told that the other day, the Gaels had a "redshirt game," where the rookies played the starters and a team scored a point by getting a rebound, first one to five wins. The redshirts, with Stinson on their side, won for the first time since the Queen's coaches could remember.

Two-sport athletes are a bit of a rarity in Canadian university athletics -- although Western basketball guard Jason Milliquet is moonlighting with the football Mustangs, and Erik Glavic helped Saint Mary's reach the Final 8 in basketball in 2007, a few months before he led the football team to a Vanier Cup berth and won the Hec Crighton Trophy.

More experienced minds would have a better chance of correctly answering when was the last time Queen's had a football/basketball crossover. Anoteher tight end, Dan McCullough Dan Wright attempted it in the early '90s. Billy Burke played football and hockey in the same school year a few seasons ago.

It is always a rush, as a fan, to see athletes try something like this. Who knows, perhaps since he finished his football eligibility, Stinson figured it was now or never. Good for him.

15 comments:

Duane Rollins said...

Coincidentally enough, he was injured when the football team played the Gryphons

The fact that you didn't use the word "ironically" here is why you, Neate, are my favourite copy editor.

Andrew Bucholtz said...

Banister's actually a 6'0 guard. Bernard Burgessen is the other 6'7 guy on the team.

sager said...

Ah, good catch, must be the names starting with B! Fixed.

Mike Radoslav said...

John Behie played football and basketball for MAC as well, so there's another crossover player

Anonymous said...

Stinson is a freak... I love that guy...

Can't wait to start seeing some massive dunks... I am now going to become a Basketball fan thinks to this move.

Tyler King said...

Shameless plug - the team's Nov 29 game is on CFRC. Will Stinson's name be frequently called? All signs point to possibly.

Anonymous said...

Ibrahim Tounkara played both Gee Gee basketabll and football in the mid 1990's.

OttawaFan

sager said...

There have been a few over the years, for sure -- Western shooting guard Jason Milliquet is playing wide receiver for the football team.

Mac's Jermaine DeCosta was on the football team but is now playing basketball exclusively.

Anonymous said...

Wrong TE named Dan from the early 90s. Dan Wright played basketball not Danny Mac. Dan Wright is about 6'5" or 6'6" and a beast of a guy.

Also from that era both Dave and Mike Burleigh played both football and baseketball for the Gaels. Dave was football first and played one or two seasons of basketball.

His younger brother Mike was a starting guard and then played 102 years of DB for the football. I think they played one or two seasons together.

Their older brother Mark also played football - 1983 and they all follow in the footsteps of their Dad who played for the Gaels. I believe, both football and basketball.

Of course Bo Howes played basketball for the Gaels and then football centre for the Eskimos for 5 years in the Warren Moom and Tom Wilky era. I think he only played one year of football for the Gaels.

Anonymous said...

Also check out Kyle Graves at Acadia this year. I think he is a 2 sport guy.

Anonymous said...

didn't John Behie play basketball for a couple years?

sager said...

V,

He sure did!

Has there ever been a volleyball/football crossover? Danny Farmer, who played in the NFL, did it at UCLA in the '90s.

sager said...

For anyone who is wondering ... Scott Stinson did play 13 minutes tonight and he had five rebounds (no points) in Queen's 70-64 win ... how about that?

Baris Ondul had a game-high 27 for the Gaels.

Andrew Bucholtz said...

Ondul has really impressed me so far this year; he's shown he can score as well as set other guys up. Leger ran into foul trouble early, which is always a dangerous situation for Queen's, but the supporting cast came through. Pretty good debut for Stinson to my mind; he accomplished his main purpose of grabbing a lot of rebounds, and they should be able to use him more on offence once he settles in to the team.

Anonymous said...

You hear about what happened to Stinson in the Brock game?

Apparently he broke his nose and kept playing!! Blood Everywhere

Whatta Beast