File: RISE-OF-THE-RAMS-tv-doc-finale_1
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How do you rise?

How do you make yourself something out

of nothing?

Does it take days? weeks? years?

Or does it take a lifetime?

For the Ryerson ams it took the vision

of one man. A leader with a dream of

turning an athletic program around.

It was a school defined more by its

losses

than by its wins. Now it's something more,

something greater.

[Music]

This is the rise of the Rams.

[Music]

Ivan Joseph is Ryerson University's

athletic director.

A former track and field star and a

national championship winning soccer

coach in the U.S.

He's now the man behind the madness at

Ryerson's rising athletic program.  "Thanks

keep up the good work".

He's no stranger to hard work or long

hours. Growing up on a farm outside

Toronto,

he's used to waking up at the crack of

dawn. It's why he shows up to Ryerson at

6:30 in the morning

ready to work. The first time Ryerson

offered Joseph the job

he said no. He ended up turning it down

three times,

but a phone call from the university's

president Sheldon Levy

changed his mind. "I might have tried to

sell him on that were going to do

wonderful things, and he might have he

might have said

"I'll take a chance and believe the guy".

One of the things he said to me is that,

um,

you know he said our academic reputation

of our university is

shooting out the roof, yet nobody knows

about it,

And partly in turn is that our athletics

reputation hasn't kept up.

He says athletics plays an important

part in advancing the university's

reputation

and plays an important part at

maintaining

what's called the esprit de corps or the

spirit of a campus,

and I want you to help us build that."

To tell the story of the rise of the

Ryerson Rams,

you have to look at where these teams

once were. Where winning was unheard of

and dreams of the championship were

nothing more than a joke.

You looked at the facilities of Ryerson,

you looked at what was happening here.

They were, you know, the gym looked like a

high school gym, the teams

every single team but one, had a losing

record.

The other teams during my time at

Ryerson, to put it diplomatically, were

generally terrible. Women's basketball

couldn't

quite get over the hump.  Men's hockey

just couldn't get anything going.

If you go through hockey db you'd see a

lot of guys who show up in here and then

disappear.

Sort of like a breeze in the wind. My

first

time was two weeks I was here - "Athletics

Who Cares?"

that was the title of the first article

when I came here.

Dubois cared and tried to pass a

referendum in 2004 that would increase

athletic fees

but ryerson students were unconvinced

and the vote failed to pass.

Well you know what we were - inexperienced

when we went into that referendum

and that really, really showed.

Three years after that failed referendum,

the Rams continued their losing ways

and Dubois was fired. For this team often

when you get let go

it's a personality issue. I just,

people didn't see my vision

and that's their choice. They were, they

they were the ones making the decision

and I have to live by that.

We had to make changes and we had to up

our game

in every every respect. That's where

Joseph came in.

He and Levy tried to pass another

referendum in 2009.

This time it worked and though it wasn't

in the original plan the two were

presented with a golden opportunity -

the chance to move into the former home

of the Toronto Maple Leafs -

the historic Maple Leaf Gardens.

After undergoing a massive renovation

and rebranded as the Mattamy Athletic

Center,

Ryerson now had a home. It didn't take

long for some of the best young athletes

in the country

to notice the opportunity to play at

Maple Leaf Gardens.

As a Leaf fan my whole life I thought

would be a great opportunity.

Once we got the Mattamy athletic center

I think it did change

how fans viewed coming to our games. This

is where sports happens

in Toronto now. With a new facility in

place, Joseph's next step was hiring

championship caliber coaches to build

successful teams.

When the future of the women's hockey

team at St. Mary's University was in

question,

Joseph and associate athletic director

Stephanie White set their sights on Lisa

Haley.

I came to Ryerson when some tough

financial times struck at St. Mary's and

some program changes were made and

women's hockey was

taken off the docket and so I was

looking for a new opportunity.

This is a really good young coach that's

comes highly recommended.

I think she's going to be a future

Olympic level coach and

there's a problem going on with St

Mary's and I want to get her while this

wiggle is open.

I think here at Ryerson with this

fantastic facility and the investment

of all types of resources into varsity

athletics.

This is the kind of place that I believe

you could build a winning program at.

Trust me guys you are ready for what's

about to happen.

You've put a lot of work in to get to

this stage of the game and you are now

ready for what's about to happen next

and when you get out on the ice

you're going to trust your instincts. All

right you've worked hard,

you know what to do in every situation,

it may not be perfect every single time

but you know exactly what to do and I

want you to rely on your instincts.

Ryerson's latest addition to its varsity

ranks is the women's hockey team.

It's also one of the university's

fastest growing sports programs.

It all started nearly a decade ago with

the stingers,

a club team founded by Stephanie Veltman.

"I think at first it was maybe a little

bit selfish.  I wanted to play hockey

and I wanted to do it at Ryerson but the

more I looked into it, I realized that

there was a lot of opportunity in the

city.

There's a lot of talent here and

you know I looked into what was

available for me to play

in the city, and as most women will know

there aren't very many options for

women's hockey here.

I thought there was opportunity here." It

takes a trial period before a club team

becomes a varsity program

but once Ryerson took the Stingers under

their wing it opened up a whole new

level of resources.

Joseph hired Haley but that move alone

didn't yet make them into legitimate

contenders.

That first year they only won one game

they finished the year

losing 23 in a row. "That first

season really was less about the present

players and winning hockey games, it was

more about

getting the overall vision for the for

the first five years of the program.

I mean honestly, we had a game that we

played against Laurier in Laurier

and we lost 11 nothing and that was

obviously by far the worst game I had

ever been a part of and I'm sure

everybody else had been a part of,

but after that game like, no one

got down and thought like what's the

point of this. We were going to have a

tough challenge. The Ontario conference

already is a really

competitive conference, and so that was a

moment,

but in terms of the Laurier game we

still reference that game this year.

Coming to a team that was new, although I

knew it was new,  I didn't realize just

how badly we would

get beat in in the beginning. We lost

by like double,

we were in the, they had scored in the

double digits, and I just thought, I don't

think I've ever played

you know, on a team where we've been lost

so badly. We both knew that Lisa is an

unbelievable coach and that she was

going to turn the team around

and it was just a matter of time. Slowly

things began to change.

Double-digit blowouts turned into

marginal losses.

This season it all clicked.

Hello and welcome to tonight's game, I'm

Jeremy Perl. Tonight's matchup on the

Rams network, the Ryerson Rams taking on

crosstown rival York Lions.

A win for the Rams - they're in the

playoffs for the first time. If they lose

their season's over.

[Applause]

Emma Rutherford coming in...SCORES! Emma Rutherford!

has given the rams a one-nothing lead.

That could be the goal that them in

the playoffs.

[Music]

They've done it! The Rams are playing off

bound for the first time

in their history.

Our women's hockey team, it's a great

example of what

has changed here Ryerson and my first

year they didn't exist.

There wasn't a woman's hockey team

here at Ryerson and all of a sudden this year

they are in the playoffs, on home ice.

It's just

fantastic. That might be the biggest

success story of

of Ryerson period. We're not done by a

long shot. Yet we still have some

recruiting to do, we still have some

I think offensive skill to add to our

team but

we're headed in the right direction. I

think we wanted to be in a playoff spot

within four years and we're there and

now the next timeline is

getting a banner to hang on those rafters.

[Music]

Intense.

[Music]

Relentless.

Demanding.

[Music]

Quest for perfection in everything we do.

[Music]

That's that's kind of who I am.

I believe he's my second hire all right

and uh

you know there was another coach we

tried to get ahead of Roy to be honest

with you, and Roy was uh

I was right there on the line but you

know Roy was almost the biggest mistake

I made by not

getting him. I always kind of thought

this was a place that was

underrated. It was a real opportunity to

build something.

You know it had a real kind of a history

of uh

not a lot of success. I liked him because

he represented

our values. He was a under rep, he came

from an underrepresented group.

He was from the city of Toronto. He was

grassroots basketball. I wanted to change

this program

and he sold a vision. You could

definitely feel the change once Roy

started coaching the team,

especially from a preparation

perspective. The way we

practiced, the intensity was always

extremely high.

Never taking days off, no matter if we

were lifting

in practice, even shoot-arounds are

intense on the court.

Roy Ranner brought a new style of play.

One that could compete with the best in

the country.

This season Rana took the Rams all the

way to the provincial championship.

The losses to Carlton and Ottawa sent

them back to Toronto with nothing to

show for

the season wasn't over for Rana or the

Rams though.

The country's top teams would compete

this year on Ryerson's home court

as hosts Ryerson was given an automatic

berth in the national championship,

the CIS final eight. I've been in a lot

of fish bowls and a lot of crazy,

situations where there's

way more hype than there is even with

the CIS right now

and they just got to be prepared for it.

And I think they are, they know it's

coming and

I think we've done a pretty good job of

balancing. I want it so badly and

uh I think we're due. That's really the

thing.

I don't see why we cannot win so

I definitely think they they should be

winning it but I don't want to jinx them.

We see this nationals, this very first

one as our coming out party.

We want to showcase, not just our

basketball team but all our teams.

We want to showcase our university at

the national stage

and tell people we've arrived.

They've been waiting all season for this -

game one of nationals quarterfinal game.

Ryerson Rams, Windsor Lancers - winner goes

on to the national semi-final.

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

The Rams knock off the Windsor Lancers.

With that win they move on to the

national semifinal.

While their take on OUE rivals Ottawa

Gigi's.

With a win over Windsor, Ryerson moved on

to the semifinals where they would take

on the Ottawa Gigi's -

as a team, they've lost to their last

seven encounters.

Well the thing about Ryerson is that you

know when you, you play roulette

and you know it's it's red, it's red, it's

red, it's red, it's red.

You know at some point it's going to hit

black right.

The Ottawa Gigi's, the Ryerson Rams

national semi-final the stage has been

set.

Winner moves on to the national

championship to face

the dreaded Carlton Ravens.

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

[Music]

"okay"

[Music]

[Music]

I don't think we're on the rise. I think

we're there. It's just you know we

haven't been able to uh

to get over that hump and beat them but

you know

games like yesterday they turn on a call.

They turn on the dunk, they turn on

a missed shot. I mean that's, that's

basketball. When it's played by two teams

at the highest level.

The Ryerson Rams beat the Victoria Vikes

in the bronze medal game the following

day.

It was the highest any Ryerson varsity

team ever placed

at a national championship. It's not

really an OUA banner that we're doing

going after. It's really a national

championship banner that we're going

after

and that's not going to take only four

or five years to achieve.

You know at one time six of our eight

teams were nationally ranked.

The academic performance of our teams

is an all-time high

so we I think you know the strategic

plan has been a big,

big success but the work has just begun

as we like to say.

We're at the next phase and, and we're

trying to identify

what those parts are and what those

goals and objectives will be. That will

see us achieve our goal

which is ultimately to be the best

athletic department in the country

[Music]

you