Media releases

• Bucketheads return as Brock Badgers mark 25th anniversary of national basketball championship

  Thursday, February 09, 2017 | By Brock University

  8 February 2017: R00030

  They were loud, boisterous, raucous. And when the Brock Badgers won their first-ever men’s basketball national championship in 1991-92, it was the Bucketheads who pushed them on and garnered national attention.

  To honour the 25th anniversary of that memorable national title, the Badgers will host a Retro Night this Friday, Feb. 10, during the final home games of the regular season for the men’s and women’s teams at Brock’s Bob Davis Gym.

  Highlighting the flashback will be the re-introduction of the Bucketheads, a phenomenon launched by passionate student fans during the Badgers’ playoff run that year. The group grew to more than 300, and were soon joined by faculty, staff, community members and even then-University President Terry White.

  Their tools of the trade were white plastic buckets. Some they drummed on during games — loudly. But most of the buckets, as the name suggests, became the group’s distinctive headgear. If their energy was infectious, their noise level was deafening. Fans and the media described home games that year as an electric atmosphere where Bob Davis Gymnasium was packed to capacity, or perhaps a little beyond.

  When the Badgers travelled to Halifax that spring to play in the national championship, a throng of Bucketheads followed them, all the way to the title.

  Their legacy lives on. The Badgers’ modern-day supporters call themselves the Best Fans in Canada, and are not shy about making their presence heard at home games and on the road. In 2017, Brock fans will be there to push on the basketball teams as they work their way into the playoffs.

  The next generation of Bucketheads, wearing replica buckets, will be in the stands Friday night as the Badgers women’s and men’s basketball teams host the Algoma Thunderbirds at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m., respectively. Tickets are available at the Walker Sports Complex welcome desk.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:
   
  * Dan Dakin, Media Relations Officer, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

  Brock University Marketing and Communications has a full-service studio where we can provide high definition video and broadcast-quality audio.

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  Categories: Media releases

• Smart Girls explores challenges faced by young women

  Thursday, February 09, 2017 | By Brock University

  7 February 2017: R00028

  They may be the smartest ones in their class, but barriers still exist that prevent some young women from raising their hands when they know the answer.

  The concept of “dumbing down” is one of several challenges faced by girls that are explored in a new book by Brock University Child and Youth Studies professors. Shauna Pomerantz and Rebecca Raby have spent the past six years examining the issues that academically successful females encounter.

  Their new book, Smart Girls: Success, School, and the Myth of Post-Feminism, investigates how girls deal with stress, the ‘supergirl’ drive for perfection, race and class issues, and the sexism that is still present in schools.

  The book explores what it means for girls to “dumb down” and includes stories of students who felt the need to giggle and ask for help in the classroom even though they knew the answers.

  “On the heels of Trump’s win and on the heels of what we are seeing to be a backlash against racial and gender gains that we have made, I think that the book can contribute to a bigger conversation about what work still needs to be done in the 21st century,” said Pomerantz, an associate professor. “We’re not anywhere as far as we think we are.”

  During their research, Pomerantz and Raby interviewed 71 girls and boys between the ages of 11 and 18 who attended 15 public, Catholic and private schools across Niagara.

  Some of the girls interviewed felt the need to offset their intelligence by being conventionally pretty, exceptionally nice, thin or athletic, while others would keep quiet about their smarts in order to keep it from their peers, said Raby.

  “Girls’ lives are complex,” she said. “They still experience sexism. There are challenges with really dominant popular conceptions of femininity that girls have to try and negotiate.”

  Pomerantz said the book is meant as a “critique of the way girls are talked about currently around education and schooling, particularly in the media.”

  Girls’ academic successes are often touted in headlines, while the suggestion is made that boys are falling behind and require additional attention, Pomerantz said.

  “Don’t believe the hype. We’re not in a post-feminist movement.
  “Girls still need attention, so do boys. We can’t focus on one at the expense of the other. We have to look at what’s going on overall,” she said.

  The goal of the book is to put girls back on the agenda.

  “What we’re trying to show is that whether girls are smart or not, they’re still struggling in ways that we don’t really talk about or see anymore,” Pomerantz said.

  The book is geared toward the general public with the aim of showing how teachers, administrators, parents and the media can help young women thrive.

  Smart Girls is available at Chapters online and in store, as well as on Amazon.

  A book launch is scheduled to take place Friday, Feb. 10 at the Niagara Artists Centre in downtown St. Catharines.

  The event, sponsored by Brock’s Social Justice Research Institute, Social Justice and Equity Studies, and the Department of Child and Youth Studies, begins at 6 p.m.
   

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:
   
  * Dan Dakin, Media Relations Officer, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

  Brock University Marketing and Communications has a full-service studio where we can provide high definition video and broadcast-quality audio.

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  Categories: Media releases