High School Story of the Year

Hmm. Seems like there are quite a few people going through a down time right now.

Getting lots of comments from readers who claim to be missing some form of high school sports or, as several people have put it in voice messages and emails, certainly could use more stories about young student athletes. Well, school is out. Click on the video attachment of Alice Cooper and the Muppets and while you're at it, think about your school sports story of the year. I'd like to hear your views.

Here are a few suggestions.

• A school of about 500 students, Eastern Commerce wins provincial gold medals in basketball for both the girls' and boys' teams.
• How about teenage sprinter Dushane Farrier winning the provincial gold medal in the 100 metres - after his one-on-one conversation with Oympian Donovan Bailey?
• Or those Bears, the ones at St. Edmund Campion in Brampton, whose boys' soccer season ended the year unbeaten in 33 games and with an Ontario gold medal - won on penalty kicks.
• Remember Ontario Justice Bruce Duncan finding a now 18-year old high school rugby player guilty of manslaughter in the death of an opposing player and also saying the sports field is not a "criminal law-free zone."
• St. Michael's dominated in football, again. Seniors won the Metro Bowl and the juniors were champs of the Ontario Invitational.
• Time to ban the starter's pistol at track meets.
• Mandatory certification for all high school sports coaches
• And Pickering basketball coach Mike Gordensky, despite admitting to making a mistake allowing two players to compete at a U.S. tournament, being suspended from coaching by OFSAA, which also wouldn't allow him in to a school gym to watch a game.

Lots more. So, what was the story of the year?

Athletes of the Year Listings Are Coming

Beautiful sunny day. Saturday. Summer.

I decided to check my e-mail. Mistake. I forgot to follow my own advice and stay away from any work on my day off.

Received quite a bit of e-mail from high school students, parents and teachers wondering when the Toronto Star is going to release our annual athletes of the year list.  A reply was needed and figured the blog route would be better to tackle any further questions. The students chosen as "athletes of the year" are done so by their schools - not us.

The Star, as was mentioned in a previous blog, will publish a list of names - likely in three full pages as the numbers have swelled to way over 500 athletes throughout the Greater Toronto Area. This, however, takes time to package - with stories, pictures of some athletes and making sure we have all the names spelled correctly.

We haven't forgotten our 29th annual listing, but it is taking some time - and, of course, we also need the space in the paper to run a massive project like this. It's coming folks. If you're on vacation, don't worry as the Star's website will also have copies.

Meanwhile, enjoy the summer. We're two months away from the start-up of a new school year.

A Night to Remember at the Ballpark

VINCE TALOTTA/TORONTO STAR

2009 baseball all-stars: back row from left to right: Toronto Star sports editor Mike Simpson, Blue Jays pitcher Brad Mills, Matt Cambria of Richview, Graham Tebbit of Lorne Park, Maxx Tissenbaum of York Mills, Johnathan Solazzo of St. Paul, Star reporter David Grossman and Harry Einbinder, Blue Jays assistant, baseball research. Bottom row: Bryan Pyper of Birchmount Park, Peter Ricciardi of St. Mary, David Head of St. Andrew’s and Tyler Patzalek of Notre Dame. Not pictured: Todd Blair of Pickering, Chris Robinson of Sinclair and Nathan Smith of St. Edmund Campion.

At first glance, they looked like exuberant young kids waiting for something special to happen.

Members of the Star's annual high school baseball all-star team were invited, by the Toronto Blue Jays and the Star, to a special Tuesday evening at the Rogers Centre. Some showed up earlier than expected, with parents and coaches.

Wearing their school baseball jerseys, they congregated outside Gate 9 and shared stories - just feeling good. Huge smiles. Fierce competitors on the field, best of buddies this time. Passerbys, some who had likely seen them the same day in a wonderful two-page feature in the Star saluting high school baseball, stared as they shuffled by.

Fast forward to the on-field presentations, cameras and more attention, applause as the public address announcer mentioned their names. Star Sports Editor Mike Simpson was there to participate in the awards as was Blue Jays pitcher Brad Mills pinch-hitting for Cito Gaston. Parents enjoying the precious time of their sons being recognized for excellence in the sport, good academic grades, as young role models and for being solid citizens.

Watching these youngsters march out on first base side of the stadium, then getting their awards reminded me of a similar trip seven years or so ago and wondering if one of these players would some day make it to the pros. Back then, Richview Collegiate first baseman Joey Votto, now a major leaguer with Cincinnatti was recognized as a Star all-star.

With awards in one hand, baseball caps in the other, those few moments of stardom on the field finished. Then it was off to join their school coaches in the Blue Jays corporate box for pizza, hot dogs, soft drinks, popcorn and ice cream. An outstanding evening planned by Kevin Briand, the Blue Jays Director of Canadian Scouting, and carried out to perfection by his staff.

More stories, watching the Blue Jays win, clearly it was a night to remember for these youngsters.

Bad Time Announcing the Mayor's Cricket Team

Hmm. The mayor of Toronto is up to his whatever trying to resolve a municipal strike.

Right now, that takes precedence, we are told, over him appearing at Toronto City Hall in some smiling photos announcing a high school cricket team.

And, well, the folks who planned to announce the mayor's team taking part in that Cross the Pond cricket event in the United Kingdom this summer won't be having that news event this Thursday after all.

That's because His Worship, David Miller, will be unavailable.

Optics also don't fit well with picketing in front of Toronto City Hall.

So, while 12, likely 14, high school cricket players - still to be formally announced - are going to London in August, organizers are holding off naming the team until the mayor is available.

Hopefully the strike will be resolved before the team goes - and comes back.

Miller Dodges Garbage to Promote Cricket

Thursday is going to be a big day for a group of high school students, who will formally be introduced as members of the mayor's team going to the United Kingdom next month to play and learn more about cricket.

No surprise to them, 12, or make that 14, kids already know they have been chosen and will be going to play some games against club teams, boost their educational knowledge and practise at the prestigious Chessington Cricket Club. Only thing missing is whether the Queen waves at them or Prince Charles greets the visitors. Don't hold your breath.

Nice move, really, and particularly for many of these youngsters who are from Toronto's priority neighbourhoods. That's the politically correct way of saying “difficult parts of town.” However, there is a bit of irony in that two of those making the trip are from the private independent schools who, unlike the others, don't need any financial assistance. They will be paying their own way, and likely with help from those schools.

The big presser, or maybe more like a photo opportunity for Mayor David Miller, won't be on a public cricket pitch - by then most likely covered by mounds of garbage. It's at city hall. Hey, could be garbage there too in the next 48 or 76 hours?

Wonder if the mayor actually saw a high school cricket game in his beloved city - or even if he knows that schools have an indoor and outdoor season?

CIMA, the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, again are behind the fifth annual event. They do a great job in promoting the Cricket Across the Pond Scholarship Program.

They may also want to start thinking about choosing a girls' team before the equity movement starts pointing fingers. The school sport is also played by female students. Hint.

Calling all recruits

That time of the year when graduating high school students are making the final decisions, if they aren't too late, on where their plans are for the fall. Some definitive about university, others heading to colleges, some to the work force (if they have jobs), others returning for more high school and upgrading.

I am getting lots of e-mails, telephone calls and even letters from jubilant young people that they have decided to pursue a Canadian education, while others are opting for the U.S. - many having accepted variations of sports or academic scholarships. Some are going overseas for education too.

And also been getting dozens of notices from American educational institutions about some of our finer athletes going to them - places like Miami, Oklahoma, Syracuse, UCLA, Michigan and on and on.

Nice to hear - in pursuit of higher education and also playing sports. Tough decisions, too, for families and for the students. We all grow up and move on, right?

I find it surprising that, with the exception of the University of Guelph, not a peep from Canadian universities and colleges about the student athletes they are luring or have already accepted - and with those small entrance scholarships. I guess it's something. I am not so sure those athletic awards or bursaries or grants (Ontario universities don't like when we call them scholarships) are widely known.

Keep getting calls and letters, some comments on these blogs, from people who are ticked that we keep losing athletes south of the border - and that we're writing stories about them too. That's a personal choice for the students and, for us, news is news.

Nothing wrong, in my book, with a full athletic scholarship to Rutgers or even an academic award of some sort to Princeton. Why don't we hear from the University of B.C or the University of Toronto or McGill University?

Canadian universities need to become more aggressive promoting their new recruits.

Oh yes, and the existing ones too.

Putting final touches on boys' all-star baseball team

All right, so it's been a quiet few days.

Schools, make that students and staff, are counting the days until the end of the month. Year-end coaches meetings have been taking place. More like socials and final farewells until the fall.

As for me?

Well, just putting the final touches on the Star's final all-star high school team of the current year: boys' baseball.

We've picked some great student athletes after reviewing more than 100 names from leagues in Peel, Halton, Durham, York, Toronto and the private schools. That's lots of players and teams.

Young players who have had a great season and played almost every game for their school teams were examined as we asked for input from high school coaches, some university coaches, rep coaches as well as game officials, fans and players too.

We've also reviewed their contribution to the success of their school team, made sure grades were up-to-par and that they also were good community citizens.

One of them was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays.

And those very Blue Jays, as they have done for years under the guidance of Kevin Briand as Director of Canadian Scouting, will recognize the Star all-stars in a special pre-game ceremony on June 23.

Of course, you will also get to read about them, their statistics and more, in the coming days.

Quick action averts Festival embarrassment

Students and staff from some 16 schools in the Greater Toronto Area got a taste of being invited, then uninvited, then invited again, to Thursday night’s marquee track and field event in town.

What a screw-up.

Folks associated with the Festival of Excellence, with Olympic and Jamaican star sprinter Usain Bolt as the star attraction, had to deal with a huge embarrassment earlier in the day resulting from a rather strange e-mail sent from Theresa Edmonson, who works for John Carson.

He’s the massage therapist from Cambridge, who has the connection with one of Bolt’s agents that paved the way for the fastest man in the world to do his thing at the Varsity Centre.

Edmonson and Carson are responsible for another event - the Run for Lightning Program that was put together to help kids get involved - and are also part of the evening’s events. Edmonson invited a group of schools to send a team of four athletes, and a chaperone, to watch the event. A representative from each school would also get a chance to run a post-race victory lap with Bolt.

Sounds great.

But the schools started getting e-mails from Edmonson just 24 hours before the show, saying the invitation was off because of a “technical on-site difficulty.” She also didn’t return calls from some teachers wanting to know about the surprise call. Edmonson did call me back but, learning I was with the Star, abruptly ended the conversation saying she was too busy. Never heard from Carson either.

From her e-mail, sent to me by a teacher, Edmonson had assumed bleacher seats would not be erected, causing a shortage of seats and, well, no room for the kids. But she did mention that seats could still be purchased.

Prices started at $25 and peaked at $250.

But Edmonson failed to inform the University of Toronto, hosting the event, of what she was doing. Geoff Arnoldi, a member of the Festival of Excellence Organizing Committee, said “I was livid when I found out because we had a contingency plan ready to accommodate the students if the bleachers weren’t approved by the city.”

When I started getting calls from schools affected, and a copy of an e-mail sent by Edmonson to high school teacher Steve Konupka at West Hill Collegiate, I called University of Toronto athletic director Liz Hoffman to see if she could help.

Not happy with what I told her, Hoffman immediately went after fixing the problem. The schools were reinvited. I am sure the students, including the one from St. Cornelius elementary school in Caledon East, who said a prayer hoping she would still get to go, went from happy to devastated to confused to happy.

Rogers Centre a little empty for a title game

Three decades of high school baseball finals – and I’ve never witnessed a pitcher losing a game by holding the opposition hitless.

It happened at the Rogers Centre on Wednesday, in the annual Prentice Cup provincial playoff involving Toronto’s Birchmount Park and Pickering from Ajax. What a shame that fewer than one hundred people showed up, when admission was free and the Blue Jays offered the facility at no charge. I know people work during the day, but there had to be more baseball fans – and, considering schools are on exams, not too many supporters showed up.

Birchmount Park, trailing 2-0, rallied to win 4-2.

High school baseball trivia folks should note the name Nick Manoukarakis. His double was the only hit for the winners. In 30 years, I can’t remember another high school final at Exhibition Stadium, the SkyDome, the Rogers Centre or even out in St. Mary’s at the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame when the winning team had only one hit.

But I have to feel for Shane Murli, the left-handed pitcher from Pickering, who just couldn’t find the plate in a bat-around fourth inning for Birchmount Park. Take away the fourth, and Murli looked just fine. His teammates couldn’t put wood on the ball to bail him out with some timely hits.

The fourth inning started with a strikeout, then it went like this - error, walk, hit by pitcher, walk, strikeout, walk, walk, walk, strike out. Not sure why the Pickering coaching staff didn’t see him struggling and, rather than have a few chats, pull the 18-year-old from the misery and maybe put a halt to the slide. Murli later injured his leg while rounding third base and was carried off the field.

Oh yes, a seven-inning game too. For a championship, a provincial final, could organizers not have considered going with a full nine-inning game – especially with the building not being used? Maybe the players just couldn’t wait to get back to school.

Taking the fun out of baseball

Well, down to the last sport of the school year — baseball.

Went out to see the Prentice Cup semifinal game between Birchmount Park of Toronto and Notre Dame from Burlington. Both teams have been on this route before. Well coached. Great talent. All the ingredients needed for a good game. Figured Birchmount Park, the school with the exceptional athlete program, would give the Irish a good game.

Turned out I was right. Birchmount won it 5-2 in 10 innings, ending a brilliant win streak and undefeated season for the Halton Region school — and Prentice Cup champs from last year. Game tied 2-2. Then a switch. Officials implement the International Baseball Federation rules — something stolen from softball. Yes, softball.

Instead of watching both teams slug it out in an exciting game, now they start extra innings with a runner on second. Why not just let them play? Unlikely they'll go 20 innings as losing coach Craig Pettipiece told me. He's likely right. A sampling of people watching the game agreed. Why spoil something good?

I know there was another game to be played (Pickering beat Waterdown 2-0). This is a high school game, not the pros. Let the players have their fun rather than help shorten a game with a rule that should be left - with softball.

Maybe they should have changed the hardball to the softball too and even lobbed the pitches.