Grossman Picks His Top Ten Of The Week

Lots of interest from readers about why the delay and what happened to the Top Ten this week?

Well, with double-digit provincial playoffs - and the majority this past weekend - I thought it would be fair to include any key highlights in the list. I think it makes sense. So, here we go as a Fall season of sports now becomes memories - with some good and, well, no so good performances.

Picks for this week and for those who still think it's based on performance with the best first, not so. It's in alphabetical order.

Julian Clarke, Oakwood. An exceptional shooting guard with Oakwood, scored 18 points for his Toronto school team in a 50-36 win over St. Thomas More of Hamilton in the Court Heinbuch Classic gold medal game. Chosen tournament MVP. He once scored 64 points in a game, has a 90 per cent academic average and calls U.S. President Barack Obama his role model.

Tyler Ennis-McIntyre, Father Henry Carr. I know he was our athlete of the week a few days ago, but can't ignore what he did after the selection. Watch for this junior to get elevated to the senior roster soon. He scored 27 points in an 85-33 drubbing of Bishop Allen. Then, 28 more in a 94-56 win over Chaminade in Toronto District Colleges basketball.

Nicholas Gucciardi, St. Mary. I was told this kid can really skate with the puck - and also score goals too. He did. Try five in one game. Not too sure if they were all necessary, especially against a much weaker team, in a 12-0 shellacking of Pine Ridge. It was a Durham Region junior boys' hockey league game.

Shannon Jewer, Loyola. Look out for two reasons. Her career goal is to be a politician and is quite the hockey player. She's won medals for her club team, but is a big reason her Mississauga school being in first place in the Peel Region varsity girls' league. She scored two goals in a 7-2 win over Xavier and added another in a 3-1 league win over Aquinas.

Billy McPhee, Notre Dame. A fifth year player, admitting he returned to his Burlington school for football, led his senior team to an undefeated season capping it with a 33-10 win over Lakeshore Catholic of Port Colborne in the Golden Horseshoe Bowl. He completed 14 of 19 passes for 257 yards and three touchdowns.

Garrett May, Birchmount Park. Could be the best teenage volleyball player in Canada. He was dominant as the Panthers won all 13 sets at the provincial quad-A playoffs. That also includes the gold medal (over Macdonald from Waterloo). Toss in an undefeated season and 73 consecutive matches without a loss. No surprise, he did score the last point.

Shane Morrisey, St. Andrew's. A stalwart playing hockey in Newfoundland, he had a choice: play Junior A this season or accept the Herder Hockey scholarship at the private school in Aurora. He scored twice in the Saints 4-1 win over Upper Canada and St. Andrew's has chosen not to compete for Ontario high school medals playing instead in the Mid-West Prep and CISAA school leagues.

Connor Pritty, Markham District. Caught the game-winning touchdown from his brother in the Metro Bowl. Brilliant on defence too. As linebacker (also played for the championship Team Ontario squad in last summer's National finals) was the team leader shutting down an explosive Birchmount Park offence in a 19-0 victory.

Tyler Pritty, Markham District. He was MVP of the Metro Bowl completing 15 of 20 passes for 265 yards. Very talented quarterback proved he could accomplish what others said he could not do: win the big game. Two touchdown passes in the first quarter of a 19-0 win over Birchmount Park. For him, three consecutive Metro Bowl titles.

Jamie Ruttle, Notre Dame. Top scorer in four of five games and led her basketball team to a provincial silver medal in a 41-37 championship loss to St. John's of Brantford. A five-sport athlete at her Burlington school, she has averaged 22 points a game. Also a former school athlete of the year, she's off to Canisius in Buffalo on a scholarship.

There it is. Quite a group. Take a bow.

Comments

[Anthony]

Been waiting for this and wondered why it was late so now I know and it's good that you included all those tournaments and OFSSAA playoffs.
This is really great information and well done. Thank you for the work you do.

[MB]

I am not sure how you compile your information but I find it to be thorough. Not really sure why you don't have more female athletes but I will assume that coaches don't do their job as well for the girls as they do for the boys. Maybe the female teachers and coaches might want to do more than complain about the gender equity thing.

[Big John]

Not to take anything away from those Pritty boys, but it does seem strange that they're playing at St, Michael's College for three years and then suddenly they're allowed to play the next year at Markham simply because of financial reasons. Well, I know that St. Mike;s doesn't kick any student out for financial problems. So, did they leave because of other reasons that we don't know about.

[Chuck]

I don't think any student should be allowed to play sports in a fifth year of high school.
Just like that kid from Notre Dame, they come back for sports and take up a spot on the team depriving other kids.
If coaches want to win that much then buy a trophy at Walmart. Boards of educations needs to clamp down on this nonsense.

[FR]

I know, as a fact, the Pritty boys could have stayed at St. Mike's and financial reasons wouldn't have been an issue.
It might be that Tyler Pritty didn't want to share the job at quarterback.
Either way, they are both very deserving to be on your list and were outstanding in the game. That's the one you believe should be outdoors and I agree.
Could have played it on the artificial turf at St. Mike's too and that would have been something. The stands would have been filled and that atmosphere would have been great for the game rather than that empty Rogers place.
Hey OFSAA take note rather than look like a bunch of yahoos.

[Brom]

Impressive!!!!

[Ticker]

Saw that kid Garrett May from Birchmount Park play volleyball and he's the real deal.
Actually, it was your story about him and his father that got me interested.
Guess there must be some truth that good genes produce good kids.

[Doben]

Not sure how you pick your athletes but I have to salute you for 10 very interesting young athletes. Kind of makes me want to go and see them all play.

[Josh]

I know its big in sports when a player scores alot of goals or piles up the points in a game and you mention them but I wonder if maybe you should ignore them.
My feeling is that players will hog the ball and stay in a game longer just to pad the stats - and coaches are to blame for this too.
I dunno how you do it, but try give others some attention and maybe coaches need to get off their ass and flag more kids.

[Billy]

I applaud you for the nice mixture of sports and I only wish there was a way of just listing the students who do well in their grades and sports.
Teachers like to talk a great deal about no grades, no sports. Many are good about this but I know if a student is a good athletes then that person will play rather than ride the bench.

[Graham D.]

Read this all the time and have also been a follower of your previous blogs and the many years of stories in the Toronto Daily Star.
I think it's time to disband OFSAA and come up with a different kind of organization that works with the various provincial sport organizations to come up with cohesiveness on playoffs and also to mix and match club and school sports better to avoid friction with coaches and problems with players.

[Eye Popper]

I would hope that Julian Clarke is a smarter person than to look at the President of the United States as his role model. Yikes.

[Peel Fan]

- Ah Chuck, are you labouring under the impression that coaches are the ones pushing these kids to come back for a 5th year? Nothing could be further from the truth. It's the kids and parents who push it, either for the glory lap or because they didn't put the effort in during the first four years to get into university.
- Coaches are teachers and they get paid the same whether they win or lose. I think some of you put way too much stock into the supposed glory of a school's name buried deep in the stats section of the sports or on a relatively obscure blog.
- But we won't let the truth get in the way of the hatred that so many posters on this board have for educators. The way so many posters manage to twist any blog post into a rant about teachers is quite disturbing but at the same time very amusing in a "toddler having a temper tantrum" kind of way.
- In today's economy, I suspect a lot of it is jealousy of those with job security.

[J.Hurdis]

Some kids are just not mature enough to go off to university or college at 17 or 18 and another year of high school is better than getting discouraged at the post secondary level. When there was grade 13 you did not see many kids doing an extra year at high school.

[Morris]

Get me a towel so I can clean up the tears from Peel Fan - some mysterious fool.
I have read his/her/its comments before and this whatever is missing it big time. People read blogs and people read names of schools in the paper and people read names of athletes for a reason.
He/she/it calls it "obsure" and is wrong.
He/she/it doesn't get it that no one is questioning whether teachers get paid.
He/she/it should know that coaches don't get paid.
He/she/it knows damn well when students return just for sports and some coaches know that too.
He/she/it, obviously a teacher, can't stomach the fact that all teachers are not angels.
There are great teachers and duds like you-know-who. I shutter thinking my tax dollar is going to Peel Fan.
And job security? Yikes, being a teacher is a gift with so many vacations and a damn good wage to teach the same stuff every year - and I am talking about physical education teachers. Jealousy?
I am giving my opinion, like others in these blogs, and Peel Fan can't accept it.
Too bad!

[Frank M.]

I am a regular follower of your high school sports reporting and the great coverage in the Star. I find these blogs to be very interesting but I am offended at what I read from PEEL FAN.
This guy has a chip on his shoulder with a huge attitude problem. Good gracious, grow up buddy.

[JZ]

Some people have to understand that there is no hatred, and that is a nasty word, but the truth that some people are oblivious too.

[Bing]

Something nasty going on with this PEEL FAN and the rest of the world. You should force people to provide real names.

[Not Fair]

a little dissapointed that Matt Coates from Markham wasnt on the list, he had an incredible season his whole football season. Its a shame how you give only the Pritty boys credit and praise...

[Seb]

I hope Grossman responds to the comments from Not Fair. Unless I don't understand, Grossman's list is for the best performance of "the week".
Yes, I do understand because he says that clearly.
While Matt Coates might be a good football player, he wasn't as outstanding as the two Pritty boys in the Metro Bowl game and that was the only one of the week.
Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out.

[Rick Grace]

What a shame our young athletes end up going to these backwater schools in the US of A instead of staying in Canada and getting a top rate Canadian education.
By the way. Whats a "Canaisius"? Is that like Swine flu or sumthin'?

[Lori]

If anything, some people - like Rick - would start out by getting the name right. It's Canisius College in Buffalo, N.Y. - and not a backwater school.
I went to school there and would stack it up againt places like York, Ryerson and others any day. It's a small Catholic school - do you have a problem with that?
I chose it because of sports and education and its proximity to where I live. Graduates have included people who went on to become mayors, lawyers, professors, business leaders and more.
People like Rick, who was educated by reading this, need to do some homework before sounding like a fool.