Some Athletes Continue To Shine During Exam Break

Exams are over. Now, not only is it time to get back to a full range of sports, but it'll be very interesting to see if the players and teams that were on a roll before the break can continue.

I was at the Ollie high school boys' hockey tournament on Friday and, well, most of these kids were playing hockey for their club teams while they wrote exams during the day. Some looked a bit rusty, but the majority were fine and prepping for the playoffs. Not so sure the athletes in basketball, volleyball and the others sports will be as loose, which could make the jobs for coaches that much harder.

It's Friday. I know, time for the athletes of the week. Short list this week, just five. Not much to grade when the shop has been closed for the January exam break. Here we go:

Chris Adams-McGavin, St. Andrew's. I hear this guy is ranked in Ontario and Canada - in squash. He plays on a Saints team that has a 10-0 record in the private school league and the team has won several CISAA titles. He's dominated his recent matches over Crescent, Trinity and Ridley and, I am told, is also a very good clarinet player.

Margaux Daly, Malvern. She's on the school academic honour roll and also knows how to play hockey very well. Her varsity team has a 4-1 record in league play, just one point out of first place. Two goals for her in a 9-0 thumping of Danforth in their Toronto District Secondary Schools Athletic Association league game.

Edmond Lee, Bethune. A grade 10 student and captain of the junior boys' basketball team that has a 14-0 record. He scored 23 points in a 65-44 win over Mowat in an exhibition game. In a tournament earlier this year, he had a season-high 31 points over George Harvey. It's the best record for the team since they won the junior title in 1995.

George Mason, St. Michael's. He's the very talented basketball player who transferred from Park Street High in Orillia - and has now been ruled ineligible to play for his adopted school. We're assuming they make it to the provincial playoffs. He scored 28 points in a 62-49 win over Greenwood and had 25 in a 75-29 win over St. Andrew's in league games.

Mike Morrison, St. Theresa of Lisieux. Quite the goalie for the Lions senior hockey team - the one that played four games and won them all at the Ollie tournament. I saw the final and this 17-year old was spectacular between the pipes turning aside 37 of 39 shots. He also won the "top goalie" award in the tournament shoot-out competition.

That's it. More next week.

Pool Rules All Wet - Kids Left High and Dry

Readers of this blog will know that I have pleaded with high schools throughout the Greater Toronto Area to talk to me about sports, like swimming, that seem to be shoved aside this time of the year by the perseverance of basketball and hockey coaches wanting to plug their athletes and teams.

Well, bingo. A call from a swim coach.

And with all the commotion in the past on whether to close or keep open Toronto high school pools, I thought here was an opportunity to write about a swimmer or a team. Great. But this time, it's swimmers about to see their hopes sunk. The telephone call was about a quandary that has teenage swimmers in Toronto public schools forced to make a decision: either compete for their school at the citywide finals or attend the Eastern Canadian championships in Nepean.

Why the problem? Turns out that both events are on at the same time - and this isn't the first time for date conflicts in this sport. Why can't someone take a few minutes and contact Swim Canada, Swim Ontario or a coach at the high school level, who does the same with clubs, to check on dates and avoid a mess like this?

Communication? More like a lack of communication?

Here's the deal. As many as 30 Toronto elite swimmers, who could set OFSAA standards at the four District qualifying meets on Feb. 8 and 9, must compete at the citywide final on Feb. 18 to advance to the Ontario finals on March 2 and 3. Go that route and forget about swimming at a major National meet. Nice choice, eh?

Apparently, OFSAA has made the right call this time, saying it would accept the District qualifiers - but that's if the Toronto District School Board also agreed. Three of the four District convenors insist that playing regulations must be followed. That's Chris Jones at Cedarbrae in the East, Liliana Perreira of Richview in the West and Rick Mahoney at York Mills in the North. Only Alana Soukas at Riverdale disagreed - but still lost 3-1 in the group vote. She also asked coaches in her South Region for opinions and just 6 of 16 replied. All agreed with her.

I spoke with Bryce Chin, the 16-year-old swimmer at Harbord. He has won two OFSAA gold medals and is also scheduled to go to the Nation's Capital. I'm sure he wants to compete internationally one day and, ah, we do have something called the Pan Am Games coming to this city. Chin is caught in the mess. He's upset and figures if standards are met, that should be enough. He told me he will forfeit the big meet in the capital so he doesn't let down his school buddies.

It now comes down to Monday when, coincidentally, the citywide executive (chaired by Northern's Wendy Luck) meets with a chance to make an exception to the playing regulations and support students like Chin. Let's see what happens.

Dusting Off A Cluttered High School Desk

Yet another quiet week on the school scene as the final week of exams rolls on for many students.

So, I thought I'd would try clean up my messy desk and see what kind of interesting stuff I could find to generate some dialogue. People are never short of opinions and others hope that the issues and topics of the day simply disappear - forever.

Well, this Sunday, the Star is having a forum to discuss a variety of things related to hockey violence - and I am sure the recent situation in Oakville will surface. That's the racial slurs that occurred in the second and third periods of a high school game with Thomas A. Blakelock and Milton District. I am told that some six players were involved in making derogatory comments and some parents were ticked that their children had to pay the price when Blakelock's Principal canned the entire team. That's the same Principal who instructed his staff to zip up - so this thing would get lost forever. It hasn't.

Down the highway, at St. Ignatius of Loyola - the school whose senior basketball team played in a sanctioned event in Florida without OFSAA approval. Well, the boys and girls at OFSAA have apparently closed their eyes, stuffed their ears and refuse to deal with this violation of rules - unless someone complains. Guess what? Someone has complained. Let's see if OFSAA does anything.

Did you catch that hockey game, or was it football?  Villanova (the one from King City) beat Country Day 12-11. Yup, hockey. Wonder if the goalies were up late the night before? Whoops, maybe I shouldn't ask. It appears that some people were upset when I mentioned tuition costs in a previous blog and they think I should stick to just sports scores, names and nothing else.

Couple of big tournaments coming up: the Bur Bear hockey invitational Jan. 28 to 30 in Oakville and Burlington followed by the Cardinal Carter Classic at the Canlan Ice Complex at York University on Feb. 2 and 3. And the Ontario Catholic Classic. That's girls' volleyball on Feb. 4 and 5 at Loyola in Oakville. On the topic of tournaments, or even the slew of OFSAA championships, haven't heard anyone say that donations at the door will go towards helping the people of Haiti?

That is, unless it's "Hoops for Haiti" - a series of senior basketball games on Feb. 13 at Pickering High School in Ajax. Some of the best teams will be there - Richardson, Pickering, Father Henry Carr, Vaughan, Mother Teresa, Eastern Commerce and more. Admission, and donations, will go to help the people affected by that tragic earthquake. Mike Gordensky at Pickering High, remember him? He's the voluntary coach who was suspended for a year from coaching basketball because he used two ineligible players in a U.S. tournament a year or so ago? Well, it's his idea.

Hmm, hope he doesn't get suspended for being creative and thoughtful.

Today's High School Students - Fit or Fat?

Fit or fat?

So, let me ask you - are students in Greater Toronto Area high schools in good shape or plump, a nice way of saying overweight?

It was just about this time three years ago, when the Ontario Government launched a program called "Raise the Bar". A Guelph high school teacher, Steve Friesen, was appointed Director of the program that would try stimulate more involvement in physical education.

Things have been very quiet since. The hype is gone, or so it seems.

Back in my day, if you participated in "intramurals", you were considered a geek or somebody really odd. All the so called athletes were on school varsity teams. That was the macho thing and, apparently, still is in many places.

Students were told they weren't good enough, when cut from a team. Get that several times, and it's easy to find an alternative to physical education.

While many teenagers are focusing more on grades, needing the part time job to make ends meet, some also don't have the extra dollars to spend on equipment nor the time to invest in a full and committed sports schedule. Others, well, just aren't interested.

Some high school phys-ed teachers also leave me with the impression that the varsity team is what it's all about. Guess it's their way of feeling like they're in the NBA, NHL, CFL or whatever.

According to Friesen, stats show between 15 and 20 per cent of students in schools play on varsity teams. And the rest?

I asked the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations for some data and, well, they don't have up-to-date numbers on how many students are actually playing school sports. It's true. They haven't had it for years. Michael Suraci, the assistant executive director, seems like a nice guy - but new to the job. He admitted to guessing at about 300,000 students across Ontario play varsity sports. But, that was a guess. I asked him - does a kid playing football, basketball and baseball count as one or three? According to OFSAA, it's three. So much for numbers.

Friesen believes there continues to be a huge concern on the small numbers of high school students keeping in shape. Why isn't there a push to play more intramurals - like over at Toronto's Victoria Park Secondary. More than half of that school is going the intramural way. Many still play varsity sports, and that's fine. But, why can't the numbers increase at other schools?

The Ontario Government took a step getting physed back in elementary schools - even for 20 minutes a day. Now, they need to get it back in high school, or even offer credits for students in intramural sports. If not, experts claim health care budgets, in future years, will rise significantly.

Time to get teenagers active.

And, I don't mean using fingers to text-message or even the addiction to what is offered by the gaming industry.

Is physical education a priority or not?

Top Ten Athletes - Despite Exam Interruption

I was never a big fan of exams. Tests, yes. Projects, yes. Multiple assignments, yes. They all give students more options to get to the next grade while one bad exam could blow a course.

Why am I mentioning exams? Simple, those darn things have shut down high school sports in the majority of schools for almost two weeks. Yikes. Teams are building for sports championships or coming off very good individual performances - and then this moratorium.

Well, there was still enough to come up with our performances of the week - and we had some darn showings too. Here we go:

Matthew Beckford, Monsignor Johnson. He's a 6-foot-4 centre - on the junior basketball team. Only in grade 10, he has been the top scorer on the squad for all but one game. Averaging 27 points a game, he had 28 in an 80-43 thumping of Marrocco/Merton in a league game.

Ryan Bennett, Bishop Allen. His senior basketball team, after losing several players for various reasons, has a 2-7 record. He scored a personal best and school-high 44 points in a 97-92 double overtime win over St. Basil. Toss in 32 more in a four-point loss to Monsignor Johnson.

Tony Crema, Crescent. Yes, a hockey player who has made opposing players look like pylons. He's at a private school that charges over $20,000 a year for tuition. On the ice, he had four goals in a 9-1 thumping of Holy Trinity. His team is in fourth place in the CISAA Tier Two league.

Jenna Dingeldein, Martingrove. A former school athlete of the year, she scored the only goals of the game in a 2-0 league win over York Mills. Nothing new for this elite skater, who played in the National under-18 womens hockey championship last year.

Jenny La, York Memorial. She's the captain of the junior volleyball team, now 4-2. On the defensive side, she made some great plays off the net and also had six consecutive serves (some were aces) in the Mustangs win over George Harvey - 25-22, 24-26,15-8.

Abi Moody, Malvern. Her school junior volleyball team is 8-0 and also champs of the York Mills and Woburn tournaments. A power hitter, she was solid in a 25-18, 25-16 sweep of Northern in a league game. She's also on a club team that finished fifth in Canada for players 15 and under.

Nerquaye Netty, Father Redmond. The only thing I know about this senior basketball player is that he leads his team in scoring in almost every game - win or lose. He had 21 points in a 61-46 win over St. Mary`s and 26 in a three-point loss to Michael PoweréSt. Joseph.

Matthew Rubinoff, Appleby. Saw him play hockey and he`s always hustling. He scored in the Blue Dogs gold medal hockey win over Gilmour (Gates Mills, Oh.) at the MacPherson Tournament. Also scored against St. Francis (Buffalo, N.Y.). Next up: the Bur Bear tourney - and he`ll score.

Patrick Street, Richview. A dangerous player on the basketball court. He`s quick, smart and when he`s on his game, look out. Only 13 points, but stellar defensive job, in a 57-27 win over West Humber. He had 23 points in a six-point loss to Martingrove in the Richview tournament final.

Stef Thomson, Trinity. Not only did she score three of her team-leading 30 goals in a 4-2 hockey win over Havergal, but she`s the only female hockey player to score more than 100 goals in the 116-year history of her private school. Team captain and academic honours student too.

End Racism in School Sports

There is no room for racism in school sports. Let me go further, there's no room for racism. Period.

Reaction to the story in the Star today shows more people agree, than disagree, with the decisions taken by Kevin Caughlin, the Principal at Thomas A. Blakelock High School in Oakville. He scrapped the boys' hockey team because of some alleged racial slurs in a Halton Region league game against Milton District. Apparently, it was the last straw in a series of events for this team and Caughlin, after consultation with his staff, just had enough.

Some people think pulling the plug on the team was too harsh. Instead, they say, penalize those responsible. I spoke with two players on the Blakelock team and both didn't want to be quoted. Likely, because of repercussions. However, they both agreed with the decision to end the season.

One said it was just a bit of chirping, more like retaliation for some Milton District players allegedly questioning the quality of the Blakelock team. I see, so does that open the door for racial slurs? The other said things got a bit ugly and what was said was just inappropriate. I could tell he came close to hanging up the phone.

There is a code of behaviour for high school players and coaches. It's there for a reason and not just to look pretty in a book. Coaches need to enforce it rather than brush it aside because they may have a good team or the perpetrator is an elite athlete.

We have a multicultural society and people need to respect each other, not hit below the belt if you know what I mean. A quick glance on school athletic association websites in the Greater Toronto Area has information, albeit buried in some cases, and all the fluff about encouraging good sportsmanship. Some people understand, some don't give a hoot and that's why Caughlin did the right thing. Now, maybe others will join the bandwagon.

Blatant attempts to injure, vicious hits to the head, insidious racial remarks coming from a war of words and even coaches threatening officials with violence have to stop. I am sure these things are not reserved for school sports, but likely rooted in deeper social problems.

I know of situations, and in this school year, where administrations have taken a softer approach. Yes, a band-aid instead of dealing with the problem. Leave things along and it will go away and get better.

Excuses have to go. School officials, and athletic associations, need to do what has to be done and stop putting things aside.

Why Have Rules?

Here it is, taken from a dictionary and just in case you know of people who aren't so sure of the definition for the word "rule".

Rule n.

1.

That which is prescribed or laid down as a guide for conduct or action; a governing direction for a specific purpose; an authoritative enactment; a regulation; as, the rules governing a school;

The rule is clear, so why do people - including the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations - have so much difficulty understanding and enforcing a "rule". For OFSAA, I am referring to its rule relating to sanctions when a team fails to follow procedures.

A story in the Star last week, about two schools who had problems with  rules, created quite a bit of a stink and lots of reaction from readers. I'm talking about Toronto's Father Henry Carr and Oakville's St. Ignatius of Loyola's and their different problems encountered with - rules.

Paul Melnik at Carr admitted publicly that he made an error - reading and interpreting rules about eligibility, which were from an older version of the league Constitution. His mistake was costly to the junior boys' basketball team. A 9-0 record went to 1-8 for using an over-age player. I didn't see the Toronto District Colleges Athletic Association bend on rules or issue any warnings or thank Melnik for his honesty. Heck, they handed down a penalty very quickly. Rule was violated, now pay the price, is how many interpreted the swift action.

A different rule affects Loyola. - and the Halton, as well as Golden Horseshoe, athletic associations seem to be hiding under the carpet.

Over at the Oakville-area Catholic school, which has a dominant senior basketball team, coach Gary Laurin was asked by me to explain a few things relating to a recent Florida tournament trip. Nope. Nice guy that he is, people in his Halton athletic association told him to keep quiet. No comment. Likely figuring things would quiet down.

His team attended a tournament in Florida that was sanctioned by the U.S. athletic association. But Loyola, despite clear rules, failed to get prior approval from OFSAA.

No big deal? Some would agree. Many more, apparently, don't - especially those who have been penalized by OFSAA in past. As an example, Pickering basketball coach Mike Gordensky was thrown under a bus with a hefty one year suspension from coaching - and even warned not to show up in a public gym to watch his team play a provincial playoff game. This was after he admitted to using two players at a U.S. tournament. He also had support from his principal.

OFSAA's executive director Doug Gellatly said last week that his organization would investigate Loyola - but only if there was a complaint from a teacher, coach or school. So, that has left some Star readers shaking their heads thinking that rules can be broken. Just don't get caught.

Hold on. Why even have rules? OFSAA should enforce them - especially after it claims to have so much power and authority. Now, OFSAA appears to have rules on paper only and a problem with credibility.

One last thing, OFSAA, on its website, writes: "We also take a proactive role in dealing with issues that affect students, coaches, schools and communities."

Really?

 

Favorites Fall Like Flies At Tournaments

Wow, what a weekend of great high school basketball and hockey in the Greater Toronto Area - and some teams realizing they may not be as untouchable as they might think.

Just goes to show that in this wild and often wacky world of sports, even the top teams - often oblivious to others - took it on the chin. Yes, maestro, some good teams now know what it is like to lose games to others who are better.

The only good thing for those, who thought they were invincible, was the fact that these were not season-ending playoffs.

Let's start with senior basketball and eight of the teams in the Star's Top Ten last week lost and were eliminated from the tournament spotlight. Just Oakwood, who won the Silver Fox in Hamilton, and Richardson, the winners of the Blessed Mother Teresa Invitational in Toronto, left their respective tournaments with the championship awards.

A far cry from all the hype and bragging. I think it proves that any one of 10 teams could win the Ontario Quad-A gold medal when the boys' hoops playoffs take place in March in Oshawa. Then again, No. 11 or 12 might also get lucky.

Of all the people who I spoke with prior to the weekend, on the phone or via e-mail, none picked Oakwood or Richardson to win. So, it begs the question: what happened to Father Henry Carr, Loyola, Pickering, St. Marguerite d'Youville, Mother Teresa, Eastern Commerce, Vaughan, Martingrove and St. Edmund Campion?

Maybe some over confidence?

Maybe getting beaten by a better team?

Maybe understanding that no one team is dominating this year?

And it wasn't just on the hardwood, how about the ice too.

St. Andrew's of Aurora, some claim the best collection of high school hockey players on a team this year, coasted to an 11-0 win in the opening game of their own tournament. Then, the Saints got beat - and left their home rink without the prestigious gold medal from the MacPherson tourney.

Some of those 'ole boys were hiding behind their tartan skirts.

Appleby of Oakville, a team made up of plenty of youngsters, skated off with the title after a thrilling game that needed three periods of overtime. The only other game that I can recall watching, that may have matched this one in excitement, goes back to 1999 in Dryden when St. Andrew's beat Upper Canada in a provincial semifinal - also in OT.

Top Ten School Performances This Week

It's that time.

Yes, the performances of the week — and 10 of the many which caught our attention. You will notice, yet again, an emphasis on hockey and basketball. The reason: we have heard from those coaches and schools.

Coaches in volleyball, skiing, curling, swimming, wrestling, snowboarding and more have chosen to ignore appeals for information, scores and names of athletes who have done well in league and provincial competitions. A message to athletes and parents: we have repeatedly tried.

On to our picks of the week:

Mark Belvedere, St. Andrew's. Back-to-back weeks for this forward, also looking good at the MacPherson Tournament which ends on Sunday afternoon in Aurora. This kid, from Quebec, has 30 points in 30 games. He had two goals in a 5-3 win over Upper Canada, scored in a 11-0 laugher over Mount Carmel and seems to score when he chooses.

Brandon Bos, Markham. Yes, again. Thirteen times this year, maybe more, he has scored 25 or more points in a senior basketball game — and he's done it against teams in five different leagues. His latest show, 35 points in a 74-49 league win over Dr. G. W. Williams, is a York region school in Aurora. For Bos, highest this year is 37 points.

Emilie Canham, Cardinal Newman. She might only be 5-foot-4, bit taller on skates, but she's one of the best female teenage players in this city. She scored three goals in a 6-2 victory over Notre Dame (Toronto) in a Toronto District Colleges Athletic Association league game. She was also the school female athlete of the year in 2009 after excelling in five sports.

Jenna Dingeldein, Martingrove. She's been a former school athlete of the year and also a Toronto Star athlete of the week. Not bad, you say. Well you have to watch her play hockey. A sure bet to score every game too, the Bears forward had two goals in a 3-0 win over Richview and also plays in the Provincial Women's Hockey League.

Dylan Hannan, Christ the King. He likes hockey and opposing goalies don't like him. The Georgetown-area winger had fun against two Burlington-area schools. He had two goals in an 8-1 win over Assumption and two more in a 3-0 dusting of Robert Bateman in the Halton Region league. Team record is now 20-5-4. Not bad at all.

Ryan Lenardon, St. Marcellinus. He's a goalie who has five shutouts in 12 games with a goals against average of 0.50 and a huge reason why the Spirt (the team nickname) is unbeaten in Peel Region. St. Marcellinus, who beat Gonzaga 3-2, could be headed back to the provincial playoffs and another medal. One more thing, he's top marks in grades: 90 per cent.

Gerome Mair, L'Amoreaux. How about scoring 48 points in a basketball game and your team still loses? It happened for him and the Saints, who bowed 83-80 to Macdonald in a Toronto District School Board Tier Two senior game. So far, he's only the third player to score those kind of numbers, or more, in a game in Toronto. His team is also 2-7.

Duane Notice, St. Michael's. I am told that he's only in grade 10 and the 6-foot-3 point guard is a former member of the provincial basketball team. His Blue Raiders squad leads the CISAA senior league with a 5-0 record and he's one of top players on the St. Michael's squad. Scored 32 points in a 74-41 thumping of Villanova and 26 in a 77-35 drubbing of Crescent.

Sammy Orlando, Country Day. He's almost done it all for his school: great soccer player and former two-time MVP, sprinter on the track team and raises money for multiple sclerosis. Great academic student. Back from a broken elbow that forced him to miss hockey last year, Orlando scored five goals in an 8-6 win over Lakefield and is a goalie's nightmare.

Marcus Rose, Father Redmond. I don't believe he was at the Toronto Catholic school in 2005 — the year it last won an Ontario gold medal in hockey. This year, ho hum, a 1-5-1 record so far. Rose had a game he'll remember, scoring all four goals in a 4-3 win over rival Michael Power/St. Joseph.


That's it.

 

High School Blow-Outs: Yes or No

Had an interesting discussion today over lunch with a basketball coach on the subject of total points scored in a high school game. All these kids with dreams to play in the NBA and make a pile of money - and many forgetting about a back-up plan or education. Got around to my big question: why crush an opposing team in a game by more than 80 points?

At first, we disagreed. After lunch, and we each paid our own, he ended up siding with me. I knew I should have been a lawyer. Remember, we're talking about a high school game. Ah, education and sports as my friends at OFSAA like to call it.

Some followers of this blog will know that I have a tendency to go on a bit of a rant on certain things - such as ridiculous scores that come across my desk. Yes, scores in which teams win by blow-outs in a 32-minute game. I know those games happen. I find out. I also am aware that some schools choose not to report scores knowing I will ask questions. Sorry, but that's my job - and, yes, ridiculous scores occur in many sports and I ask more questions.

I really can't understand why teams press and score, then score and press, when the other team is so weak. It must be depressing or demoralizing or both for players on the losing side - even though some will shrug their shoulders and say something to the contrary. If you've been on the losing side of a team that got hammered, you know what I am talking about.

And, of course, the reasons and excuses show up too. People trying to justify why it was so important to maintain whatever chemistry, other teams being inferior, that playing catch on the hardwood is not the right thing to do, and on and on. There are coaches in the U.S. who see nothing wrong with blow-outs.

Well, if piling up points and blowing teams away by ridiculous scores in a school game is fine with coaches, then some Greater Toronto Area schools should consider aiming for 212 points in a game - the U.S. national record held by Louisiana's Grand Avenue High from Quincy. They set that record back in 1964. Not sure if anyone keeps that kind of history in Canada.

I see Yates High School, from Houston, may be getting close to the Grand Avenue record. Yates, which has won something like 40 games in a row and set a Texas record, beat another high school 170-35 in a game that created lots of controversy and questions of sportsmanship. At halftime, it was 100-12. Nothing wrong with that either - right? Oh yeah, there was a scuffle too. Last I heard, no weapons.

It's time to do something about ridiculous scores or risk the consequences.