Bits and Pieces from the High School Notebook

Not too sure whether there have been more e-mail and telephone messages from people commenting about the Toronto Star's annual high school basketball all-stars or the the hockey playoffs - and surprise, surprise, I mean the girls' more so than the boys' and even lots about curling.

And then, there are the sensitive people, the ones who only like to hear good things - all the time. They get upset when things don't go their way and don't know how to react to controversy or contentious matters. I sense these are people who like to tell us how to do our job. Yet, these are also the people who don't like to offer an opinion on this blog or speak with us. Funny, eh?

All right, so let's see how much I can say without dragging this too long.

Basketball. Overwhelming numbers of readers liked our Fab Five. Can't satisfy everyone and, so, some lips drooping too much because someone wasn't selected. Wish we could have 30, but a starting five is just that. We went with five graduating players. Fair. Also, lots of chatter about our regional all-stars - and many more of them dropped a few words of thanks than the school staff.

Girls' hockey. Quite the championship shaping up in Richmond. That's near Ottawa. All Catholic schools too. Two of the Final Four are from the Greater Toronto Area and, well, I will show bias and hope that Toronto's St. Basil The Great (defending champs in the Triple/Quad-A) plays for gold again against - Monsignor Paul Dwyer of Oshawa. For that too happen, St. Basil needs to beat Bishop Tonnos Hamilton and Paul Dwyer needs to eliminate Sacred Heart of Ottawa.

Fact: St. Basil's tandem of Theadora Imbrogno and Kristen Richards, both going to U.S. universities next fall, have combined for a phenomenal 30 points. I am sure someone will send me a note about plugging kids going to U.S. schools - even though it is accurate. As for Dwyer, I do like goalie Stephanie Nehring with three shutouts in three games.

At the Single/Double-A girls hockey in Wingham, I'm leaning towards Ridley. Yes, the private school in St. Catharines - and not because that school could be the closest to Toronto of the Final Four. Eleeza Cox has been lighting things up. Two games on Wednesday. Three goals in each game. Nice job.

Boys' hockey. St. Marcellinus of Mississauga is top ranked and, having won every game this year, deserves to be a gold medallist on Friday. But, we'll wait. The folks in St. Kitts, especially Denis Morris, have a different view. Could be a third Catholic school that spoils the fun - St. Mary of Pickering or even, a wild card, St. Michael's of Toronto.

And now to curling, the sport that is building at the school level because of the success of the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic teams doing so well. I was out to see York Mills Collegiate, the only school from Toronto to have boys' and girls' teams in these provincial playoffs. I sensed lots of young people having fun, less pressure to win and it was enjoyable watching. But there was no body checking and no one dropped their brooms in rage.

More tomorrow.

Comments

[Gary]

All these Catholic schools rising to the top. Could there be divine intervention?

[Pepper]

I really enjoyed reading this and had to send along my comments. Thank you for the great job and try not to let those morons out there take over. If many of them spent more time cleaning up their own issues, we wouldn't have idiots like them running the funny farm.

[JohnnyBoy]

After reading your comments about curling, I had to tell you that with the closure of so many curling rinks, it's become a huge problem getting pads for those kids who want to learn and play. Pumping the sport is great but what happens with no place to play.

[Kyle Redcliffe]

I agree that the basketball allstars were great choices and a nice mixture with a good emphasis on contribution to their teams and academics.
That`s the way it should be and I hope some educators are reading this and understand that this is a high school sport.

[Howard McCarthy]

Mr. Grossman. You should know by now that you have many followers and they very much appreciate not only that the Star is the only sincere supporter of high school sports but your work done with honesty and integrity. Don't dodge the messy problems. That generates some angry people who don't like to be put in a public picture of looking bad when they really are responsible for their own misfortunes. There are many good coaches and teachers who get tarnished with the same brush as those who have hidden agendas and expect everyone to agree with them. Keep doing what you are doing. I probably speak for many by saying againt that we enjoy your stories and blogs. As for the others, they need to do some maturing.