Babulall Brothers Win Provincial School Wrestling Medals

Wow!

That's one way of explaining the performance of 19-year old Jonathon Babulall.

I'm sure there are other words to describe his accomplishments and efforts on the wrestling mat. Babulall has done something quite rare for a teenage wrestler in the Greater Toronto Area.

Four consecutive gold medals at the provincial high school finals.

His latest came in the 47.5 kilos in Tillsonburg last Friday afternoon. I found out from one of his student friends, then confirmed by his mother. Yes, I had asked organizers for the championship results - but they never came on Friday or we would have had them in the paper on Saturday and on our website.

Jonathon Babulall, who attends Turner/Fenton Secondary in Brampton, is something special. I saw him wrestle last year and he had the gold medal won before I had a chance to sit down and thoroughly enjoy his athleticism. I should mention that he has also won five consecutive Peel Region high school titles.

Yes, he has a brother who also wrestles. Shayne - also at Turner/Fenton - won a medal in the 51 kilos at the provincial finals. But, his was silver. Nothing wrong with that, right?

By the way, they've also wrestled at the Junior Provincials in Sudbury. Last January, Shayne beat his older brother Jonathon in the 50 kilos. Yes, Shayne is bigger and may have had the physical edge. But, in my books, they're both champs.

I had a chance to speak with their mother, Sandra, a delightful woman. Proud, you bet. Dad is too. But, get this, the two boys don't like it when their parents come out to see them wrestle. So, mom explained to me, that she waited at home for the telephone to ring and the results. The call came before the results. Nervous, yes. Worried, yes. All parents worry about their children and while some people believe wrestling is a sport that doesn't result in injury, the facts show injuries do occur - like in all sports.

Both children were happy. Both children won medals. Both children contributed to their school winning a second consecutive boys' team championship too. Great story.

Top 10 athletes of week

The winter season of high school sports is winding down and while many people are counting the days for the March break, there are still some playoffs — including eight provincial playoffs at the same time next week scattered across Ontario.

Time for my picks of 10 of the best showings by high school athletes in the past week. The hockey rink and the swimming pool have the bulk of the picks.

Mark Belvedere, St. Andrew's. He might have set a record for appearing on this list, but deserves it. Scored the winning goal in the Saints' 2-0 victory over Nichols for the private school Tier One hockey title. There's more. He also had a stellar performance in the Mid-West Prep League final. Yes, the Saints won that too. They chose to decline from competing in the Ontario school playoffs. Phew.

Ryan Borkowski, Michael Power/St. Joseph. Give him a snowboard and watch him perform. I am told that he did it well enough in the snow at Georgian Peaks in Thornbury to win a gold medal in the Level One category of the Ontario Federation of Schools Athletic Association — festival. They don't call it a championship.

Troy Breen, Christ the King. He was the top point-getter in Halton Region high school hockey this season. So, enter the playoffs and he gets a big goal in a 2-2 tie with Notre Dame of Burlington. That forces sudden death overtime. Guess who scores? Yes, Breen. Now off to the final, then the Golden Horseshoe playoffs.

Danny Demyanenko-Jiminez, St. Michael's. He's 6-foot-4 and over 200 pounds and can he ever swim. Two gold medal races at the Ontario swim finals. First in the 50-metre freestyle. First in the 50-metre backstroke. Both were Ontario records. Gave up club swimming too. He's also the athlete that I wrote about who is hooked on volleyball.

Jenna Dingeldein, Martingrove. Yes, again. Look what she did and tell me why not? Both goals for her hockey team in a 3-2 semifinal loss to Birchmount Park. In a quarterfinal, she scored all five goals in a 5-2 victory over Richview in the Toronto District School Board playoffs. She is considered to be one of the top forwards in the city. No argument there.

David Garbuz, Community Hebrew. The hockey program was dormant at this private school for a while. Last year, it was back in business and Garbuz had a role in the team winning a league title. This week, he scored twice in a 5-1 win over St. Robert. Two more goals in a 4-1 win to clinch the best-of-three and another York Region Tier Two title.

Chantal Mayo, Aurora. Her varsity girls' high school hockey team went unbeaten in the regular season. Then, two more wins in the playoffs. I believe the team record in York Region is now 11-0. She's been averaging a goal a game. In the semifinal, she had three in a 7-0 whipping of Brother Andre to sweep the series.

Duane Notice, St. Michael's. You can always notice this player on the basketball court. Opposing teams do, and he's tough to cover. For the 17th time this year, hard to believe, he scored more than 25 points in a game. This time it was 27 points in a 66-57 win over Ridley for the private school senior Tier One hoops title.

Nicholas Poon, York Mills. I remember when high school swim coach Rick Mahoney told me to watch out for this youngster. I did. Mahoney was right. Dominant at the Toronto District School Board final too. Then, at the Ontario championship, gold medals in the 100-metre individual medley and 100-metre breaststroke.

Jennifer Tapley, Michael Power/St. Joseph. She is ranked No. 9 in Canada for her age class in swimming. Competing in the Open category, she has quite the collection of medals. Four gold medals at the Toronto District Colleges final. Then, at the provincial finals, gold in the 100-metre free and bronze in the 50-free. Yes, even great swimmers don't always win every race.

 

 

 

The Race Is On To Be No. 1 in Basketball

March Madness it's not - and far from it.

But the race is on to claim the No. 1 senior boys' title in high school basketball in Ontario. Someone asked me the other day, why not have provincial junior school championships like they do in some team sports like track and field as well as swimming? A topic for another day.

Like many others, as readers of this blog know, I'm not a proponent for these watered down playoffs with four Ontario champs. However, c'est la vie - for now. I don't see the education in teams with below .500 records competing for an Ontario medal, even if they do have enrollment issues.

Got around thinking how the rest of the province would react to Greater Toronto Area schools winning all four of these championships next week. Likely won't happen because the GTA really doesn't have a school of less than 500 students that will walk away with the Single-A classification title. Mind ya, if enrollment continues to drop in the big city, there could be schools in that level very soon.

Let's see what we do have: gold medal possibilities in three of the four. Not bad. Quad-A in Oshawa has Toronto's Mother Teresa sandwiched between top-ranked Pickering followed by No.3 and wild card entry Richardson - both Ajax schools. Good shot there, but an even bigger discussion is the concern from fans at organizers setting the Wednesday night final for 6:30pm. Not sure how many people will take off work and beat the traffic to Durham College. However, I'm not complaining, that's a great time - and meets our deadlines better.

The Triple-A has St. Ignatius of Loyola from Oakville , Anderson from Whitby and Toronto's Martingrove as 1-2-3. I'd wager a lottery ticket that, unless there players and coaches have flat tires, the GTA piles up with medals. For this, you have to travel to Kingtston.

In Windsor, Oakville's St. Thomas Aquinas and Toronto's George Harvey are really the only shots at medals.Aquionas is ranked No. 1. I can just see the city stopping, a parade down the main street if Oakville and His Worship Mayor Rob Burton declaring Oakville Day on the calendar. Yeah, right.

It's always possible to burn miles on the vehicle and get to all four playoffs. Start in Sturgeon Falls, then drive to Kingston, the next day to Oshawa and finally to Windsor. You either have to a basketball fanatic or nothing better to do in your life.

One thing is common for all four championships, they all occur on the same days in four different parts of the province. And, there's nothing on the calendar for Thursday, Friday or Saturday. Just a thought, it would be nice if these year-ending finals were spaced out - just a bit. And I haven't even mentioned the four girls' volleyball playoffs going on at the same time.

Durham Association Penalizes Top Pickering Player

Well, the Pickering Trojans are going to the Ontario Federation of Schools Athletic Association basketball playoffs yet again. Last year, they went without their coach - reprimanded by his athletic association and later OFSAA for using some players in a U.S. tournament.

This year, the Trojans enter the year-end playoffs - but without their best player. MiKyle McIntosh will be a spectator for the opening game - if the Lake Ontario Secondary School Athletic Association, who determined he was a bad boy, gets its way. McIntosh was given two technical fouls in the league championship game - a win over Richardson. Yes, both teams are in the OFSAA playoffs starting next Monday in Oshawa.  

Pickering is appealing the suspension. That Board of Reference will likely happen in the next 48 hours or so. Pickering is quiet about all this. LOSSA, well, not a peep. No surprise. For an organization hosting a provincial final, it does come across embarrassing for LOSSA to penalize one of its own schools.

Let me tell you something about McIntosh. He's 15 years old, 6-foot-6 forward with a man's body, a tournament all-star and MVP this season and frequent team top scorer. He does a great job attacking the rim and has to be aggressive. He's unselfish, looks to help his teammates, very enthusiastic and loaded with potential. Away from the game, he's a good student, a percussionist and vocalist in his church choir and strong family support.

LOSSA claims McIntosh was in violation of the league Constitution dealing with discipline and they have the right to sanction the kid for inappropriate behaviour. I read the Constitution, on the LOSSA website, and a lawyer can have fun with it.There are various descriptions on what McIntosh may or may not have done. One thing is certain, no report was filed by game officials. Furthermore, there is lots of assumption and confusion on a reason for the suspension. Gosh, let the kid play or does someone have it out for the school that wears green, white and gold uniforms.

Over the years, and various sports too, some people in LOSSA seem to have difficulty with the success of Pickering teams and athletes. Do I smell some jealousy?

Where have the great swimmers gone?

I was at the opening day of the provincial high school swim finals at the Etobicoke Olympium and, well, lots of interesting things happened.

First, more than 1,500 swimmers from 200 schools making it the largest high school swim meet in Canada. That's what I was told. I am sure someone will go sniffing through books to see if this is correct.

Also had seven security people stop me, at various times, asking me to remove my shoes. Fine, but you should have seen the look on their faces when I asked if they knew how many people on the pool deck had forms of foot and skin diseases. Then, talked about the outbreak of foot and mouth disease in China earlier in the day. It's true. I calmed them down after I removed my street shoes and wore another clean pair.

There were some really impressive performances — personal best times, some upsets and even records. Of the 14 individual finals, only four Toronto swimmers won gold. Ah, not good at all. Where have all the great swimmers gone? Remember the fuss about keeping the pools open in Toronto schools? All right, maybe winning isn't a priority.

Kudos to Paulina Bond from Malvern, the only female from Toronto to win a gold. Edward Liu of Harbord, Nicholas Poon from York Mills and Danny Demyanenko-Jimenez, the former club swimmer at St. Michael's, who stunned the crowd with a superb record race in 50-metre free. That was it for individual gold medals on the podium for Toronto swimmers.

As for getting the results, we found a way. Still haven't received them from OFSAA, who were sent copies by organizers for distribution to the media. Either they forgot, went home early or might send them out when they get time in a few days. The media tend to like the results on the day the event happened. But, OFSAA, apparently, doesn't understand that. On a side note, OFSAA sent out ski results from Day One but forgot to do it for the second day - a Friday afternoon and maybe they were too busy.

Back to the swimming. After four events, someone realized they forgot to sing the national anthem. Enter John McGill, a 17-year-old student from Waterloo Collegiate. As an alternate, he never got to swim on Day One. But, what a voice. OFSAA should have given him a medal. His voice was superb and got the packed place singing in harmony with a show of Canadian unity. Huge applause for him too.