A High School Sports Year Mixed with Rewards and Regrets

It's the end of June - and the end of another high school sports year.

No shortage of highlights, be they individual or team accomplishments and how about the pile of championships, especially the titles that have been a long time coming?

There were many contentious matters, controversial if you prefer that word, and some decisions made by OFSAA that drew criticism in more ways than one. Some that even involved the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal. Even a few bizarre moments that left people scratching their heads and muttering frivolous things.

With apologies to those I may have missed, here are some highlights from my world of high school sports in the past 10 months.

Let's start with the individual highlights. Aaron Brown, from Birchmount Park, who ran the 100 metres in 10.36 seconds - but just missed out on a Canadian interscholastic record because it was wind-aided. That's quicker than Carlton Chambers, Desai Williams and Hugh Spooner - who went on to compete for Canada internationally. Brown, also a great football player, ignored play calls from his coach twice - and got away with it scoring touchdowns in a Metro Bowl playoff win.

Take note of Andre Ford-Azonwanaa. Only 14, this kid proved he could be the quickest for his age in Canada, timed in 10.89 seconds over 100 metres. The Cardinal McGuigan sprinter went on to win three Ontario high school gold medals on the track.

Rachel Rennick, from Lawrence Park in Toronto, won the Ontario high school slalom and giant slalom ski races despite fracturing an elbow in a toboggan accident a week before the finals. Jonathon Babulall, from Turner/Fenton in Brampton, won his fourth consecutive Ontario wrestling gold medal and has been undefeated in three years. Ryan Dixon, from Wilson in Oshawa, scored six touchdowns and piled up 471 yards on 44 carries in the Ontario Regional junior football final. Shanice McKoy came out of surgery to repair a collapsed lung to play basketball at Pope John Paul II in Toronto and is now on her way to Texas on a U.S. scholarship.

Let's not forget Thea Imbrogno, a Toronto Star hockey all-star the past several years, and she scored the winning goal in OT as St. Basil The Great became the first Toronto school to win back-to-back Ontario gold medals. Oh yes, Julian Clarke. The Oakwood Collegiate basketball star, now athlete of the year, nailed five consecutive three-point baskets and late in a boring OFSAA gold medal basketball game for the Barons' biggest provincial win in 17 years.

On the subject of teams, Oakwood being one of them, Pickering won back-to-back Ontario track and field titles - and coach Cyril Sahadath predicted it too. How about St. Marcellinus from Mississauga, the hockey team that won everything but its last game - the OFSAA gold medal game. In volleyball, the girls' team at St. Ignatius of Loyola in Oakville was the first school from the GTA in the 33-year history of the Ontario Catholic Classic to win the prestigious crown. And Birchmount Park, a perfect 39-match run bolstered a 73-0 streak the past two years to win the OFSAA boys' voilleyball title.

There was the story of 500 free tickets to the NFL game at the Rogers Centre between Buffalo and the New York Jets handed out by OFSAA to coaches, players, volunteers and not sure who else. And OFSAA got the jitters about a possible battle, one it was advised by its lawyers it would likely not win, with the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal. The subject: gender equity. Now, a girl can play on a boys' team - if she makes the cut. OFSAA wanted boys on boys teams and girls' playing on girls teams.

Gymnastics could be going the way of the dinosaurs and, it appears, the same for cheerleaders. Following a steroids incident that saw a university football team get pulled for a year, people started asking questions about whether high schools could be centres for some students taking performance enhancing drugs and human growth hormone. No money for testing and denials from many people. Seemed like the goal was to try sweep this topic under the carpet quickly. And dozens of students continue to pick U.S. universities, and even high schools, over what is offered in Canada. And many of them are coming home too.

And to some other eye-poppers. On-ice racial slurs by several hockey players led the Principal at Thomas A. Blakelock High in Oakville to pull the plug on the boys' hockey team at his school. Turns out that beer and baseball don't mix - for under-age players. An Ottawa school, competing at the Prentice Cup playdowns, packed up and went home after the coach forced several of his suspended players caught with alcohol to watch others on their team play a meaningless game. There was also the ridiculous move by several football players at Chaminade College in Toronto to see what would happen when they put feces in a microwave oven while on a team trip to Michigan.

One of the saddest stories of the year,  a freak accident that shattered the dreams of Anthony Lue. The former Pickering High multi-sport athlete, who aspired to be a major league baseball player, was crushed inside a car at a recycling facility. He's now in a wheelchair. And we continue to pray that Wesley Jorisch, a 16-year old at Marshall McLuhan, miraculously recovers from severe injuries suffered in a rugby game.

What a year - and just barely scraped through some of the stories.

Comments

[Marcie]

Fabulous reading this. Thank you for your great work and hopefully the people who make decisions at the Toronto Star will give you more space next year so the readerrs of the future and their parents can enjoy.

[J.C.]

You got all the big ones and I could read this stuff forever.
Great summary of some wonderful events.
Enough of the crappy pro teams, more high school and university sports coverage.

[Big John]

I am very happy that you mentioned those despicable acts by students and I am sure you could have put in more. Your report is well done and very informative. School boards need to get tougher with schools like Chaminade rather than just brush off these and figure people will forget them.

[Mr. Blake]

Julian Clarke has to be the story of the year. What a wonderful athlete and you guys did a very good job reporting about him and his team.

[Mr. K.. Cameron]

Your summary was nice to read and very informative. It kind of made me feel like I was catching up on the past school sports year. You have also been very fair to many people when you could have really have focussed on all the negative things. I have heard people talking about how OFSAA has snubbed you and the Star and I think that is despicable. That organization doesn't seem to want to comprehend what you have done in support of school sports and instead some of the old (and should be retired to the pasture) people like to carry grudges not realizing that they are penalizing students and school sports. I say, and many more will agree with me, that you should keep up the great work. Even more so if it is the embarrassing stories that we all learn from and don't let the small number of wimps spoil it.

[Mr. A.T.]

Reading this summary and then reviewing all the previous blog comments about OFSSAA leads me to think the people at OFSSAA made a huge boo-boo when they started to pick away at you. They are now one embarrassed group of yahoos who will try somewhere and somehow to save face.
Keep up the great work you do. I can tell everyone from my experience as a high school teacher and coach for the past 15 years, I have lost all respect for OFSSAA and it's time to clean up that group and get some people there who know what they're doing.
Someone should find Colin Hood and bring him back and then dump the current Bored, yes, the Bored of Directors.

[Pepper]

It really is a shame that the spirit of high school sports in Toronto is gradually fading away with such small numbers of people showing up for championship games. I can remember in my day, the crowds were huge and basketball tournaments crowded gyms. Now there are too many tournaments and schools have done a poor job appealing to parents and students. Turn the clock back to the 70s and 80s.

[A. Blair]

Mr. Grossman. One thing you forget to mention. Remember all those blow-out games that coaches always seem to have an excuse for justifying when they know full well there is no reason for such poor sportsmanship.

[Anonymous]

There you go Grossman. Right to the last few days of school and you still find a way to stir things up by bringing back all those events that should never have been in the paper. It's no ones business to mention about racial slurs or even feces by a few students who made the mistake of a teenager.

[Carmen]

I very much appreciate the nice job you did in putting all this information together. It sure brings back some interesting events. I also pity that 14 year old runner who will likely get swamped by every club coach around promising him everything if he joined there club. This kid needs some solid advice and he probably won't get it from the people at his school. I can see him at another high school in a year or so.

[Football Official]

I just caught your writeup on the school blog and had to write to tell you that I know, because a friend of mine got some free tickets to that Bills game, that some people on that high school organizing football committee running all those football bowl games were pissed when you wrote that story about all the free tickets passed out. I can tell you that you caught them big time and from what I was told they denied everything even though they thought no one would find out.

[High School Coach]

You missed that time when that Hill Academy sports school borrowed volleyball players from some high schools in LOSSA because it didn't have enough for its own team.
Such a dumb thing to do and we never did find out if those players were ruled ineligble by their athletic association for playing on two school teams in the same sport and in the same year.
If you find out, can you tell us.

[Colin]

Hey, how about mentioning us guys in St. Catharines. We won the OFFSA hockey gold medal beating that school from Mississauga in the final. Go Dennis Morris Go!!

[Sean]

I went out to see a number of high school sports events but, being from the U.S., it just doesn't have the same excitement that I experienced while living in Detroit. There are some great basketball players but I was not impressed with the coaching and where are the fans? I read the Toronto Star because your newspaper is the only one in this city that reports about school events and I would much sooner read that than more about losing Toronto "professional" sports teams. Thank you very much for allowing me the opportunity to comment on your blog.

[Donna]

Why is everyone so hush hush about that young rugby player who was injured in a school game. There was so much attention when he got hurt and now that many of us want to know how he is doing we find that the school and the Catholic Board have zipped up. There are people who care. Please, someone tell us how he is?

[VB Coach]

Not only were those "borrowed" players not sanctioned by LOSSA, but one of them carried her AA team to the Championship game, and earned a berth at AA OFSAA!! Seems you have to play basketball at Pickering to get in trouble out there.

[Donna]

I have to commend you and the Toronto Star newspaper for doing such a thorough job sharing the secondary school sports highlights. You are "the" newspaper for school sports. Please continue it next year. It's very refreshing to read about these young and talented athletes rather than the spoiled professional snits who forgot to grow up.

[Jim]

Only one thing is missing and I am wondering when the Toronto Star will be publishing the annual list of the top athletes at their secondary schools. Can you please let us know.

[Clin M.]

Boo hoo on the people at OFSAA for spoiling the opportunities of high school athletes from having the thrill of seeing their names and stories and pictures in the Toronto Star newspaper. I have read the various threads on this blog and OFSAA should be thoroughly ashamed. By preventing a reporter and with the credibility of David Grossman from attending an Ontario sports final,stinks of censureship and personal beefs. I don't always agree with you Mr. Grossman, but you are entitled to your opinions and you have shown a history of being fair. Keep up the good work and let those individuals at OFSAA know who they really are - nobody.

[Barry]

I wanted to express my sincere thanks for the wonderful job you did in writing all those high school sports stories in the Toronto area this year. The people who think you should only be writing about the teams and students that always look good and dominate must have been surprised. The report to end the school year was enjoyable, you provided a mixture of the good, the bad and the ugly. I also liked your blogs and I see they had alot of comments from people which makes it even more interesting. I particularly enjoyed your allstar teams but really wish the newspaper brought back that wonderful high school page that appeared every week. I hope you have a very good summer because you certainly deserve it.

[Track Coach]

I wonder why you didn't mention the fight by those track and field students from Cardinal McGuigan high school . Instead of one of the best relay teams in Ontario competing for a medal, some of the aggressors from that school spoiled it for the rest. I do believe lots of blame should go to the administrators at that school who didn't even show up to defuse a ticking time bomb and also provide sufficient staff support. I\

[The Wise One]

As someone who is a taxpayer and sees some of my pay cheque go to six-figure salaried high school principals, its a disgrace to see how out of tune some of them are with reality.
Time to get some of these fat cats, and enough of the equity quotas of females also, to move aside. Lets get Principals who care enough that they'll get out of their offices and go a game.
Like many parents, my wife and I believe they should all be pushing for school sports rather than find excuses to wipe out teams. Coaches couldn't care less with poor leaders and the students either suffer or switch to other schools.

[Parent of Student]

I wasn't sure if you knew that some Toronto District School Board principals are quietly trying to limit sports, varsity and intramural, at their high schools with a variety of excuses to save the money for other programs on their priority list. And people wonder why our children are obese? Why doesn't the TDSB step in and clean this crap up. One would think this would be a highlight on your list that you won't want to ignore.

[J. Pearce]

Mr. Grossman, can you please tell me why you haven't published your annual list of high school athletes of the year as this is something that I have looked forward to reading and I find it strange that in mid-July that the Star has dropped the ball.

[Eagle 12]

This article is an amazing piece of wrok! It puts the spotlight on all the individuals and teams who have excelled in their area of sports. For the section about females playing on male teams, does that mean males could possibly play on the female teams?It is also very impressive to see students excelling to amzing heights and contending on the world stage.