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Brock women hosting hoops tourney

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The Holy Cross Raiders will be one of four senior girls basketball teams taking part in the first Brock Women’s Basketball Invitational Wednesday at Canada Summer Games Park. BPSN PHOTO

The first-ever Brock Women’s Basketball Invitational will be played this Wednesday at Canada Summer Games Park.

The tournament is being staged for a number of reasons.

“I am primarily looking to see if there is any local talent I should be looking at. The high school girls league is short and they always play during our practices. I don’t get a great look at local talent and this provides me with a first-hand look at local girls,” Brock women’s head coach Mike Rao said. “It is also a little fundraiser for the Brock team.”

He is hoping this is only the beginning of making it a bigger tournament.

“It is my goal to grow this tournament with the help of some local coaches. It will be an effort to keep costs down and expose the women’s basketball game in the community. It was just an idea and it made sense at many levels. It’s the first kick at the can, so to speak. Let’s see if it takes off.”

The games start at 9 a.m. and conclude with the final game at 4:30 p.m.

Senior teams taking part in the event are Sir Winston Churchill, Blessed Trinity, Holy Cross and Notre Dame. Junior squads participating in the tournament are Saint Michael’s, West Niagara and St. Thomas Moore.

Bernie Puchalski, a graduate of Brock University and Niagara College, worked in journalism in Niagara for more than 27 years before taking a voluntary buyout from The Standard at the end of 2016. He started his career as a news reporter for the Niagara Falls Review before switching to sports reporting. He was a sports reporter and sports editor at the Niagara Falls Review before joining the Standard's sports department in 1996. He was named the Standard's sports editor in 2000 and became the regional sports editor, in charge of the Niagara Falls Review, Welland Tribune and Standard, in 2015, a position he held until he left the company. During his time in newspapers, he was a multiple winner and finalist for numerous Ontario and Western Ontario Newspaper Awards for sports reporting, spot news reporting and humour writing. He was a member of the Standard Boys Basketball Tournament committee and co-chair of the Standard Girls Basketball Tournament, helping to raise tens of thousands of dollars for bursaries presented to participants in the tournament. He also served on countless local sports committees both in Niagara Falls and St. Catharines.

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