Patriot Cruzes to Hillesheim award
Mark Cruz was thrilled to be named the 2023-24 winner of the George Hillesheim Award which recognizes the top high school boys basketball player in Niagara Falls.
The 17-year-old Niagara Falls native joins an impressive list of recipients, which includes former Olympians and NCAA Division 1 players.
“I worked hard in the summer and I am very honoured and grateful,” the Grade 12 student at Saint Paul said. “I found out from a Red Raiders coach and I was ‘Oh that is crazy.’ ”
The 5-foot-9 point guard made a lot of improvements in his game to win the award.
“What stood out for me this year was my playmaking, being a leader, motivating my teammates, having fun and working on my game.”
He feels the biggest step he took in his game skill-wise was on the defensive end of the court.
“My defence was pretty good this year. I locked up some of the best players in the Niagara region and I think that really helped us get wins this year.”
Saint Paul coach Michael Doodeman was glad to have Cruz on his squad.
“Mark is a great talent with exceptional dribbling and technical skills. He works extremely hard on his game whether it’s in practice or on his own,” he said. “I’m excited to see how Mark will progress in his Grade 12 year. He is a modest and respectful young man.”
Cruz is a gym rat.
“I work hard every day. I try to train every day for one to two hours with hard drills and I give 100 per cent every time. I sometimes train by myself in the morning and I also train with coach Dre (Andre Salmon) at Niagara Apex.”
Cruz started playing basketball when he was three years old. He started in organized basketball with the Niagara Falls Red Raiders when he was nine, but is no longer playing travel basketball after suiting up for the Red Raiders and Border Town.
Cruz can’t get enough of the sport.
“I love the competitiveness and playing.”
The next steps in his development will be to become a better shooter and being more vocal and communicative on the court
The highlight of his Saint Paul season was playing a team from Virginia in the Patriots’ first exhibition game.
“It showed us that we could compete against some American kids and we played well against some really good competition. We played hard and battled.”
In league and playoff action, the Patriots came up short in Niagara Catholic Athletic Association action against the Saint Francis Phoenix, who are perennial Ontario Federation of School Athletic Association medal contenders.
“Saint Francis is always in our way. Beating them was our goal last year but it didn’t turn out the way that we wanted it to. Next year will be our year.”
He is confident that statement will come true.
“We are going to come as a team and play together. We have the mentality to beat that team this year.”
The ultimate goal for the Patriots is to make it to the OFSAA AA championships.
“That is definitely our goal this year. We have been talking about it since Grade 9, going there and winning. It is definitely going to take the whole team to come together, every person on the team is going to matter and every minute is going to be important.”
