Patriots to host AA OFSAA hoops
The Saint Paul Patriots senior girls basketball team headed into the 2021 season with high expectations.
“We were excited about our abilities and Jen (co-coach Benoit) looked on the website to see where OFSAA (Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations championship) was this year,” Saint Paul co-coach Kristin McDonald said. “It had no convenor so she messaged me and was wondering if OFSAA was even going to run if there was no convenor.”
The two coaches did some research and pondered whether Saint Paul could pull off the event in such a short amount of time.
“It is a to do list that has a three-year plan and we are doing it in four weeks,” said McDonald, obviously confirming the school would host the OFSAA AA championships Nov. 25 to 27. “We decided as coaches that not only does our team deserve it but all the basketball players across Ontario served it. They didn’t need another thing cancelled.
“It has been fun to watch this all unfold and we are going to do our very best to make it a great OFSAA despite the limitations.”
Because of the ongoing pandemic, there will be no banquet or spectators but that doesn’t mean planning the event has been a breeze.
“It has been insane, it has been awesome, we are working really hard and we are almost there,” MCDonald said. “We are ready to go and you just have to roll in these COVID days.”
The Saint Paul and Saint Michael gyms will play host to the 10-team tournament. There are less teams in the tournament this year because a number of associations have declined to send teams to OFSAA. Games will be played at 9 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 2 p.m., 5 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
The teams will be divided into two pools of five and each pool will play a round robin. The top two teams in each pool will advance to the semifinals.
McDonald is excited to see what the Patriots can do against the top teams in the province.
“We have a dynamic team,” she said. “We have had some bad luck with injuries and illness and but we are definitely peaking now. It is a great group of girls, they’re very talented and they have a lot of heart which is really nice.”
The team has had more than a few bumps along the way.
“One of our starters (Ava Stranges) is out for the season with a torn ACL at Juel practice. And she was out two weeks before that with an illness. She is in Grade 10 and its one of the best basketball players we have had in a long time so it is a big loss but our team has rallied and we are playing every game like it is our last,” McDonald said. “It had been a different feeling knowing that we get to compete at the very end but we wanted to earn it so we went into every game wanting to win.”
The Patriots ended up losing 50-41 to the Saint Francis Phoenix in the Niagara Catholic Athletic Association (Zone 2) final last Thursday. Saint Francis, Zone 4 champion Governor Simcoe and Zone 3 champion Centennial will be looking to punch their ticket to OFSAA at the Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association playdowns this Thursday in Hamilton. When the SOSSA championships were last played in 2019, two Niagara squads (E.L. Crossley and Eden) met in the final.
There will be plenty of OFSAA action in Niagara next week with Sir Winston Churchill hosting the AAA event and Smithville Christian will host the A championship.
