When there’s a Will, there’s a way

Will Schmahl is a man for all sporting seasons.

The Grade 12B student at Saint Paul competes in travel baseball in the summer, was an all-star defensive back and a key player in the Patriots run to a Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association football championship and now is an important cog with Saint Paul’s senior basketball team.

“Will has been a good leader for us,” Saint Paul head coach Jeff MacDonald said. “He’s a hard worker and a good role model for the other players and he has been a prolific scorer.

“He has been our leading scorer right now, he handles the ball well and he shows good patience.”

The 6-foot-2 forward continued his strong play Monday, scoring 11 points to help the Patriots defeat the Lakeshore Catholic Gators 46-22 in Niagara Catholic Athletic Association play.

Schmahl was diplomatic when asked to name his favourite sport.

“Right now, basketball is my favourite sport because it is basketball season, but I would probably say that it is my third sport behind baseball and football,” he said.

Schmahl loves playing them all and each contributes to his overall athleticism.

“It’s the agility you gain and all of them tie into each other,” he said. “You have to be quick and you have to be able to move around.”

Schmahl thought his best chance to play sports at the post-secondary level was as a baseball player, but he opened a lot of eyes this season on the football field when he moved from quarterback to safety and receiver.

“When we were in Ottawa for football (Ontario Federation of School Athletic Association’s Golden Horseshoe Bowl), I talked to eight or 10 schools,” he said. “Last year in Grade 12, I had slight interest from Guelph but this year it has blown out of the park compared to last year.”

He is leaving all his sporting options open, but would love to land a baseball scholarship.

Schmahl, Jarrel Pappin, Devon Schiller-Cleveland, Dylan Paolone and Nick Cristelli were all late arrivals from the football season to basketball.

“The practices for basketball are a lot of conditioning and there’s a lot to get used to,” Schmahl said. “Getting back in the swing of things, especially coming from football, is pretty difficult but I can do it. I am always on the move.”

MacDonald would have love to have started sooner, but he is playing the cards he was dealt.

“We’ve only had six practices with our whole team, but we are getting better,” he said.

The Patriots, who improved to 3-0 in league play with the victory against Lakeshore Catholic, have defeated Etobicoke, which has already won two tournaments this year. Last week, Saint Paul defeated Blessed Trinity 61-46 in league play. The Thunder were finalists in the Standard High School Basketball Tournament.

“We are hot and cold and we’ve haven’t gotten the momentum which comes from practising every day and playing,” MacDonald said. “That groove we might have had in November, maybe we will get it in January.”

Lakeshore was unable to find any kind of groove Monday.

“We were really short today — we only had eight kids — so, with that, the only chance we had was to play zone and shoot threes,” Lakeshore head coach Todd Shoalts said.

Lakeshore Catholic fell to 1-2 in NCAA league play with the loss.

“We are a good team but we don’t have a lot of close-game experience and that’s something that is hard to teach,” he said. “I am really impressed with level of compete on our team, but we are running across a lot of great teams.

“Saint Paul is a well-coached team with a lot of great players and it’s hard to compete with them.”

The same can be said for the majority of the teams in the NCAA.

“There are no easy games,” Shoalts said. “It is a very strong league.”

STATS PACK

Patriots 46 Gators 22

Mick and Angelo’s/Johnny Rocco’s Player of the Game: Saint Paul’s Jerwyn Tutanes with 12 points and a strong game at point guard.

For the Saint Paul Patriots: Tutanes 12; Will Schmahl 11; John Graovaz 8; Sandro Guarasci 8; Richard Werner 4; Jarrel Pappin 3.

For the Lakeshore Catholic Gators: Thomas Cryer 6; Nick Qua 5; Nick Cryer 4; Ben Shoalts 3; Allan Pambianco 2. Two points not accounted for on game sheet.