GTA Junior Boys Championship Tournament - March 2010

We are still working on the details and sites. Here is our tentative format:

Tentative Dates: March 4 , March 5 and March 6 2010

Eastern Site :
Toronto Public (2) Champion and Finalist
Toronto Catholic (2) Champion and Finalist
Durham (2) Champion and Finalist
Wildcards (2)

Western Site :
Peel (2) Champion and Finalist
York (2) Champion and Finalist
Halton (2) Champion and Finalist
CISAA (1) Champion
Wildcards (1)


Playoff Round: To be played at a local College or University (March 6)

We are still determining sites but a number of schools have volunteered to act as host sites.

The reason for the wildcards is to give deserving teams an opportunity to take part. Sometimes there are upsets in league playoffs and an excellent team is eliminated.

Also some leagues are very competitive and have more than two teams that would be among the very best the GTA has to offer.

These dates would still allow Juniors to attend OFSSAA as "call-ups".

Hopefully all regions could complete playoffs by this time also.

sounds real good

This is still in the planning stages. We do have some support from coaches.

I hope the idea can fly.

Wow now I wouldnt have to wait2 years for an offsaa-like atmosphere!

Great idea Coach Clement, I hope your hard work pays off!

The formatting looks great, and the idea of wild card teams will allow a few extra of the marquee Toronto teams to be involved in the tourney (albeit, the toronto teams are most deserving of the wild card spots)

I have revised the draw slightly to include the CISAA Champion.

We are working out the details for this tournament and are looking into holding the semi-finals and medal games at Seneca College.

Attention Peel junior coaches:

With regards to this tournament. The Junior tier I Peel final is scheduled after this tournament. I brought this up at the end of the year meeting, and asked if we could move the Tier I final up so we can have the champion participate in this tournament. The attitude of the majority of the coaches that attended the meeting was a wait and see approach. They did not want to commit to a schedule change for a private tournament. Bottom line is there were not enough tier I junior coaches at the meeting and there was no support to move the final to an earlier day.

Coach Clement, my recommendation is for you to also contact Warren Williams (coach blue) at Applewood. He is the convenor of basketball, and he can probably be more help.

Coach Clement, please call me at (905) 451-2860 x 453 tomorrow before Noon and I will tell you what the ROPSSAA convenor told me.

There are a few other things I am ironing out that I feel I should take care of first.

I have checked with OFSSAA and they have given me their support and a list of contacts but I am still working on some of the logistics of using Seneca.

They are willing to give us the site once a few things are worked out. When those things are worked out we can then move forward. OFSSAA seemed to feel our timeline could work.

Worst case scenario no Peel and two more wildcards in the West.

coach clement is this only for tier 1 teams?

Coach Clement I applaud your efforts in trying to put together this tournament, however, I think it would be a shame to not have any Peel teams involved. I understand that quite a few strong teams are from the Toronto area but Peel (Mississauga and Brampton) have a number of strong players and teams that should be show-cased.

To be honest, I’m tired of the mentality of the Toronto teams and players always been showed-cased when there are many players and teams outside of Toronto that deserve to showed cased also.

Please try and do what you can to include all the regions.

We do want to include all the regions!

[quote="Coach Clement"]We do want to include all the regions![/quote]

In that case shouldn't the priority be to find a date that accomodates all GTA leagues and not a date that accomodates the miniscule number of players that might be called up to ride the bench at OFSAA?

I think you'll find that Peel isn't the only league that holds its junior final after the proposed dates.

Coach Clement, the idea is a great one and I commend you for all the effort you put into supporting junior ball. However, if this is to truly be a GTA championship and not simply a glorified invitational then the onus must be on accomodating all GTA leagues; not just most of them.