LOSSA Questions

I have some questions concerning Lossa basketball

Does Lossa get two ofsaa berths again because Pickering won?
How does lossa set up the divisions? Why don't they just use east and west?
And finally is Rob Gagliardi playing for ND this year?

I can answer some of your questions. To my knowledge, there was an earlier posting that stated that Rob G. was going to attend Prep School in Florida at some school called West Lake. LOSSA will more than likely get two Ofsaa the next two years. Next year they will get two berths as longs as no northern ontario schools declare QUAD AAAA. LOSSA had two berths last year since no northern schools declared for QUAD AAAA so the berth automatically goes to the provincial champion's region. Pickering won last year so LOSSA got an extra berth. Pine Ridge got the OFSAA berth by beating Leo Austin in a play-in game. If no teams from the North declares this year...up to this point it has never happened to date....then LOSSA can qualify two teams to OFSAA once again.

Now, the reason that LOSSA doesn't divide everything into EAST and WEST is that the western teams in the Pickering and Ajax area are stronger than the EAST teams. In years past, the fourth place team from the West consistently beat the Number #1 team from the EAST. During the playoffs, the 4 seeds from the West would always beat the 4 seeds from the east. After a couple of years, they decided to mix up all the East and West Teams in league play so it would raise the level of play across the entire region. Traditionally, all the west teams would only play each other....Pickering, Pine Ridge, St. Marys, J Clarke and Notre Dame and so on. Then, all the east teams would play each other....Sinclair, Leo Austin, Paul Dwyer, Courtice, Port Perry and Bowmanville. About three years ago, they changed the EAST & West Format. Now the league groupings are based upon how you did in the playoffs the year before. Next year, the four semi finalists will be in different divisions...Pickering, Leo Austin, Pine Ridge and St Marys....then each of the quarter finalists will be a placed in one of the four divisions with one of the semi final teams and so on.

Which teams do you think will make the final four?

gotta go with pickering, Pine ridge, ND, and J.clarke

Any players you think will stand out?

Pickering High School: Jonathan Tull, Kevin Thomas, Troy Joseph, Jevon Jacobs
J Clarke Richardson: Leon Alexander, Justin Jarrett
Pine Ridge: Janoi Wright, Isiah Swaby, Adam Plummer, Shavon Miller,
Leo Austin: John Lafountaine
Notre Dame: Norm Penola

Notre Dame: Rob Gagliardi, Norman Penola, Damone Donaldson, Junior Toby, Immanuel Wint

Pineridge: Isaiah Swaby, Dimitri Sanderson, Janoi Wright, Adam Plummer, Cee-Jay Williams

Pickering: Jonathan Tull, Jameel Williamson, Liban Hassan, Kevin Thomas, Troy Joseph

Pickering High

Pickering is looking really nice if all of those guys are eligible. However, that is some boosting on the heights....Rob G is not 6ft-4! I don't think J-Tull is either...but the line up is impressive.

Does Austin have anybody returning?...What about St.Mary and J.Clarke? are they not competitive?

There should be two berths for LOSSA this coming season. The breakdown of berths is as follows:

2 - TDSSAA
2 - ROPSSAA
2 - CWOSSA
2 - SWOSSAA (normally 1 but they get two as host region this year)
1 - CISAA
1 - GBSSA
1 - GHAC
1 - LOSSA
1 - SOSSA
1 - TDCAA
1 - WOSSAA
1 - YRAA
1 - NCSSAA/EOSSAA/COSSA

This leaves one space vacant and, as per the OFSAA boys playing regulations, it goes to the gold medallist region from last season.

Northern Ontario schools cannot declare AAAA. According to the current OFSAA school classification regulations, all Northern Ontario schools with a population of 951+ are classified as AAA.

Last season St. Mary's surprised a lot of people including yours truly by making it all the way to the semi-final, but losing out Austin, a team that I think out did itself.

This season they should be one of the teams to watch because they lost only one player and will have their nucleus back. They should be able to compete with the better teams in LOSSA, by having the likes of Adrian Tucker, Shem Thomas and a good young Player in Daniel Levy. Both Tucker and Thomas are 5th year seniors who should be the catalysts for Mary's success. Each player is experienced both at the high school and the OBA levels and that experience should help them immensely.

I think if they had Tucker all of last season they would be a much better team but he was not eligible, having transferred back to St. Mary's from St. Marguerite d' Youville. On his return in the second half of the season the team was a lot more competitive and had some decent wins.

I also think that LOSSA will get two spots at OFFSA next year, which is quite deserving, after all the region had back to back OFFSA champion. I hope this year LOSSA can make it a three-peat, however, it is going to be tough because Pickering, which is still the strongest team in LOSSA has lost their entire starting lineup. Although they should be strong again they are vulnerable and a team like St. Mary's, Notre Dame and Pineridge could pull off an upset.

J Clarke will be competitive in LOSSA this year! They have Justin Jarrett and a really strong junior team moving up to the senior ranks. They'll be in the mix with St. Mary's, Notre Dame and Austin

How strong will Austin be? Aren't they losing Jon Bak and John Lafontaine...the two best players from their team.

Austin is always well coached with Creden. They are very disciplined on offense and play a patient game that gives some teams trouble. I wouldn't automatically dismiss them. They made it to the final last year. St. Mary's did not beat them in the semi's.

I believe this year is going to be very competitive with the final four teams being Pickering, Pine Ridge, Notre Dame and St. Mary. I also think Pickering won't have it easy in the play-offs.