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.

Peel's Junior Final went on March 12 last season. York, Durham, TDCAA, TDSB were all finished almost two weeks earlier.

It is not reasonable to ask teams to sit around and wait for two weeks after a final. I've seen it before with the old Metro Tournament some teams will not continue and it may be hard to find teams.

It is the weekend before OFSSAA surely all regions will have chosen their champions by then.

We have booked our sites and chosen our dates, hopefully Peel will be represented.

Peel was informed as early as last May-June about this tournament and the dates. panathas has been making every effort to present this idea to the appropriate people in Peel.

I do hope that Peel will be represented if not by a champion and finalist then by two worthy representatives.

I have just received confirmation that Seneca will be the site for the Finals on March 5.

I will now send out word to all the regional representatives and seek a sanction from OFSSAA.

So it appears this tournament is a "go"!

That's great that it's a go but it's a shame that it won't truly be the all-GTA Championships. Regardless of the reasons, Peel has always had a later junior championship than the senior championship. If a tournament is going to come along and proclaim themselves a GTA junior boys championship then it seems to me the onus is on the tournament to accommodate all of the leagues if it wants to truly be what it claims.

Regardless, I'm sure it will be an exiting invitational tournament with many entertaining games. Seneca will be a good venue for the final four and I hope to attend.

I am making every effort to include Peel.

I have notified their Association President and we have already tried from within as long ago as last spring with the help of Louis Pahis.

Maybe something can be worked out. All we can do is all we can do.

It is not within my precinct to change their dates. Maybe a window can be created or they can push their dates back or something.

I remember asking last year why do we not have a jr. OFSSA because the talent pool in jr. bball is amazing. Eventhough it may not be called OFSSA I love the idea of a jr. tournament with the participation of top teams coming from all over the gta- Good luck Coach Clement and thanks and to anyone else who is part of the planning process- to make this come together!

This is a great idea. I wish the organizers all the support. This will serve as a great opportunity for GTA players to get recognized. And eventually improve the overall quality of competition and everyone's program.

please try to get peel teams in !!!!!!!

All you people going on this forum saying "Get the peel teams in!" and "Its not a true GTA tournament!" should just stop. Coach Clement has done everything he can, and it's not within his power to do anything else. So instead of sitting on this forum whining about what could have been, why not try talking to the peel athletics convener to move the date of their championships?

Sorry sport but this is where I need to point out that, without accommodating all GTA leagues, the tournament is nothing more than just another invitational with dreams of being something more than what it is.

Peel has always had their junior final at that point of the season and changing a schedule that is timed in such as way as to ensure that all the gym-based winter sports in Peel can finish at the appropriate times simply to fill out this tournament is the height of conceit. (You see, the high school world does not revolve around boys basketball..hard to believe, I know...but true.)

I have said this before but it bears repeating: If this is to be a true GTA championship than the onus is on the organizers to ensure that it is scheduled so that all GTA leagues can send their champions. The comment was made that one of the primary reasons for scheduling the junior tournament at the proposed time is to allow top juniors to play with their senior teams at OFSAA. If that is the priority then so be it; but then it's not a true GTA championship...it's simply an invitational that is essentially a smaller Rimrocker without the out of town teams.

All credit to Coach Clement for organizing another high level tournament. Junior basketball can only benefit from this. However, the name is nothing more than a facade unless the tournament accepts that it serves to compliment the leagues, not to dictate to them.

I'm sure plenty of bashers will now descend to tell me how clueless I am and how Peel needs to get with it. Most of it will be typical myopic conceit on the part of posters who think the entire GTA basketball world revolves around this board. I've been involved with the sport for almost 40 years as a player, a coach, a ref and an convener and I can say with some degree of confidence that it doesn't.

Any GTA Tournament for Juniors is automatically an invitational. OFSAA is the same way. There is no way you can force the best team to compete in any tournament if they choose not too.

With that being said, both OFSAA and this tournament have set guidelines for participation (i.e. entry due dates). Peel seems to be putting their eggs in one basket by 'tweaking' Championship dates to stack their teams at the OFSAA level. Unfortunately, this 'eggs in one basket' approach has caused their junior teams to be ineligible for the GTA Championship.

In my opinion, that's Peel's doing - it's has nothing to do with the tournament organizer.

From my experience, most schools wrap-up winter sports before the March Break to free up students for Track and Field, Baseball, Rugby, and other spring sports.

From what I've seen on this thread, Peel was told about these plans early on (i.e. before the regular season schedule came out). Despite this, they still chose to go with a March 12th (approx.) final for Juniors.

If Peel did the same thing with their Seniors and held the final on March 12th and therefore caused their region to be ineligible for OFSAA, would people recommend we take the "O" out of OFSAA as it is no longer an "Ontario-wide" championship? Of course not!

Don't take offense to my comments - just my opinion.