Ontario and Quebec trip
With a Pro D Day on Friday, our boys were able to get 4 fantastic action packed days in Ontario and Quebec while only missing one day of school. Although this may sound like a small detail, it’s also an important one for a group of serious students who are all steadily working on GPA’s which will get them into their schools of choice.
A late Wednesday afternoon flight in addition to the time change made for a shorter than usual sleep and quick turn around. However, with Thursday reserved for finding our legs and university tours at Waterloo and London, it was a fun, stress-free day.
Thanks to coach Troy Stevenson for showing us around the Waterloo Warriors’ beautiful facilities and telling us about their program, goals and recruiting pathway. Next up, in London, we got a tour of the Western athletic facilities with coach Joel Delcarmen and got to meet coach Brad Campbell and the men’s team at the start of practice. With 6 BC boys on the roster, it was great to hear from them directly about the experience of playing for UWO. After a really good tour of Huron College, a team meal and a couple hours drive back to Toronto, everybody was ready for a good night’s sleep.
Friday had us trade our mini vans for trains, subway cars and Ubers as we headed into Toronto to see the athletic facilities and meet coach Madhav Trivedi and Amde Evans. With Toronto hosting the Alberta men’s team that evening, the boys got the added benefit from also hearing from U of A’s head coach Barnaby Craddock…a former Canada West rival and European teammate of coach Eric Butler. For any boy with dreams of playing post secondary basketball, it was impossible not to be inspired hearing from these university coaches while at centre court of such a beautiful facility..
A couple hours and train rides later, we were at the Playground in Oshawa excited to test ourselves agains the Northern Kings from the heart of Toronto. After a tight first quarter, our boys blew the game wide open and ended up winning by 60 with some stifling D and selfless team basketball on the other end.
It was a bit shocking to arrive in Kingston at noon on Saturday and see thousands in the streets for Fake Homecoming. With sidewalks, stoops, intersections and even some steep roofs full of Queens students, the atmosphere and energy around campus was buzzing. While it was definitely one of the biggest parties I’ve ever seen in my life, it was interesting to note that the players on the Men’s and Women’s basketball teams were busy competing on the court rather than hanging out at the street party.
Equally as shocking as the party atmosphere on the street was how incredible the facilities and basketball program are at Queens. Neither words nor my amateur pictures can do it justice…so I’ll just stick with the fact that we were all blown away by the tour put on by Queen’s coaches Stephan Barrie and John Curcio. In such a beautiful environment, it was a thrill for the boys to have a very competitive game against Eastern Ontario Elite in front of these Queen’s coaches and Rastko Popovich and Alex Mitrovic from Concordia.
To cap off the afternoon we watched Queens play Concordia and Waterloo play the University of New Brunswick before hopping on the train to Montreal.
The early Sunday morning wake up to make a 10am game at McGill was well worth it as the boys came ready to play. They may have played their best basketball yet as they came up against a well matched competitor Durocher, one of the best high school programs in Quebec. However, with our ball and player movement at it’s best, and our shots falling, we ended up turning a competitive game into a 104-50 blow out. Although it sounds like a completely one-sided game, the truth is the boys just played really, really well. We couldn’t be more proud of them and the work they’ve put in with coach Eric D’Andrea to get to this level.
Playing in front of McGill coaches Ryan Thorne, Michael Moody and Lois Rwigema, plus Bishops new head coach Matt McLean probably helped give out boys a bit of extra energy in their final game of our trip. It was a huge compliment to hear Usport National Championship wining head coach Ryan Thorne say how impressed he was with the style of play from our team and that he is always looking for players that play the RIGHT way like our guys do.
With McGill hosting an open house on a beautiful and warm fall day, it was hard not to be impressed by our campus tour and walk through of downtown Montreal.
A big thanks from the players and all of our Split Second team to the coaches, tour guides and people who helped make this trip possible. It was an eye opening experience and one the boys won’t soon forget.
