What is going on at St. Martin's?

St. Martin's has not made much noise in ROPSSAA athletics over the past decade. However, after the nonsense that went on with the senior boys basketball team, they are certainly the centre of attention but for all the wrong reasons.

St. Martin's basketball coach was the former assistant at Peel contender Father Goetz. Meanwhile the principal at St. Martin's applied for, and was given, regional sports program status. These two seemingly unrelated items came together when a former Father Goetz player left a US prep school program and arrived at the front door of St. Martin's with five club basketball friends in tow. Voila! The new regional sports school had its first sports powerhouse with a basketball team lead by six, count 'em six, fifth year transfers. Glory and fame was just around the corner.

But then the cold, harsh reality of ROPSSAA transfer regulations intervened.

It seems that all six players supposedly moved into the St. Martin's zone. However, it also seems that five of the six did not move with their parents or legal guardians. Oops, someone must have forgotten to read the regulations closely, especially where it reads, "students moving on their own, or to live with a different 'guardian' or to a different school system not closer to their home may not apply under this section. Just like that, a new Peel powerhouse was over before it even began.

However, that didn't stop the players from competing for their new school. ROPSSAA is one of the few regions in Ontario that allows ineligible players to compete in tournaments and exhibition games (Surprising when one considers they are also the only region to limit grade 9 eligibility.) so that is exactly what they did. The team even won the semit-prestigious Pinky Lewis tournament in Hamilton. This generated a fair bit of hype but it also generated a lot of derision in basketball circles, with accusations of a de-facto prep team playing against more legitimate high school teams filled with eligible players.

The question must also be asked about the remainder of the team: How do they feel about five players who cannot represent the team in league play taking most of the playing time while the rest of team rides the bench? How is the team going to have any hope of being competitive if the players who are eligible don't have the same development opportunities provided by tournament play? How do parents feel about a prep lineup playing courtesy of their tax dollars and at the expense of their sons' development?

While no one will say it out loud this certainly smacks of recruitment so another question must be asked: Who was responsible? Did the players organize independently of the school; did the coach call on his former players; or was admin involved? I have no idea what the truth is so I will not make any direct accusations but it certainly doesn't look good for all those involved.

Tongues are wagging in ROPSSAA as St. Martin's looks like a bottom dweller in league play while playing in high level tournaments where eligibility rules don't matter. There will be a number of motions at the ROPSSAA AGM to change the rules and prevent ineligible players from competing for a school in any game. All of these will be made with one eye looking St. Martin's way.

Football: Proposed changes in tier rules and the problems they create

Apparently the post-season football coaches meeting was long one with lots of changes. The most important changes affect the tiers. If the executive committee approves the changes, a lot more teams will be forced to play in tier 1. Under the proposed new rules, schools with a junior team and AAAA schools will both have to play tier 1 next season. (Teams eligible for tier 2 are allowed to play tier 1 if they choose.) Assuming the rule passes and there are no changes to current commitments (not likely but I would rather do that than guess for now), next year's tiers would look like this:

Remain in tier 1 (all 13 current teams)
Lorne Park (Jr)
Meadowvale (4A & Jr)
Notre Dame (4A & Jr)
Our Lady of Mount Carmel (4A & Jr)
Philip Pocock (4A)
St. Augustine (4A & Jr)
St. Edmund Campion (4A)
St. Francis Xavier (4A & Jr)
St. Joan of Arc (4A & Jr)
St. Joseph (4A & Jr)
St. Marcellinus (4A & Jr)
St. Marguerite d'Youville (4A & Jr)
St. Thomas Aquinas (4A & Jr)

Move up to tier 1 from tier 2 (13/18 teams)
Bramalea (4A)
Cardinal Ambrozic (Jr)
Father Goetz (4A)
Fletcher's Meadow (4A)
Lincoln M. Alexander (4A)
Mayfield (4A & Jr)
Mississauga (4A)
Port Credit (4A)
Robert Hall (Jr)
St. Aloysius Gonzaga (4A & Jr)
St. Michael (Jr)
St. Roch (Jr)
Turner Fenton (4A & Jr)

Can remain in tier 2 (5/18 teams)
Clarkson
Iona
Loyola
St. Martin
Sandalwood

Anyone who knows ROPSSAA rules will see a problem. Unless some teams drop junior or some new tier 2-eligible schools join, there will not be enough teams to offer a tier 2 league. ROPSSAA rules require at least 6 teams to form a league or a tier.

Even if they get at least one more team, this new set up is going to increase the number of blowouts. There will simply be too much competitive disparity between too many teams. Football coaches, more so than many other sports, has done a pretty decent job of placing their teams in the appropriate tier. This seems like far too severe of a proposal. Unless there is a modification or the info provided to me wasn't entirely accurate, I don't see this rule change passing.

All ROPSSAA schools eliminated at OFSAA

It was not a great day for ROPSSAA at the various OFSAA championship tournaments around the province. As of shortly after 1 pm on the second of three days of competition, all 7 schools from the region had been eliminated from championship action.

In AAAA girls basketball, both Campion and Notre Dame went 0-2 and were relegated to the consolation round. Notre Dame then lot their next match to finish 0-3 while Campion at least won a match to advance to the consolation semi-finals though one doubts they will consider this to be a successful tournament in a season that started with so much promise.

In boys AAAA volleyball, Robert F Hall was 0-3, losing all 6 sets. Meanwhile, ROPSSAA champs BCSS won 1 match but was 3-5 in sets over-all and lost a three-way tie breaker for the 2nd QF spot from their group.

In boys AAA volleyball, Applewood had a chance to advance to the quarters going into their last match but was swept in straight sets. They finish with one win and a record of 2 sets won and 7 sets lost.

In boys AA volleyball, St. Paul was also 2-7 in sets, winning one game and finishing 4th in their group.

In boys A volleyball, Brampton Christian went 2-2 and 4-4 in sets but that was only good enough for a 3rd place finish.

While many of these teams will continue with consolation play, none of them are in contention for a medal anymore.
I will try to post a final summary by the end of the weekend.

The ROPSSAA Cup: Fall standings

Now that the final fall sports wrapped up earlier this week, it's time to post the first set of standings for the ROPSSAA Cup. If you did not read the introductory post on the topic, you can link to it here or scroll down on the blog home page.

One thing I forgot to mention in my previous post on the subject was tie-breakers. If two schools are tied, I will give the advantage to the school that earned points in more different sports/categories. If still tied, I will look at the variety of different sports. There are a number of other tie-breakers after that but I'll save the full list until the end of the year.

The full list of standings are below but first the top five schools and some commentary.

The fifth place school is Robert F. Hall which earned 22 points in three sports: gold in tier 1 field hockey and boys golf; and silver in boys tier 1 volleyball.

The fourth place school is Mount Carmel which earned 24 points in six sports: silver in senior tier 1 football, junior boys cross country, and boys golf; and 4th in tier 1 flag football, junior girls tennis, and junior girls cross country.

The third place school is Lorne Park which earned 26 points in 8 sports: gold in junior football; silver in tier 2 flag football and senior boys cross country; and 4th in senior girls tier 2 basketball, senior boys tier football, senior girls tier 1 field hockey, senior girls tennis, and midget girls cross country.

The second place school is St. Marcellinus which earned 27 points in 7 sports: gold in junior girls cross country; silver in midget boys cross country; bronze in junior boys tier 2 volleyball, junior boys football, and senior boys cross country; and fourth in junior girls tier 2 basketball and senior girls cross country.

However, all of these schools were dwarfed by the first place school this fall. Mayfield earned a whopping 50 points in 10 sports: gold in senior tier 2 football, tier 1 flag football, and senior girls tennis; silver in junior boys tier 1 volleyball, junior girls tennis, and senior girls cross country; and bronze in senior girls tier 2 basketball, junior girls tier 2 basketball, midget boys cross country and junior girls cross country.

The Mayfield result blew me away. I know they have a history of athletic success but I had no idea they dominated the fall season so thoroughly. In a region with as many accomplished schools as ROPSSAA this is very impressive. At the same time, I noticed a number of large schools with relatively low scores despite offering a wide variety of sports. The ones that stood out the most were Bramalea, Central Peel, Erindale, Fletcher's, Harold Brathwaite, Meadowvale, St. Augustine, and Woodlands; none of which scored any points in the fall. Also some other large schools were very low in the standings: John Fraser and Father Goetz both earned only five points while traditional athletic power Loyola only had 4 points. Of course some of these schools excel in winter or spring sports and disappointment is a subjective standard.

Here is the list of 40 schools that earned points in the fall, along with the number of different sports in brackets.

1. Mayfield - 50 ( 10 )
2. St. Marcellinus - 27 ( 7 )
3. Lorne Park - 26 ( 8 )
4. Mount Carmel - 24 ( 6 )
5. RF Hall - 22 ( 3 )
6. Rick Hansen - 21 ( 5 )
7. Campion - 20 ( 3 )
8. North Park - 16 ( 3 )
9. Notre Dame - 16 ( 3 )
10. BCSS - 15 ( 4 )
11. Turner Fenton - 15 ( 4 )
12. Clarkson - 15 ( 3 )
13. Philip Pocock - 15 ( 3 )
14. St. Joseph - 13 ( 3 )
15. St. Famille - 13 ( 3 )
16. St. Roch - 10 ( 2 )
17. Port Credit - 10 ( 2 )
18. Joan of Arc - 8 ( 3 )
19. Gonzaga - 8 ( 2 )
20. Xavier - 8 ( 2 )
21. Glenforest - 8 ( 2 )
22. Cardinal Leger - 8 ( 2 )
23. Cawthra - 8 ( 1 )
23. Chinguacousy - 8 ( 1 )
23. Mississauga - 8 ( 1 )
23. St. Michael - 8 ( 1 )
27. D'Youville - 7 ( 2 )
28. Humberview - 6 ( 2 )
28. Mentor - 6 ( 2 )
28. Streetsville - 6 ( 2 )
31. Applewood - 6 ( 1 )
31. Heart Lake - 6 ( 1 )
31. John Cabot - 6 ( 1 )
34. Iona - 5 ( 2 )
34. Loyola - 5 ( 2 )
36. Father Goetz - 4 ( 2 )
37. Holy Name - 4 ( 1 )
37. John Fraser - 4 ( 1 )
39. David Suzuki - 3 ( 1 )
40. Stephen Lewis - 2 ( 1 )

ROPSSAA at OFSAA basketball and volleyball

Seven ROPSSAA teams will represent the region at various OFSAA championships around the province. Here is a brief preview.

Girls AAAA Basketball in St. Anne: ROPSSAA tier 1 champion Campion is seeded 9th and opens the tournament against 3rd seeded Westdale from the Hamilton public league. Meanwhile, runners up Notre Dame are seeded 10th and will play 4th seed Waterloo Collegiate. The first two rounds are tomorrow. If either team wins their second game, they will move on to the quarter-finals on Friday. St. Thomas More from the Hamilton Catholic league is the heavy favourite to win and continue GHAC's dominance of this tournament. (7 titles in the past 10 years.)

Boys AAAA Volleyball in Hamilton: If Mississauga had not called it quits on their season, they would have been looking at a top-3 seeding. Rick Hansen was probably on pace for a top-8 seed. However, for the first time in over a decade, neither school will represent the region at OFSAA. Instead, ROPSSAA champions BCSS are seeded #10 and will play #4 Holy Names (Windsor), #7 Glebe (Ottawa), and #Cardinal Newman (Hamilton Catholic). Robert Hall is seeded last among the 16 teams and will play #1 Bill Crothers (Markham), #6 Saunders (London), and #11 Bishop Allen (Toronto Catholic). Bill Crothers is probably the best high school volleyball team in the entire country, filled with starters for Ontario's Ontario's top club program. Look for them to beat either St. Michael or Grand River in the final.

Boys AAA Volleyball in Hamilton: The seeding committee was not kind to Applewood, placing them in the 19th spot out of 20 teams. The Axemen will play #3 Beatrice Desloges (Ottawa), #8 Milton, #9 Waterloo-Oxford and #14 Kingston CVI. The top seed from London Oakridge would be a high seed even at AAAA so expect them to be in the final. Beatrice Desloges has a lot of solid club players from Ottawa and could be their opponent.

Boys AA Volleyball in Stratford: #17 St. Paul plays in Pool D, along with #4 Essex (Windsor area), #7 Loyalist (Kingston), #10 Lo-Ellen (Sudbury), and #13 Barrie Central. Eden out of St. Catharines is seeded #1 but Franco Cite from Ottawa played a tougher league schedule and might be the eventual winner.

Boys A Volleyball on Manitoulin Island: This is the only one of the 8 OFSAA tournaments this week to start on Friday instead of Thursday. Brampton Christian is seeded #14 and, for a change, is competitive despite being an automatic ROPSSAA rep at he A level in every sport in which they compete. They actually finished ahead of eventual tier 1 champion BCSS in the regular season and won a round in the tier 1 playoffs before losing to HAll in the quarters. They will face #3 Mere-Terese (Hamilton Catholic), #8 West Elgin, #9 Manitouwadge, and #19 Charles Garnier (Whitby). It's hard to say who is the favourite. Many of the teams get beaten up regularly against bigger schools in league play and it's anyone's guess who will respond best to playing against school's their own size. Quinte Christian from Belleville is the top seed.

There are no ROPSSAA teams in Girls AAA basketball in Kingston, Girls AA basketball in Brockville, and Girls A basketball in St. Catharines. Ontario powerhouse Hamilton St. Mary's (AAA) is probably the clearest favourite of any of the four levels of basketball while General Amherst (AA) won this level 4 times in a row not too long ago and seem to be the favourite after three years without a title. The top two seeds in A are both from EOSSAA so one of Elgin and North Grenville is s good bet to bring home the gold.

Coming soon: The ROPSSAA Cup

I've always been curious about which schools are the most successful in the widest number of events so I have decided to create a competition based on this investigation. Over the course of each of the three seasons of ROPSSAA sports, I will keep track of the top four teams in each sport at each level and tier. After compiling a list of results for each season, I will use a point system (explained below) to declare the winning school.

Please note that this is not endorsed by ROPSSAA in any way. It's just one bloggers way of creating another topic for discussion. There will be no hardware; only blogging pride.

After some thought, I have come up with a point system. The top four teams in each tier 1 (or non-tiered) sport will receive 8 points for winning the championship, 6 points for finishing 2nd; 4 points for finishing 3rd (or being the higher-seeded semi-finalist) and 2 points for finishing 4th (or being the lower-seeded semi-finalist.) At the tier two level it will be 4, 3, 2, and 1 point, respectively. Some people might think it's unfair to award fewer points for tier 2 but I am doing it anyway for two reasons:

1. Many tier two playoffs are simply the teams that finished 4th and 5th in their divisions in non-tiered league play. (Basketball, Field Hockey, Flag Football, and Volleyball this Fall.)
2. In tiered leagues (i.e. football), the level of competition is much higher and schools that opt to play at the tougher level should receive extra recognition for this.

I realize some will still disagree. That's fine but since it's only the creation of a high school blogger with a bit too much time on their hands, what does it really matter? It's only done for discussion anyway.

One other accommodation is a decision not to award points for combined titles in individual sports. (In the case of Fall sports, that means tennis and cross country.) This is because it's not actually competed directly between schools; it's simply a compilation of points earned in the various male and female levels for which schools are already receiving credit in this competition. Since it's not available in team sports, it would give schools that tend to focus on individual sports an unfair advantage.

So there you have it; the basic concept of the ROPSSAA cup. After the final Fall championships are decided today in junior girls basketball, I will finish compiling the results and total the points. The Fall standings will be posted by the end of the week.

A week of ROPSSAA news

FOOTBALL
Congrats to Lorne Park and Notre Dame, winners of the ROPSSAA junior and senior football titles, respectively. In the Junior final, Lorne Park outlasted a tough St. Roch squad 13-10 in a close game. The next day, it was Notre Dame's turn to shine, with a thrilling 28-21 victory over Mount Carmel. The boards were buzzing of rumours about injuries to top players on both teams but they proved to either be false or exaggerated as both teams were at close to full strength. Fortunately for ROPSSAA, this year is their turn to send two teams to the Golden Horseshoe semi-finals. Notre Dame will play SOSSAA winner St. Paul from Niagara Falls, the first time in ages the region isn't represented by Lakeshore Catholic. Meanwhile, Mount Carmel will have its work cut out for them, playing a Burlington Nelson team that many think is the best high school team in Canada. In Tier 2, it was Mayfield winning easily over Clarkson.

BASKETBALL
For the second year in a row, Campion are the champions of ROPSSAA girls basketball, once again defeating Notre Dame in the final. This year, the final wasn't even close, with Campion winning by a decisive 49-23 margin. Both teams advance to OFSAA outside of Windsor, where Campion is seeded a surprisingly low 9 and Notre Dame is only one spot behind. This strikes me as a bit strange. Meanwhile, ROPSSAA's other three qualifiers all failed to get by their GHAC opponents and finish one game short of qualifying to OFSAA. Loyola lost to perennial powerhouse Hamilton St. Mary's (though they did win the tier 2 title over Pocock); Ascension lost by a surprisingly large margin to Oakville's Aquinas and Brampton Christian lost to King's Christian from Burlington.

Speaking of OFSAA, congratulations to the Rimrocker organizers who have apparently been awarded the 2014 OFSAA AAAA boys basketball championship in 2014. This will be the first time the championship has ever been hosted in Mississauga.

VOLLEYBALL
Rick Hansen was given a gift when their bitter rivals from Mississauga withdrew from the playoffs but they couldn't capitalize, losing in the semi-finals to eventual champions Brampton Centennial. BCSS will be joined at AAAA OFSAA by Robert F. Hall which also advanced to the league final. Our reps at the smaller levels are Applewood (AAA), St. Paul (AA), and Brampton Christian (A). Rick Hansen did have more success at the junior level, defeating Mayfield. Their Bantam team was not as lucky, losing to the only Mississauga squad that was allowed to remain in the playoffs.

THE CUTS CONTINUE
Complaints are being voiced by the boys basketball coaches over the number of teams in the playoffs. As predicted in an earlier post about ROPSSAA budget cuts, the playoffs are down to 8 from 16 (senior) and 12 (junior last year). There is also some dissatisfaction over the division set up, both in terms of number of games and the unwieldy three-division set up that leaves too much up to tie-breakers between teams that don't play common opponents. Surely ROPSSAA can set up even numbers of divisions to make it simpler and more fair?

Senior girls basketball playoffs: How did that happen?

Followers of ROPSSAA girls basketball are still buzzing over the apparent clerical error that lead to incorrect match ups in the second round of the tier 1 playoffs.

For those not familiar with the format, the top 2 teams in each of the 6 divisions advanced to the playoffs. The coaches seeded the six division winners 1-6 and the six 2nd place teams 7-12. After that the four top seeds all received a bye to the quarter-finals while the other 8 teams played a preliminary round with the expected match-ups: 5 vs 12, 6 vs 11, and so on.

The problem was in the second round. Since ROPSSAA doesn't re-seed after each round, the match-ups were predetermined. Winner of game A would play #1, B vs #2, C vs #3, and D vs #4. The problem is that it looks like who ever created the playoff schedule didn't pay attention to the seeds of the A-D matches. Match A was 5 vs 12 so, assuming no upset, the #1 seed would play the #5 seed. Following the same expectation, that would mean 2 vs 6, 3 vs. 7, and 4 vs. 8. Anyone who follows sports knows that this is wrong. The highest seed should not be potentially matched up against the highest-seeded winner from the previous round and the #4 seed should not be potentially matched up against the lowest-seeded winner from the previous round.

Apparently the problem wasn't caught until early this week. It's not exactly sure who caught it first; one of the number of coaches who e-mailed ROPSSAA this week, this poster on HooptownGTA, or the ROPSSAA administrators themselves. Regardless, the word came down that, while it was an error, it was too late to fix. Buses had been booked and game times confirmed. Some coaches accepted this with a shrug while others were apparently incredulous that the error would be allowed to stand.

In ROPSSAA's defence, things have not been easy since their most experienced administrator took a medical leave last year. It's meant a bigger workload for everyone else and time spent training new blood. Regardless, it was a major oversight and it calls into question the fairness of the playoffs. It should also be noted that three of the four visiting teams were from the Catholic Board so they were likely using their own school buses instead of a charter. Switching to the correct match-ups would not have been as difficult for them.

You can be sure every playoff schedule will be triple checked before being published from now on.

ROPSSAA: Get ready for cuts

Go to the ROPSSAA Website and click on the various sports. Then click on the playoff match-ups. Do you notice any differences from last year?

In case you're not sure, note the number of teams in the playoffs compared to Fall, 2010. Here are a few examples:

Football: Last year, the top 8 teams made the tier 1 playoffs; this year their are only 6. In Junior football, the difference was even more pronounced. Last year, the top 16 made the tier 1 playoffs and the other 4 teams made the tier 2 playoffs. This year, only the top 8 made the tier 1 playoffs and there is no tier 2.

Boys Volleyball: Last year, the top 16 made the tier 1 playoffs and the next 16 made the tier 2 playoffs in both senior and junior. This year, it is top 16 and next 8 in both levels.

Girls Basketball: Last year, the top 16 in senior girls made the tier 1 playoffs and the next 16 made the tier 2 playoffs. This year, it is 12 and 8, respectively. In junior, it's an even bigger reduction; going from 16 and 16 to 8 and 8.

These are just three examples but you can be sure there will be more of them as the year progresses.

Why?

You can blame the Ontario School Food and Beverage Policy. As you may already know, many high fat foods and sugar-filled drinks have been banned from Ontario school cafeterias and vending machines. While this is an admirable goal, lost in this move was the amount of money companies like Coke and Pepsi provided for schools. This also included a significant amount of funding for ROPSSAA expenses.

Now there is a large hole in the budget. How large? Enough that there was a special general meeting held earlier in the Fall to discuss options. Some proposed options included, eliminating medals and playoffs for tier 2; cutting back on the number of sports; requiring volunteer coaches to carry more of the weight in administration; severely cutting back the number of games; and many sports-specific proposals. One thing that was not on the table was increased funding from each school. Many of them are already tapped out after dealing with enrollment drops and cuts to funding,

It looks like cutting back on the playoffs is the first step of what might be any more cutbacks. It will be interesting to track if the cuts are spread fairly evenly or if some sports feel the brunt more than others.

Mississauga Volleyball: An update

I have since discovered the nature of the incident that lead to Mississauga withdrawing. It's rather mundane and involves an incident at their last game of the season. That's not the reason for the mini-post.

The reason is the new bombshell: Mississauga is withdrawing its junior team, too. Obviously the incident must have involved both teams. This one started making the rounds among volleyball coaches today and quickly passed into wider ROPSSAA circles. No word if the teams in their division will all move up one spot or if Mississauga's first round opponent in the junior playoffs, Father Goetz gets a bye.

Update: Mississauga forfeited the playoff match, 3-0

Mississauga SS Volleyball: What happened?

Anyone who follows volleyball in Peel knows that the two powerhouses are Mississauga and Rick Hansen. They are the perennial ROPSSAA finalists. This year, Mississauga was the slightly more successful of the two and seemed to be on pace for another division title over rival Rick Hansen and another #1 seed in the playoffs. Now they are suddenly 0-20, with every set registered as an 0-25 loss.

What happened?

The assumption at first was that there must have been an ineligible player that wasn't caught in time. As unfortunate as that is, it happens from time to time in Peel and the powerhouses aren't immune.

However, a bit of digging has revealed that the decision was internal; the school itself chose to forfeit all their games and end the season early. No one is saying exactly what happened but word is there was an incident last year and a repeat this year that lead to this action.

As I don't know exactly what happened it's hard to judge the appropriateness of the action. However, schools aren't in the habit of throwing in the towel on OFSAA medal-calibre programs without very good reason so I'll give Mississauga SS credit for taking whatever happened seriously and applying serious consequences.

Now the second ROPSSAA berth is wide open. Rick Hansen is now #1 seed. They would have been the #9 seed otherwise. This benefits them and what would have been their higher-seeded opponents. As the teams are pre-seeded based on divisions, it's hard to say who really is the second best team. Is it Streetsville who is stuck behind Mississauga and Rick Hansen in the same division; Stephen Lewis who is technically the second seed; or Robert Hall which only lost one set all season? Regardless, the playoffs aren't as predictable all of a sudden.

Is High School sports coverage in the Toronto Star better without Grossman?

Dave Grossman left the Toronto Star almost a year ago after 30+ years at the Toronto Star. To call him a controversial figure wouldn't do justice to the battles that erupted on many a message board or on his own blog. To his supporters he was the only person who truly valued high school sports and the reason many high school athletes received any attention beyond their own school (and sometimes even beyond their own team). To his detractors he was the classic big fish in a small pond who was very difficult to satisfy and even more difficult when challenged.

One thing he implied in some of his blog posts at the Fan590 was that the Star didn't truly value high school athletics and, being caught flat-footed (depending on whose story one chooses to accept - some claim it was not his decision though he is adamant that he retired at a time of his choosing), coverage would suffer. The implication was that he was the heart and soul of the coverage and the Star didn't really care without him. Based on the almost complete disappearance of coverage for a brief time, that certainly seemed to be the case.

Fast forward a few months and things have recovered nicely at the Star.

There are scores almost every day in the paper and, when there is no space, the scores are printed at a later date. Dave Grossman frequently told coaches that scores would not be accepted after the deadline and that the Star had a strict policy of only printing scores from the previous day. Apparently that was either incorrect or the policy has ben changed to a far more reasonable one.

There is a full page of high school articles every week, usually on Tuesdays. Previously, there was usually one article but now it's four or five articles each week.

Coverage is truly from across the GTA; often thanks to the Star's many community papers in the suburbs. Grossman was sometimes criticized on message boards for being too Toronto-centric in a market where over half of the population and the high schools are located outside the 416.

The articles are focused on the athletes, the teams, and their recent accomplishments. All too often, coverage was based around controversy and regular attacks on OFSAA, administrators, and some coaches.

(One could still get their regular dose of outrage from Grossman's early Fan590 blog posts but, after an especially heated series of posts attacking one of the regions and some administrators, the blog disappeared for a while. When it was returned, it was a much milder Dave Grossman posting. Now, with the move away from high school only, there is even less vitriol.)

While the top ten rankings are missed by some readers, most followers of high school sports had turned to various sports-specific massage boards and twitter for those debates. The top ten lists in the Star were all too often based on only a portion of a team's schedule and many questioned whether these coaches voting on the coaches poll actually existed. Regardless, I'm sure some would appreciate the return of a ranking in the major sports but based on a more comprehensive set of records. Perhaps the Star should consider partnering with sites like All Canadian Gridiron and Hooptown GTA for this.

So, is the coverage better? While some miss Grossman's style I think the majority of readers like the improved high school coverage.

Junior football gets confusing

If you were to ask 10 different junior football coaches about the playoff tiebreakers and the seeding procedure before last Friday, you might have received 10 different answers. Confusion abounded as coaches tried to figure out who was in, who was out, and who still had a slim chance. What didn't help was a set of rules with two different tie breakers for the same position.

Check out the football playing regulations. Rule 4 II. e iv (half way down page 4) states the following:

Ties for the last playoff spot(s) between wildcard teams:

1) The result of the game(s) W-L record only, between the tied clubs.

2) Defensive Record to a maximum of 21 points per game.

This will determine all positions.

Seems simple enough; wins then fewest points allowed. Many coaches saw that and went with that. However, further down the same page is section 4 III a. It deals with seeding. Included in this section is the following:

In three divisions the first place team in each division to be seeded 1, 2, or 3,

teams finishing second in each division to be seeded 4, 5, or 6 and teams

finishing third in each division to be seeded 7, 8, or 9 (the ninth seeded team will

not advance). Seeding will be determined by a teams Win-Loss record. If still

tied seeding will be determined by a teams +/- differential, should teams play an

uneven number of games the average +/- will be used.

If you don't see the problem, let me lay it out: One rule says that ties for the last playoff spot between wild card teams (i.e. the 8th spot) are broken by wins, followed by defensive record. The other rule says that 7, 8, 9 (which includes the last playoff spot for wild cards) is broken by wins, then point differential.

Confused? So were a number of coaches and so were the folks on the AllCanadianGridiron message board. Apparently attempts to clarify with the ROPSSAA office were difficult at best, with unanswered e-mails and instructions to consult the regulations. I believe that was the point; the regs were faulty so how could they be consulted? Eventually there were instructions to use point differential, something that the 9th seed might have appealed if it wasn't for the fact that the same team was 8th, regardless of which tie-breaker was used.

But imagine the fallout if that had not been the case. Looks like the coaches have a loophole to clean up at the post season meeting.

Senior Girls Basketball as the playoffs approach

Senior Girls basketball once again went with a single tier and divided tiers for the playoffs. With the season coming to an end on Friday, let's take a look.

In the Nothwest Division, Campion is once again undefeated and through to the tier one playoffs. Their only question mark is the size of the roster. Rumours abound over injuries and players quitting. With a full roster, they are one of the two or three best teams in the GTA; without, they might be rip for an early upset. Ste. Famille controls their destiny for the 2nd spot though their are scenarios where Fletchers or St. Marcellinus make it through.

The two tier 1 bound teams in the Northeast Division are already set and it came down to today's game between D'Youville and Aquinas to decide first and second.

Notre Dame has already clinched first in the Northcentral Division, while Ascension will finish second.

Perennial contender Father Goetz has the inside track on first in the Southwest Division. However, if Lorne Park upsets them in their game on Friday, there will be a three way tie with the two of them and Iona. Otherwise, Iona is second.

The Southest Division was very competitive between the top four. In the end, St. Paul takes the first place tie-breaker over Applewood.

The general consensus was that the Southcentral was the weakest division. However, division winner Mount Carmel is a solid team. None of their games were close and an underwhelming Rick Hansen team takes the second spot.

The 12 tier one qualifiers will be seeded by Monday and the top four teams will get a first round bye. My guess is those four teams will be Campion, the D'Youville-Aquinas winner, Notre Dame and Goetz. A lot depends on the final seedings since teams are not reseeded between rounds but my guess is a final repeat final between Campion and Notre Dame, with D'Youville missing out on OFSAA for the first time in ages. once again missing out on OFSAA.

Meanwhile, in the other playdowns, it will likely be one of Iona and Applewood that earns the right to be cannon fodder for the GHAC champion. However, I do like the chances of AA favourite Ascension making it to OFSAA. Brampton Christian continues to enjoy the benefits of being the only A school in Peel in most sports but will not get any further in yet another winless season.

Second Edit: St. Marcellinus defeated Ste. Famille which, thanks to the tie-breaker, allowed Fletcher's to come up the middle and take the second tier 1 playoff spot in the Northwest...and still no score for D'Youville-Aquinas.

Edit: Thank you to "Anonymous" for correcting my error about last year's ROPSSAA reps at OFSAA.

24 hours later and still no D'Youville-Campion score. Coaches, please try to use the online update for scores. Calling the score in only delays things. Besides, the deadline to report is later when you enter on-line.