With the end of the winter basketball season just concluded it's time to hand out congratulations to a number of teams at various levels across the province. Locally, kudos to Hamilton's ACMT and Oakville's St. Thomas Aquinas on their gold medal wins at OFSAA Single and Double "A" and as well to Dundas Parkside for their Bronze medal at Double "A" in Timmins, Ont. In the GTA, congratulations to Toronto's Eastern Commerce H.S. for their gold medal win at Quad "A" OFSAA in Windsor and to Humber College for winning the OCAA crown in Ottawa against heavily favoured Algonquin. The Hawks had not lost a game since November 12, 2008. Finally a tip of the hat to the Carleton Ravens who won the CIS crown in Ottawa recently.

Vancouver's St. George College, who were at the Silver Fox tournament two months ago, won the B.C. Triple "A" tournament despite major injuries to star forward Luke Braud 6'5" and another starter. They defeated South Kamloops H.S., the best team west of the Ontario border, in the semi-finals in OT and Vancouver College by one in the final. Despite all the whining and criticism from our more vocal Hamilton critics, the Fox featured the OFSAA Single, Double and Triple "A" champions plus the B.C. Triple "A" champs, the Double "A" Bronze medallists and the fourth place team at Triple "A". In my mind, a very good track record for a tournament that was perceived by some as watered down this year in terms of competition.

CIS schools in the rest of the country may not want to hear it but Ontario is now dominant and will remain so for the foreseeable future. Carleton is the odds-on favourite to win the title every year and other provincial powers like Ottawa, Toronto, Western, Windsor and McMaster are always knocking on the door. What it all comes down to is recruiting. Although many of the province's best high school players still head south, many are now staying home to play at the best schools in Ontario. Very few quality high school players head out of province any more because Ontario schools can now offer money to prospective student-athletes and the competition among the top six or seven teams in the OUA is better than anywhere else in the country. The brawn drain out of province to others regions has been reduced to a trickle.

Speaking of the Silver Fox tournament, look for a change of dates next year to accommodate the conflict with the St. Mike's tournament in Toronto. Also, look for a reduction of teams in the field from twenty-four teams to twenty with a play-in schedule and fewer games to the final. The committee hopes these changes will be more user-friendly to the teams invited and reduce the number of schools being used. We are in negotiations right now to bring at least two out-of-province teams from Nova Scotia and B.C. to make this a more national style tournament.

As April fast approaches, club season will soon be upon us. The most hotly contested division locally will be the U18 Junior/Juvenile boy's division. Defending champs Blessed Sacrament have almost their whole team back and will add NEDA players Mike Allison and Manny Arop. They have also added blue chip forward Clinton Springer-Williams 6'4", who is highly coveted by university's on both sides of the border. U-Play, Hamilton's other strong entry will add Nikola Manojlovic, the fast rising Stoney Creek Orchard Park centre to their lineup. There isn't much love between these two organizations who are bitter rivals on the court and each team has their supporters in the city. This should make for some dynamite games at tournaments across the province over the next two months. Other teams to watch in this division are the Waterloo Wildhawks, Ottawa Guardsmen, Ottawa Next Level and the Scarborough Blues #1 team.

THE RECRUITING TRAIL

Toronto Eastern Commerce player Alwayne Bigby 6'5" has signed with NCAA D1 Northeastern University. His H.S. teammate Marvin Binney 6'1", will make decision about school over the next six weeks. Binney has strong interest from Evansville. As well EC teammate Wayne Bridge, a two-year starter with the Saints, will choose between Windsor, Waterloo and Toronto of the OUA.

Waterloo Sir John A. McDonald H.S. teammates Justin Tomas and Taylor Allen are seriously looking at schools outside the Tri-City region. Both are highly coveted by Laurier and Waterloo but have strong interest from Windsor, Western, McMaster and Toronto. Both young men may want to leave their hometown for a program that has a chance to win right away.

An announcement hasn't been made yet but it appears the McMaster Marauders have locked up shooting guard Brady Heslip 6'1" from Burlington Nelson H.S. Heslip and McMaster coach Joe Raso's son Victor, are best friends and want to play on the same team. Heslip is considered one of the best pure shooters in the country.

University of Toronto would love to get commitments from Oakville Holy Trinity's Jordan Clarke 6'2" and Ostap Choily 6'4" from Oakville Loyola for next year.

Brock University is strongly in the picture for Hamilton Cathedral forward Alex Ries and Dundas Parkside's Andrew Cicuttini.

Toronto West Hill H.S. forward Alex Arthur 6'5" has major interest from AUS champion Dalhousie Tigers and visited the Halifax campus this past winter. He will also strongly explore options with some DI schools in the U.S.

Chad Posthumus, a 6'10" centre from Winnipeg River East H.S., is going to the B.C. Thunderbirds next year. Posthumus is considered the best big man west of the Ontario border and had several 40+ pts games for his high school team this past season.

Carleton head coach Dave Smart has had Ottawa-area athletes St. Matthew's forward Tyson Hinz 6'6", guards Scott and Kyle Ring, St. Patrick's forward Anthony MacIntoch and guard Rueben Kanya 6'2" in for recruiting visits. They also had Thomas Scrubb 6'5" from Vancouver College and Kingston forwards Owen Klassen and Greg Faulkner in to tour the university as well.

Hamilton St. Thomas More H.S. forward Ryan Christie has his marks close to 80% and his decision for basketball will come down to between McMaster and UBC. He did not play high school ball this season but is considered one of the elite big men in the Canadian high school ranks. He was a final cut from the National Junior team last summer.

New Alberta coach Greg Francis has moved quickly to include a trio of Alberta's best high school players to the Golden Bears recruiting class next year. Lethbridge guards Reggie Otieno 6'2" and Acture Butte have committed as well as Edmonton forward Jordan Baker 6'6". The newest addition to the Golden Bears lineup is NEDA forward Rob Dewar who just recently committed.

The most underrated high school players in Ontario this year are Anto Raic, a 6'7" forward from Welland Notre Dame H.S. and Chris Bothwell, a 6'1" off-guard from Aldershot H.S. in Burlington. Raic, who is a "B" student in the classroom, has a european offensive game and is an underrated rebounder and athlete. He took his team to fourth place at OFSAA Quad "A" and is looking at Laurier, Brock, Guelph and York. Bothwell dropped 60 points in two GHAC playoff games against Oakville's St. Thomas Aquinas and Hamilton's ACMT. He is an outstanding scorer and an "A" student. He has applied to Guelph, Laurier and Waterloo for business.