NO. 3 ROYALS LOOK TO AUTHOR SENSATIONAL OFSAA ENDING
Girls squad coach says team aiming to close book on season with championship chapter
The Lajeunesse Royals are feeling good heading into play at the OFSAA girls’ A basketball championship, which begins on Thursday in North Bay. With a healthy roster and the No. 3 ranking, head coach Linda Carriere is looking to see her team medal for the first time in three years. “Probably feeling the best in the last eight years,” said Carriere, whose team is making its eighth-straight OFSAA appearance. “They know all the teams and how it works and they’re pretty pumped. Everything is positive. It’s a pretty good feeling.”
Lajeunesse is the area’s lone girls basketball team set to compete at OFSAA. Two other schools are headed to OFSAA boys’ volleyball. The Essex Red Raiders are headed to Sydenham for the boys’ AA tournament and the Kennedy Clippers will be the host team at the boys’ AAA tournament, which will be played at St. Clair College.
“I think from Day 1, when we had tryouts, we’ve been looking forward to this tournament,” Carriere said. “We’ve been there, we’ve done it. There’s nothing new. Every chapter we’ve achieved. We left this chapter open and want to close it the proper way.”
The Royals, who open play on Thursday against No. 18 Tottenham St. Thomas Aquinas at 9 a.m., are led by the Grade 10 sister tandem of Jamilah Christian, who was the WECSSAA Tier I MVP, and Ashanti Christian, who is a WECSSAA all-star. Fivefoot-10 Olivia Scott is Lajeunesse’s post threat while Kennedy Costello, who came over from the soccer team, has turned into a defensive specialist and senior Megan Gahima rounds out the starting five.
In volleyball, the Red Raiders took out a veteran Leamington squad, which had gone to OFSAA the past two years, to get the championship for the first time in five years.
“I expected us to do well this year, but we were in some tight games,” said Izzy Oozer, who is coaching the team with his son Deen Oozer. “We faced the OFSAA rep the last two years. We knew it was going to be tough and there were four or five others that were good.”
Essex heads in as the No. 7 seed and will open against the host Sydenham team, which is seeded No. 13, on Thursday at 10:30 a.m. The club will also face No. 10 Toronto Mosignor Percy Johnson on Thursday before closing out pool play against No. 4 Sudbury Lasalle and No. 17 Cobourg St. Mary’s. Essex must finish in the top two in pool play to reach the quarter-finals.
“I think we have a good shot to at least get to quarters and hopefully beyond,” Oozer said. “We went to a lot of out-of-town tournaments. We’ve seen the No. 1 team (Eden) twice in different tournaments. These kids have seen Eden and Oakridge from London, Ancaster and we’ve played them all tough.
“It’s given them experience. We just have to make quarters and see what happens.”
On the floor, the Red Raiders are led by setters Jacob Derksen and Nick Kwiatkowski along with middle Spencer Campeau and left-side hitter Blake Harnadek. “Most teams had one or two really strong players,” Oozer said. “Our six on the floor are very balanced. One or two can have a bad game and the others pick up the slack and that’s our strength.” Only a AA-size school, Kennedy will host the AAA championship and is the 20th-seeded team in the 20-team tournament. “We moved into this just for the experience for our students,” Clippers head coach Christine Papadopoulos said. “We didn’t earn our way in, we’re the host and we’ll look to do better than (No. 20).”
Kennedy will open play at 9 a.m. on Thursday against No. 1-ranked Georgetown at the old St. Clair College gym and stay there for a 3 p.m. game with No. 11 Sinclair. The Clippers close out pool play on Friday against No. 16 Regiopolois and No. 6 York Mills needing to finish in the top two in pool play to advance to the quarter-finals.
“Ten out of our 15 players have grown up together since Grade 3 or 4,” Papadopoulos said. “It’s just for the love of volleyball.”