St. Benedict point guard Webb gets MVP nod
CAMBRIDGE — The MVP of the District 8 senior girls high school basketball league is many things, but a senior isn’t one of them.
Grade 10 student Alex Webb, a personable multi-sport standout at St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School, has been recognized for leading the Saints to their first championship since 2015 with a 43-31 win over the Woodland Cavaliers in the D8 final. The athletic point guard averaged 17.5 points per game, including a 30-point effort in a regular-season-game, and scored 22 points in the championship game.
Webb, who was a second-team senior all-star in her first year of high school, said she was honoured to win the award and chuckled at the suggestion she had set the table to become a three-time MVP winner like former St. Benedict basketball star Zubair Seyed.
“It means a lot, but winning MVP isn’t my goal. My goal is to help the team and to have fun,” she said. “If it happens again, that would be good, but that’s not what I’m going for.”
Webb made her biggest impact as a Grade 9 student-athlete on St. Benedict’s track and field team. She capped off her outstanding season by winning gold in the midget girls javelin competition at the all-Ontario (OFSAA) championship in Belleville. She also competes in the shot put and hurdles and is a member of Cambridge-based Invictus Athletics.
She plays club basketball for the new Tri-County Soldiers of the JUEL of Ontario league and is a middle-hitter on the senior volleyball team at St. Benedict.
Mike Mascarenhas, the senior girls basketball coach at St. Benedict, has been impressed with Webb’s ability to handle a leadership role as a junior-aged player and her mental toughness in difficult situations.
“Alex has certainly shown that she is mature beyond her age, both athletically and as a leader on the court. Her older teammates certainly looked to her in the tougher games we had this year,” he said
“She wants the ball in pressure situations, and handles adversity well. I look toward to being able to coach her for her senior years at Bennies.”
Webb hopes to continue her academic and athletic careers on scholarship at an NCAA Division 1 school, but she has yet to decide whether she’ll pursue that dream in basketball or track and field. Her mother, Vicki, was an OFSAA gold medallist for Galt Collegiate in the javelin and went on to compete at Wichita State University.
“I’m just trying to do both sports for as along as I can and have as much fun as I can,” she said.
Webb is joined on the District 8 first-team all-star squad by Sydney VanderHoef and Emma Leger of Woodland Christian, and Emma White and Hannah Blair of St. David.
Maya Danis and Trinity Lombardi of St. Benedict were second-team selections, along with Buse Bin Edward and Haley MacArthur of Resurrection, and Alliyah Rowe of Père-René-deGalinée.