What was assumed to be a lead pipe cinch just turned into a streetfight, with the all-Ontario high school hockey championship in 2006 at stake.
Fort High principal Ian Simpson headed to last week’s OFSAA spring meetings under the assumption that Fort Frances, as the NWOSSAA rep, was almost certain to be awarded the ‘AAA’ showdown for the 2005/06 season as no other association had voiced interest up to that point.
When it was revealed bids also were being made by the Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association (SOSSA) and the Lake Ontario Secondary Schools Association (LOSSA), it caught Simpson off guard.
“They came out of nowhere,” he said. “I didn’t think anyone else was interested.”
Now the battle is on, with all three associations having to put together bids to host the championship, which last was held here in 1989.
The last time NWOSSAA hosted the all-Ontarios was in 1993 in Dryden, where Simpson was part of the bid process while working at Dryden High School.
Simpson explained Fort High’s bid proposal will be ready for November to send down to the OFSAA winter meetings with NWOSSAA boys’ athletics rep Harry Curtis of Thunder Bay.
Several circumstances will weigh into the OFSAA selection committee’s final decision as to who gets the province’s crown jewel of high school hockey.
“It will depend on things like how many OFSAA championships get hosted up this way,” said Simpson.
That doesn’t bode well for this region, with the girls’ ‘A’ and ‘AA’ soccer, along with ‘A’ basketball, already having occurred in Northwestern Ontario this past year, and the boys’ ‘A’ and ‘AA’ soccer scheduled to be played in the area next year.
“Money’s also going to be a factor, depending on how much OFSAA has in its travel budget,” Simpson added. “That could certainly hurt our cause. They only get so much each year.”
But a larger problem looming may be the trend toward hosting the jointly-run ‘A’/‘AA’ championship together with the ‘AAA’ one.
With 32 teams involved at the three levels, OFSAA selection committee members seem to be leaning towards giving the events to more metropolitan centres, which has happened over the past three years (Burlington, Mississauga, and Peterborough) and will happen for at least the next two.
The thinking behind this, according to SOSSA rep Dino Germano from Lakeside Catholic school in Port Colbourne, is that the larger centres have more rinks in close proximity with one another, thus making it convenient to hold the conglomerate of hockey championships in such places.
“I’m from the metro area, and I know how the metro area views the rural areas,” said Germano. “With all the four pads [four-rink facilities] being built, the areas getting the championships are the ones putting in for all of them, not just a single level.”
On the basis of that idea, Germano will be submitting two separate bids—one for the ‘AAA’ championship by itself and one with all of them combined.
But he’s not at all enthralled with the direction the situation is taking.
“Personally, I think they should run the ‘A’/‘AA’ earlier, and hold the two events at separate sites,” said Germano. “It demeans the ‘A’/‘AA’ group because all the press attention goes to the ‘AAA’ division.”
< *c>Come together
With LOSSA extending from Pickering to Welland, and possessing a bushel of already-constructed rinks, Germano is gung-ho to submit a joint bid from both SOSSA and NWOSSAA, with one area getting the ‘A’/‘AA” showdown and one getting the ‘AAA’ one.
“I encourage someone from your area to keep their options open and give us a call about this idea,” said Germano, who will submit bids for the communities of South Niagara, Welland, and a combined Thorold/Niagara Falls proposal.
“If we’re going to make a bid, let’s make it worthwhile and not shoot ourselves in the foot.”
Simpson responded by saying there’s a “strong possibility” such a tactic could be employed, but quickly added there were discussions that needed to be held among NWOSSAA bid committee members to examine the concept.
“I have to meet with our athletic directors and other people first, because I don’t know if this is what we want to do,” said Simpson, who had foregone putting in for the ‘A’/‘AA’ championships.
“There may come a point where our group might want to discuss this with [Germano]. But it’s not my decision.”
Simpson pointed to Fort Frances hosting two previous all-Ontario hockey showdowns and the intensity of local fans’ hockey passions as positives in this community’s favour.
“Teams love coming up here to play because, for many of them, it’s the first time they actually get to play in front of big crowds,” said Simpson. “In southern Ontario, there’s junior hockey and all kinds of other levels that draws people away from high school hockey.”
He remained optimistic about Fort High’s chances of being granted the all-Ontarios. “We’ve got as good a chance as anybody else,” he reasoned.
(Fort Frances Times)
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
