Muskies cross fingers for all-Ontarios

There either will be a coronation, or a confrontation.
Fort High’s push to host the 2005 all-Ontario hockey championship faces a critical juncture today and tomorrow at the OFSAA spring meetings in Burlington.
If no other bids are put forth, the all-Ontarios automatically will be awarded to Fort Frances for the first time since the Muskies won the title in 1989.
But other bids are forwarded, then the FFHS athletic department will have to formulate a proposal that will be evaluated and voted on later this summer by the OFSAA legislative council.
Dryden was the last NWOSSAA school to host the event in 1998.
Meanwhile, another topic of sporting interest to Fort High principal Ian Simpson is the proposed twinning of smaller schools in the region.
“The proposal has already been approved by NorWOSSA and NWOSSAA,” he noted. “Now it just has to get through OFSAA.”
The plan would see schools classified as single ‘A’ (due to their smaller student bodies) allowed to combine forces to establish teams in certain sports that they otherwise could not do on their own.
“There are a lot of fail-safe mechanisms in place [to avoid abuse of the new system],” said Simpson. “It wouldn’t be a matter of two schools saying to each other, ‘Well, we’ve got some good players and you’ve got some good players, let’s put them together.’”
Any twinning proposal would be subject to NorWOSSA approval, with a set number established that the combined populations of the two schools could not exceed.
Tied in with the twinning plan is the possible future opportunity of a student who wants to play a sport that his or her own school does not offer being allowed to join a team from another school in that sport.
“There would have to be exceptional circumstances for that to be acceptable,” stressed Simpson, who was cautiously optimistic of the twinning proposal passing.
“I don’t know, I can’t give a prediction what will happen,” he remarked. “But the OFSAA legislative council has been very supportive of our northern concerns.
“They know we have a different set of circumstances due to our geography and the travel distance in between towns.”
In related news, Simpson said the drive continues slowly but surely towards creating a fundraising plan for Muskie athletes who qualify for future OFSAA championships.
“We’ve had some discussions, but we haven’t got as far as we want to,” he admitted. “We have to get on the ball quick. There needs to be a plan in place to make it equitable for all student-athletes who qualify to go to OFSAA championships.”
Simpson said the goal is to have a plan in place by the start of the new school year in September.
“We want to be able to tell kids ahead of time what it will cost for them to go to OFSAA in their particular sport,” he explained. “We have to make the decision whether we can afford to go to OFSAA or not [in particular sports] at the beginning of the year.
“It’s difficult for parents to find out after their child makes it out of NWOSSAA that all of a sudden they have to come up with $200, $300, or $400 at a moment’s notice,” he added.