As the new year begins and many of our young players have either started grade 9 or entered grade 10 at a High School of our choosing a few September's ago many of us are having that feeling of maybe we should have done something different of researched a little harder to find a better fit long term.
If you haven't noticed the "Run for the Border" by younger and younger players many leaving after 1 year in Canadian HS which has been a shock to many however maybe necessary for some of the players that have left given the situation in HS Basketball under provincial rules.
For parents of current Grade 8's choose wisely or you may have a frustrating year or 2 ahead of you the typical choices are know longer what they were in the past we will list the schools we know based on the last 2 years schedule and performance you should be looking at long and hard in the GTA.
Top Junior Programs we have noticed 2015:
1. Father Henry Carr - Etobicoke
2. Vaughan
3. Thornlea
4. Bill Crothers - Markham
5. D'Y Brampton
6. Pine Ridge
7. Pickering
8. West Humber - Etobicoke
9. Martingrove - Etobicoke
10.Silverthorne - Etobicoke
11.Clarkson HS - Mississauga
12.Xavier - Mississauga
13.Father Geotz - Mississauga
14.St.Mikes - Toronto
15.Campion - Brampton
16.Bishop Reding - Milton
17. Holy Trinity - Oakville
18. Sacred Heart - York Region
( We could be missing a few good schools let us know which school outside of this we may have missed )
These are not rankings however reflect 18 schools where basketball is an important sport invested in by the school where winning and tradition have become important and your son will have the opportunity to play in important games often.
Take the time to look up the previous years tournament schedule if the school you are thinking about attending is playing in less than 4-5 tournaments or entered in random participation tournaments lacking competition then you should be thinking about choosing another option for your elite basketball player in the GTA. People wonder why the kids are transferring around or leaving outright it is because most of the schools are not serious about the sport they are passionate about meaning the situation becomes a bad fit. Stay and play is only a great argument when all things are equal for all of the players chasing an NCAA dream but if your stuck at a school in Canada that could careless for competition or the game you cannot blame the parents or kids for looking at better local or distant options.
During the Xmas break we noticed just how many of our elite grade 10's and 11's are in the States playing in Vegas Xmas tournaments and in Florida Xmas tournaments with their new U.S based prep schools performing well and competing on a high level playing important basketball games we can't say the same thing is going on here in Canada regularly for traditional HS teams.
The ONTARIO PREP League is a Senior based league which does not apply to what we are saying about the state of Junior HS Basketball however with only 7 teams in that league it leaves many kids out in the cold wanting that elite level game experience in their time at High School.
Kids staying or leaving is completely up to the parents and family we support the choice but we wish the choice was harder for parents to make at the moment if your kid nice player he should be looking out the window in order to make sure he or she can develop and compete on the right stage.
GameShooter Sport
WWW.GAMESHOOTERSPORT.COM
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