By Peter James
High school basketball players in Ottawa will have a better chance of going to the provincial championships with the advent of the new AAAA division, however not everyone is happy about it.
Steve Kenny, athletic director at Immaculata high on Main Street, believes the changes are unnecessary and that they were only done to satisfy Toronto-area schools.
“The only reason for doing it is because of the Toronto area. Let’s face it, most of the AAAA schools are in Toronto,” he says. “All of the political agenda is pushed by Toronto-area schools.”
The Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) is the regulating body for school sports in the province.
Bob Butler, an OFSAA executive and representative for the Ottawa region, likes the changes. He says people who call this a Toronto-centric decision are “uninformed.” He believes Ottawa schools can only benefit by having more athletes heading to the provincials.
Butler says before the constitution changes, there were 35 AAA schools in Ottawa.
“There was a one in 35 chance of going to OFSAA, while in Kingston, for example, it is one in six.” Under the new system, two of those schools will move on.
Cathy Bennett, a spokeswoman for the federation, says the AAAA division was added to try and even the playing field. “It’s a two-year pilot project, and is intended to make things more competitive.”
The changes mean schools with more than 1,200 students will compete in their own AAAA league, while AAA now encompasses schools with between 900 and 1,200 students.
“This is great for Ottawa,” says Butler. “This allows us to send four schools to OFSAA championships.” In the past, only three local schools advanced. However, Kenny says Ottawa isn’t big enough to support both divisions.
“If there is a large discrepancy in the talent at the AAAA and AAA level then it is a good idea to stream them off,” he says. “At the same time we are not that big in the Ottawa area and it means just more administration.”
Kenny points to the fact AAA schools such as Immaculata will play against AAAA opponents in league play and may also do so in the city playoffs. The new rules only become a factor when teams go to provincial play-downs.
“We could play a AAAA school and beat them and be declared city champions, but then we would advance to a AAA play-down and they would go to AAAA,” he said.
The federation also made changes to player eligibility. “Basically, students who have a diploma from another province won’t be eligible here,” says Bennett.
Kenny says this is another decision made by Toronto, to try and prevent recruiting of out-of-province stars. He doesn’t expect it to have much of an effect in Ottawa.
OFSAA will also have to face other challenges in the future. One issue sure to be discussed is the increasing competition between schools and club teams for athletes.
Some students are now playing both in school leagues and on club teams in the community. High school teams with club athletes tend to be better because the club athletes have more practice time, and develop quicker.
Butler says this is a problem because “it’s becoming increasingly difficult to compete without club athletes.”
Some ideas being tossed around to solve the problem include limiting the number of club players on every team and having teams with club players play in different divisions.
However, Butler does not expect an easy solution. “The real problem here is trying to find a way to legislate around it,” he says. “I see this a bigger issue then what OFSAA is doing with the AAAA and player transfers,” Kenny says.