Boys Season Starts; SMHS Set to Compete in Pinky Lewis Next Weekend

Today is November 1st, which means it is the "official date" that tryouts and/or practices can begin for junior and senior boys teams in the CWOSSA area.

Of course, we'll have previews and such at a later date, but we may as well get right to some news in the meantime:

The St. Mary's Eagles from Kitchener will be competing in the annual "Pinky Lewis" tournament in Hamilton next weekend.  The annual high-profile tournament will again feature several of the top teams in Ontario --- most notably Oakville's Loyola Secondary School and J. Clarke Richardson out of Ajax.

The tournament features an odd number of teams --- 21 ---- however, there are 7 pools of 3 teams with the top team from each pool and one "wild card" making up the 8 teams advancing to the quarterfinals.

The pools are as follows:
A - Dunbarton (Pickering), Oakville Loyola, Sherwood (Hamilton)
B - J. Clarke Richardson, SJAM (Hamilton), Timmins CVI
C - Barton SS (Hamilton), Notre Dame (Burlington), Hamilton Brebeuf
D - Newman (Stoney Creek), Orchard Park, Sarnia St. Patrick's
E - Ancaster, Pine Ridge (Pickering), Regina Mundi (London)
F - Kitchener St. Mary's, ACMT, Westmount (Hamilton)
G - St. Mary's (Hamilton), Lester B. Pearson (Burlington), Sarnia Northern

At early glance, I would anticipate St. Mary's being able to beat Westmount, with the winner of the ACMT/St. Mary's game taking first place in Pool F.

Although ACMT was an extremely strong club last year (eg - they defeated CWOSSA AAAA champion Bluevale in the SOSI 71-36), a recent blog on the hoop-la.com notes that they are in "re-build mode" after having graduated 10 players from last year's team:

"The defending Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic league champions ACMT Jags are in rebuilding-mode this season having graduated 10 players from last year's squad. Despite the massive turnover and a soon-to-be roster filled with nine grade 11's, opposing teams still shouldn't sleep on them. Led by the backcourt combo of junior Hamid Nessek and senior Richard Momat, expect a fast, aggressive style of basketball from the small French mountain school. 6'2" Jean Victor MukaMa will provide much of their perimeter offence. According to ACMT head coach Martin Valliancourt, MukaMa could be the best shooter they have had since 2006-07 Catholic All-Star Alain Grubac. The ACMT Jags surprised a lot of people last year winning the Catholic title and although expectations aren't that high this year, they could still surprise teams that are already looking past them."

It still won't be an easy test by any stretch of the imagination, but at least it seems to be a game that the Eagles might be able to pull out if they play well --- depending, of course, if they can get their chemistry going through the tryouts and practices they'll have over the next 10 days.