Video Board: Juwan Miller, Forest Heights

Here's a video of FHCI junior star Juwan Miller slicing and dicing his way through some of the top clubs in CWOSSA en route to Forest Heights' WCSSAA & CWOSSA junior titles earlier this season.

With Miller teaming up next year at the senior level (again) with Javon Masters, FHCI's opponents will undoubtedly have their hands full.

Here's a look:

Former Grand River Junior Star Scheifele Goes #7 in NHL Draft

Not too often we get to tie in some hockey news here at cwossabasketball.com, but props have to go out to former Grand River Renegade Mark Scheifele (#5 - to the right of Brodi Verbiski holding the WCSSAA plaque in the photo) who was the #7 overall selection by the Winnipeg Jets at this weekend's NHL entry draft in Minnesota.

For those who recall his brief CWOSSA basketball career, Scheifele was a starting forward and key member of the Grand River squad that took the 2009 WCSSAA title alongside the 2009 CWOSSA "AAAA" junior silver medal.

He was a pretty solid basketball player too, considering it was his side gig --- in fact, he scored a WCSSAA regular-season "second best" 31 points against SJAM, who were no slouch themselves (WCSSAA finalists).

Congratulations to Mark and best wishes for the future!

Ben Reyhani Back at SJAM for 5th Year

With his acceptance at the University of Waterloo deferred for one year, SJAM shooting guard Ben Reyhani will be returning for a 5th year of high school next season.

Things aren't all gravy for the 'Landers, who will lose a couple starters from this year's squad, including Edem Ame.  Still, with Reyhani and big man Quinn Turner set to come back, they should again be an "upper tier" squad in the WCSSAA standings.

CWOSSA Locations 2011-12

Girls

A - Kitchener (Host:  Rockway MC); November 16th

AA - Guelph (Host:  Our Lady of Lourdes); November 16th

AAA - Cambridge (Host:  Jacob Hespeler); November 18th/19th

AAAA - Brantford (Host:  St. John's); November 18th/19th

Boys

A - Waterford (Host:  Waterford DHS); February 22nd

AA - Guelph (Host:  Bishop Macdonell); February 24th

AAA - Brantford (Host:  North Park); February 24th/25th

AAAA - Guelph (Host:  JF Ross); February 24th/25th

CWOSSA Updates: June 21st, 2011

Well folks, it's the first day of summer but don't think that doesn't mean there's still some CWOSSA happenings to chat about......

CWOSSA 2011-12 Classifications Released

For starters, the 2011-12 CWOSSA classifications were recently released and posted on the CWOSSA website.  There are no "major changes", but there is one notable exception:

Guelph CVI will be dropping from "AAAA" to "AAA" as their enrollment (or FT equivalent, as they say) has dropped below the 1250 mark.  As such, Guelph now has two "AAA" schools --- St. James being the other, while Centennial, JF Ross, Orangeville and Centre Wellington are the "AAAA" schools.

Despite the change in one of the D10's schools, the qualifying numbers for CWOSSA remains the same.  This is because CWOSSA spots are assigned based upon the percentage of schools in the classification level.  So, for "AAAA", you have:

WCSSAA:  7/16 =  43.8% (2 spots)

D10:  4/16 = 25.0% (2 spots)

D8:  3/16 = 18.8% (1 spot)

D5:  2/16 = 12.5% (1 spot)

You've heard my comments before about the rigidity of the current AAAA structure, so I won't get into that here. 

Meanwhile, in "AAA", there is still only one CWOSSA spot up for grabs between D10 & D4.  As such, the higher D10 finisher in AAA (St. James or GCVI) will play the D4 top team (Westside or CDDHS) for the CWOSSA berth.

Doran Accepts NCAA Scholarship

Southwood's Brian Doran (6'4"/Grade 12), one of my "all-CWOSSA" performers this season, will be suiting up next year at the University of Maine......not on the hardwood but on the diamond for the Black Bears' baseball squad.  

Burnatowski To Transfer
Speaking of Maine, ex-SJAM star Murphy Burnatowski will be on the move after getting his release from the University of Maine.  Burnatowski sat out the last 4 games of this past season, apparently after getting into head coach Ted Woodward's doghouse.

"We thank Murphy for his contributions to our program and wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors," Woodward said in a press release.

For more information, check the Bangor Daily News.  Burnatowski was a sophomore this year, and will have 2 years remaining after sitting out next year (wherever he goes) due to NCAA transfer rules.

Recruiting News

Guelph JF Ross 6'3" G/F Mike Friesen is receiving significant OUA interest after a strong performance at the recent OBA tournament; his suitors include the University of Toronto but Friesen is only heading into grade 12 next year and may still reclassify to the class of 2013.......Resurrection's 6'5" F Mike Pereira is getting some serious interest from what has now become a CWOSSA recruiting pipeline out to Memorial Unviersity.  Pereira is returning for a 5th year at Rez.

Santilli Participates in All Canada Classic
St. John's 5'10" G/F Kayla Santilli, a key member of the St. John's AAAA CWOSSA senior girls championship squad, will be taking part in the All Canada Classic game today at the ACC in Toronto.  For more details, check www.allcanadaclassic.com.

St. Mary's Star Alex Thompson: Training Video

A video profiled on scouting site FlagrantFouls.com of St. Mary's star guard Alex Thompson:

Pretty solid effort for someone who just went through 5 hours of workouts/scrimmages!

Thompson, as previously mentioned, will be returning to SMHS next year for a 5th year of high school and will be among the area's top recruits in 2012.

Lots of Interest in Local Products at OBA Tourneys

There were a few U17 and U19 prospects catching the eyes of college and university coaches in attendance at this past weekend's OBA tournaments in the Niagara Region and Kitchener-Waterloo area respectively.

According to several of my contacts in attendance, the Wildhawks' four big men "should get lots of OUA interest, just seeing how many coaches made the trip to watch". 

For those of you keeping track at home, that would be in reference to the plethora of 6'6"+ products on the Wildhawks' roster, including Adam Voll (St. Mary's), Jacob Ranton (WCI), Cory Kenning (Resurrection) and Malcolm Piazza (WCI).

Of course, we can't forget about the dynamite backcourt prospects from Forest Heights (Juwan Miller & Javon Masters), as well as several others including Filip Cvrkalj (Grand River) who Barry Hayes from FlagrantFouls.com included in his tweet about "Friday stars at the U17".

Hayes confirmed in a later tweet that coaches from Carleton, Toronto, RMC, Ryerson, York, Brock, Western, Guelph and St. Mary's were all in attendance checking out the action.

Meanwhile, at the U-19 tournament in Waterloo, the one name that seemed to be getting passed around a lot among college and university coaches from the Waterloo Wildhawks was Ben Bankazo (St. Mary's).

Bankazo, a 5th year graduating guard, rocketed himself into the spotlight this season after starting off with a huge 28-point performance in the Heinbuch against provincial power JC Richardson (Ajax). 

He previously indicated to us that he was receiving interest from Fanshawe, the University of Toronto and the University of Guelph but expect to see a few more schools giving him a call after his strong effort over the weekend.

His weekend performance likely solidified him as the the "best available" CWOSSA recruit left on the board with Stefan Cvrkalj (D1 Lehigh) and Ryan Higgins (Updated Commitment:  Western) already spoken for.

In a Record Article the other day on the Wildhawks' season, Wildhawk U19 coach Doros Theodosiou noted that Isaac Lance (5'11" PG/St. Mary's), Tyler Schneider (6'2" SG/Resurrection), and Perrin Smith (6'6"F/Bluevale) are all back at high school for the 2011-12 season but receiving some interest from schools at this time as well.