Article By: Adam Fisher
Resurrection Catholic boys basketball team easily made the farthest trip of any team in the Gulfshore Holiday Hoopfest. But the Phoenix couldn’t have made the 1,500-mile journey to Golden Gate High School from another country if it weren’t for a stroke of luck.
Two years ago, Tom Schneider, then coach at Resurrection and now the athletic director, wanted to take his team from Ontario, Canada, to Florida during winter break. He looked up fellow Catholic schools in the Sunshine State, and finally settled on Bishop Verot in Fort Myers.
Schneider made a cold call to Vikings coach Matt Herting looking for a basketball tournament. Herting directed the Phoenix to the tournament at Golden Gate, then called the Gulfshore Shootout.
After one trip to Southwest Florida, Schneider was sold. Even after the tournament took a year off last season, Resurrection wanted to be a part of the revamped Holiday Hoopfest.
“We love it,” Schneider said from the stands at Golden Gate as the Phoenix won their first-round game Friday. “The kids stay right by the beach, and it’s a well-run tournament.”
Basketball is on the rise in Canada, particularly around Toronto. Resurrection, an hour south of Canada’s largest city in Waterloo, is happy to show Naples how basketball is played north of the border.
The Phoenix, who lost to Nashville (Tenn.)-Ensworth 71-59 in the quarterfinals Saturday, are one of the better teams in their area. A 1,400-student school, Resurrection routinely battles rival Kitchener-St. Mary’s for the District 8 title. The Phoenix have won 12 district championships in 24 years.
Resurrection is benefiting from the recent basketball boom in its home country. As Canada has pushed to improve its youth programs, more and more players are becoming stars in America.
Six Canadians who played at U.S. college have been selected in the first round of the past three NBA Drafts. Most of them, including the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s draft, Anthony Bennett, are from Toronto. The likely first pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, Kansas freshman Andrew Wiggins, is from the same city.
Phoenix coach Matt Kras played at St. Mary’s 20 years ago. Since his playing days, Kras said he’s seen more and more travel teams pop up all over Ontario.
“It’s hugely improving the coaching, the player development and everything,” Kras said.
Though Resurrection has a strong basketball history, it’s actually a field hockey powerhouse, Schneider said. The Phoenix won three straight Ontario championships in field hockey and have active players at NCAA Division I strongholds Duke, Wake Forest and Penn State among others.
The Phoenix say basketball in the States is more physical than up north, but that doesn’t make it better.
“There are bigger guys (in the U.S.) in terms of muscle mass,” Resurrection 6-foot-4 senior Patric McGlynn said.
“It’s relatively the same (in America), but I personally think it’s a lot slower in terms of ball movement and getting up and down the court.”
Resurrection plays in the largest classification (AAAA) in Ontario. The Phoenix hope to make a run at a championship in their province, equal to a state title in Florida.
First they’ll have to get past pesky St. Mary’s. The Phoenix lost to their rival a couple of weeks ago and trail St. Mary’s in the division standings.
Resurrection hopes the trip to Naples helps. While the players are having plenty of fun staying at condos on Marco Island, the team chemistry built this week could them through the end of the season.
“Florida’s been awesome to us,” said McGlynn, who was with the Phoenix when they played at Golden Gate in 2011. “It’s a good team-bonding experience. We get to know each other on another level.”
