Tourney Time! Coming Weekend is Filled with High School Hoops

The start of December usually means an up-tick in tournament play, and this coming weekend is no exception.  I'll detail a few of the Senior Tournaments on the go this weekend; the SJAM "CWOSSA Hoopla" Junior tournament is also set to go, but we'll get to that separately.

Out Of Town in the GTA - SJAM & St. Benedict
Both the SJAM Highlanders and the St. Benedict Saints will be out of town this coming weekend, with the Highlanders travelling to Brampton to again participate in the Campion Showdown.  If you recall, SJAM had an impressive run at last year's tournament, making it all the way to the championship final.

This year, things might be a bit tougher as the two teams in their pool are Brampton Centennial, one of the top teams in ROPSAA, and Brampton Notre Dame, who will play SJAM during the school day on their home floor.

St. Benedict was initially slated to participate at the Campion Showdown as well, but have elected instead to go to the David Preston Memorial Tournament, hosted by Pine Ridge SS.

SBCSS will take on Pickering HS (GTA HM) in their opening game tonight.  A win, and they play either J. Clarke Richardson or Metro Prep, while a loss would pit them against either Notre Dame (Ajax) or Windsor Kennedy.  Hosts Pine Ridge and St. Mary's of Ajax are the other teams in the tournament.

RCSS Invitational
The Resurrection Phoenix are hosted their annual tournament this weekend, which is an 8-team draw with a modified "OFSAA-style" format (winners play losers in the second round).

CWOSSA teams North Park, Centre Wellington, and Guelph Lourdes are in the tournament alongside the host Phoenix, while out-of-town entrants include Christ The King (Georgetown), London Banting, Patrick Fogarty (Orillia) and Dundas Valley (Dundas).

First Round games tomorrow are as follows:
8:30am:  Resurrection vs. Lourdes
10am:  North Park vs. Christ The King
11:30am:  Centre Wellington vs. Banting
2:30pm:  Patrick Fogarty vs. Dundas Valley

Draw (click to enlarge)

Southwood Invitational
Games will be played at both Southwood and Jacob Hespeler tomorrow for the Southwood Invitational, which is a 12-team draw featuring four pools of three.

 8 of the 12 teams are CWOSSA-based (it's Assumption Burlington and not Brantford - FYI), so it should be a good measuring stick for the clubs involved.

The pools are as follows:
Pool A:  Eastwood, Galt, Southwood
Pool B:  Assumption, Ancaster, Woodstock
Pool C:  Grand River, East Elgin, Centre Dufferin
Pool D:  St. James, Cameron Hts., St. John's

The tournament wraps up on Saturday at Southwood, with the championship final at 7:30pm.