Michael Ranger (13) of the Oakwood Barons and John Gordon (23) of the St. Thomas More Knights, grapple for position during the OFSAA senior boys basketball championship at Durham College.

By Wally Donaldson
The Oshawa Express

When athletic officials at Durham College and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) became aware of its acceptance as a 2010 host of the prestigious provincial boys AAA secondary school basketball championship, no doubt the tuxes were ordered and shoes polished five minutes later.
Well, that may be a stretch. However, the opportunity to house some of the elite secondary school basketball athletes in Ontario under one roof in the Durham Region for the very first time presented a spit and polish opportunity to say to these athletes, “Welcome to our house. If you like what you see, come join us.”
Whether athletes like Julian Clarke, who put on a yeoman’s clinic for the champion Oakwood Barons last week, would consider coming on board at the Oshawa school facility, we can only speculate at this time. There is a route open south of the border and certainly some of the big and established universities in Canada are pining for talent of similar talent.

But the very least, organizers within the Ontario Federation Secondary Athletic Association (OFSAA) and in particular Durham/UOIT athletic director Ken Babcock and his hard-working crew put on a shining performance away from the athletic play on the hardwood.
And while some games were decided in the older, I call it the facility with less personality, organizers elected to house the gold and bronze medal games in the bigger, well-lit gymnasium which had professionalism written all over it.
A fan gathering of about 1,000 were treated to a quality show.

“Events like this are exactly what post secondary schools should be involved with,” noted Babcock, while accepting the gratitude of OFSAA executives after the gold medal game. “In the effort to provide a direct link to the school level where you eventually get students to come from, there really isn’t a better venue.”
With the number of secondary school entrants annually, there isn’t always the luxury of staging an event of this magnitude under one umbrella. There have been host centres in the past where games have been conducted at various locales throughout the community, mostly at local high schools.
That was not the case this time around. Every game throughout the three-day event was held at the college/UOIT state-of-the-art facility which unquestionably made it more convenient for teams in regards to travel and familiarity with the nuances of the gyms to the organizers in their bid to making the event a headline attraction.
Teams were given a tour of this massive facility and treated to a campus environment. “We made it known that there was an opportunity to play their future post secondary career on this court,” Babcock continues, “and even if they don’t, they go away with a pretty good experience playing on a facility they might not ever get a chance to play on.”
The college and UOIT did not have exclusivity of each player in contention. A host of college and university scouts, including those in the NCAA, were on hand to view the array of talent and write feverishly the grades for each player.
If they liked what they saw, and this certainly includes Durham Lords head skipper Desmond Rowley and his assistants, Curtis Celestine, Matt Markovic and Vasco Yarde, the door was open to introductions and a quick efficient promotional speech of their respective facilities.
“There have been five or six players our coaches have talked to and they will make their decision in the next month or two,” says Babacock. “It’s very worthwhile when you are the host school to recruit and show people what we have to offer.
“But what really is important to me is the fact there should always be a good connection between any college/university and their local high schools. There has to be.”
The Lake Ontario Secondary School Association (LOSSA) provided the master blueprints to staging the basketball tourney in which the OFSAA were impressed. Individuals like Mike Kennelly and Ken Nekkers, just to name a couple, took the proverbial bull by the horns.
“They were a wonderful committee to work with,” notes Babcock, “because they not only put in countless time to making this a success, they did this on top of their teaching loads. I would like nothing better than to build a strong rapport between the local high school association and us.We are willing to assist them whenever we can. That’s my goal.”
While the college continues to enjoy its success with a viable basketball program, there is no immediate plans for the launching of a Ridgebacks squad on a university level.
“It will be less than a decade,” Babcock comes straight to the point. “It takes a little time for funding and student support. It is expensive to play Canadian university basketball.”
UOIT students were up to four years ago allowed to compete on college teams. But the format was dramatically changed when the university set up residence with the Ontario University Athletics (OUA), thus making university athletes ineligible to compete on college squads.
“We want to do the things we’re down now well and check that,” adds Babcock. “When we grow and we’re ready (to expand), we will with the focus on doing that well.”