{"id":29097,"date":"2021-04-09T22:44:55","date_gmt":"2021-04-10T02:44:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=29097"},"modified":"2021-04-09T22:44:59","modified_gmt":"2021-04-10T02:44:59","slug":"western-university-top-canadian-choice-for-aurora-student","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/western-university-top-canadian-choice-for-aurora-student\/","title":{"rendered":"Western University top Canadian choice for Aurora student"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Aurora native Johnathan Avgousti has committed to Western University\u2019s basketball program for next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 6-foot-5 guard dreamed of attending an Ivy league school south of the border on a Div. 1 scholarship, however, with COVID seemingly getting in the way, he wasn\u2019t able to get a look from scouts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, he entered the Ivy School of Business and the Engineering program at Western. He wants to complete a dual-degree and is excited to be attending Western next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen they told me they wanted me and offered me a spot I was really happy,\u201d Avgousti said. \u201cEven in Grade Nine, coach Joel Delcarmen wanted me to come if I was to stay in Canada. Definitely a great school.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Avgousti\u2019s basketball journey has gone hand in hand with his quest for higher education. He aspires to play professionally out in Europe. As a dual Greek-Canadian citizen, he says the opportunity is there and when he finishes his studies he will seek out options then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even as a young boy when he first grabbed a hold of that leather ball, he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father. Andrew Avgousti played as a guard at W.F. Herman Academy in Windsor. Not only did he have the pleasure of sharing his passion with his son, he was also his boy\u2019s first coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the age of four, Avgousti joined IEM in Aurora and in a four-year period he joined the club\u2019s rep program playing forward. He would travel to other cities in the province for tournaments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a die-hard Raptors fan, he watched Andrea Bargnani and Chris Bosh rule the roost. He also watched LeBron James and Kevin Durant emerge into the league.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it wasn\u2019t until Grade Seven when he truly knew he could do something in this game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCanada basketball, their youth development program [is] called Canada Basketball Junior Academy,\u201d Avgousti said. \u201cIt\u2019s only for Grade Seven and Grade Eight. The purpose of it is to teach kids at a young age to get started and develop those kids to play for the youth national teams and senior national team. It\u2019s a feeder. I got selected for it. I took it more seriously and knew I had potential.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This experience broadened his horizons. He learned from coaches involved in Canada Basketball and saw what opportunity was in front of him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWithout it, if I didn\u2019t make it. I probably wouldn\u2019t be where I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the summer of Grade Eight, just as Avgousti was offered a scholarship to attend Crescent School, he was also offered a chance to play in the national tournament for Team Ontario as an alternate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s when Delcarmen scouted Avgousti. The Western Assistant Coach has always had his eye on him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much younger than the other players, he made a substantial impact in his two seasons with the U-15 squad. And just as he was taking on senior competition at the high school level, he also won a gold medal with Team Ontario in Grade 10 and has an MVP trophy to show for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He played at Crescent for two seasons and transferred to Ridley College in St. Catherines for his final two years of high school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his first season many senior players filled the starting roster, Avgousti became the so-called sixth man of the team. But due to an injury he sustained, he was sidelined for most of the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heading into his second season at the school, Avgousti was adamant on improving. Even if that meant training three times a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He took the Ontario Scholastic Basketball Association by storm at Ridley. In the 2019-2020 season, Avgousti led his team in points (283) on the year averaging 15.7 a game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt paid off for me for senior year. The results showed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople know me as a shooter, three-point shooter especially. I\u2019m an all-round guy. Pretty good passer. My IQ is high and\u2026every coach I\u2019ve played for commented on my leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leading by example and through his work ethic, Avgousti is excited to make an impact in the Western University roster for next season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He will report to the team later this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Robert Belardi<\/strong><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aurora native Johnathan Avgousti has committed to Western University\u2019s basketball program for next year. The 6-foot-5 guard dreamed of attending an Ivy league school south of the border on a Div. 1 scholarship, however, with COVID seemingly getting in the way, he wasn\u2019t able to get a look from scouts. Instead, he entered the Ivy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":29091,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/2021-04-08-03.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-7zj","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-09 12:07:02","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}