{"id":34299,"date":"2024-03-07T11:45:03","date_gmt":"2024-03-07T16:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=34299"},"modified":"2024-03-14T15:29:31","modified_gmt":"2024-03-14T19:29:31","slug":"williams-wildcats-win-yraa-tier-1-senior-boys-basketball-championship-ranked-4-in-ontario","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/williams-wildcats-win-yraa-tier-1-senior-boys-basketball-championship-ranked-4-in-ontario\/","title":{"rendered":"Williams Wildcats win YRAA Tier 1 Senior Boys Basketball Championship; ranked #4 in Ontario"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Dr. G.W. Williams Wildcats captured the YRAA Tier 1 Senior Boys Basketball championship in a convincing 92-66 victory over the Sir William Mulock Ravens at Bill Crothers SS at the end of February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on their 12-0 record in York Region and stellar tournament play across Ontario, the Wildcats are ranked #4 in the province heading into the OFSAA championship this week in Hamilton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To prepare the Wildcats for OFSAA and celebrate their York Region title, a video-rich pep rally took place on Friday morning at Williams. Hundreds of students packed the cafeteria and Wildcats\u2019 Co-Head Coach Kent Ravelle described his squad: \u201cThis is our unicorn team. We had the best starting player at each position in the Region and we\u2019re very athletic. We match up well with any team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Co-Head Coach Mark Fuller was most impressed with his team\u2019s depth: \u201cWe built the team from the bench out and those guys seized their playing opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coach Fuller noted that the Wildcats, who qualified for the OFSAA basketball championships for the first time in school history, will have to be at their best in Hamilton: \u201cWe\u2019ll need to get up and down the court. We\u2019ll also need to play aggressively, create turnovers, and turn them into easy buckets.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coach Ravelle augmented his colleague\u2019s assessment: \u201cWe like to run. Our true strength is our athleticism on defense. We\u2019re also adaptable. Our team is ready to play any style. We can play a good half-court game, too, and adapt to zone defenses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coaches Ravelle and Fuller introduced the team to thunderous applause at the rally which featured a video montage encapsulating the Wildcats\u2019 brilliant 24-3 season. It also included congratulatory clips featuring Raptors\u2019 TV color commentator Jack Armstrong who extolled the virtues of team play and reminded the team to \u201cGet that garbage outta here at OFSAA. Go Wildcats!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Armstrong\u2019s broadcast partner and Raptors\u2019 play-by-play voice Matt Devlin also congratulated \u201cthe Wildcats for advancing to OFSAA for the first time in school history.\u201d He implored the Wildcats to \u201cGet out there and get it done!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Devlin\u2019s radio counterpart, Eric Smith, also congratulated the team for \u201cmaking OFSAA for the first time\u201d and discussed the \u201cimportance of intangibles and team camaraderie as key factors when competing for the Ontario championship.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Tom Mrakas, an ardent advocate of youth sports, applauded the team for its York Region title in his on-stage address and reminded the Wildcats that \u201cAll of Aurora is hoping for a GW Williams provincial championship!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the Mayor\u2019s congratulatory address, Coaches Ravelle and Fuller introduced the Pep Rally\u2019s Special Celebrity Guest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raptors\u2019 Broadcaster and former York University and Team Canada stalwart Paul Jones motivated the team both with his words during the rally and on-stage with the Wildcats after the rally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The former Oakwood Barons\u2019 backcourt star joked that he was \u201ctorn by my new connection to Williams and loyalty to my alma mater.  The Barons are the defending Ontario champs, but I\u2019ll be voting for the Wildcats in their games until they get to the finals against my old high school.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The congenial commentator elicited a warm response from his audience and his comfort with the assembly as a former Principal was evident. Jones noted that the best part of chatting with the Wildcats was \u201ctrying to get them to understand how special this is. There are only 16 teams left in Ontario.  You\u2019re in the top 1% in the province and anybody can beat anybody. Instilling a sense of urgency was a key today. There are so many pitfalls in a provincial championship tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The educator-turned-broadcaster loved being back at school: \u201cIt\u2019s great to feel the energy and, in spite of everything that has happened in the school system in the last four years, kids are still kids and it\u2019s great to see them having fun and celebrating success. It was fun to connect at that level and I enjoyed my Freedom 55 moment on stage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jones also offered a key insight about the value of high school basketball: \u201cHigh school basketball is still very important, even though we\u2019ve seen lots of growth in Elite leagues. These are the guys that you see every day and they share and know your daily experience.  No rep club ever has that level of connection.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two of the \u201cconnected\u201d Wildcats to which Jones referred are team captains Rehan Qureshi and Yonatan Abramov. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Captain Abramov\u2019s disclosure about the root of the team\u2019s success mirrored Jones\u2019s sentiments about the importance of connection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur team showed great energy \u2013 including bench energy. We have passion for one another and we want each other to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Captain Qureshi spoke in the same collective terms: \u201cWe all did our part. We weren\u2019t worried about individual stats.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Qureshi added that the key to the team\u2019s success at the provincial championships \u201cis not worrying about the seed we\u2019re playing. We have to play our game and that way we have our best chance to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abramov complemented his co-captain\u2019s remarks by noting that winning at OFSAA will be \u201cabout composure.  We\u2019re going to be in high pressure situations so trust in each other will be a big factor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s clear that the team has developed a high level of composure and trust during this magical season.  The Wildcats\u2019 pathway to the YRAA Finals featured a 73-57 semifinal win over the St. Theresa of Lisieux Lions, a 90-71 victory over Markville in the quarter-finals, and a decisive 85-63 win over Father Bressani Eagles to open their playoff run in February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior to their perfect 12-0 YRAA record, the Wildcats won the Sacred Heart tournament in Newmarket, lost in the semifinals at tournaments in Waterloo and at St. Mike\u2019s in Toronto, and won the Battle of Aurora championship tournament.\u00a0 The team\u2019s variety of opponents during their 27-game season so far will be great preparation for the teams they\u2019ll face at OFSAA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The Dr. G.W. Williams Wildcats captured the YRAA Tier 1 Senior Boys Basketball championship in a convincing 92-66 victory over the Sir William Mulock Ravens at Bill Crothers SS at the end of February. Based on their 12-0 record in York Region and stellar tournament play across Ontario, the Wildcats are ranked #4 in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":34300,"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_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-34299","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\/2024\/03\/2024-03-07-01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-8Vd","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-16 08:04:58","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\/34299","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=34299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}