Sean Allen
BRANT NEWS

With no return in sight for public high school sports teams, the Catholic teams are gearing up for regional and provincial tournaments.

Brant will send teams to compete at a Central Western Ontario Secondary Schools Association tournament in most of the winter sports from Assumption College and St. John’s College.

In boys basketball, the Lions and Green Eagles have agreed to a best-of-three series to determine which junior and senior squads will play at CWOSSA and have a chance at making the Ontario Federation of School Athletics Associations provincial finals.

The series is tentatively scheduled to begin on Monday at Assumption College.

The junior Lions and Green Eagles would play at 6 p.m. with the seniors playing at 7:30 p.m.

The teams would meet again on Thursday at St. John’s. If either series needed a Game 3, it would be played Friday at Assumption.

CWOSSA and OFSSA won’t have the same prestige this season, with public schools in the region still not competing.

High school teachers within the Grand Erie District School Board have been boycotting all extracurricular activities since December in protest of the province imposing a two-year contract on them.

But CWOSSA and OFSSA conveners have stated they wish to continue with hosting the regional and provincial tournaments with Catholic schools.

Assumption and St. John’s are both classified as AAAA schools because of their student population and are the only AAAA schools in Brant, meaning they would have been competing against each other for the CWOSSA berth anyway.

The Lions lead the season series with the Green Eagles 2-1.

Assumption captured the local preseason tip-off tournament, beating St. John’s in the championship game.

The Green Eagles defeated the Lions 68-51 in an exhibition game on Jan. 17.

But the Lions beat the Green Eagles again on Saturday in the championship of the Knights of Norfolk tournament in Simcoe.

The Lions got 24 points from Andre Toic to capture the championship game 49-44.

Once winners are determined in the CWOSSA qualifying series, they will advance to the AAAA tournament on Feb. 23 at John F. Ross high school in Guelph.

The other winter sports at Assumption and St. John’s are working out qualifier details as well.

The girls volleyball CWOSSA tournament will be played at Assumption College on Feb. 22. The Green Eagles and Lions will be playing each other in a best-of-three series to decide the local entry.