Local athletes are carrying on a recent tradition, earning berths to a provincial all-star game.
This season, the O’Gorman High School Knights senior girls basketball team won their second-straight gold medal at the OFSAA A championship.
From that team, Brianna Dodd and Ally Burke are in Toronto this weekend to play in the Canletes Sports Ontario High School All-Star Game. Behind the bench, O’Gorman’s Marcy McCarty is coaching one of the teams and has been nominated as a finalist for Canletes coach of the year.
Jadyn Weltz is also being noticed.
She is one of 57 athletes from across Canada invited to a high-performance assessment camp for Canada Basketball.
For Dodd, it’s her third time playing in the all-star game.
“My first year I was definitely really nervous, but now I’m more comfortable with it…and I feel a lot more confident in what I can do out there,” she said.
She said playing in the high-pressure game has helped her high school career.
Dodd’s hoping to continue playing basketball next year.
She has a couple offers from universities, and noted that scouts will be watching Saturday’s game as well.
This weekend will be Burke’s second appearance at the elite game.
“Last year I was a lot more nervous so I’m just looking forward to not being as nervous because I think I’ll play better that way,” she said.
Weltz is passionate about all aspects of the sport.
“I just like the sense of energy that I get from helping my teammate score or scoring myself or creating things for other people, and just the energy from winning a game…gets me going,” she said.
She is at the Team Canada assessment camp until Dec. 18.
“I’m excited to be able to play with all these high-performance athletes that I’ve never played with before. I’ve played against some of them, so to work with them is going to be exciting,” she said.
In the years that McCarty has been teaching, she said there hasn’t been an athlete from the area invited to the Canada basketball camp.
“It’s not just a testament to O’Gorman, it’s our whole program,” she said, explaining the girls start playing at the elementary level, play in the club system with the Timmins selects, and the high school system.
Over the past several years, McCarty said it’s been unbelievable to watch the school's core team.
They’ve won three provincial medals, including two golds, and she said players have been invited to the all-star game for the last four years.
“As a coach it’s a proud moment to see any young athlete being recognized at the provincial level, especially when you’re from the north,” McCarty said, explaining they don’t compete in the core of all the activity.
“We have to travel long distances and for these girls to perform the way they do on the provincial stage and to be recognized the way they are on the provincial stage, it’s huge.”
She said it’s been a pleasure to follow the successes in sport and academically, and work with the girls.
“This year isn’t any different from last year or the year before, they just love playing ball and love competing so it’s nice to see them take that love and passion of a sport and transfer it onto the court and support each other,” she said. “As I always tell them, thank you for taking me along for the ride.”
Local fans can watch the all-star athletes compete Saturday. There will be a livestream of the game here.
