McGuigan Wins Toronto Women’s Senior Basketball Championship

 By Priscilla W. | Team Captain

Grade 12 Student| JC McGuigan CSS

Inspiring Coaches/Teachers Mr. Soorjapal, Mrs. Nobrega and Mrs. Stornelli

This year James Cardinal McGuigan was honoured to have the girl’s varsity basketball team represent the school throughout their season. A diverse group of girls ranging from Grade 9 to grade 12, all came out willing to explore new activities and make use of their talents.

As a team leader, I was amazed with everyone’s determination. What we lacked in talent we made up for in our own individual strengths, and we worked together well as a team. After all it’s not always about how many great athletes are on the team, but teamwork, commitment, positivity and energy. Everyone’s bright smile’s and endless encouragement is what resulted in our growth and success. We were a very diverse team and started off with a few tough games but it wasn’t long until our bond and hard work kicked in and allowed us to excel and play to our full potential. Every game there were mistakes made and new lessons learned.

I have heard the saying “you win some, you lose some” quite a few times and that is what I said to my team a few times after losses. Every loss taught us something new and made us hungrier for a win and that’s exactly what we did. We entered the TCDSB playoffs with six wins and five losses.  Not knowing what we would be faced with next gave me butterflies but with the strengths of each player and the guidance of our coaches and God, we CONQUERED and won the final game hosted at Ryerson University which brought us to AA OFSAA! We were city champions!!! It definitely wasn’t an easy game. I caught myself thinking “if we don’t succeed, it’s all right because we still made it this far”. But several thoughts entered my mind as I saw how hard my team was playing and how hard the crowd was cheering. I thought this “isn’t the end”, before I knew it, loud cheers filled the gym and our team was crowned as the 2018 Senior Girls Basketball TDCAA Champions!!!

So there we were, on our way to OFSAA in London Ontario. All I could think about where our coaches, Mr. Soorjapal, Mrs. Nobrega and Mrs. Stornelli. These individuals gave their all to this team throughout the season and as much as we deserved to go to OFSAA, they deserved it even more. As I grew closer to my teammates, I also grew closer to my coaches. They never gave up on us and that’s what matters the most to me.

OFSAA was the highlight of my high school career. Being able to spend three days with the amazing ladies on my team, learning more about them and creating new memories with them was an experience that I, the team and our coaches will never forget!!! I wouldn’t change it for the world.