Team Captains H. Thomas & M. Thomas-Foster Lead McGuigan Men's Basketball to a First-Place "AA" Playoff Berth
Dedicated Head Coach, Mr. Adrian D. Sooroojpal
On the heels of two TDCAA Championships and two OFSAA finishes last year for the Senior Wolf Pack Ladies and Mens Basketball Programs, this year’s Men’s team pushed past last year’s School Record of 12 in Conference ‘AA’ wins and 3 ‘AAA’ losses towards a finish of 13 overall wins including an out of Conference win against ‘AAA’ Henry Carr and only two ‘AAA’ losses all season. From the second week of September, the basketball programs pushed hard through training camp from 7:15 every morning four days a week with an optional shoot around on Fridays. From that first training camp, the Wolfpack basketball program continued to grow into a family, creating a positive - hard working environment built upon ethics, accountability, responsibility and focusing on academics in front of athletics. The JCM basketball program taught each young player many things including how to become successfully stronger individually, but more importantly how to be an integral member of a unified team. The Head Coach Adrian D. Sooroojpal was an immaculate and innovative leader breaking boundaries since his arrival last year within the McGuigan Community. This year his basketball programs continued to not only inspire and motivate his players towards success, but reminded them that in the toughest situations to remain calm and demonstrate confidence through poise. Coach S. is often quoted as saying “Handle your business on and off the court, by trusting each other. We are deep and have been here before!” The JCM Wolfpack Mens and Ladies basketball programs are truly a united family!
On November 21, the James Cardinal McGuigan Wolf Pack faced off against Bishop Allen competing in a very close game. As the first game of the season was neck and neck until the very end, the players demonstrated a high level of play and ultimately tipped their season towards a favourable start topping Bishop Allen with two intense game winning free throws. On that night, the Wolves showed an exemplary mindset to follow last year's OFSAA experience and translate those memories into motivation to show poise in the final seconds of the game.
With the help of Coach Sooroojpal, JCM is an OFSAA bound program each year and the players are motivated to get there! The two Captains Hakeem Thomas and Malawk Thomas-Foster led the JCM Wolfpack in scoring. They won an overall 1st place ‘AA’ playoff berth and a historic undefeated home record. Good luck to McGuigan on their journey towards repeating as the 2019-2020 “AA” TDCAA Champions and another elevating OFSAA run. “Go Wolves Go!”