St. Basil looks to defend OFSAA hockey gold

The girls hockey team from Weston's St. Basil-the-Great Catholic Secondary School won't be going into the OFSAA (Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations) championships unheralded this year.

A year ago, the Toronto high school team went into the top 3/4A provincial championships low on the radar, seeded ninth, and didn't do much in the preliminary round to raise expectations, lucky to earn the eighth and final quarterfinal playoff spot with a modest record of a win, tie and loss.

But they proceeded to roll off three straight wins en route to the gold medal.

Thus, the Barons head into this year's 3/4-A championships, which run Tuesday to Thursday (March 23 to 25) in Ottawa, as the top seed.

They earned that right last week with a win in their Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) championship 7-0 over Etobicoke's Michael Power/St. Joseph.

Thea Imbrogno led the scoring with a hat-trick with single markers to Gina Repaci, Nadine Marzinotto, Kristen Richards and Jessica DelDuca.

Imbrogno has already accepted a scholarship at Robert Morrison University in Pittsburgh and a recent feature on her can be found on our website at www.insidetoronto.com/

In last year's gold medal game, won 3-2 in overtime by St. Basil over Stratford's St. Michael CSS, Richards was the hero, set up by Imbrogno. Interestingly, St. Michael's is also back, and ranked second.

Both Imbrogno and Richards play rep hockey for the Mississauga Chiefs in the Provincial Women's Hockey League (PWHL) top intermediate AA level with Imbrogno capturing the regular season scoring title with 62 points (28g, 34a) in 34 games and Richards right behind her tied for eighth with 47 points (15g, 32a) in 33 games.

The team has made the league playoff final-four next month so the two high school snipers will continue their post season after OFSAA.

Both players also suited up for Ontario at this year's U-18 provincial national championships albeit on different provincial teams (Ontario fielded two teams) with Imbrogno's team defeating Richards' for national gold. Both, incidentally, contributed two points each in five games for their respective teams.

Also representing Toronto at the OFSAA girls Toronto are the two Toronto District School Board (TDSB) finalists, champion Birchmount Park of Scarborough, seeded 11th, and Martingrove CI of Etobicoke, seeded 13th.

BOYS OFSAA

St. Basil also qualified for the 3/4A boys OFSAA championships that run Tuesday to Friday (March 23 to 26) in St. Catharines and are seeded 18th of the 20 teams.

But they go in as the TCDSB champs, having won last week's city title 3-2 in overtime over fellow North York school Senator O'Connor.

Also representing Toronto are a couple of private schools, Upper Canada and St. Michael's, seeded sixth and 12th, respectively, and TDSB champ Humberside, seeded 13th.