Brampton Mayor Linda Jeffrey is presenting a High School Boys winners award to North Park Secondary School
Updated with video of Andrew Laidlaw’s speech
Brampton Mayor Linda Jeffrey headed the cast of distinguished guests when the Brampton school cricket awards for cricket were announced in The Conservatory, Brampton City Hall on Monday, April 23, 2018. The event also served as notice that outdoor cricket tournaments will commence in May. John Moore, host of “Moore in the Morning” on Newstalk 1010 Radio acted as Master of Ceremonies for this event.
This year Canadian Tire has increased sponsorship support for these school cricket events and is title sponsor of the Canadian Tire Schools Trophy in various cities and at the regional level within the Greater Toronto Area. Jeffrey Orridge, Senior Vice-President Community & Partnerships, Canadian Tire, outlined this much appreciated sponsorship increase to an appreciative large crowd of school cricketers, teachers, guests and media,
Distinguished guests in the stage party included Helen Berhane (Chair, CIMA Canada), Regional Councillor Martin Medeiros and City Councillor Gurpreet Dhillon. There are two school boards serving schools in the Peel Region: Peel District School Board (PDSB), which has a broad public schools mandate, and the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board (DPCDSB). The DPCDSB serves those seeking education in Roman Catholic schools in the Peel Region and in the neighbouring county of Dufferin.
Guests from the DPCDSB were Anna da Silva (Vice-Chair) and Shawn Xavier (Trustee). Four trustees from the PDSB attended as part of the stage party: Sue Lawton, Kathy McDonald, Carrie Andrews and David Green.
Brampton is part of Ontario’s Region of Peel. Some of the qualifying competitions hosted in Brampton included provision for participation by schools from the
Mayor Jeffrey
more rural Caledon region, to the north of Brampton. So some events include a “North Peel” label. Last year awards were presented in Mississauga and this year some of the 2017 Mississauga school cricket award winners were also honoured in this Brampton event.
Joe Grdisa, the PDSB’s Coordinator Physical Education & Athletics, and Andrew Laidlaw, North Peel Physical Education Association both spoke at the Brampton awards event. Andrew Laidlaw outlined his involvement in bringing school cricket to various elementary schools after taking up a teaching role in Mississauga before a move into Brampton some 13-14 years ago. Mr. Laidlaw gained awareness when completing education training in Australia.
Abou
Jeffrey Orridge, SVP Community and Partnerships, Canadian Tire
t two years ago I met Andrew Laidlaw when he lead two North Peel Middle School cricket tournaments, one for girls and the other for boys. Sunny View PS advanced from the North Peel championships to the Greater Toronto Area school cricket championships for boys and for girls in 2016.
The efforts of Vinod Sharma as CIMA’s coordinator of various city and the regional GTA cricket tournaments should be recognized. Vinod was on hand to announce the award winning schools. Almost certainly a much easier task than overseeing some of the qualifying tournaments which can include several schools playing qualifying matches at two adjacent cricket grounds in two geographically separate parks or sports fields before the day’s semi-finals and finals are contested. .
That said, some of the qualifying processes for GTA regional championships make use of some traditional cricket competitions that were either already in place or have developed in recent years since the injection of interest in schools cricket lead by CIMA Canada and different sponsors with support from elected and appointed community leaders.
Some community coaches involve in Cricket Canada’s “Cricket KIDS” program supported some of the 2017 elementary and middle school events in the Peel Region. I popped along to some of one or two of these events in 2017, often supporting an event that I had not previously seen.
One of the challenges in hosting school cricket events is the limited time available for outdoor cricket in the summer term, not forgetting significant problems if May is rather wet. A theme that Andrew Laidlaw also raised on Monday. He took the hardline that you can work out who is really interested in playing cricket, even those with no previous cricket experience. Those who do not turn up for 7 am practices to prepare for an upcoming tournament fall by the wayside.
The enthusiasts and adventurers stick it out, preparing outdoors, as much as possible, from about one month ahead of a scheduled tournament. If it’s wet then you switch preparations to an indoor facility. It takes planning, effort and commitment in both directions teacher-student, and also needs support from parents.
It would be useful to have scoreboards added at some of the grounds used in the GTA for school cricket events and to have someone post numbers on such scoreboards. Limited power supplies can restrict the extent of computer scoring at various grounds but, perhaps, one day power supplies will allow computer scoring to be instantly displayed on some electronic scoreboard around some of the main cricket grounds in the GTA.
I do not recall seeing some of the leading lights, in terms of Board members, of GTA cricket leagues, Ontario Cricket board or boards or anyone from the Cricket Canada board at the Brampton launch. But the cast at Brampton included a number of current junior cricketers involved in Ontario regional championships, preparations for Ontario provincial representative cricket with hopes of national junior cricket recognition.
The Region of Peel Secondary Schools Athletic Association is interested in creating records about athletes who progress from school sports participation to university/college athletics as well as to provincial and international junior and senior athletics. Canadian cricket certainly has a number of cricketers who qualify for inclusion as well as many hoping to advance up the cricketing ladder. Building a broader cricket culture in Ontario and across Canada does not depend upon one person, whether elected, appointed, or a volunteer. The game is, in many ways, lead by those who have put money into indoor cricket facilities and into cricket academies and some of the clubs that have a firm interest in player development.
Where stands support for cricket’s sponsors in the mainstream of Canadian, Ontario and GTA cricket might be an interesting point at which to end for today.
Eddie Norfolk, Toronto, April 24, 2018
Champion school: Runner-up: Runner-up:
Hilldale Public School (PS), Brampton Nelson Mandela PS, Brampton Springbrook PS, Brampton (Girls & Boys)
Spirit of Cricket Awards: Roberta Bondar PS, Brampton Mount Royal PS, Brampton
Middle Schools – Brampton
Champion School: Cheyne Middle School
High School Boys – Greater Toronto Area
Champion school: North Park Secondary School (SS)
High School Boys – Brampton
Champion school: North Park Secondary School (SS), Brampton Runner-up: Castlebrook SS, Brampton
Spirit of Cricket Awards: Sandalwood SS, Brampton David Suzuki SS, Brampton
Erindale SS, Brampton
Awards for Schools based in Mississauga
Elementary Schools – Mississauga
Spirit of Cricket Awards: Sawmill Valley PS, Mississauga
Middle Schools – Mississauga
Spirit of Cricket Awards: Erin Centre Middle School (MS), Mississauga
Erin Centre MS Boys, Mississauga
High School Girls – Greater Toronto Area
GTA Runner-up: Father Michael Goetz, Catholic Secondary School, Mississauga High School Boys – Brampton
Spirit of Cricket Awards: Central Peel SS, Mississauga.
Note: I think there are some teams from Mississauga that won or competed in city or GTA tournaments last year that were not included in the list of awards presented on Monday. Possibly schools that were not able to attend the Brampton launch. Mississauga CI High School boys team, for example, played in the GTA High School semi-finals, presumably as High School Boys champions of Mississauga. (EN).