January 3, 2020 · 0 Comments
By Brian Lockhart
St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Secondary School in Tottenham blended the Christmas spirit with the excitement of competition when they hosted two basketball games in the gym on Thursday, December 19.
The event was billed as the STA Christmas Classic with students filling the bleachers to watch the games.
The junior Stingers were up against the Centre Dufferin District High School Royals from Shelburne in the first game.
It was an evenly matched battle with the game only two points apart at the half.
The games won’t count for points on the regular season schedule. They were exhibition games and gave the teams a chance to go up against other squads that they won’t normally play during the season.
The second game of the afternoon featured the senior STA Stingers team taking on the Six Nations Rising Stars.
“Today we’re doing a South Simcoe classic basketball event,” explained Leila Ciullo, a member of the Leadership Team at STA. “For the junior game, Centre Dufferin plays our junior team. At 1:30 p.m. the seniors will play Six Nations.”
While the students had the fun of attending the games, they also raised money for a good cause.
“We are raising money for Matthews House Hospice,” Leila said. “We’re donating the proceeds from cookies and Gatorade sales to them. This event is to kick off our Christmas break and to help our school gets excited for what’s next. We made it a free game so everyone could come out and watch.”
At the start of the event, a star STA athlete was also honoured by having representatives of York University in Toronto turn out to officially sign him up for the York football team.
Grade 12 student, Jagger Horst, an STA player as well as a veteran on the local TNT Express Football Club, signed on to become a member of the University football team.