The St. Georges Saints are seeded fifth in the Lower Mainland AAA senior boys basketball tournament, which began Thursday and is being hosted at St. Georges and Vancouver College.
The Saints lost a three-game playoff but avowed they are good enough to advance and should indeed advance based on a rule first created by the B.C. boys basketball association and replicated at the Lower Mainland association. St. Georges retained a law firm to help make their case.
James Johnston, the cool-headed, straightforward president of the B.C. boys basketball association and a public high school vice principal in Delta, instructed the tournament committee to include the Saints in the draw. Before reaching that point, Johnston said, It became clear to me that we were going to be at an impasse. There was some collaboration and I think there was conciliation but at the end of the day, two groups were entrenched in a position and they werent going to budge.
No one involved in this conflictlets call it what it iswants to see this continue for yet another season. It was a mistake not to address the pending dust-up before reaching such a deadlock.
The new tournament format is a challenge. It will be disruptive to several groups, said Johnston.
Sir Winston Churchill and Kitsilano were scheduled to host. [The independent schools] have to take on an enormous amount of work now in a very short period of time, but that was part of the directive as well, that in a sense, they were getting what they requested and I felt it only fair that they would have to do the work now to implement that.
Johnston was never told a public school refused to host. He asked, Whats fair here? What can we do to get this done and get our student-athletes playing but also make sure the people who are receiving a benefit, lets make sure theyre doing the work.
The double-knockout tournament started Thursday and the final is scheduled for March 3. Three teamsVancouver College, Kitsilano and Burnabys Byrne Creekhave a first-round bye. Five games are set for Friday, Feb. 24: Vancouver College hosts at 3:30 and 5:15 while Saint Georges hosts at 4:30, 6 and 7:30 p.m.
