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www.insideHALTON.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Thursday, January 10, 2013 · 18 Sports Oakville Beaver By Jon Kuiperij BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR SPORTS EDITOR:JONKUIPERIJ Phone 905-632-0588 (ext. 294) email sports@oakvillebeaver.com Holidays didn't slow HT basketball squad High schools may have been closed over the Christmas holidays, but the Holy Trinity Titans senior boys' basketball team didn't take much of a break. In fact, Trinity enjoyed what was arguably the best couple of weeks in the school's basketball history. The defending Halton champions won three tournaments -- the Silver Fox in Hamilton, the University of Windsor Holiday Classic and the University of Western Ontario's Purple and White event -- in a nine-day span from Dec. 20-29. "We haven't won three tournaments in a season over the past four or five years," Titans head coach Andrew Saulez said. "It was nice. It was fun." Competing in tournaments over the Christmas break was out of character for the Trinity basketball program, but was perhaps necessitated by this year's absence of public schools in the Halton league. The Titans played four league games from Nov. 27 to Dec. 6, at which point the league was stopped due to work-to-rule sanctions by the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation. After schedules were amended to form a league that features just Catholic and private schools, the Titans were left with just five more Halton games scheduled between Dec. 13 and Feb. 7. "With so many senior guys on the team this year, I expanded the (out of league schedule) a bit. We'll play eight to 10 more games this year than usual, depending on how well we do," said Saulez. Of course, public schools across the province are absent from these tournaments as well. That means no matchups with traditional powers like Toronto's Oakwood and Eastern Commerce -- both of whom beat the Titans earlier this season -- or Hamilton's Sir Allan MacNab. "The quality's dropped a little bit, of course. The Western tournament went from 16 teams to eight," Saulez said. "For everybody, especially the kids on those (public) teams, it would be nice to see them come back and for players on those teams to have a season. Obviously there's a lot going on, but we have to respect what the public teachers are doing. "We're participating. We're playing. We can only play against the teams we have to play." Saulez ranked the Silver Fox win as the most significant of the three tournament titles the Titans earned in December, noting they had to beat Hamilton's St. Thomas More, Guelph's Bishop Macdonnell and Brampton's St. Marguerite d'Youville en route to the championship. Trevon McNeil and Nolan Mackenzie have been the most obvious keys to Trinity's success, each earning a pair of tournament MVP awards this season, but Saulez credits depth as another factor. "On any other team, (Regis Ivaniukas) might be a first or second option, but he's done a great job of being the third guy. Some games, he's played better than the other two guys," Saulez said. "And the willingness of some guys who don't get as much spotlight, like Perry Billiard and Jamal Fisher, coming off the bench to do their jobs, that's helped us." Trinity and the Loyola Hawks are tied atop the Halton league standings with 5-0 records. The teams aren't scheduled to meet in league play until Feb. 7, the final day of the regular season, though they could meet in next week's Fred Scione all-Ontario Catholic qualifyier at St. Thomas Aquinas. TITANS ON TOP: Holy Trinity Titans player Trevon McNeil (with ball) surveys the court during Trinity's 63-40 victory over the Corpus Christi Longhorns Tuesday in Burlington. McNeil and the Titans are 5-0 in Halton senior boys' basketball play and also won three tournaments last month. RIZIERO VERTOLLI / OAKVILLE BEAVER Ridge grad signs MLS contract It appears Iroquois Ridge graduate Kyle Bekker will begin his professional soccer career with Major League Soccer. The 22-year-old Boston College midfielder signed an MLS contract last weekend in advance of the league's combine and SuperDraft. The MLS combine will begin Friday in Florida, where Bekker will be one of three Canadians among the 54 NCAA seniors in attendance. The draft, slated for Jan. 17 in Indianapolis, will feature two rounds and 38 overall selections. Toronto FC holds the first and third overall picks. Bekker ranks seventh all-time in Boston College history in assists (18), 10th in points (50) and 11th in goals (16). He made his Canadian youth program debut in 2005, helped the national men's under23 team finish fourth at last year's CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament and has played a pair of friendlies with the Canadian team this month. Kyle Bekker OAK product earns Big Ten swimming award Marni Oldershaw was named the Big Ten female swimming freshman of the week after winning a pair of races at the Orange Bowl Classic in Key Largo, Florida last Thursday. The University of Michigan rookie won the 50-metre breaststroke in a meet-record time of 32.79 seconds. Oldershaw also established a meet record in winning the 200m individual medley in 2:16.73. The 18-year-old Oakville Aquatic Club product also helped Michigan's B team earn a second-place finish in the 200m medley relay in a time of 1:56.84. Michigan, ranked No. 24 in the NCAA, easily won the six-team meet, finishing with 291.5 points while Florida International was second with 81. Oldershaw is ranked first in the Big Ten in the 200yard individual medley. She is the only member of the Michigan's women's team to hold top spot in the conference. She is also ranked fourth in the 400-yard individual medley It is the second weekly honour for the Iroquois Ridge graduate, who was named the conference's top freshman Dec. 4. SEE THE FLYER IN TODAY'S PAPER