Toronto youth basketball team disappointed with exclusion from Ontario championships

A Toronto basketball team says an Ontario organization has gone against a commitment made to them that is now keeping the young team out of the championships.

“The guys have worked really hard all year. One through 13, we have 13 guys, everybody’s put in their work, everybody’s put in their time,” Brian Owusu, the head coach with iDream by Brian Owusu Academy, told CityNews.

Every weekday, the under-12 team has been playing their hearts out and formed great chemistry after several years together.

“We all push each other to get better and… they are really fun, and funny, and nice people,” Canaan Owusu, a player with the team, said.

This year the team wanted to push themselves and to do so, they decided to join a super league with the hope of playing in the provincial championship through the Ontario Basketball Association (OBA).

“All the parents had to pay a registration fee for their kid to play in OBA basketball. We did everything that needed to be done, filled out all the forms,” Maria Deans, a parent, told CityNews.

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She went on to say administratively, everything was taken care of as the team members did the same on the court.

“The season has been good because we went undefeated and we won three championships in one season,” Canaan said.

However, to the team’s surprise, members said they were told by the OBA they are not affiliated with the league and although they are number one, they cannot play for the provincial championships. Instead, they said they could play in another tournament for teams that ranked between nine and 16.

“We don’t want a refund. We want these boys to play. They deserve to play,” Deans said.

“They worked so hard from the beginning of the season until now. They are undefeated, they’ve done everything and we’ve followed every instruction that we were told to do and we just want them to play, and they deserve to play for the provincial cup.”

“The original idea was, ‘Hey, if you didn’t play in Ontario Basketball League, you can’t play in provincials.’ Cool, but for you to say you didn’t play in a provincial league but you can play for ninth, you can’t play for first, that’s what kind of rubs us the wrong way,” Brian added.

CityNews contacted the OBA for comment on this story ahead of the provincial championships in April. A response wasn’t received by a broadcast deadline, but after the story aired a written statement was received.

A spokesperson said under OBA rules, teams that want to participate in the provincial championship need to play in the league and they said the team wasn’t a part of it.

“The eligibility requirements to participate in the Provincial Championships are absolutely clear in the OBA rules and regulations manual. The rules and regulations manual for this season was shared with all members back in September 2021,” the statement said.

As for the fees paid, the statement said it covered team registration costs but not the separate fees associated with the provincial championships or the Ontario Cup registration.

Meanwhile, the disappointment of not being included still stings for members of the team.

“I feel kind of like disappointed because we won the super league and that means we’re supposed to enter the provincials and we didn’t get to defend our championship we won last year,” Canaan said.