James Choi, Carlos Isit, Damion Ecceles and Motii Ali led the Voyageurs to three consecutive YRAA basketball titles. (Jim Humphrey/Vaughan Today)
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our senior boys basketball players at Vaughan Secondary School have helped restore the program to the top of York Region.
The teens — James Choi, Carlos Isit, Damion Ecceles and Motii Ali — have won three straight York Region Athletic Association championships, the last in early March when the Voyageurs beat D.M. Denison 58-56 in overtime.
While all four players are extremely grateful for all three championships, they feel this one was the sweetest because of the hurdles they had to overcome even in the dying minutes of the championship game.
“Our biggest problem was chemistry,” Ecceles says. “During the season we were just going out and doing our thing as individuals and the coaches have made us realize that in order to win we needed to work together as a group.”
But no one on the Voyageurs gave up.
“They kept at us all season long through practices and games,” Ecceles says. “It was one aspect they never let go and in the end that is how we ended up winning the championship.”
Isit was especially grateful for the third straight title.
“This one meant a little more because this season had a lot of ups and downs,” he says. “The coaches and all of the players put a lot of time in and it felt so good. It made it feel everything was worth it.”
Part of those ups and downs were experienced in the YRAA championship game, when both teams stayed within a few points of each other throughout.
The final two minutes of the fourth quarter was especially tense on the Vaughan bench. During a timeout head coach Constantine Gymnopoulos asked his players one simple question: “Do you want this to be your final game?”
“It really all come down to that,” the coach said later. “They didn’t and ended up taking control of the game.”
In the dying seconds, Isit held the ball in his hands beyond the three-point arc, heaved a shot that missed and the game went into overtime.
“I had a chance to win it and decided on a stupid three-point shot,” he says. “In overtime they were putting the pressure on us and were hitting amazing three-point shots.”
In order to counteract their opponents’ press, the Voyageurs forced the issue and began working together as a team.
“We pressed and gelled as a team and everybody pulled through,” Choi says. “We hit our free throws in clutch situations, but even then they continued hitting shot after shot. Our team work and chemistry that pulled us through.”
Ecceles was confident the adversity they overcame in the title game would help them when they travelled to OFSAA in Oshawa March 8-10.
“We have figured out everybody’s role and there will be less mistakes and will hopefully bring home the gold,” he says. In their two previous trips, Vaughan came away with a bronze and silver medal and they wanted one more shot at winning the gold.
At OFSAA, Vaughan played their way into the semi-final, where they were upset by the 12th ranked team in the province. In the bronze medal game, they lost a close one to Blessed Mother Teresa Secondary School 67-65.
Despite the loss, the four players have their sights set on their futures outside the four walls of high school.
“I think what makes this program special is that they don’t care about wins and losses, they care about turning out kids who will do great things once they leave high school,” says Choi. “I know for myself what the coaches have done for me as a basketball player is great, but also the life lessons they have taught me is something that will stick with me.
“They have taught me characteristics and ways that I can become a better person, so when I go to university I can apply those lessons and become successful.”
