Catholic Central wins AAA OFSAA Championship In Front Of Stellar Crowd, MVP Mychal Mulder Drops 33
Windsor ON-Playing in front of a home town crowd, in a home town gym in front of family and friends at an OFSAA championship is something few teams get the privilege of doing.
For the host Catholic Central Comets they had that rare opportunity, and with a very talented team were able to send the home town crowd home happy defeating St Patrick’s of Ottawa 75-51.
Senior wing, Mychal Mulder led the way with a game-high 33 points in what was easily his best performance of the tournament.
Mulder displayed every face of his game that has next level scouts salivating about his game. The outside shot, the ability to drive to the basket and of course his athleticism.
“It’s been a long struggle,” Mulder told NPH after the game. “Me and my guys worked hard after school. We owe a lot to the coaching staff and we owe a lot to ourselves and each other, I’m real proud of my guys.”
Head Coach Pete Cusumano was equally as excited as his players were, and credited their hard work ethic for the gold medal finish.
“A lot of the hard work we put in during the summer,” Cusumano told NPH after the win. “These kids stayed together, these kids were in the gym six hours a day for six weeks everyday. They had a goal, they’ve been playing in my program since grade 4. I told them I got to see you as boys and now I get to see you leave as men.”
The high school basketball culture in Windsor is arguably one of the best in the country. The “Chirp Squad” as they’re appropriately named led the sixth man in chants right from the opening tip in the tournament, and coach Cusumano and Mulder had nothing but great things to say about them.
“Our school is phenomenal ” Cusumano expressed.” By next year we’re going to have run 10 OFSAAs in the last six years. We have a staff that’s willing to put sixteen hours in to get these things done and do it for our kids.”
Although St. Patrick’s were over-matched from the start, they did show a lot of fight, and should be proud of the sliver medal finish. Following an emotional win over Jean Vanier in the semi-finals they won over the respect of their foes and impressed a lot of neutral fans in the gym.
In an OFSAA AAA tournament that was filled with memorable moments, the lasting image of Catholic Central paying tribute to their Head Coach Cusumano by running suicides, will live on as one of the most emotional scenes in recent memory.
“We owe a lot to coach Cus,” Mulder told NPH. “He puts the hours in definitely. We take him away from his family, countless hours on the weekend, we all owe a lot to coach Cus.”
