Ottawa BlackJacks President’s Letter: Volume 1, Issue 3, November 6 2024
Welcome to the third edition of the President’s Letter and the Ottawa BlackJacks of the CEBL, Canada’s largest professional men’s basketball league! This President’s Letter is aimed at keeping our supporters in touch with noteworthy events and news that we follow closely each and every day. Feel free to share any comments you may have positive or constructive otherwise. So without further ado, let’s dive into the third edition of the OBJ President’s Letter.
BIG AL STILL GOING STRONG:
I have been fortunate enough to be good friends with one of Ottawa’s hardest working, successful basketball coaches and innovative mathematics teachers: Alex Overwijk. Al has taught and coached at Glebe H.S. for as long as I can remember and he is known both for his innovative math teaching and - I’m going back a few years so the veterans in the audience be patient - for drawing the perfect circle. World Freehand Circle Drawing Champion
He even has his own Wikipedia page primarily because of his unique artistic capabilities Alexander Overwijk - Wikipedia
Big Al was our leader in the mid-to-late 90’s on the Duke of Somerset teams in the Algonquin men’s league and he continues to play to this day with the same passion going back to his days at Carleton which included an OUAA East championship team in 1987-88 and the first Wilson Cup game hosted in Ottawa that season. Al’s teammates on ‘88 Ravens made up the bulk of our Duke teams including Larry Elliot, Paul Draper and Mike McInrue, aided by Taffe Charles, Mark Harris and later Brian Leonard among others. Coach Overwijk has guided Glebe H.S. to many successful seasons and he was nice enough to invite the BlackJacks to one of his practices recently. One of Ottawa’s more unsung teachers and basketball mentors, Al has always developed excellent players and students of character - we have Josh Figueredo on our team here at the BlackJacks as a prime example - and his friendship is always valued. Best of luck with the Senior Boys Gryphons this season.
CTA FUNDRAISER:
I got a chance to check out Tony House’s CTA teams last Saturday in Nepean as part of his fundraiser for cancer. The first game saw Ottawa Next Level from Kanata face off against CTA’s Junior Red team with the game going down to the wire. ONL features long-time Prez friend and occasional press conference crasher Lanny Greger on the sidelines as an Assistant Coach and his son Trey as one of the top players on that club. As legend has it, “Trey” was named after Lanny’s favorite shot in men’s league. Also great to see Trey’s Mom Jennifer McConnery who is fully invested in these games as a nervous Mom/fan. Great to see all families support their children at these games - it makes it that much more special. The feature game saw the CTA Prep teams split up in two with Faqarudin “Turtle” Ali and former uOttawa Gee-Gees star Vikas Gill coaching and the game was full of athletes. CTA appears to have another solid squad.
CATCHING UP WITH OLD FRIENDS:
Winning something meaningful together especially when built with a relatively short period of intense time together tends to bind people for life. Last weekend, I had the pleasure of hosting my close friend from uOttawa circa early 1990’s Wayne Charles - his son Kennedy is in his second season with Western as well as Mike Milne (son Dawson is a freshman with Windsor Lancers). It was great to catch-up to those two as well as Dave Reid, Clarence CP Porter and Coach Bobby Carlos Brown to share some laughs and old stories. One of my fondest memories in sport was being on the sidelines at the CIAU National Championships in 1993 in Halifax in front of 10,000+ screaming fans in the semi-final game vs. St. FX. The X-Men defeated us and then the next afternoon won Coach Steve Konchalski’s first of three National Championships by defeating Joe Raso’s McMaster Marauders. Both Coach Konchalski and Coach Raso remain good friends and the BlackJacks plan to honor Canada’s Coach K during our 2025 season for his wonderful playing and coaching career that spans 62 years here in Canada.
“WELCOME TO THE CEBL” REEL:
One of the most impressive elements of the BlackJacks association with the CEBL is the fantastic marketing team at Head Office that consistently produces unique content highlighting the spectacular growth of our league. The latest example of this is the “Welcome to the CEBL” reel - link below. The two minute video captures the glamour and bling in our league and quantifies our rapidly increasing audiences across multiple mediums. Please contact me anytime if there is interest in learning more about local and/or national commercial partnership opportunities.
POST-SECONDARY UPDATES:
Both Capital Region based OUA men’s teams sit at/near the top of their divisions after the first two weeks of league play. Taffe Charles’ hot-shooting Ravens have started the season 4-0 with home wins vs. Western and Windsor followed by a pair of road wins this past weekend in Kitchener/Waterloo over Waterloo and Laurier. After a bit of a slow start vs. Western on the first night of the season last Friday at home, Carleton went a sizzling 30-68 from 3 during the first weekend and, despite cooling off this past weekend, is shooting 40% as a team from beyond the arc, well above the league average of 31%. James Derouin’s Gee-Gees tripped up at Waterloo on Saturday afternoon, dropping to 3-1 in the OUA regular season, shooting just 27% from the field and turning it over 16 times in what has to be considered an upset loss. Ottawa continues to play without starting senior point guard Dragan Stajic. Both of Ottawa’s OUA women’s teams remain a perfect 4-0 after the first two weeks of play. Local basketball fans can watch both teams next week as the Gee-Gees men’s and women’s team host York this coming Saturday night with the Lions moving across the canal to face Carleton’s teams on Sunday night. Algonquin women won their first game of the young season over Georgian College on Friday night while the Wolves men’s team had two shots at a win or tie late but fell 80-78 to Georgian to fall to 1-1 on the young season. La Cite Coyotes fell to 0-4 on the young OCAA season with a six point loss to Georgian on Saturday. Next weekend, the Algonquin teams and La Cite host St. Lawrence and Loyalist with games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Check your local listings.
A bit of an abbreviated version of the Letter this edition but much more to share later this month ! Please do know that me and our club deeply value and appreciate the time spent with numerous members of our community in my first 10 weeks as President. Plenty more to do but rest assured I feel blessed for the support I have received thus far !