Administrative Bungling Keeps Canadians Out of Tournament

Along with their Disneyland trinkets and photographs of UCLA Coach Jim Harrick, members of the Grand River Collegiate High basketball team of Canada brought home a large measure of bitterness and disappointment from their endeavor to play in last week’s Faith Baptist tournament.

The Renegades raised $12,000 during the past 8 months for the weeklong trip that included a berth in the 16-team tournament at the small private school in Canoga Park. But because Faith Baptist officials failed to gain approval through the Southern Section office, the Renegades were barred from playing.

Instead, they were relegated to 2 exhibition games--one against the Faith Baptist alumni and the other against a team of Brentwood schoolteachers--between trips to Southern California tourist attractions and various sporting events.

“I still can’t understand how this could have happened,” Renegade Coach Tom Connolly said after returning to Kitchener, Ontario, a city of 250,000 that lies 60 miles west of Toronto. “This was a once-in-a-lifetime thing for the kids and now we’re embarrassed when people ask us how we did.”

Officials at Faith Baptist and Grand River Collegiate signed a contract last spring, but Faith Baptist did not notify the Southern Section until 3 days before the tournament. The Southern Section requires 60 days’ lead time for sanctioning applications for contests involving international teams.

International amateur teams playing in the United States must receive clearance from 2 national organizations, Southern Section administrator Dean Crowley said.

“Those agencies verify various facts about the teams playing in the U. S., making sure they play for a high school and they have the same age limits our high schools do,” he said. “I can cut some strings but I can’t do it in three days.”

Shouldering the blame at Faith Baptist is first-year Athletic Director Jeff Brown, the tournament organizer. “It was all my fault,” he said. “I’m the one who should have known about the sanctioning rules and I didn’t.”

Potential penalties for teams playing in non-sanctioned tournaments include suspension from the Southern Section. So, to ensure that the tournament would be sanctioned, Brown told Connolly 3 days before Grand River Collegiate’s departure from Canada that his team could not play.

“Our tickets were non-refundable, so we couldn’t get our money back,” Connolly said.

So Brown scrambled to find diversions. Along with trips to Disneyland and Universal Studios, the Canadians attended a Clippers-Utah Jazz game and a Loyola Marymount-Oregon State game, compliments of their hosts. They also were scheduled to visit a UCLA basketball practice, but when they arrived at Westwood, the men’s team had finished for the day, forcing the Renegades to settle for a women’s team practice.

Harrick came to the rescue, giving the team a quick talk and posing for photographs afterward. “The kids were fascinated,” Connolly said.

Still, the Renegades returned home a disappointed group.

“Jeff Brown is a very nice person and tried hard to make our stay pleasant, but I’m resentful of a bureaucracy that would allow that to happen,” Connolly said.

The Renegades received a sympathetic reception when they returned home, Connolly said, but Canadians found it difficult to feel too sorry for the players.

“There were six inches of snow on the ground and it was 15 below,” Connolly said. “No one wants to hear our sad story about why we didn’t play when we were on the Malibu beach.”