Monday February 24th 2014
Loyola High School was host to the G.M.A.A. Wrestling Championships on Thursday, February the 20th. For those people who may not know, the G.M.A.A stands for the Greater Montreal's Athletic Association. It represents all high school sports in the greater Montreal Area and has served as the high school league for wrestling for many years. School's can enter a team if they so desire and they compete against other schools in an American Dual Meet Format. The seasons has an All Star Meet for both boys and girls and has served as an excellent developmental league for young wrestlers here in the province of Quebec. At the end of the season, all teams compete in a tournament in order to determine which team is the champion for that year. As a competitor and a coach in the G.M.A.A. for many years, I would have to say that it was an unusual championships for many reasons. First of all, this is is the first time that K.S.S. has not hosted the championships in a good long while. The right ot host a championships has always been determined by the winner of the previous year. In the past, the championships have been hosted by K.S.S. because of their experience in the matter. The last school other than K.S.S. to host a championships was Pierrefonds Comprehensive High School in 1992. K.S.S. has always been a gracious and excellent host and Loyola certainly had their work cut out for them. The championships went off without any problems and Loyola is to be commended for hosting an excellent championships in their own right.
Second thing that was unusual is that due to certain scheduling conflicts, the championships were held in the third week of February. The championships have always been held in the second week of February, thereby allowing for a week break before the Provincial Championships. If possible, it would be better for the tournament to be held once again in the second week of February. This allows a week break, and gives the athletes a chance to recover after a long tournament.
Third unusual thing that has to be mentioned is the eventual champions on the boys side. This is probably the most even level of competition that the league has ever seen in the years that I've been involved. The evidence is in the fact that while there may be less teams, each team is fielding more wrestlers. Second, that in the last four years, there have been four different champions. K.S.S. in 2011, Selwyn House in 2012, Loyola in 2013 and finally Beurling Academy in 2014. This would seem to indicate that wrestling is moving back into a good place. On the girls side, K.S.S. took home their second banner in two years as the sport has been officially recognized as a banner sport. The amount of girls competing also has increased during this time and is yet another good indicator that wresting is starting to grow once again.
With hopefully the prospect of more schools coming in, as well as an increasingly competitive league, the future for high school wrestling seems to be on the rise.
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