Wolfpack fall in Peel Secondary School quarterfinals 

By Robert Belardi 

The Robert F. Hall Wolfpack fell 80-74 to the No. 1 seed St. Martin Secondary School in the junior basketball quarterfinals of the 2022 ROPSSAA (Region of Peel Secondary School Athetic Association) Championship on Monday. 

Lucas MacKlem led the Wolfpack with 30 points in the afternoon. 

Despite the loss, coaches Michael MacKenzie and Andrew Sousa say they are incredibly proud of the group this year. 

“Definitely proud of the group. We beat some teams that we don't usually beat and kept it close with two of the top teams in ROPSSAA. Being able to be within a few points of d'Youville and also to lose the quarterfinals to the No. 1 seed by six points, is a good showing,” MacKenize said. 

“I think we were as prepared as we should have been, given the limited practices that we had and the shutdown of our school. Multiple bus cancellations, kept us from practicing. A little bit frustrating that way.” 

The Wolfpack, entered the playoffs with a 4-2 record in the regular season. The boys opened the season with a 39-31 overtime victory against local rivals Mayfield. 

Following a narrow 60-58 defeat to St. Marguerite d'Youville, the Wolfpack went on a three-game winning streak, defeating Louise Arbour twice and Mayfield once again. In the final game of the year against d'Youville, the boys came up short, this time 58-50. 

Over the course of the year, MacKlem, led the team averaging 13 points a game. Gabriel Chocano pitched in 11 points a game on average and Julian Longo averaged eight. 

In his second season at RFH and first year coaching the team due to COVID, MacKenzie brought with him a winning pedigree to the school. 

After spending eight seasons teaching and coaching at d'Youville and four years at St. Francis Xavier, MacKenzie brought his talents to the Wolfpack program, with hopes to win another ROPSSAA title. 

He has previously won six ROPSSAA titles, including OFSAA silver and two baseball ROPSSAA titles as well. 

Although this is not set in stone just yet, the Bolton resident said that RFH is interested in running a senior varsity program next season. 

The majority of his junior players, if not all, could be moving on to be a part of this team. If that's the case, the coaches will move on as well to join them, barring no participation setbacks.

Moving forward, MacKenzie would love to see RFH become more known for having a competitive basketball program. 

“Hopefully, Robert F. Hall can become more of a basketball name up in this area because we get kids from all over, like Orangeville, Shelburne and Caledon East. Often, players, instead of coming to RFH, they often go to different schools that are known for basketball,” MacKenzie said. 

“Hopefully we don't lose those kids. This is a great school and we have great athletics here.”

MacKenzie would like to send a massive thank you to Sousa for an excellent first season together. 

The coaches would love to thank all of the players – Anthony Alexis, Arinze Okerulu, Julian Longo, Callum Fleming, Justin Grant, Leo Palmieri, Lucas MacKlem, Adrian Polsinelli-Glasgow, Tayshawn Barrett, Inderpreet Brar, Joshua Woolcock, Gabriel Chocano and Lukas Faria – for all of their efforts.