Vincent Massey

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Vincent Massey
Mrfft2.JPG
Location:
Windsor, ON
Coaches James R. Beland
State Championships none
National Championships none
Program Status Unknown
School Size Unknown
NAQT Page link

Vincent Massey is a public school in South Windsor, Ontario as part of the Greater Essex County District School Board. The Reach for the Top team has been competitive in the city and provincial levels since 2000. They are the current 8-time defending champions of the Windsor Schoolreach League. (Note: The Vincent Massey team that won the national championship in 1966 and 1978 was from Etobicoke, Ontario and that school no longer is in existence under that name.)

Team Background

Since 2000, Massey has had a streak of local dominance that rivals the top secondary schools in Ontario. Nine times in the last ten years, they won the Windsor Schoolreach League title. Currently, they have won the title eight straight times and hold a 27 match win streak in regional play. Their current rival in the region is St. Joseph's H.S., while in years previous, Holy Names and Kingsville (who handed Massey it's last regional defeat) provided the best threat to Massey's stranglehold on the region.

Massey began to make strides in the Ontario Provincials in 2003, when they finished a mere 40 points out of a spot in the TV round. In the next three years, Massey made further strides by making the TV round every year finishing 10th ('04), 4th ('05) and 5th ('06). After a tailspin which saw them plummet to 23rd in 2007, Massey fought back into the Top 10 and equaled their best finish with a 4th place in 2008, which to date is considered Massey's best squad.

Instrumental with the team's development has been Massey's last two coaches. Greg Levack, who coached the team up until the end of the 2005 school year, helped develop the Mustangs into a top contender at the Ontario Provincials. Joining Levack in the 2005 season was the team's current coach, Jim Beland. After taking over full coaching duties, Beland has helped keep Massey in striking position of an Ontario Final, which is the long term goal of the team.

Previous Results

Ontario Provincials

  • 2000 - Finished 21st in Round Robin (5-5) 6th of 10 in Group C (Held at Queens University in Kingston)
  • 2001 - Lost in Regionals (This year was a strike year and the team had no coach or practices)
  • 2002 - Finished 31st in Round Robin (2-7) 9th of 10 in Group B
  • 2003 - Finished 15th in Round Robin (6-3)
  • 2004 - Finished 9th in Round Robin (5-2) and 10th overall. Lost in 1st Round to Lisgar
  • 2005 - Finished 2nd in Round Robin (7-0) and 4th overall. Advanced as wildcard in 1st Rnd vs Father Leo J. Austin (360-340), Advanced as wildcard in 2nd Round vs. Leaside (490-320), Lost in Semifinals to Leaside (390-220)
  • 2006 - Finished 6th in Round Robin (5-2) and 5th overall. Won in 1st Rounnd vs. South Secondary (360-340), Lost in 2nd Round to Assumption (470-290)
  • 2007 - Finished 23rd in Round Robin (3-4) 4th of 8 in Group D
  • 2008 - Finished 8th in Round Robin (5-2) 2nd of 8 in Group E and 4th overall. Won in 1st Round vs. Merivale (360-340), Advanced as wildcard in 2nd Round vs. UTS (410-280), Lost in Semifinals to Lisgar (340-190)
  • 2009 - Massey A finished 24th overall (3-4) and Massey B finished 26th overall (3-4)

2008-2009 Team

Although losing 8 of 10 players to graduation, Massey was able to sweep the Windsor Schoolreach League for a second consecutive year. Led by Sam Howes and Taro Yamashita, the Mustangs went 11-0 in the League and culminated the season with a 830-370 victory over St. Joseph's in the Finals. The win locked up Massey's 8th straight birth at the Ontario Reach for the Top Championships. At provincials, the team was split into two groups in order for the tournament organizers to have an even number of teams fielded with 44. Unfortunately, both squads were unable to remain in the top ten as both A & B squads finished with 3-4 records and finished 24th and 26th respectively.

2009-2010 Team

With a possible 5 returning members (Seila Rizvic, Joy Wang, Neil Lamont, Alastair Staffen and Dominik Jaworski), though it seems more likely that only 4 will return for next year's edition of the team, the future is bright again, invoking the memory of the 2008 team that went on to place 4th overall in the province, the 09-10 team projected to have a high number of players returning, much like what the 07-08 team had. Coupled with the fact that 4 of the 5 members played 7 of 7 games at the Provincial Tournament, which is due to the fact that Massey was able to enter two teams, the exposure and experience makes next year's team a team to look forward to. Again, as the norm, no word on the captain at this point.

Team Tidbits

In 2005, Massey was able to advance to the semi-finals of the Provincial Reach Championships by not winning a T.V. game. In the 1st round, Massey, who went perfect in round robin and was seeded second, lost to 9th seed Father Leo J. Austin S.S. in round one. After three more game were played however, Massey's score held up for the wild-card, and they were able to move on to the quarter-finals. Massey then drew the defending and eventual two-time provincial champions Leaside in the 1st quarterfinal game. Although losing, Massey still managed a score good enough for the wildcard and moved on to the semi-finals where they once again lost to Leaside. The double wildcard was dubbed the Massey Miracle.

Other Trivia Endeavors

Jeopardy

The Reach for the Top team at Massey gets most of the trivia limelight, however there are numerous other trivia related events at Massey, such as the Massey Jeopardy Tournament, which has separate brackets for high school juniors (grades 9 and 10), high school seniors (grades 11 and 12) and the staff at Vincent Massey. The winners of each bracket go one to face each other in the Massey Jeopardy finals. This year, the Junior Champion was Yining Nie, the Senior Champion was Alex Heuton and the Staff Champion was Mr. D. Jakobszen. The overall champion would be Mr. Jakobszen.

In the 2008-2009 school year, a Jeopardy tournament has not been scheduled and it looks like there will not be one this year, unless one is held at the end of year, which is not foreseeable with the amount of trivia-related events already scheduled for the spring-summer months.

Trivia Night

Another staple of trivia at Massey includes the multi-annual Trivia Night tournaments held at the school, always on a Thursday evening, going from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm. It is run by a number of teachers at Massey and a team consists of 4 members, with the following guidelines. Maximum of one Reach for the Top team member, and one staff member maximum on a team (though this rule seems to have been relaxed). There have been 6 Trivia Nights held so far. The inspiration for Trivia Night events comes from the current coach of Lisgar C.I. who Mr. Jim Beland met at a Reach for the Top Provincial tournament.

Trivia Night Winners

  • 1st Trivia Night - Eric Zhao, Corey Yednoroz, Simone Zhang, Mr. Bonk
  • 2nd Trivia Night - Michael Rozenbojm, George Yang, Mr. Mackenzie, Mr. Jakobszen
  • 3rd Trivia Night - Ben Webber, Jesse Bauer, Simone Zhang, Mr. Bonk
  • 4th Trivia Night - Michael Rozenbojm, George Yang, Jordynne Ropat, Mr. Jakobszen
  • 5th Trivia Night - Corey Yednoroz, Jacqueline Sun, James Vander Voort, Mr. Yednoroz
  • 6th Trivia Night - Sam Howes, David Shi, Ms. Dagg, Mr. Greenham
  • 7th Trivia Night - Max Hebert, Alistair Staffen, James Vander Voort, Mr. Marontate

In addition, there was also an individual Trivia Night champion, which was held simultaneously with the 4th Trivia Night. There has yet to be another individual title given out at the subsequent Trivia Nights.

  • 1st Trivia Night Individual - Corey Yednoroz

Teachers vs. Reach Team Game

Another event on the Reach for the Top team's calendar is the annual Massey staff vs. the Reach team game. The game is usually a combination of two reach packets with a winner determined by the combined scores of the two packs.

This is historically a very closely contested competition, with the winner generally being victorious by fewer than 5 questions. The teacher team has won more often than lost, though there have been years where there has been a tie.

In the last matchup (2008), the teachers and reachers played into a tiebreak where the teachers were able to win on the second tiebreaker (The winning answer was Ralph Nader).

Windsor-Essex Trivia Bowl

This tournament was the idea of Massey Reach for the Top team members James Vander Voort and George Yang. The idea of a tournament was first conceived when coaches from other teams in the Windsor Schoolreach League talked about having another event for the Reach for the Top teams in the Windsor-Essex area other than the annually held Windsor Schoolreach League provincial qualifiers tournament. The tournament is in the same format as Reach for the Top and was held at Vincent Massey Secondary School. One of the purposes was to get more schools involved with trivia and potentially recruit more schools into the Reach for the Top Schoolreach subscription program. The winner of the 1st annual Windsor-Essex Trivia Bowl was Kingsville District High School, with Holy Names High School, St. Joseph's High School and Walkerville Collegiate Institute also participating.

Quest

Quest was a televised tournament, sponsored by various groups including Chrysler Automotive, The Toldo Group, The University of Windsor, and St. Clair College, and was the brainchild of Jack Ramieri and host Jeff Hewitt. It aired on on Cogeco 11 (local cable) for four seasons, providing the winning teams with scholarship monies. Teams from various high schools, including those from Chatham and Kent county, and not only those with Reach For The Top teams, have competed in this event. The Massey Reach for the Top team won three seasons of this competition, providing individual scholarships of $500 to $1000, totaling over $6000, to numerous Massey grads, all but two of which did not compete on the trivia team. Quest ended in 2003, but was still re-brodcasted for a few years after.

Team Roster

  • 2000 Team - Aaron Brown (Captain), Shawn Malhotra, Aida Shahbazi, Jeremy Low, Emily Dowell, Michael Wheeler, David Dudok, William Szabo-Verzoc
  • 2002 Team - Emily Dowell, Dave Dudok, Dave Fox, May Habib, Jesse Houston, Sheng-Jun Xu, Alice Li, Rafik Chekiri (Junior Member)
  • 2003 Team - Sheng-Jun Xu (Captain), Eric Vyskocil, Sri Jamalapur, Maria Pontikis, Jesse Houston, Dan Ableser, Paul Marchwica, May Habib, Rafik Chekiri
  • 2005 Team - Rafik Chekiri (Captain), Laura Southcott, Eric Brown, Martina Kovacevic, Derrick Tam, Emily Wunder, Michael Shelley, David Qian, Chris Oliver
  • 2006 Team - Eric Brown (Captain), Michael Shelley, David Qian, Aaron Boismier, Sheila Blanken, Yin Hui, Yu Weng, Ian Tanner, Tina Poon
  • 2007 Team - Aaron Boismier (Captain), Ian Tanner, Yu Weng, Benjamin Webber, James Vander Voort, Yifan Li, George Yang, Eric Zhao, Bryan Calvert
  • 2008 Team - George Yang (Captain), Benjamin Webber, James Vander Voort, Yifan Li, Eric Zhao, Corey Yednoroz, Alex Heuton, Arush Kuthiala, Taro Yamashita, Sam Howes
  • 2009 Team - Taro Yamashita (Captain), Sam Howes, Seila Rizvic, Joy Wang, Jamal Mahamud, Kevin St. Denis, Neil Lamont, Alistair Staffen, Dominik Jaworski(regionals only) Jason Fan(regionals only)
  • Note, the first four members of each year's team comprised the starting lineup at the Reach for the Top provincial championships of that year (in some cases 4th and 5th alternated).
  • Note, Under 2009 team, the first 4 members were the Massey A team while the latter 4 were the Massey B team at 2009 Ontario Reach
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