2009 Reach for the Top Nationals
| 2009 Reach for the Top Nationals | |
|---|---|
| Edited by | Reach for the Top |
| Champion | London Central |
| Runner-up | Kennebecasis Valley |
| Third | UTS |
| Fourth | Cobequid |
| High scorer | individual scores not kept |
| Site | Toronto, Ontario |
| Field | |
| Stats | |
The 2009 national finals of Reach for the Top were held May 23-25 in Toronto.
Participants
Alberta
- Harry Ainlay
- West Island
British Columbia
- Burnaby North
- Sir Winston Churchill
St. George's failed to qualify for the second year in a row. Burnaby North made a second consecutive appearance, while Sir Winston Churchill made a third consecutive appearance. This was also the second year in a row that Sir Winston Churchill was provincial champions.
Manitoba
- St. Paul's
- Kelvin
New Brunswick
KVHS has qualified for Nationals each year since 2004. New Brunswick's provincial runner-up, St. Malachy's, turned down the invitation to the national tournament.
Nova Scotia
- Cobequid
Ontario
Quebec
Saskatchewan
- Carpenter High School
Tournament Results
The number that appears beside each team denotes their respective seeds. (determined by a round robin seeding tournament) The top four teams earned byes to the quarter finals.
First Round
Kelvin (12) d. Carpenter (13)
Second Round
Harry Ainlay (8) d. Marianopolis (9)
Sir Winston Churchill (7) d. Burnaby North (11)
West Island (10) d. St. Paul's (6)
In a shocking upset, the 6th seeded St. Paul's team fell to the 10th seeded West Island team. (who St. Paul's had easily beaten in the seeding round) Oddly, the 6th seeded team was actualy supposed to play the 11th seeded team and the 10th seeded team was supposed to play the 7th. The Reach organizers, upon consulting the teams involved, opted not to correct what was presumably a mistake the day before the game.
Merivale (5) d. Kelvin (12)
Quater Finals
Kennebecasis (1) d. Harry Ainlay (8)
Harry Ainlay nearly upset Kennebecasis, losing by only 30 points.
London Central (2) d. Sir Winston Churchill (7)
UTS (3) d. West Island (10)
Cobequid (4) d. Merivale (5)
Semi Finals
Kennebecasis (1) d. Cobequid (4)
Cobequid ended up losing by 20 points. The game was marred by controversy as a challenge made by the Cobequid team was accepted by a number of Reach officials only to be rejected by the executive producer.
London Central (2) d. UTS (3)
Final
London Central (2) d. Kennebecasis (1)
The tournament was won by London Central, their second championship in three years. Central defeated Kennebecasis Valley in the final 470-310, which was a rematch of the 2007 final. The win by London Central was considered by most to be an upset over an exceedingly strong KVHS team, especially as KVHS led in the pre-game run-through for TV purposes.
Changes
TVOntario took over the television contract for Nationals. The previous broadcaster, Canadian Learning Television, was relaunched as Viva in late 2008 with a women's entertainment mandate. For this edition of the National Finals, TVO opted to only tape the final game of the tournament.
Three teams from Ontario qualified for provincials in 2009, one more than in past years. The change was possibly brought on by Lisgar and UTS' 1-2 finish at nationals in 2008 as well as Ontario's population, number of teams, and dominance in recent history. In addition, a team from Saskatchewan qualified for the first time in over 20 years, and New Brunswick only sent 1 team.