One of three alumni coaches on our roster, Ollie Tsai (Class of 2020), has been coaching the Junior, Bantam and Senior Boys at SJS for the past four years. As he ends his last season in the best possible way, leading the Senior Boys to the school’s first ever provincial championship win, he reflects on his experience working alongside the boys in the team from Bantam to Senior level over the past four years.
This has been my fourth year coaching at SJS. I started coaching in the 2021-2022 season with the Bantam Boys team (the current Grade 11s) after Covid athletics restrictions were lifted. That year we placed second at the ISAA Tournament and finished with a 5-1 record in league play. That tournament was also the first time I coached Luke Stokes and Douglas Cassidy when they were in Grade 7 as Coach Ilkiw allowed me to pull them up to play with the Grade 8s.
The following year, I took on the role of head coach for the Junior Boys team (the current Grade 11 and 12s). In this particular season, we had a lot of success but came up short every time we were in a championship game. We placed second at the ISAA’s, Southpointe Invitational and the championship game for our GVISAA League. We ended with a 13-4 overall record and 6-1 in league play.
In the 23-24 season, I continued with the Junior Boys but also volunteered a lot of my time with the Senior Boys as some of the guys from my first Bantam Team moved up to play Senior (Kian, Philip and Lucas). For the Junior Boys, we weren’t the strongest team in the league but still managed to make it to the final four in GVISAA as well as place third in the ISAA tournament. The Senior Boys were such a great group of guys to mentor, that season we won the John Knox Invitational, St. Ann’s Invitational, Sea-to-Sky Zone Championship and placed sixth at Provincials.
I have known the players on the Senior team for so many years at this point that they feel like family, like little brothers to me. It’s an amazing feeling to be proud when you see them grow after all these years and develop into mature men as they move on in their life.
This season has definitely been the most amazing season by far for both the Junior and Senior Boys teams. For Junior, we had a fantastic season with wins showing a lot of skill against adversity. We advanced to the GVISAA final four and I ended up winning my first ever league championship as a head coach.
I have known the players on the Senior team for so many years at this point that they feel like family, like little brothers to me. It’s an amazing feeling to be proud when you see them grow after all these years and develop into mature men as they move on in their life. Fun fact – when I was in Grade 11 I helped Mr. Maloney coach Kian and Lucas when they were in Grade 5!
We’ve had so many big wins this year with the Senior team, with a lot of them being against bigger schools in the 2A, 3A, 4A level. We won the SJS JAM Tournament for the first time in over a decade, and were ranked the #1 team in the province for a majority of the season. We finished by winning provincials for the first time in school history and that was just so awesome to be a part of the journey knowing that all of the time and effort the coaching staff and the kids put in all paid off.
What a way to end my last season as a coach. I’ve seen these boys grow up to become men right before my eyes and I’ve never been more proud. I could not have experienced all of this without the support of Coach Kinman and Coach Ilkiw as they were the ones that hired me and believed in me to develop their players that were coming up to the Senior level.
To my Juniors, thank you for putting in the time and effort during practises and open gyms, you guys have shown that we could compete with the top programs in the province, regardless of tier! To the Seniors, thank you for allowing me to be a part of this journey, the memories and brotherhood that is SJS Basketball. That’s all folks, Coach Ollie out!
