Two of Orillia Secondary School’s (OSS) brightest stars from this past season's senior girl’s basketball team, are moving on to the next stage of their career.
Rhys Bazuk and Ally Smith were two of the five Grade 10 students who played key roles on the Nighthawks team which netted silver medals at this past November’s Ontario Federation of School Athletic Association (OFSAA) tournament.
Buzak and Smith recently decided to end their two-year journey at OSS and commit to playing next season at Lo-Ellen Park Secondary School in Sudbury, which was the first northern school to join the Ontario Scholastic Basketball Association (OSBA) back in 2018.
Barrie native Rhys Bazuk says the opportunity to play in the competitive OSBA at Lo-Ellen under head coach Jennifer Bourget, will help her get the exposure and experience she needs, playing against the best young basketball players in Ontario.
“Lo-Ellen has a great program and a great coach and it’s a great fit for me and my skills,” said Bazuk.
The decision to leave home and head up north to Sudbury wasn’t exactly easy for the 15-year-old.
“I’m really excited to move away and have that experience but leaving my parents will be hard," said Bazuk. 'They never miss a game so I’m sure they will be driving a lot to come see me."
Bazuk spent her first two years of high school playing at OSS, which shaped her into the player she is today.
“I was really fortunate to play for the amazing coaches at OSS. It gave me a lot of confidence which helped with my decision to go to Lo-Ellen,” Bazuk said, noting she appreciated coaches Mike Tutty, Dan Fournier, and Katie Guthrie.
After finishing high school at Lo-Ellen, Bazuk has her sights set on playing in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and hopes to land with her favourite team, the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles.
Making the move away from home easier for Bazuk, is OSS teammate and close friend Ally Smith is going along with her.
Smith’s interest in joining Lo-Ellen was sparked last summer after playing in a tournament with some of the players from the program who had been trained by coach Bourget.
“I knew that’s where I would want to play if I committed to moving schools,” Smith said.
“I really wanted to play for an OSBA school," she said. After learning Tutty wasn’t available to coach next year, "I thought Lo-Ellen was the best fit for me.”
Smith believes the change will help her reach her court goals.
“It comes to a point where you have to decide what do you want? Do you want to play post-secondary? Or do you just want to compete as hard as you can in high school? I know that I want to play university basketball,” Smith explained.
“I knew that if I wanted to keep playing it would be best for me to play against higher competition and have a bigger challenge.”
Like Bazuk, Smith is also a bit nervous about moving away, leaving her friends, family and hometown of Orillia behind.
“I know that you have to take risks to be able to be the best that you can be and the way I’m looking at it is this will develop me and continue to help me get better. It will be worth it,” Smith said.
Although the run at OSS is now over, Smith is thankful for the opportunity to be a Nighthawk and said that without the experience, she might not have the opportunity to play at the next level.
“The coaching staff was truly the biggest factor in getting me to where I am today. They continued to push and develop me and I don’t think I would be where I am today if it wasn’t for them,” Smith said of the OSS coaches.
Smith is not yet sure where her post-secondary journey might take her.
“I’m trying to decide if I will go play in the States or if I’ll stay here in Canada. There are a lot of factors that go into that decision but right now I just know that I do want to play in university,” Smith said.
“I just know I got to keep working to prepare myself and keep loving the sport.”
