By Eli Silverstone

The Mattamy Athletic Centre (MAC) hosted Heart in the Game last weekend—a three-day charity basketball event in support of research at SickKids into congenital heart conditions.

The event ran from May 1 to 3 and was hosted in partnership with the Ted Rogers School of Management (TRSM) alongside Bank of Montreal and corporate sponsors. It featured skills challenges, shooting contests, a full tournament and an awards gala doubling as a networking opportunity for students.

The event raised funds for kids like Ava, the youngest daughter of Robert Zanfir and Nina Namvar, who created Heart in the Game and helped organize the event.

Ava was diagnosed with a rare congenital heart condition called Ebstein Anomaly while in the womb. The condition is caused by the malformation of a major heart valve and required surgery once Ava was born. Luckily, between care from Dr. Lindsay Freud—who heads fetal cardiology at SickKids—and a successful surgery, Ava now lives a healthy life. 

Because of how rare Ebstein Anomaly is, there is limited research into the condition. In hopes of changing that, Freud is leading the Fetal Ebstein Anomaly and Tricuspid Valve Dysplasia (FEAT) Study, an international research initiative that follows patients diagnosed in utero with Ebstein’s anomaly. Heart in the Game was created to help support Freud and SickKids in their research. Zanfir and Namvar have a goal of raising $250,000 in support of the study.

“We always assumed there’d be money floating around at SickKids, but that was just not the case,” said Zanfir in an interview with The Eyeopener. “So that’s why we did this. We started raising awareness and money, not just for her condition, but so people can understand there are a lot of niche conditions that need funding.”

The event kicked off on May 1 with skills challenges and three-point contests that saw upwards of 30 plus participants battle it out for prizes provided by sponsors—prizes like Toronto Raptors tickets and Sephora gift cards.

The night was also the creative vision of Brandon Chang, founder of Toronto-based physiotherapy and performance clinic Elite MVMT—which participated in the event.

“I wanted this weekend to be like a mini NBA All-Star weekend… and the energy, the level of competition, is honestly way higher than I thought or expected,” Chang told The Eye.

In the three-point contest, participants played members of the Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold men’s and women’s basketball teams. Even when the varsity athletes won the contest in the final round, they still generously donated the prize of 100-level Raptors tickets to the runner-ups.

Harshil Mann, a 5th-year business technology management student at TMU, was one of the participants who made it to the finals and took home the tickets. He was also one of the many TRSM students who used the weekend to network with peers and sponsors at the event.

“[Networking within basketball is] obviously better than dressing up in a suit and tie and going to a random event,” said Mann. Talking to people that share that passion [for basketball] you can really connect with them.”

This was always the goal for Zanfir, Namvar and Medhat Sedarose—senior manager of co-operative education at TRSM’s Business Career Hub. Zanfir and Namvar wanted a school with a strong basketball and business culture. With both TMU basketball teams winning the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) championship this year and TRSM’s identity, they felt TMU was a perfect fit. 

“I want to invest in people who want something—and I’m telling you, the people at TRSM and TMU, they’re wired the right way,” said Zanfir. 

The Saturday tournament filled the MAC with sounds of shoes squeaking as the co-ed, half-court games saw 10 teams battle it out before finals went down. The winning team was Elite MVMT. Chang credits their win to a roster of friends who’ve been hooping together for years. 

The event closed out with Sunday’s gala, celebrating a year’s worth of fundraising for Ava and SickKids. Zanfir and Namvar thanked everyone in the room who had helped their family. Sedarose reminded the financial folk in the room to be open to networking with the TRSM students.

Freud also spoke, discussing her involvement in the event. “At the centre of all of this is Ava and trying to come up with the best strategies and therapies for children just like her,” she said.