Top teams in Durham

There has been a lot of talk about Top Teams in the West and in York Region, however, those areas have a consensus number one team in each area and one or two other decent teams.....York Region (Vaughn) is the heavy favourite....West (Martingrove) is the heavy favorite.

Now who are the top teams in Durham? Durham may be the deepest region this upcoming season to the surprise of many......Pickering, J Clarke Richardson, Notre Dame, Pine Ridge and Anderson in Whitby all have good teams.

WHat are the top five in Durham this year?

Durham is going to be very competiteve this year... Very competitive.
Some teams did take hits tho. Kevin Thomas(prep) and Troy Joseph(REDA) from Pickering are gone. Damal Donaldson(prep) from ND is gone. Top players from both teams.
If i were to go top 5 I would say 1-4 could be a toss up between Pine Ridge, JClarke, Pickering and Notre Dame.

Notre Dame- only a contender because of a strong junior team from last year, there season all depends on who comes from that team.

Pine Ridge- Has almost everyone back from last years team. And have ALOT of size and athleticsm. A team to really look out for, had some trouble last year getting it together, but im sure they'll suprise alot of people.

Pickering- Lost alot this summer with two of there best players gone due to graduation and a few to prep. Has a great program and im sure a group of solid players. A good program so should rebound...not sure tho.

JClarke- Lost Justin Jarrett not sure if thats as big of a deal ppl will make it to be, as this team has a solid core of grade 12's. This team can run and flat out score just not sure how the supporting cast is after that core.

Just my opinion... feedback would be great or anything to add feel free.

How can Vaughan be a huge favourite with almost all grade 11 players?

Gotta Say I have heard A lot about Dunbarton and There supposed to do well this year

Vbmac12,

I like the break down and I have to say that I'm pretty much in agreement with you. Pickering is still the number one team since they are the 4 or 5 time LOSSA Champs and have it probably won it 20 times in their history....until somebody beats them they are still the number team. Despite the losses of Troy Joseph, Kevin THomas, Liban and others...Pickering will still be tough, but, they won't be head and shoulders above everyone this upcoming season.

Notre Dame willl be good as well. Even though, they lost Damone Donaldson, Damal Donaldson and Norm Penola, they have some quality juniors coming up. Also, they are well coached. Teran Richards did a great job with that team last year and I'm sure he's up for the challenge of proving that it was no fluke.

J Clarke and Pine Ridge are in the mix as well. J Clarke will be competitive with Leon Alexander and Aaron Redpath...they also have Courtney Dawkins a transfer from Pickering and some others as well. Pine Ridge returns almost everyone from last year except for Janoi Wright and CJ Williams. However, they pick up Adam Plummer and Mammadou Mutombo since both sat last year after transferring from Dennis O 'Connor and Pickering. They also have Matt Leon another Pickering transfer to.

Anderson willl be good as well! They made it to the quarter-finals last year of the Triple AAA OFSAA basketball tourney. They lost to Martingrove in the quarter finals by 20, however, their team consisted of mainly tenth graders like Jake Hutchcroft and Dyshawne Pierre. Those tenth graders got a lot of experience and are a year older so this team is only gonna get alot better over the next two years.

Dunbarton will be decent this year since they are bringing up a quality junior team that lost to Pickering in the LOSSA finals. However, in my opinion they are a year away from joining the top five teams mentioned above. Now, if Khem Birch ended up staying at Dunbarton last year, then that would have changed somethings.

Baisdoodoo,

If Vaughn is not the heavy favorite in York Region, then who is? It's not like two, three years ago with teams like Bayview, Sacred Heart and Miliken Mills. All those teams have taken a big step back....and it seems like Markham as well. Vaughn loses Josh Collins and the other guard...I forget his name....but they have some quality juniors coming up that can play right away. On paper they are strong favorites....who else is there...St. Teresa, Thornlea, Thornhill, Woodbridge, Markham, Brother Andre, Miliken Mills?????

In my opinion, Ajax High may also be a surprising team in Durham this year..may not make it to LOSSA finals or anything but they are a team that should be looked at. They have a strong back court behind Andrew Seto (top 30 gr11's) Andrew Aabora, Kevin Wilson and Anthony Ashman, a former guard from Cedabrae.

BA will win this season

AAAA: Pickering/ Notre Dame
AAA: Donald A
AA: GL Roberts

[quote="steve.nash1"]BA will win this season[/quote]

BA is in Durham now?

I think Durham started being more competitive in the last two or three years and this trend will be even more pronounced in the upcoming season.

There will be a number of top ten contenders in Durham this year imo. There may be greater equity throughout the GTA.

agreed ... who are the top players from durham??

brandon tull(pickering) is going to make alot of noise

Best Players from what ive seen around are (whitby area mainly)

Justin Edwards (Anderson)
Dyshawn ?(Just heard good things ) (Anderson)
Nathan Brown (Sinclair)
Teq (Wilson)


However I heard that Isaiah Swaby is back at pineridge ? If this is true
then he easily in my eyes is the best player in durham

Ps: this is where i play as well

I agree with your assessment of Nathan Brown. He's probably the best kept secret in Durham, the GTA or possibly the province of Ontario. Nathan is virtually unknown, but, a great athletic and good player. If he went to a well known basketball school, they would be plenty of talk about him.

Mikhail Macintosh is definitely one of the best players in the region as well. This tenth grader is going to come into LOSSA senior play and give opposing teams a lot of match up problems. He's way to quick and skilled for virtually anyone close to him in size. However, he's probably to strong and aggressive for smaller, quicker players to match up against him.

The best from what I've seen:

AAAA: Brandon Tull, Mickyle MacIntosh, Isaiah Swaby, Tyrelle Samuels, Nathan Brown
AAA: Justin Edwards, Dyshawn Pierre, Teq Z, Jay Jay Ireland, and AJ Brown performed exceptionally well in last years Lossa finals against DOC (from Wilson). I expect him to make some noise this year.

AAAA winner: Pickering by a close margin against J Clarke/Notre Dame

AAA winner: Anderson by 40+ against DA Wilson (Justin Edwards, and Dyshawn Pierre will eat Wilson to combine for 50+ points once again). I predict Anderson will do quite well in OFSAA too, I can't say enough about the talent of this squad.

Durham is definitely looking like one of the toughest regions this year...I didn't think that J Clarke was coming out strong like that to start the year. Congratulations to them on their consolation win over Martingrove. That's huge for them. Pickering is strong, Notre Dame is looking great and Pine Ridge is in the mix too. There is gonna be major competition for those two Quad AAAA qualification spots out of Durham this year.

Correction in spelling to MiKyle's name - it is spelled MiKyle McIntosh

Durham is a toss up with 4 teams.
Those being J.Clarke, Pine Ridge, Pickering, and Norte Dame

J Clarke showed at the Henry Carr tournament that they will be a team to be concerned about. Durham region is very strong this season and it isn't a shoo in for Pickering to win this season.

Top teams (not in order)
Pickering high
J Clarke
Pine Ridge
notre dame
(all the rest are w.e)
best player in Durham by far is Isaiah Swaby (Pine Ridge) but I'm really feeling Mikyle Mckintosh (Pickering High) game to he's 2nd and it's funny because he's in GRADE 10 and is already beasting...