Preseason 2010 Top 10

Only about 3 weeks to go until back to school.
I watched alot of ball last season (juniors and seniors), so I thought I'll start up a little preseason Top 10, JUST FOR FUN.
I'm no expert, just an observer. So if you disagree please join the discussion and state your own Top 10 or your opinions. I also asked alot of questions, so if you have answers please share them.
It looks like alot of transfers to the U.S.A. this season, so I hope to see alot of young players in Grades 10 and 11 doing damage at the senior level. All those strong junior teams from last year, could move up and have strong senior teams.
As usual all the elite ball programs will have strong teams and coaching. So the Top 5 should be no surprise.

Teams to watch -
Emery, Martingrove, JC Richardson, Campion, Xavier, Dunbarton, Martingrove, George Harvey, BCSS, Sandalwood, Vaughn Road, Northern, Milliken, Loyola, St. Michaels, CW Jefferys, Newtonbrook, St Teresa, West Hill, Pine Ridge, Goetz, Runneymede, Ascension...any more I forgot?

TOP 10

10. Laurier - Is Daniel Mullings returning? He could be the difernce-maker. I know this school beat a stacked West Hill team Twice last season. If Mulings returns they should be able to control the East (West Hill lost their big 3 players and their coach). Could have a solid season, I don't know who will challenge them in the East.

9. Pope John paul- Very good junior team moving up to seniors to join guard/forward Negus Webster Chan. Many of those juniors play rep on the same Scarborough Blues team, so they have that chemistry going. They should have a good season.

8. Notre Dame Ajax - Similar to Pope, another solid junior team moving up to Seniors including sharp-shooting guard Dane Williams and 6`6 forward Musa. Last year they had the most stacked junior team I've seen in awhile, so we'll see how those same players do at the senior level.

7. Oakwood - A few Oakwood players were on team Ontario U15 including Isiah Watkins and shooter Filip Music. Will they move up to seniors to join Team Ontario U17 guard Julian Clarke? Had a tough end to last season, so they should be looking to bounce back.

6. D'Youville - I admit I don't know too much about the PEEL teams so I'm not sure who will be the Top-dog. D'Youville, Goetz, Campion, Xavier,Sandalwood, BCSS? Any ideas? D'Youville has a solid program and they been in the Top 10 all last season, so I'll put them here at #6. But I do need some input to help rank the PEEL schools.

5. Vaughn - They lost guard Josh Collings to University but their junior team is stacked every year. Grade 10's like guards Henry Tan, Djinyl Walker and Troy Knight could move up to seniors and play immediately. Lets all hope we get to see 6'5 wing Andrew Wiggins play at least one high-school season in Toronto, hes been ready to play seniors for awhile. You'll be seeing all kind of NCAA scouts at GTA tournaments to see this young baller if he stays.

4. Eastern Commerce - Lose Coach Roy Rana to Ryerson University, but Coaches Jefferes and Bullen should be able to handle this elite program just fine. However there are Big question marks on this roster. Loss of Alwayne to Northwestern University, Marvin Binney to prep (or juco?), Jerome Brown also to the U.S., Wayne Bridge to graduation. Who's really left? I assume they have talent coming up from juniors. Regardless I just can't see this school dropping out of the Top 5 so we leave them here for now.

3. Mother Teresa - Serious losses of Big Mo Walker and PG Ashton Khan to prep schools in the States. But Coach Gallager should have his remaining seniors, including U17 Team Ontario forward Jon Alexander ready (he has those crazy hops). Ritchie could be ready to show what he can do with more minutes this yer. This school always play hungry and aggressive. Just like ND and Pope, another strong junior program could send a few Grade 10s and 11s up to seniors ready to play immediatly.

2. Pickering - This school year after year has the depth to run with any team in the province. Is Troy Joseph returning? How about 6'8 forward Kevin Thomas?Because he could have a huge season if hes back. 6'6 Grade 10 wing/forward Mikyle Mcntosh is the Real-deal. He should move up to seniors so keep an eye him. This school will definitely make alot of noise as usual. But be careful to follow all the rules this year Pickering, OFSAA will be watching.

1. Henry Carr - They'll miss PG Josh Ogden but Coach Melniks squad still has plenty of athleticism, talent and depth. The grade 10 junior team went Undefeated last season. That means their young guns will bring guts and team chemistry up from juniors. Speedy guard Shaqiulle Woodcock and should be ready to play right away. Is Theon Reefer returning? Can FHC dethrone Mother Teresa in the TDCAA? Maybe, Maybe not...Thats why we play the games.

I think that your list is pretty good! The only team that I think should be included on your preseason top ten is Martingrove. I mentioned that on another post about transfers. Your rationale is solid as well. This year is usual because it seems like every team except Martingrove had a lot of fifth year talent that graduated. I think that it is difficult to replace those types of players with younger grade 11 talent. We'll see how it plays out.

Thx Realball, it was a good read!

I heard that some of the grade 9's at Pickering might be playign senior Like Mikyle Mcintosh, Haboubacar Mutombo and Damion Rashford

Great list, RealBall!

Henry Tan and Troy Knight are actually going into Gr. 10 at Vaughn but they do have Dinjyl Walker, Cy Richards-Samuels and Roshane Roberts moving up.

I would think that Henry and Troy would be playing Junior. Andrew Wiggins is reportedly going Prep. Still Vaughn is definitely an up-and-coming force at all levels.

They will be surely among the best in Senior next year!

Is that st.Theresa of liseux mentioned?

Iff dey on the list then where is newmarkett? Dey did beat liseaux twice last year for jr.

In Peel, d'Youville is still the favourite on paper, especially now that Manny is reportedly returning.

Peel should once again be very deep but if I had to pick the top contenders to knock off D'Youville, I would go with Ascension and Xavier at this point. Ascension was in rebuilding mode last year and should have a very experienced team this year. As always, they will be one of the best coached teams in Peel. Xavier was an enigma last year but now that their point guard seems to be blossoming and they have the benefit of both a bunch of returning 5th years and probably the top class of incoming grade 11s, they will be consistent and very deep.

After those two, Goetz and Campion look to be the other top contenders, while the dark horses could be Sandalwood and Augustine. Obviously, once we know how badly Peel has ben cannibalized by US prep schools and who are the incoming transfers, a more accurate prediction can be made.

Props must also be given to D'Youville and Campion for being two of the most consistent programs in Peel over the past five years while each losing somewhere in the neighbourhood of a starting line-up plus key subs to US schools.

So Manny is not going to Cornell?
I Thought DYouville was losing their top 5 or 6 players. Vik, Manny, Kamran, Kemeish, Akeem. If this is true there is no way they are the favourites in Peel.

Ascension will be strong. They were decent last season and their core have a year under their belt now.

Xavier loses one player in Ben and return everyone else plus their Juniors moving up. I would put them in the top 3 in Peel forsure.

Campion will be solid as usual. ( Not sure if they are returning anybody)

Carmel willl be decent they are returning 3 starters ( Jahmari Bennet, Chris Anderson, Devon Bailey) plus Kelvin Muamba. They should win the South IMO.

Goetz and Loyola will be mediocre teams this season.

Ok good feed-back;

I agree Martingrove could easily be in the Top 10. They do have 6'3 Matthew Wright at guard. I think hes a U.S. D1 level player, something only a very few schools have. They could at least take my #10 spot from Laurier, or probably even move up as high as #8 pushing down ND and Pope.
Nice to see a player of Matthews level stay in Toronto where we can watch his last highschool season up-close.

Pickering will be good with or without Mikyle McIntosh. But if he does play seniors he will make them much stronger.

For Vaughn I forgot that Henry Tan and Troy Knight are only going in Grade 10. If they do play juniors again that will be a crazy junior team. But the senior guard positions won't be as strong without them, they're both ready to make a difference at the senior level. Regardless the Seniors will still be strong with combo-guard Djinyl and forward Cy. I like Cy's game, he has that old-school style.
Any word on Andrew Wiggins status for September?

That is St Teresa Liseux in the Teams to Watch. They had a good senior team last year and cracked the Super 16 once or twice early in the year. I didnt hear alot about Newmarket last season, they'll probably have to upset a good team or win a tournament early to get recognized this season.

Good info on the Peel schools. I think that another Peel school could also take Laurier out of that #10 spot. Peel is just so deep with overall talent now that they probably deserve 2 teams in the Top 10.
I really just put Laurier at #10 as that underdog team that could come in and surprise peolple right away this season, always fun to watch one of those kinds of schools.

Any other schools besides Martingrove that couuld move into the Top 10?
Any info on Milliken, Emery or Vaughn Road?

It will be interesting to get a read after all the Prep School transfers have been made public.

There may still remain some to be disclosed with Ro Russell heading to Christian Life Academy in N.C.

Mother Teresa and Pope both lost top players in Jonathon Alexander and Martin Dixon-Green.

Jonathon Alexander would have had a Monster season for MT this year.

He should do very well in the U.S.

I agree. Sad to see him go but I hope the best for him. He's a good kid!

Dixon-Green is no slouch either!

MT has also reportedly lost the Augustine brothers to Tarry Upshaw's new prep program. That makes five going to prep schools: Maurice, Ashton, Jonathan, Ryan, and Matthew.

d'y did lose 4 starters....Manny is returning, heading to cornell next year

TOP 10



10. Pope John paul- Vary good juniors , they should battle with MT for 2nd in Catholic region

10. Notre Dame Ajax - another solid junior team moving up to Seniors- could be the Sleepers

9. Laurier (East Region champs) - Daniel Mullings returning

8. D'youville- Lost 4 Starters. Another team with question marks??? - they could finally be beaten in there Division

7. Vaughn (2 year York Region Champs) - Lost Guard Josh Collins, which was their playmaker, but have good juniors and coaching

6. Mother Teresa (4A Catholic City Champs)- Lost C Maurice Walker, PG Ashton Khan, plus more. There is question marks in Titan Town ???

5. Eastern commerce- Loss of Alwayne Bigby, Marvin Binney , Jerome Brown, Wayne Bridge. Who's really left???? .

4. Oakwood - Had a tough end to last season, so they should be looking to bounce back. I believe they could finally beat Eastern Commerce - with cast Julian Clark, Bruno Silvester, Michael Ranger and more

3. Martingrove (3A city Champs)- Lost PF Mohamed Osman , but has 4 Starters Returning (including Mathew Wright), Shawn Gray's squad could make noise out of the West

2. Pickering (Durham Champs)- Lost Rob. G , (depend on if their returning- Kevin Thomas) , Good Juniors moving up

1. Henry Carr (2nd in Catholic Cities) - lost PG Josh Ogden
but, has Best junior team in the Province

Interesting list Coach Bob! I think everyone has come to the same conclusion for this upcoming year. We don't know!!! There are so many question marks about so many teams. Almost everyone has massive losses due to graduation or prep schools so I guess we'll see what happens next week when schools starts. In my opinion, Martingrove and Oakwood have a great deal of their teams intact and a great deal of experience as well. Everyone else maybe except for Henry Carr has a lot of question marks. It should be a wide open and real exciting year in 2009=2010. More than likely, they'll be some teams not even mentioned here that will emerge and come to the forefront. I sense alot of movement in the GTA top ten this year. The Quad A Championship in Oshawa should be interesting. As I said before, Carr, Martingrove and Oakwood are sure things..everyone else we'll see in a few weeks.

LOL not all is well in the land of Carr. they will for sure not be number 1 in my books. you think that Josh is the only guy who left. but i've been hearing talks from really reliable sources saying there may be more gone. just sayin, all of you are putin carr on this number one thing, but i'm not so sure they will be. let's just see what happens.

Top 10/ teams to watch out for

So this is my feed back on what i have to say about this season anything could happen we could never find out until the season start i would be nice to see all these teams play in the early bird to get a good look at to see what the season is going to look like!!!!!!!!! Please people we most find out more about these students if anyone knows write more i would like to see all the teams play.

Milliken- would have a young team and ready to make more noise i would not be shocked if we see upsets as they would be one of the top teams soon.

Runneymede- Is a young team that is ready to make some noise as i heard their going to come out with fire power to win every game with 2 returning players coming back Shane and Handel.!!!! didn't do that much info on them but coach's say Shane could be the top point guard in the city after this season and for Handel coach's say he has been working hard lost weight and would be heard more after this season i wonder how these two play with each other??????

Northern- a hungry team to get there name out there they play to win

George Harvey- Feidel.B and Tyrell. F would be the heart of the team and would inspire Their team mates to play a good role on the team as they look to take the west!!!!

Vaughn Road- is a sleeper team always have fun seeing them surprise every one with a outstanding team don't forget about them

Emery- Anthony Ottley would be a player to watch out for he could bang in side and get the rebounds and a a great scorer with Gale Mohamed to help him on his side.

10.Laurier - Is Daniel Mullings returning? He could be the difernce-maker. I know this school beat a stacked West Hill team Twice last season. If Mulings returns they should be able to control the East (West Hill lost their big 3 players and their coach). Could have a solid season, I don't know who will challenge them in the East.

9.Pope John paul- Very good junior team moving up to seniors to join guard/forward Negus Webster Chan. Many of those juniors play rep on the same Scarborough Blues team, so they have that chemistry going. They should have a good season. we could see them move up to top 3 maybe this year


8.Vaughn - They lost guard Josh Collings to University but their junior team is stacked every year. Grade 10's like guards Henry Tan, Djinyl Walker and Troy Knight could move up to seniors and play immediately. Lets all hope we get to see 6'5 wing Andrew Wiggins play at least one high-school season in Toronto, hes been ready to play seniors for awhile. You'll be seeing all kind of NCAA scouts at GTA tournaments to see this young baller if he stays.

7. Martingrove-(3A city Champs)- Lost PF Mohamed Osman , but has 4 Starters Returning (including Mathew Wright),

6.Henry Carr - They'll miss PG Josh Ogden but Coach Melniks squad still has plenty of athleticism, talent and depth. The grade 10 junior team went Undefeated last season. That means their young guns will bring guts and team chemistry up from juniors. Shaqiulle Woodcock and Nathanial Elliot should be ready to play right away but they are ?? for the season for would they be there. Theon Reefer would be gone!!! Can FHC dethrone Mother Teresa in the TDCAA? Maybe, Maybe not...Thats why we play the games.

5.Eastern Commerce - Lose Coach Roy Rana to Ryerson University, but Coaches Jefferes and Bullen should be able to handle this elite program just fine. However there are Big question marks on this roster. Loss of Alwayne to Northwestern University, Marvin Binney to prep , Jerome Brown also to the U.S., Wayne Bridge to graduation. Who's really left? I assume they have talent coming up from juniors and players who didn't really play that much would bang!!!

4.D'Youville - I admit I don't know too much about the PEEL teams so I'm not sure who will be the Top-dog. D'Youville, Goetz, Campion, Xavier,Sandalwood, BCSS? Any ideas? D'Youville has a solid program and they been in the Top 10 all last season, so I'll put them here at 4.

3.Oakwood - A few Oakwood players were on team Ontario U15 including Isiah Watkins and shooter Filip Music. Will they move up to seniors to join Team Ontario U17 guard Julian Clarke? Had a tough end to last season, with returning players they should be a solid team might make some upsets this season might even be number 1 so they should be looking to bounce back from last season.

2.Mother Teresa - Serious losses of Big Mo Walker and PG Ashton Khan to prep schools in the States. But Coach Gallager should have his remaining seniors, including U17 Team Ontario forward Jon Alexander ready (he has those crazy hops). Ritchie could be ready to show what he can do with more minutes this yer. This school always play hungry and aggressive. Just like ND and Pope, another strong junior program could send a few Grade 10s and 11s up to seniors ready to play immediately.

1.Pickering - This school year after year has the depth to run with any team in the province. Is Troy Joseph returning? How about 6'8 forward Kevin Thomas?Because he could have a huge season if hes back. 6'6 Grade 10 wing/forward Mikyle Mcntosh is the Real-deal. He should move up to seniors so keep an eye him. This school will definitely make alot of noise as usual. But be careful to follow all the rules this year Pickering, OFSAA will be watching.

Who is this newcomer highschool scout? Interesting list. At least we know you can cut and paste! Some personal biases in there too. Way to go.
Too many kids leaving to get an accurate gauge of the top ten. The question is who will be weakened the least?

from what im hearing its true henry carr lost some players for teams like runneymede hearing shane is playing somewhere else not returning to runneymede and george harvey lost couple of players including feidel went to the states im hearing

fidel will be playing for george harvey until december. shane has gone to carr. and wtf, runnymede must be real down if handel is thier star player.

max from weston is at george harvey this year and how will fidel be leaving in december if the season starts in december i guess hes not gonna be playing den so george harvey will not be able to bang with the best like they were doing last year.

I'm hearing rumours that Richard Peters is at Pickering High School. If that is true then Pickering will have one of the biggest front lines in Ontario High School History.....Richard Peters 6ft-9 (recently verbally commited to Oklahoma), Kevin Thomas 6ft-8 and Mikhail Macintosh 6ft-6.....and these guys are all young so they'll be back next year as well. It the rumour is true then they got it this year.

I'm hearing that Stefan is not back at Xavier this year. I assume he went to the US. Does anyone know where?