Two Scarborough-based basketball coaches are shaping the way the new generation of players in Canada competes across the border.
Marlo Davis is an International Basketball Federation (FIBA) coach, who also coaches high-school players at Crestwood Preparatory College, considered the top basketball school in Toronto.
He told the Toronto Observer there are two qualities he develops in his students before they face American teams.
“I prepare my players to play confident and aggressive in the U.S.,” he said. “I think naturally Canadians kind of have a little-brother/little-sister complex to Americans, and we kind of accept that role.”
According to Nathaniel Mitchell, a Scarborough-born FIBA and former NBA coach, other countries have historically criticized Canadian basketball, but current players are changing those views.
“In the past, they’ve had a situation where Canadian players were considered soft and nice,” Mitchell said.
“I think it’s gotten to a point now [where] by going across the border so much at a young age, a lot of our players have experienced different types of environments.”
Crestwood Prep, a basketball prep school in the Parkwoods neighbourhood, along the North York/Scarborough border, is considered to have the best girls basketball program in Canada, according to Sportsnet.
The private high school has been around since 2001, and teaches students from grades seven to 12. And it has had little to no competition when it comes to basketball in Canada.
Their girls team had an undefeated 2024 season, going 17-0 and winning the Ontario Scholastic Basketball Association championship with a 94-55 win over Capital Courts, an Ottawa prep school.
Crestwood’s boys team has also been blooming in the OSBA lately, starting the current season with seven wins and zero losses.
The prep school had the attention from at least nine D1 college scouts last season, and has been giving the best teams in America a lot of trouble, winning many tournaments while playing against hostile competition.
Players like Aliyah Edwards, Elijah Fisher, Zaiden Cross, Toby Fornier, and Shayeann Day-Wilson were Crestwood’s best basketball players who are now playing either at a high level college or in the NBA/WNBA.
“It gives me chills man, like when I see them on TV it’s an amazing feeling because I know that this is something that they dreamt about as kids,” Davis said. “It was something that I watched them work for many years and committed themselves to it, so I know that they deserve it more than anything and I’m super happy for them.”
Mitchell has been a FIBA coach since 2016. His first tournament coaching Team Canada started in the Philippines, and he has now been selected to be the head coach of Team Canada for the FIBA Men’s AmeriCup 2025 Qualifiers, according to fiba.basketball.
He said Canada has unique strengths when it comes to its players, compared to other countries.
“In Canada, because of our nationalities, and the intertwine where people come from different countries and the immigration, you get a mixture and variety of the type of players you wouldn’t get in other countries,” he said.
Young basketball players in Canada have grown a passion for the sport in the past decade, due to some key moments and smart investments in the game.
A defining moment happened June 13, 2019, when the Toronto Raptors won their first NBA Championship since their debut in 1995.
Canada now has 22 players in the NBA. In the 2024 Olympics, Canada made its first appearance in years and finished in fifth place, and Canada’s FIBA teams have been performing well in the past six years.
This growth has also benefitted girls and women; a Toronto WNBA team is coming in 2026, to reflect the growing popularity of women’s basketball and to encourage more young girls and women to play.
“The future of Canadian Basketball is going to start growing when non-five star recruits start going to the NBA,” said Davis.