Burgeoning Canadian high school hoops league helps top women's talents take next step

One coach is in a deep squat by his bench. The other has his arms raised in disgust at the referees.

There are empty pizza boxes throughout the stands, at the feet of a surprisingly boisterous crowd for a Tuesday night.

It's about as professional an environment as possible at Toronto's Crestwood Preparatory Academy, where the Lions are playing Southwest Academy of London, Ont., in an Ontario Scholastic Basketball Association (OSBA) girls' basketball game. 

Despite some early clock malfunctions, you would never know this is high school. The level of basketball is high and there's a definite buzz in the crowd of about 100. Even the minutiae are on point, including those refs that are probably a bit too whistle-happy.

Since its 2016 inception, the OSBA has quickly become the main hub for Canada's best high schoolers to grow as players and improve their chances of forging a career in basketball and helping the country win its first Olympic medal since 1936.

Toby Fournier is a dunking dynamo at six-foot-two who stars for Crestwood. Dunking is not normal at any level of women's basketball, let alone high school, but Fournier threw one down just for fun in warmups. 

She's already dunked in-game so many times she barely remembers her first, though there is still one important goal.

"I'm still looking for a dunk on somebody. That's also really important," she said.

Here at a <a href="https://twitter.com/LionsCrestwood?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@LionsCrestwood</a> game, where five-star phenom Toby Fournier is dunking into your living room <a href="https://t.co/VMel5ihSvV">pic.twitter.com/VMel5ihSvV</a>

It's that confidence that head coach Marlo Davis said is his main goal when guiding the high-school program.

"We're going to be in some