HIGH ACHIEVERS: Notre Dame boys’ basketball squad scores first-ever OFSAA team championship for school

By Martin Cleary

As Cody McLeod approached the 2025-26 Notre Dame High School boys’ senior basketball season last fall, he felt this one would be different.

In his first season as the Eagles’ head coach, he guided the team, which was primarily comprised of Grade 11 student/athletes, to the 2020 boys’ A division semifinals at the OFSAA high school championship tournament. Anticipation was high for the 2021 season as the Eagles would have a strong group of seniors, at least on paper, to challenge for a berth in the OFSAA tournament and a medal.

But the COVID-19 pandemic destroyed those OFSAA hopes not only for 2021, but also 2022.

By the time the Eagles reassembled on the court, McLeod was dealing with a whole new group of student/athletes. For the next three seasons, the team was always good enough to qualify as the National Capital Secondary School Athletic Association boys’ A representative for OFSAA, where it reached the quarterfinals.

The Eagles, however, were sent home too early at the 2023, 2024 and 2025 OFSAA championships, usually losing to the eventual champion.

Despite reaching the playoffs at four OFSAA championships and having the disappointment of seeing two provincial high school tournaments cancelled, McLeod was confident the 2025-26 season showed the potential to lead to the medal podium.

“I knew at the beginning of the season we had the talent,” he said in a phone interview this week. “I told the players at the beginning of the season I thought this year we could win a medal (at OFSAA).

“I’ve never won a medal at OFSAA. But if we put everything together, we have a chance for a medal. I didn’t expect gold, but I’d definitely take gold.”

A bronze medal would have sufficed. A silver medal would have been great as well. But a gold medal never entered McLeod’s realm of thinking. But it has now.

Sparked by a tenacious defence and a reliable offence Notre Dame posted five convincing victories to win the OFSAA boys’ A basketball title and bring home the first provincial high school team championship to the Broadview Avenue school.

The Eagles focused on defence and only allowed 42.6 points a game in the three-day tournament, while averaging 66.2 points on offence.

Those numbers were prominent as the second-seeded Eagles faced the top-seeded and host Timmins High and Vocational School in the final and the third-seeded The York School of Toronto in the semifinals.

After a nervous start in the final, team captain Crick Cinzah hit a three-point shot to calm the nerves and send them on their way to 60-44 victory in the gold-medal game. The Eagles led after each of the first three quarters – 25-18, 37-26 and 46-31.

“It was a tough game. We were playing against the host school. It was their school against us,” said McLeod, who added there were a few Notre Dame supporters in the crowd, which proved uplifting for the players.

Point guard Angara Dut accounted for almost half of the Eagles’ points as he connected for 29 points and also had a number of significant rebounds and blocked shots in his best game of the season.

“Every person stepped up in a different way, even the bench guys,” McLeod explained. “It was the defence. I didn’t have to worry about the offence.

“Defence is our strength. We definitely have good offensive players, but it starts with the defence. We stop them and then tire them out. We did a lot of running in practice.”

In the semifinals, the Eagles held a 30-24 advantage over The York School at halftime and increased the lead to 11 points after three quarters and 19 points at the final buzzer.

Notre Dame qualified for the medal round by defeating seventh-seeded Ursula Franklin 57-47 in the quarterfinals, Almonte District 70-41 in the second round and Gravenhurst 83-39 in its first game.

NCSSAA schools have now won eight OFSAA boys’ basketball championships, spanning the A to AAAA divisions – Ashbury (2010) and Ridgemont (1966) in A class, Ashbury (2017) and A.Y. Jackson (2008) in AA class, and St. Matthew (2009), St. Patrick’s (2008) and Lisgar (1974) in AAA class.

After an 8.5-hour bus trip from Timmins last Thursday, the Eagles returned to the school 10 minutes before dismissal. All the students lined the hallways and welcomed their champions with thunderous applause.

“I was in shock,” McLeod said. “The guys were smiling and cheering and taking pictures with people. It was our first provincial championship in any sport.”

But to reach that point, the Eagles had to be inspired by an Ottawa team, the St. Patrick’s Irish.

Notre Dame ended its NCSSAA season with a disappointing 56-40 loss to St. Patrick’s in the Diamond bracket quarterfinals.

“We needed that loss to thrive when we got to OFSAA,” McLeod explained. “I felt they didn’t trust each other. There were a lot of families there and they were putting on a show rather than winning and moving on. That loss brought our confidence down.”

The Eagles finished the season with an 8-2 regular-season and playoff record in the NCSSAA league and were 21-5 overall. Notre Dame was a finalist in its own tournament, and placed third at the Ottawa Valley Referees’ and Ashbury tournaments.

The Eagles’ starting lineup consisted of Ezra Getahun, Dylan Wallace, Kaydon Turner, Dut and Cinzah. Coming off the bench were Shavon Watt, Favour Obazee, Kevin Mutombo, Niyi Olagunju, Joseph Yak, Kareem Poulin, Ashton Mollard, Stephen Adekola, Wuon Kuony and Michel Desgrottes.

McLeod had valuable help from assistant coaches Maduok Akol and Barbara Pereira-Rodrigues as well as teacher supervisor and trainer Kristen Smith.