Eastern Commerce Collegiate Institute had a tiny gym with a-smaller-than-regulation court, and a surplus of talent almost every year.
From 2002 until the school closed in 2015, Eastern won five provincial titles and three provincial silver medals. The program vaulted players like Jamaal Magloire and Jermaine Anderson to the top tier of U.S. college basketball and beyond. Anderson became a national team mainstay and Magloire blossomed into an NBA all-star, whose teams included New Jersey Nets, Miami Heat, and Toronto Raptors. Eastern also developed coaches like Simeon Mars and future Canadian national team coach Roy Rana. Eastern’s 1996 team is still considered the best Canadian high school team in history. “That was a special run,” Magloire told the Toronto Star in 2015.
