Special By: Josh Loftin

When the Wasatch Academy Tigers boy’s basketball team travels to Toronto for the Bill Crothers Invitational, they may rightfully consider themselves the home team.

Although located in central Utah, Wasatch Academy’s starting five all hail from the Toronto area. The Tigers have a total of six Canadian players on their squad, the most of any school in the United States.

For two of those players who have started for the boarding school since their freshman year — senior Cody John and junior Koby McEwen — the tournament will serve as a long-awaited homecoming. The other starters, all sophomores, include Shamiel Stevenson, Josip Vrankic and Jeff Baradziej. Also 2016 Jackson Rowe from Toronto who started earlier this season, will travel with the Tigers but is unlikely to play due to a nagging knee injury he suffered just before Christmas.

“A lot of people are waiting to see how I’ve developed, because they haven’t seen me in three or four years,” John said. “We play some really good teams, and that’s exciting. It’s going to be fun.”

In many ways, John has led the growth of the Wasatch Academy program. During his time at the school, he has helped the Tigers win two state championships and earned MVP honors for the 2A classification the past two seasons.

2017 Shamiel Stevenson of Oakville, ON.

This year, the Tigers opted to play a more flexible independent schedule, which meant they retained their membership in the Utah athletics association but did not pursue a third state championship. That has given them the opportunity to face some of the best teams in the country — including Montverde Academy, Findlay Prep, and La Lumiere — and provided significant exposure for their players.

2015 Cody John of Mississauga, ON.

Along the way, John (18.5 ppg) and McEwen (19.5 ppg) have collected multiple all-tournament honors and faced off against highly-ranked prospects in front of coaches such as Rick Pitino and John Callipari.

While John played club ball last summer in Utah, McEwen has continued to play with CIA Bounce as well as the Canadian U–17 junior team. But most of those games are played outside of Toronto, so for many family and friends this tournament will be the first time they can watch him in person.

“Nobody has seen me play high school ball, or even seen me play since I was 14 years old,” McEwen said. “I also have a lot of friends on every team we play, so it’s personal. It’s going to be fun.”

That hometown support for the team will be important for the young Tigers, who will face three premier teams in St. Benedict’s Prep, Athlete’s Institute and Orangeville Prep.

Thanks to their experience this year, the Tigers should be prepared for the task.

“This is how you measure yourself, by playing against the best. The guys said they wanted to do that, so I made the schedule as tough as possible,” Morgan said. “To end our season against a team like (Orangeville Prep), with three players in the top 100, for us, it’s big time.”

2015 Bill Crother’s Invitational kicks off Saturday. Schedule and tip-off times are as followed: