In part one of our series on Canadian AAU powerhouse CIA Bounce, we look at the U15 team and the man tasked with helping the next-to-next generation of standout Canadian high schoolers achieve their hoop dreams.

By Dave Zarum

Dwayne Ramage patrols the sidelines intently, arms crossed tight and eyes focused on the court ahead, the fluorescent light above reflecting off the all-black track suit you’ll often find him in. “C’mon!” the part-time coach and full-time school teacher urges his team after a pair of needless turnovers. “We’re better than this!” There is nothing that drives Ramage crazier than turnovers. Except perhaps missed free throws.

Heeding their coach’s call, Ramage’s team, clad in midnight blue, turn up the heat on their opponents in white. On one play, Tyler Plummer, a 15-year-old who could already pass for a collegiate athlete, steals the ball to start a fast-break that he finishes by taking the ball to the hoop in one smooth, giant stride. A couple of plays later swingman Kascius Smal-Martin coolly leaps over the backs of two taller players to tap in a rebound off an errant shot, before point guard Jahvon Blair fills the lane and forward Anthony McNish skies for an impressive dunk.

Yet there are no oohs and aahs after each highlight-worthy play. That’s because what passes for an audience in this muggy third-floor school gym on Toronto’s east side is just a small handful of parents keenly watching their kids like they do every weekend.

It’s a summer Saturday afternoon in the city and three teams have descended here for a one-off exhibition series—Ramage’s CIA Bounce Under-15 squad, another GTA-based U15 club called Northern Kings, and Team Alberta, a group of 17-year-olds set to represent their province in the upcoming Canada Games. For CIA Bounce and the Kings, this is the last time they’ll get to play before heading to the Adidas Invitational in Indianapolis, which marks the beginning of the summer’s “live period” when coaches are able to scout players in-person.

The Kings, with a handful of future NCAA-calibre players, hang with the boys in blue all game long, eventually losing by a single point. Still, after the slow start, CIA Bounce appears as advertised—which is to say, really good at basketball.

Chances are you’ve never heard of Plummer, McNish or any of the other names on the backs of the jerseys—yet—but by now even the most casual Canadian hoops fan will recognize the name on the front.

Tyler Ennis and Andrew Wiggins, two recent CIA Bounce teammates currently NBA-bound. Credit: Edison Sigua, Mark Vallena

In a relatively short span, Brampton,ON-based CIA Bounce has established itself as the preeminent youth sports program in Canada. Over the past decade it’s gone from humble and improbable roots—beginning with the merger of rival clubs Christians in Action and Blue Devil Bounce—to travelling around the world showcasing its talent. And with a group of recent alumni that includes a slew of NCAA stars and three top-five NBA draft picks in the last four years, including reigning first overall pick Andrew Wiggins, they’ve received international coverage from the likes of the New York Times.

And there aren’t any signs of the program slowing down. The U15 team proves there’s plenty of talent in the pipeline, but the senior U17 squad—the only Canadian team that takes part in Nike’s prestigious Elite Youth Basketball League circuit—is, simply put, star-studded, featuring four players ranked in the top 100 of their graduating class in North America by Rivals.com.

What started as a passion project and part-time hobby for founders Tony McIntyre and Mike George has developed into a basketball behemoth that runs year-round. But what’s easy to forget in all the recent hoopla is that—same as ever—it’s in rented travel vans and on cruddy courts like this one that some of our nation’s best athletes get their first taste of elite competition. It’s not glamorous. At first glance it may not seem like it, but this is the ground floor of the biggest, most successful club program in Canada.

These days, the program has about 150 kids under its umbrella, from four-year-olds learning the basics of basketball in summer skills camps all the way up to the senior team playing a rigorous schedule against the best high school talent in the world on the AAU circuit.

Ramage’s U15 roster was finalized back in February, following an arduous tryout process that lasted from September through January. A teacher first, Ramage began by weeding out kids with bad grades and no sign of improving before bringing in 14 players, most of whom had experience in the program’s younger levels.

It’s a talented bunch, highlighted by the names mentioned above. Blair, the point guard, has likely had the most impressive year thus far. Along with McNish, he was invited to the Jordan Brand Classic in Brooklyn in April, and ended up taking home the MVP award.

Ramage has coached his fair share of elite-level talent before, from his days as an assistant on the senior teams to a few years ago when he was handed the reins of a U15 team that featured future No. 1–overall draft pick Anthony Bennett. And when he looks at his current squad, he likes what he sees. “Skill-wise,” he says, “when I think about the guys I’ve seen come through at this age in the past, I don’t think there’s much difference at all.”

The early results this season are impressive, more so considering the team was dealt a major blow before they even played a game when their only real big man, Bobby Dhaliwal, went down with a knee injury while playing for his school team.

In April, CIA Bounce U15 had a good showing at a tournament in Cleveland, losing in the semi-final to the host King James team, backed by LeBron himself. At another weekend tourney in Virginia, they went 2-1 against a tough field. “The biggest takeaway our guys learned from that—and I consider it a life lesson—is that the little things do matter,” says Ramage. “We lost a tie-breaker due to point-differential, and I chalk it up to missed free throws.”

Anthony McNish, a grade 10 student at Father Henry Carr in Etobicoke, is one of the players to watch on CIA Bounce. Credit: Edison Sigua

Regardless of the talent level on his roster, Ramage prides himself on ensuring his teams are instilled with the same values. “One of the biggest things I focus on with our kids is playing aggressive but making smart decisions,” he says. “What I appreciate is that they’re able to stay head-strong. Sometimes they’re too hard on themselves and that’s when I have to step in and say, ‘Look, I understand what happened but, really, there’s always a way of redeeming yourself.’”

The kids buy in, because they know those that came before them did. At this age group, senior team members are role models, and making that team becomes a tangible goal for most of these kids to reach. “When I was playing on the U15 team,” recalls alum Melvin Ejim, the reigning Big 12 Player of the Year who will be suiting up for the San Antonio Spurs at the NBA Summer League, “the guys on the senior team, and even the U16 team—those were the guys we looked up to, and frankly, guys who we pushed ourselves to be better than. In practice, we would play against them and they would help motivate and push us.”

The guys pushing Ramage’s group today will make up the next wave of NCAA and NBA talent from north of the border. Jamal Murray, a six-foot-five point guard ranked in the top 20 of the 2016 class, is a force on both ends of the floor, and scouts who’ve followed his ascension over the years say he’ll be the next Canadian NBA lottery pick.

Montaque Gill-Caesar, an athletic wing set to graduate next June, stars for West Virginia powerhouse Huntington Prep, where he suited up alongside fellow CIA Bounce alumni Andrew Wiggins, Xavier Rathan-Mayes and Sim Bhullar.

Dillon Brooks, also in the 2015 class, is a versatile forward who stars for pro-hoops factory Findlay Prep in Las Vegas. Brooks is coming off a dominant performance for Canada in a silver medal showing at the FIBA Americas Championship, where he led the tourney in scoring. Another standout, Chris Egi, won’t be playing with the club this summer after committing to Harvard, where he is expected to play a big role in helping the Crimson Tide return to the NCAA Tournament.

Getting to where those guys are now—fielding post-secondary scholarship offers—is the goal. But at the heart of it all is the game. Hearing Ramage wax poetic on the nuances of basketball, it’s no surprise this is a man who fell in love with coaching before he even gave it a try.

Fourteen years ago—when Ramage, who grew up in Malton, Ont., was still a student at Brock University—his younger brother called asking Dwayne to come to one of his high school games. From the stands, Ramage was surprised to find he couldn’t escape the urge to coach the team himself.

He began volunteering with a local team, the Malton Mavericks, who were a member club of the Ontario Basketball Association. He liked it so much he spent five years on the sidelines with the Mavs. In his fifth year, he ran into an old buddy from high school, Mike George, whose Christians In Action summer club was looking to join the OBA. Ramage asked if he could tag along with CIA that summer, and George valued his approach to the game and familiarity with the OBA. “It was a phenomenal experience,” says Ramage. “Something I cherish and look back on fondly. I told Mike, ‘If you’re looking to go year-round, I’m on board.’”

Ramage began working with the Grade 8s and 9s, and it didn’t take long for him to leave a mark on his players. “When I was younger, he was someone who really went out of his way to help out the players,” recalls Ejim. “He’s just a great guy, and as a coach he’s tough—he knows how to push you and motivate you, and you can see that in the way he approaches the game and deals with these kids. And, of course, how they go out there and just win.”

For all the competition south of the border thus far, arguably the toughest test for this year’s U15 team came in their own backyard at the Canadian Youth Basketball League sophomore championships held in late June at the University of Toronto. Blair won his second MVP of the season and the team took first place—a U15 team in a U16 event—but it came in a narrow win over Toronto-based Canada Elite. (As Ramage is quick to point out, this time his team sunk its free throws.)

It’s a rich time for basketball in this country, clearly, and it’s reflected—bred, even—in the increasingly competitive club circuit. “Kids aren’t just coming to us, but are looking at other clubs in the city, too,” says Ramage. “We’ve been the top dog for quite awhile, and you can see there are more teams reading our blueprint in terms of how we’ve been successful. It makes things more interesting, but it also keeps us accountable.”

Given the abundance of talent and the options available to young players across the GTA, CIA Bounce’s ability to trot out top talent year after year is truly impressive. Obviously that is aided by the fact that the success of so many alumni has made the team a destination young Canadian kids aspire to.

Back in the East Toronto gym, CIA Bounce gets set to face Team Alberta, kids two years their senior, who are taller and noticeably stronger than their counterparts. In just a few days, the U15s will head to the Adidas Invitational. Nearly 300 teams will be there in total—almost 40 from Canada. And, as Ramage and these kids have gotten used to of late, they’ll be the ones with the targets on their backs.

It’s why, while this game versus Alberta means nothing on the surface, it will provide crucial experience in preparation for the bigger players they expect to face in Indianapolis. They pull out the win, as the Alberta bigs are unable to contain the likes of Plummer, Blair and Small-Martin from running rampant. But the coach knows his work is far from over. If there’s one thing you need to know about Ramage, it’s that he’ll have his guys prepared. The teacher in the black track suit knows that at the end of the day, it’s not size that will be his players’ biggest challenge. “What it comes down to for all of these kids is mental and physical toughness,” Ramage says. “Do they have that inner will for when times get tough? Do they have the communication skills and family-oriented mindset that we try to push so hard? Will we pick each other up when we’re down? It’s a ride-or-die mentality.”

Be sure to check Sportsnet.ca over the next few weeks for part two of the Boys of Summer series, where we look back at CIA Bounce’s wild history and go in-depth with the coaches and players who turned a sleeping giant into a modern-day powerhouse.