It is rare enough for a team to be ranked in the top 8 for the annual OBA Ontario Cup provincial tournament- in fact, only 6 different ONL teams of the 82 that have existed since 2013 can make that claim- let alone to win it. However, the feat that has been accomplished by the ONL U19 program under Coach Andrew DiMillo has taken it one step further. For the second time in as many years, ONL U19 DiMillo are the Ontario Cup Division 1 Champions.
While not every club program in the province chooses to participate in the "end of season" Ontario Cup event, many of the top programs still do. The majority of our Ottawa Next Level club teams take part in the Ontario Cup every year, and take part in several OBA sanctioned events throughout the season. Our U19 program, which has been led by Andrew DiMillo since 2013, has now been ranked in Division 1 on four occasions- having won it the last two years- and in 2016, won Division 2, making it three straight division championships for the program.
What's more, the U19 team experiences quite a high degree of roster turnover from season to season. Only two players- Simon Desta and Sam Douf- were members of all 3 championship teams, but Desta did not participate in the Ontario Cup in 2017 (broken foot) and Douf did not participate in 2018 (personal). In fact, team captain Mohamed Omar was the only player to play in both the 2017 and 2018 Division 1 final- for every other player, the experience was a brand new one.
The path to becoming the top seed in the Ontario Basketball Association isn't, and never has been, an easy task. The ONL U19 team entered last weekend's tournament ranked 4th in the province, and were the only team to finish higher than their initial ranking at the conclusion of the tournament. Ahead of them were the Kingston Impact- who not only won the 2018 Ottawa Next Level Capital Classic, but had not lost a single game all season- the Belleville Spirits, who lost to Kingston in the ONL Capital Classic finals; and the Kitchener-Waterloo Vipers, last year's U19 Bronze Medalists, and the only OBA team to beat ONL U19 by double digits this year (they did it twice).
ONL's championship quest began with a matchup against the hometown rival Nepean Blue Devils, who lost in the Bronze Medal game in the 2017 U17 Ontario Cup. After a slow start, ONL came out on top by a score of 66-40. In that game, despite scoring 21 points, ONL's top player Mohamed Omar injured his shoulder which went on to bother him for the remainder of the weekend.
Game 2 was against the Hamilton Wildcats, a team that ONL narrowly edged out when they visited Ottawa in early May. At halftime, ONL trailed 40-21, and it appeared as though a repeat was unlikely to happen. Coach DiMillo and his staff approached their halftime speeches with one message: the game was not over. "We had been in similar situations before, and we knew we had it in us to come back. It all came down to how bad the guys wanted it, which is what I challenged them to find out in the 3rd quarter." And what a third quarter it was. ONL held Hamilton to just 3 pts and only 1 made field goal and were suddenly back in the game. From there, ONL took over, and eventually won the game by 6 points.
Next up was a matchup against the undefeated Kingston Impact. After again trailing at halftime by double digits- this time by 11- ONL staged yet another comeback, handing Kingston their first loss of the season, and punching their ticket to the finals against the Belleville Spirits on Sunday.
The finals was a back and forth affair, and with 18 seconds remaining, with the game tied, the ball fell into the hands of three year veteran Simon Desta. Desta had spent the last three years constantly battling to earn the trust of his coach, while also battling a number of major injuries. As the clock wound down, Desta knocked down a step-back, fade away jumper from a foot inside the three point arc, sending the crowd at the Queen's Athletics and Recreation Complex into a frenzy. One defensive stop later and the ONL U19 team had completed their unbelievable repeat. Simon Desta, for his heroic 4th quarter performance, took home the Finals MVP honour.
The U19 program featured two starters aged 16- Tony Zhao and Ismael Sow (while most players at that level are 18 or 19 years old), as well as a number of other players who had never played together before. All season, the team battled consistency, and had to learn to win in the worst way possible: zero tournament victories from October to May, despite playing in 5 finals. It was in stark contrast to the 2016-2017 team that took home 7 tournament titles prior to their Division 1 title.
Nevertheless, the victory is a historic one for the program. Last year, the U19 team became the first ONL team ever to win Division 1. With this year's victory, ONL U19 DiMillo becomes the first team to win back to back U19 Division 1 Ontario Cup Championships- again, with two entirely different rosters. Our organization is extremely proud of the accomplishments of this team- congratulations to the players, parents, coaching staff, and all those who supported the team throughout the season!
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