Next week, the senior boys basketball team will head to OFSAA. The team earned the trip last Thursday, when they defeated Governor Simcoe 69-50 to capture the SOSSA AAA title. The team finished 15-0 in league play.

“The team has been through a lot together,” said McLean. “We want to win OFSAA –that’s our goal.”

Black agrees.

“Last year, we made it to OFSAA and were ecstatic about that,” he said, adding the feat was a first for any Orchard Park basketball team. “It’s about more than just making it there this year, we really want to succeed.”

McLean and Black started their Orchard Park basketball careers in Grade 9. Throughout the four years, they have collected four consecutive city championships.

“I’m really going to miss the chemistry that we all have,” said McLean. “We’re like a family.”

The players have really bonded over the past four years, as they’ve moved from the junior to senior team, says Black.

“It’s about more than just winning championships,” he said. “It’s about all of the practices and the time spent getting to know one another and coaches Jim McDonald and Mark Lambert. We’ve become very close, which has helped us make it through any situation.”

McDonald says the gym will be “quite a different place” without McLean and Black.

“I’m a little sad that they’re leaving because we’ve gone through a lot –a lot of good times, not so good times, a lot of maturing,” he said. “I have no doubt they will succeed in anything they put their minds to.”

McLean and Black have been approached by universities on both sides of the border, but have yet to decide on which side they’ll land.

“The University of Cincinnati offered me a half scholarship. Waterloo, Western and Guelph have also approached me about attending their schools, but I don’t really know yet,” said McLean, who’s also been a key member of Orchard Park’s football and track and field outfits and plans to focus on the two sports, instead of basketball, as he moves ahead. “What I do know is education is the most important thing and I would like to take up media studies, maybe graphic design.”

Black plans to continue to play basketball as he moves ahead.

“I’ve applied to McMaster, Queen’s and Western,” he said, adding he would like to take up kinesiology. “McMaster’s looking like the best option right now, but OFSAA’s in Kingston and that’s where Queen’s is and their coach wants me to check out the campus, so we’ll see.”

McLean and Black are among six players who will finish their basketball careers at the end of the season.

“I’m losing half of the (senior) players,” said McDonald. “You lose half and there’s at least six that will come up from junior.”

The players coming up from junior will do well, says McLean.

“The juniors stepped up a lot from last year to this year,” he said.

Black adds the junior players have also been practising with the senior players.

“They’ve been doing that all-year round,” he said. “They’ve just improved and grown so much.”