Title: The World’s Best Middle School Basketball Player Is Toronto’s Elijah Fisher
Date: October 10, 2018
Original Source: Vice
Synopsis: In my latest for Vice, I wrote about Canadian middle-school phenom Elijah Fisher, the potential No. 1 recruit in the class of 2023.
Walk through the halls of Crestwood Preparatory College in Toronto and you’re likely to see one of two greetings being shared between students, coaches, and sometimes even teachers.
The first, a simple dap and chest-tap, has become a sort of Crestwood greeting for the roughly 465 students across grades 7 to 12 that attend the school. As the final bell rings and students file into any of the science labs, open-concept study halls, or student mentoring sessions before going home, it’s not hard to catch the greeting being shared at lockers or in the hallway. It’s in this environment that Crestwood has built its academic reputation, and it’s here where Elijah Fisher is just another eighth grader trying to make honour roll.
The other greeting is less prevalent, at least until later. Once extra school time has been put in, Crestwood’s basketball elite will assemble for practice. Here, a slightly more elaborate greeting—used primarily by players in the Grassroots Canada Elite program—is common, and it’s here where Fisher stands out. Amid a strong girls program with four players to watch in the Canada Basketball youth system and a growing roster of boys talent, Fisher is currently the key to growing the school’s ascendant basketball reputation.
After all, this is the best pre-high school prospect in all of Canada and, to hear him and head coach Ro Russell tell it, the best Class of 2023 recruit anywhere in the world.
Blake Murphy Sports Writing 