Sky’s the limit for Toronto’s Fournier

Dunks help put teen on radar of top NCAA teams

Halfway through the third quarter of an already lopsided basketball game, Toronto’s Toby Fournier blocks a three-point attempt and snatches the ball out of the air. At six-foot-two, blocking shots is already an important part of the 17year-old’s game.

But that’s not the reason she has been drawing crowds for games with Crestwood Prep, and attracting scouts from high-profile college programs across North America.

As she dribbles the length of the court and strides toward the basket, the cheering in the Crestwood gym reaches its peak. Fans jump to their feet and pull out cellphones, preparing to record the moment they’ve been hoping for.

It’s a Thursday night regular-season game against Royal Crown Academy, but there are several cameras on the sidelines and coaches are shouting instructions like there’s a championship on the line.

Fournier takes off from inside the paint and leaps for what looks like a sure dunk — yes, she can dunk — but she’s fouled and the ball ricochets off the rim. There’s collective sigh from the crowd.

Dunking is still a rarity in the women’s game, and wasn’t even allowed in the WNBA until a few years ago. It’s even more rare at the high school level, even in practice, which is why Fournier stands out and has attracted so much attention in basketball circles at a young age.

She remembers the first time she dunked — with a tennis ball, around age 12. That got her thinking about doing it for real, which she now does with some regularity: in games, dunk contests (including last year’s BioSteel event, where she was among the winners) and workouts.

In Thursday’s win, she finished with 17 points (all layups and free throws) and nine rebounds along with a couple of blocks and assists, helping the Lions inch closer to first place in the Ontario Scholastic Basketball Association. Beyond dunking, she knows many aspects of her game need improvement if she hopes to have a long career and achieve her goal of making the Canadian senior team for the Paris Olympics.

“I can’t just be tall now,” Fournier said after the game, adding that improving her pull-up jump shot — from inside and beyond the arc — is a top priority. “The senior level is going to be more competitive, and I’m not going to be the only sixfoot-two girl on the court, so I’m going to have to add that left-hand dribble and the shot on top of everything else.”

It wasn’t always about basketball for Fournier, but her parents knew early on that they had an athlete in their midst.

Dad Craig Fournier, who attended Thursday game, and mom Anais Granofsky (a screenwriter and actress known for the “Degrassi” TV series) saw her win consecutive city championships in long jump in Grades 4, 5 and 6. Fournier tried soccer after that, but it didn’t stick. Older sister Zadie played basketball at Elite Camps in North York. One day, Fournier tagged along and started playing there.

“They took a look at Toby and a few months in, one of the coaches told me, ‘Your daughter is going to be one of the best players in the country,’ ” dad Craig said.

By age 12, she was about five-footseven and towering over many of her classmates. She tried several basketball programs across the GTA before settling on Crestwood Prep in North York as she began Grade 9, just before the COVID-19 pandemic began.

During lockdowns, her parents said, she would work alone on strength and conditioning, polish her basketball skills and make lists — things she plans to accomplish, and improve.

Today, those lists include finishing high school, playing for Canada at the 2024 Olympics and going to college.

Already a member of the national under-17 team, Fournier has attended a couple of training camps with the senior nationals and has been invited to return.

“Toby is a great athlete and competitor, and has a great work ethic,” says Denise Dignard, women’s high-performance director for Canada Basketball. “Over the past 12 to 18 months, her focus and dedication to improve has really been showcased. She is making an impact everywhere she is playing, and playing with great confidence ... She has great potential.”

When it comes to specifics about her game, Dignard says Fournier needs to continue to work on her shooting and ball handling.

“Toby is a phenomenal athlete,” says Canadian under-17s coach Cheryl Jean-Paul. “So exciting for a coach to see a young woman setting such high athletic standards, such as dunking in an international competition.”

After contact with several top college programs in the U.S., Fournier took to Instagram and posted a list of her preferred destinations — includes Connecticut, South Carolina, UCLA, Stanford and Michigan. Her father wants her to go to Michigan; she says that might be a little too close to home.

“Sometimes the more options you have, the more difficult it becomes to choose,” dad Craig said. “The thing she has to think about is: Do you want to be part of a team that’s already expected to be in the top four (in the NCAA) or do you want to go somewhere that maybe has to fight for it?”

Crestwood Prep won back-toback OSBA women’s championships in 2019 and 2020 and has sent several top prospects to the NCAA — including Duke’s Shy Day-Wilson and UConn’s Aaliyah Edwards, who both play for the Canadian senior team that Fournier hopes to make.

Marlo Davis, head coach at Crestwood Prep, attributes the success of the program to hard work and discipline in the gym. Thursday’s game was a beatdown on the scoreboard — 80-52 — but Davis said the team played with energy and attention to detail throughout.

“The minute you get too comfortable in this space and at this level, you are setting yourself up for failure,” Davis says from experience, adding that his own playing career at the NCAA’s top level was brief because “everybody is good and talented. It’s the little things that will separate you from others.”

Davis works regularly with Fournier and agrees that she needs to improve her shooting — including free throws — and ball-handling, especially with her left hand, to take the next step.

“Once she gets to that level, I think she’s unstoppable,” he says.