The dressing room is silent as Coach Kevin Jeffers stands up to speak to his players before the biggest game of their lives.

Before they head out onto the court, he looks around at each player in the room and tells them, “This is where every team that plays wants to be. If that’s not motivation enough then I don’t know what is.”

This is not the NBA or even the NCAA. It’s an East York senior boy’s basketball team looking to capture their fifth OFSAA (Ontario Federation of School Athletics Association) championship in eight years.

In order to place a team among great winners there has to be a different mindset that kicks them into high gear and for this team. At Eastern Commerce Collegiate Institute it’s a group of coaches and players that continue to push the sport beyond the court, into the classrooms and lives of their players.

“You hope [basketball is] a tool to get to the bigger picture… that allows them to succeed,” Jeffers said. “It’s great to live your dreams but you have to put things into perspective. Basketball is the tool that is going to help you succeed in life.”

Matthiew Johnson, a high school senior and member of the team, echoes philosophies that his coach has instilled in him.

“It’s so much more than that [a game]; so much more,” said Johnson. “It’s preparing me for life itself because all the effort, hard work and determination that I put into basketball. It goes towards my job and it helps me later in life.”

Although championships define a team, Jeffers stresses the importance of being a student athlete when it comes to playing for his team.

“From the beginning we talked about being a student first,” he said. “You have to be a student athlete to propel yourself in order for you to be successful, not only at the high school level but at the next level.”

Currently sitting at 4-2 on the season after a second place finish at an invitational tournament, Jeffers says he considers the growth of his players as members of society first and then the team.

“Not everyone is going to get a scholarship and not everyone is going to be the star player,” he said. “But they’ll succeed with basketball because they’re using it ­­­to become better human beings and student athletes.”