5 Bold Predictions: Dayton City League
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For the past two years, the Dayton City League has struggled to compete after being one of the area’s best leagues for years. 2021-22 will be a new leaf for the league as the talent is finally back. In the…
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Continue ReadingFor the past two years, the Dayton City League has struggled to compete after being one of the area’s best leagues for years. 2021-22 will be a new leaf for the league as the talent is finally back. In the piece today, I will look at some predictions for the DCL for the upcoming high school season and some of the talent specifically returning.
1- Dunbar should win the League again
The Wolverines arguably have the deepest roster in the City League and should allow them to again win a title. The junior class is loaded with Antaune Allen Antaune Allen 6'2" | CG Dunbar | 2023 State OH , twin brother Antone Allen Antone Allen 6'4" | SF Dunbar | 2023 State OH , and PG Randy Latham. This offseason they added former Troy wing Hollis Terrell to an already solid group back. Tony Dixon knows how to coach these guys and they will be ready for another run.
2- The City League is back
After a few years of struggling, the City League finally looks to be competitive in Dayton. As you saw in #1, Dunbar has a ton of talent they will depend on. Meadowdale and Ponitz return their top 4 guys each. Stivers and Thurgood Marshall should be competitive even if they don’t dominate within the City League. Between these 5 schools in Division II and III, there can be good representation in the Top 5 among all Dayton schools.
3– The best player is still unknown
Dunbar has some solid players in their junior class as well as senior Darian Leslie. Throughout the rest of the League there is still plenty of talent. Thurgood has a monster scorer in senior Ronald Smith who can fill up the stat sheet. Junior Dayjuan Anderson has a ton of upside and could lead the league in scoring. Stivers has a solid two-way player in Brendan Crump that could compete for the POY award if his scoring touch increases.
4- Dunbar has District/Regional potential
The Wolverines will be hungry after falling short a year ago. Come tournament time, they ran into a Carroll team that slowed the game down and forced Dunbar to play their pace. Now that the Wolverines have a year of experience and are a year older, I expect to see them force opposing teams to play their pace instead. This group should be able to make more noise come sectional play and ultimately find their way into the Regional tournament.
5- Several sleeper teams reside in the DCL
I already covered this a little bit but Ponitz and Meadowdale could be sleeper teams in their respective divisions. Ponitz is still relatively younger with the majority of their talent being in the junior class, but they have such a deep variety of players they can go to that they can sneak up on some teams. Meadowdale brings back 4 of their top 5 from a year ago including junior Lee Benson Lee Benson 6'5" | PF Meadowdale | 2023 State OH for a team that athletically will be tough to matchup against in Division III.