It all started in 1989 when present Bellwood-Antis assistant boys basketball coach Bernie Jubeck began a summer basketball league at Building II in Altoona.
Now starting on May 23, 2006, the Bellwood-Antis Basketball Boosters Club will hold a Summer Basketball League at the Bellwood-Antis Middle/High School .
Games will be played every Tuesday and Thursday for six weeks. Games will be played at 6 p.m., 7 p.m. and 8 p.m, in both the Middle and Senior High School gyms to provide six games per night.
A total of 12 teams will play in the summer league, including five of the 10 schools in the Juniata Valley League, which should provide a preview of the 1006-07 action in that conference, as well as seven other area schools that include two defending district champions.
In addition to the host B-A Blue Devils, teams from Juniata Valley, Glendale, Williamsburg and Moshannon Valley from the JVL, Northern Bedford, defending District 5-AA champion Tussey Mountain, backyard rival Tyrone, Cambria Heights, defending District 6-AA champ Bald Eagle Area, Bellefonte and Huntingdon will all participate. Due to PIAA regulations, teams will not play as representatives from their respective schools, but will feature sponsors’ names or the monikers of favorite sports teams’.
One of the premises for the fledgling league, which has received the approval of the Bellwood-Antis School Board, is to get started early and not interfere with other sports over the summer. Multi-sports athletes will not be bogged down by one sport all summer.
“We are really excited, our own kids don’t have to go somewhere else to play basketball this summer,” said Bellwood-Antis boys basketball coach Tim Keech. “There will be some good competition with the two defending district champs and Tyrone and Bellefonte and Huntingdon to provide some “Big School” interest as well.
“The League drew a lot of interest from schools in the region, because they don’t have to navigate Altoona traffic, a drawing point for parents, and is within five minutes of a Sheetz, a big drawing point for the kids. This should be a great way to get a sneak peek of next year and is so local, just off I-99, which makes a great selling point for all of the schools. We hope to generate interest in our younger kids and we are very grateful the Bellwood-Antis School board has given us a chance to see how it will go.”
The Bellwood-Antis Basketball Boosters Club is sponsoring the league. The price of admission to watch the games will be $2 per ticket for adults and just $1 per ticket for students.
“We would like to make this league a success and possibly add even more teams,” said Keech. “Altoona and Bishop Guilfoyle and some of the other area schools would be nice additions.”
All games will feature PIAA referees. The Daily Herald will report coverage of the games as provided, on their sports pages, each week.
