By Rob Potter
LIBERTY — July 27, 2010 — The start of the 2010-2011 high school basketball season is about four months away, but that isn’t stopping dozens of local players from working on their hoops skills this summer.
Boys’ and girls’ teams from several local school districts are competing in the Sullivan County Summer Basketball League. Games are held on Monday and Wednesday nights in the Liberty Middle School and High School gymnasiums. The league began on July 12 and will conclude on Aug. 4.
The six teams in the boys’ division are Ellenville, Fallsburg, Liberty, Roscoe, Sullivan West and Tri-Valley. The six teams in the girls’ division are Eldred, Fallsburg, Liberty, Livingston Manor, Roscoe and Tri-Valley.
Each team plays all of the other teams in the division once and plays a second game against three of the those teams so that when the league finishes each team will have played a total of eight games.
The games feature a few rules which are different than those used during the regular high school basketball season. For example, instead of four quarters, the teams play two 20-minute halves. Those halves are running time where the clock is stopped only during timeouts, on free throws and on changes of possessions and inbounds plays in the final minute. In addition, all shooting fouls are 1-and-1 situations in which a player must make their first free throw in order to earn a second free throw.
“I’m very pleased with how it is going,” League Director Jason Semo said. “It’s great to give kids in Sullivan County the opportunity to improve their basketball skills as a team.”
“We feel very fortunate to have the support of the school district to host the league here in Liberty,” he added.
Semo is hopeful that the league will continue to be successful in future summers and perhaps move to a larger venue in order to welcome more teams.
“It’s great for these kids to have something positive to do,” he said.