Wausa Youth Basketball League held opening weekend

WAUSA — Wausa Youth Basketball League for the boys and girls of the surrounding communities started off this weekend. The town was bustling with many young athletes and all their fans that came to watch them play. As expected, COVID has changed how the league is run this year.

To accommodate the capacity restrictions 3rd and 4th grade boys and girls have been moved to Saturdays while 5th and 6th grade boys and girls are still on Sundays. This has allowed the league to use the full court at the high school so then bleachers can be used for spectators versus the chairs used when the gym was divided into two courts.

The League seen an increase in registrations this year for all age groups. The 3rd/4th grade girls have 9 teams and the 3rd/4th grade boys have 8 teams. The 5th/6th grade girls have 10 teams and the 5th/6th grade boys have 12 teams. With this many teams, the days are a bit longer than in years past. The league is also running into facility schedules obstacles as the high school has two tournaments scheduled during the Youth League season. This also limits the volunteers, the League has available to them as many of the volunteers are the high school basketball players, coaches and parents.

The League welcomes any volunteers who would like to help with concessions, admission and being a referee for games. The proceeds from the Youth Basketball League have been able to help with the updates to the auditorium and been able to give donations back to the high school girls and boys basketball teams to help with needs they may have.

The area youth seen a lot of court time as each team played 2 games. The 3rd/4th grade girls started off the season with 2 wins. The games were close against Laurel 3rd grade and Plainview 3rd grade.

The 3rd/4th grade boys split their games with a close loss to Crofton 4th grade but came back to win against Hartington Purple.

The 3rd/4th grade league really works with learning the fundamentals of the game so that the players are growing and developing the skills needed to move to the next level. It is still exciting for young athletes to score points!

The 5th grade girls played hard during their games but did come up with a loss against Laurel 5th grade and Niobrara/Verdigre 5th/6th girls. Despite their best efforts, the 6th grade girls came up short against Bloomfield 5th/6th grade, but were able to come back and earn a win against Randolph 6th grade.

The 5th grade boys took on Randolph 5th grade and Plainview 5th grade and won both of their games. The 6th grade boys had quite the exciting games as they split their games against Laurel-Concord-Coleridge 6th grade and Hartington 5th/6th grade. The LCC 6th grade game went into overtime as the 6thgraders battle back from a large deficit. They came up short in overtime to lose by 2 points. They did win against Hartington 5th/6th grade, but it was a very close game too.

At this level, the players become more competitive but are still learning all the fundamentals. It is a fun level to watch as the excitement is growing in the players when they are playing their games.

The committee wants to thank everyone who helped this weekend as without our volunteers, events like this would not be possible. The committee also wants to thank the fans, parents and players. The sportsmanship that was shown by all was outstanding and very appreciated. Games will kickoff next Saturday at 8 a.m. at the auditorium.

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