After 45 years, YMCA Youth Basketball League thrives

Nine of the 14 players on the Bangor High School varsity basketball team this season had something in common _ their basketball “roots.”

Each of those nine players played in the Bangor YMCA Youth Basketball League before and during their junior high and high school seasons.

Having that high a percentage of former YMCA players on one high school team is quite a feather in the cap of the YMCA basketball league organizers.

“It’s real exciting,” said Elanna Clark, executive director of the Bangor YMCA. “Just watching these kids come up through the ranks has been very rewarding for us.”

Bangor wasn’t the only team benefiting from the YMCA’s program. Other schools in the Bangor area, such as Brewer and Hampden, also had key players with YMCA hoop experience on their squads.

Although the program has been going strong for at least 45 years, according to league directors, the league has exploded in terms of membership in the last five years.

The league swelled from 270 kids to 350 this year. The biggest part of that increase came from children in kindergarten, first grade or second grade.

Eric Espling, Bangor YMCA recreation sports director, credited the program’s recent rise in popularity with word-of-mouth communication by the players and their parents, and a strong network of volunteers.

“We recruit a lot of parents to help us out. In fact, 80 percent of our coaches are parents,” Espling explained. “I couldn’t run the program without my volunteers.”

Espling also explained that it was very easy for him to take over the program 2 1/2 years ago because he took over a very strong program that needed very little improvement.

The league is divided into five divisions: the Mighty Mites division for boys and girls in grades kindergarten-two, Atomic (grades three-four), Pee Wee (grades five-six), Middlers (grades seven-eight) and Freshman (grades nine-10).

There are marked differences between the levels of play in each division. The Mighty Mites practice for 30 minutes and play 30-minute games. They also play on a smaller-scale court and shoot at 8-foot baskets with junior-sized basketballs.

In the Atomic division, players play with 9-foot baskets and use score clocks and officials. Players in this division also use college women’s-sized basketballs.

The next three divisions are alike in that the kids play on regulation courts and use regulation-size balls.

One major difference in all five divisions is that games which are tied at the end of regulation remain that way. No overtimes are played.

“We do that because we try to de-emphasize competition, and emphasize development and fun instead,” said Espling.

Espling cited the four main values the YMCA follows with regard to every program it runs: participation, teamwork, leadership and enjoyment.

The entire program runs for 10 weeks. At the end of the “regular” season, each division except Mighty Mites has a playoff-banquet week in which every team plays in league playoffs. After the championship games, the YMCA holds a giant potluck supper-reception in which the parents all bring in salads, casseroles, desserts, and other treats.

“It’s a really fun way to end the season and everybody _ the kids, their parents, friends _ all have a good time,” said Espling.

That seems appropriate since, in Clark and Espling’s words, “fun and good times are what the league is all about.”