Basketball league teaches rules of life – and the game

The Wyo-Braska fourth through sixth grade basketball league is teaching kids the rules of the game, as well as personal growth.

Eight Sidney boys’ and girls’ basketball teams have been competing against teams from around the Panhandle every Saturday since the beginning of January. The league lasts approximately a month and a half, according to Kasey Kantor, the Cheyenne County Community Center Sports Director.

The girls and boys teams alternate each weekend so that every parent can watch their child play.

“The boys and girls games never overlap because most families usually have kids around the same age so boys play one weekend and travel or stay home, and then the next weekend the girls will,” said Kantor.

The league is free and the teams travel to play different teams or play at home every week with Torrington, Wyo. being the farthest that the teams have to travel.

The league has been around for approximately 12 years and all the staff (coaches, referees and scorekeepers) volunteer for the jobs. Most of the coaches are parents but Kantor and his friend also serve as coaches as well.

To sign up for the league participants must have signed up for the three-week Sidney league in December, according to Kantor. Sign-ups for the December league run during late October and early November of every year.

“When you sign up for Sidney’s league you sign up for this league; it’s kind of all a continuing league,” he said.

“I think it’s good because it’s an addition to our league where the kids get more games and they see new faces they will be playing against,” said Kantor.“When they play in Sidney they are playing their buddies so they take it less serious. But when you put them up against a kid they have never seen they take it more seriously and you really see the growth in the kids. It is really a growing period for them.”

Ten cities compete in Wyo-Braska, with about six teams per city, he said. Teams average about 10 participants, which means Sidney participants average to be about 80 kids alone.

Sidney’s league in December consists of third and fourth graders playing against each other and fifth and sixth graders playing one another. Wyo-Braska is different because all competitors are in the same grade.

Games usually start around 9 a.m. and the last games usually end around 6 p.m.

Kantor said that although the league is more competitive then some of the younger leagues, the kids still have a lot of fun and grow a lot from playing the game.

“It’s fun and the kids enjoy it because they get out of town and for them it’s new places to eat and new kids. It’s a league that they can grow from,” said Kantor. “There are also moral victories. With our fourth grade team we won our last game and you would have thought that we won the championship. But there is no winner or loser,it’s just to get the kids learning at a more competitive level,” he said.

The sports director also said that he can see the progression in the kids by the actions of the referees.

“The refs will start calling the travels and the reaches. The way I look at it, the first week they let a lot of things slide and then the second week it seems like the competition gets better and the refs get more ticky-tacky with their foul calls,” said Kantor. “Then the third week it is a lot more competitive. You can see the progression in the kids and you can see the refs see that progression and really start to work with the kids.”