YMCA basketball league designed to foster ‘love of the game’
Lu Brito, the YMCA's senior program director, demonstrates pivoting to some players. Photos by: Madison Czopek
A player heads for the basket. 
Rana Byarms makes a (successful!) free throw for the blue team.
For the first two weeks of the league, the players complete “skills and drills” and learn the fundamentals of the game. 
Players wait in anticipation to see if the the ball will make it through the basket.
The league is focused on teaching players the love of the game. 
Nathaniel Tse of the blue team breaks free with the ball, but not without a player on the white team in close pursuit. 
On Fridays, the teams in the YMCA’s basketball league face off. 
Coach Jordan Rezendes blocks Ta’Zhoun Coney during practice, as Violet Filion looks on.
Lu Brito, the YMCA's senior program director, demonstrates pivoting to some players. Photos by: Madison Czopek
A player heads for the basket.
Rana Byarms makes a (successful!) free throw for the blue team.
For the first two weeks of the league, the players complete “skills and drills” and learn the fundamentals of the game.
Players wait in anticipation to see if the the ball will make it through the basket.
The league is focused on teaching players the love of the game.
Nathaniel Tse of the blue team breaks free with the ball, but not without a player on the white team in close pursuit.
On Fridays, the teams in the YMCA’s basketball league face off.
Coach Jordan Rezendes blocks Ta’Zhoun Coney during practice, as Violet Filion looks on.
For Lu Brito, players who are part of the Gleason Family YMCA’s basketball league have three main goals: 1. Have fun. 2. Try your hardest. 3. Learn the love of the game.
“Don’t worry about how many points you get, if the ball goes in or not,” said Brito, the YMCA's senior program director. “Playing the right way, it’ll go in more often than not.”
Every Friday from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m., more than 30 kids gather in the Gleason Family YMCA’s gymnasium to learn that “love of the game.”
Brito explained that the league currently consists of four teams of kids ages 8-12.
The co-ed teams are pretty evenly stacked, he said. The programming director noted that he and the other coaches assessed the players’ skill levels and worked to ensure each team had roughly the same number of kids of each age.
The first two weeks of the league were dedicated to “skills and drills,” Brito said, which allowed the coaches to evaluate the kids’ abilities and also to teach players the fundamentals.
Now that the first two weeks have passed, the kids practice for about 20 minutes before jumping right into a game.
Brito said that a lot of leagues tend to focus on winning, and noted that the Y’s approach is different.
“To me, if you teach the kids the love of the game, they’re going to want to stick with it,” he said.
Those who are interested in joining the league in the future should keep an eye on the YMCA’s website: ymcasouthcoast.org/locations/wareham/.
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