HOWARD – A breakthrough was achieved when Matt Endsley asked the East Knox Board of Education to reconsider their decision to cancel youth basketball at their Oct. 8 meeting.
But there are still a lot of unknowns in how this year's season is going to turn out. Superintendent Steve Larcomb immediately qualified that the school district is not in charge of the youth basketball league. When Athletic Director Aaron White denied the request for use of the gym for youth basketball practice on Tuesday of that week, that answer was "no, not at this time"— not never.
Endsley explained local kids no longer have a league. Previously, area kids played in the Highland Youth Basketball League — which does not have a season planned for this winter. The first reason Endsley said the league fell through was lack of available practice space. The second was that coach Chris Powell, who had previously organized the youth league, left the organization to become head coach at Granville High School.
In this vacuum, Matt Moore of Danville began organizing a yet-unnamed local league with other Knox villages, Endsley continued. Besides Danville, Centerburg and Fredericktown are already in the process of organizing for this winter season. Utica was still undecided, and Mount Vernon was also organizing its own league just for the city.
So far, this league only has teams for fourth, fifth and sixth-grade boys, Endsley said. He laid out hopes to organize teams for East Knox area kids to participate, but noted that it would be impossible unless the teams had somewhere to practice.
With the Knox league still in the process of being organized, schedules aren't set yet. Endsley offered that the league will play from November to early February with tournaments starting in January.
What the potential East Knox teams needed most was somewhere to practice, Endsley pressed. He assured that those practices could be flexible to the district's schedule as needed, and also offered that the school district didn't need to host any of the games or tournaments to be a part of the league if that would make a difference.
Board members generally agreed that youth leagues are important for getting kids playing sports such as basketball, and that there is no age bracket more important than others in that regard. Board President Matt Schwartz pointed out that having such a league in Howard could also keep kids engaged in their own community.
Scheduling was the top concern of all.
The week of Nov. 2 was given by Larcomb as the earliest possible date the district could offer gym access.
As a backup, in case the East Knox teams Endsley advocated for can't fit into the limited gym time East Knox has, board member Lindsay Bush offered that Kim Davidson "would've worked something out" with the Highland league had she been contacted in their initial search for practice space. Davidson runs the Bladensburg Community Heritage Foundation out of the old Bladensburg School building.
At the meeting, the board also:
• Recognized the retirements of Wilma Farmer and, in absentia, Roxanne Berry.
• Voted to hire Gage Steinmetz as the boys junior high basketball coach for the 2020-21 school year.
• Heard Treasurer Jessica Busenburg give the annual financial report.
• Voted to move the date of their December meeting to Tuesday, Nov. 24, to avoid scheduling a special meeting just to vote on the Guaranteed Maximum Price prepared by Elford.
