Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and a lot of people trying to stay inside, the Poplar Bluff Parks and Recreation Department’s winter youth basketball league saw a much higher than normal number of players signed up.
Registration for the kindergarten through third grade boys and girls league lasted only a single week this year, said Recreation Supervisor Greg Riggs.
“We didn’t waste any time,” Riggs said.
This winter, there are around 320 children signed up to play, Riggs noted, which is well above recent season counts.
“We actually went up in numbers with all this COVID going on,” Riggs said. “In kindergarten, we went up four teams, and second and third grade boys, we went up one so far.”
Riggs said he was surprised by the number of sign-ups, given everything going on.
This year, each player was assessed a $15 sign-up fee, and each will receive a T-shirt once they are assigned to a team.
Those assignments, Riggs said, should come in the next several days.
“This is tentative,” he said, “but we’re probably going to try to divvy them up by the end of the week and start practices next week.”
Practices are expected to take place for about two weeks, with games starting in the first week of February.
“We’re going to have games on Tuesdays starting at 6 p.m. and on Saturdays starting at 8:30 a.m.,” Riggs said.
The league previously was administered by the First Methodist Church, and games were held there, Riggs said, but with the Park Department takeover this year, games will be held at the Poplar Bluff Middle School, though a partnership with the R-I school district.
The kindergarten and first grade teams, Riggs said, will be co-ed, while the second and third grades will be divided into boys and girls teams.
The season, Riggs said, is expected to go through the month of February.