RICHMOND, Ind. (AP) — Kandus Mayse played basketball from sixth grade until she was a freshman at Richmond High School.
She started coaching in the Richmond Youth League in 2013 and calls it one of the most rewarding things she\u2019s experienced.
It doesn\u2019t hurt that she\u2019s watching first hand as her son Jaiden Holland and stepson Javen Lewis fall in love with the game of basketball.
\u201cI love the game,\u201d Mayse said Wednesday during a third-fourth grade basketball game at Tiernan Center. \u201cI love to teach it. It\u2019s a better feeling to get to teach the game than it is to play the game, because I mean the most rewarding part is watching their progress.\u201d
The Richmond Youth Basketball League plays its games at Richmond High School\u2019s Tiernan Center from late November through February.
It\u2019s aimed at teaching the game of basketball to young students at an early age, and as young as they may be, they displayed their skills during a few games Wednesday night.
\u201cIt all starts with Richmond basketball tradition,\u201d Richmond varsity head coach Rick Wedlow said. \u201cWe\u2019re chasing tradition right now, and when you\u2019re chasing tradition, it starts with the feeder program. We\u2019ve been fortunate enough to have great participation over the last few years.\u201d
Wedlow said that when interviewed to take over as coach before the 2015-16 school year, he emphasized taking the feeder program to another level. He has seen an increase in participation and inclusion in all of the elementary schools around Richmond.
Wedlow started coaching the current freshman class, which includes his son Rickie Wedlow, when they were in third grade.
\u201cThose guys couldn\u2019t dribble, they couldn\u2019t make a layup, they didn\u2019t know how to play defense, and so to see that group where they are today, it makes it easy for me to visualize where these kids will one day be,\u201d coach Wedlow said. \u201cAs long as we have good parent participation and support, we continue to have our league with great numbers, keep having great volunteers and coaches and ticket takers and officials, as long as we have quality officials and so forth, and as long as our athletic administration allows us to participate here, I see continued growth at developing these skills.\u201d
Jeff Williams, a longtime varsity assistant, has taken over as director of the youth basketball league and said the numbers have grown from around 200 kids to 240 this year.
\u201cI just enjoy seeing young kids out there playing and enjoying themselves, developing a passion for the game,\u201d Williams said. \u201cAs far as I\u2019m concerned — and parents would agree — the younger the better. When you see little second graders out there running up and down the floor playing, the amount of improvement from the first game to that last game when they do get a good understanding of where they\u2019re supposed to be and a little bit of ball movement and that kind of thing, it\u2019s just very gratifying to know you\u2019ve got a little part in that.\u201d
Mayse said growing up she played in the Girls Basketball Association, and played some AAU.
The Youth League allows the players to develop a passion for the game at an earlier age.
\u201cI think it\u2019s awesome what they\u2019re doing,\u201d Mayse said. \u201cRick Wedlow, he does an awesome job. It\u2019s good to see the kids being able to start at such a young age, because when I was growing up, we didn\u2019t get to start this young, so you were kind of thrown into basketball in middle school and it was just luck if you made the team.
\u201cI think the youth league, it\u2019s a great thing. It\u2019s keeping kids motivated to want to do something other than what is going on in Richmond right now, so it\u2019s definitely a positive reinforcement and it\u2019s good to see all the parents involved coaching and that\u2019s another great part of it.\u201d
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Source: (Richmond) Palladium-Item, http:\/\/pinews.co\/2iSMsnt
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Information from: Palladium-Item, http:\/\/www.pal-item.com
Copyright \u00a9 2017 The Washington Times, LLC.
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