Althoff seniors wanted to address COVID-19 doldrums. They went retro for a solution
Looking for an activity to occupy their time earlier this summer during the COVID-19 pandemic, good friends and Althoff High School seniors Drew Ysursa and Miles Wilhelm turned to the basketball court.
Located in the back-yard of the home of Tom and Jessica Ysursa’s in Belleville is a half-court basketball haven where Drew Ysursa and Wilhelm would host 2-on-2 games and tournaments for their friends and Althoff classmates.
It’s also the place where the Ysursa Basketball League was born.
Now in its second season, the YBL has grown from 14 teams to 16, has 32 players and includes a schedule of 14 games for each team. The league, which will feature over 100 games in all, will run through mid-October with its playoff system, allowing for eight teams to qualify for the postseason, which will extend into early November — weather permitting.
“The first season started in June and ran through the end of July with the playoffs being held in August. After the season we thought about taking a break but decided to keep on playing. We’re about halfway through the second season now,” Wilhelm said recently. “We hope the weather doesn’t get too cold. But if it does, we’ll just stop until it gets warmer again.
“We didn’t have a lot to do because of COVID-19 and so we started playing tournaments in his (Ysursa’s) back yard where we drew up brackets. As we went along we had more and more kids wanting to play in it. We didn’t really know if a new league would work or if we could control everything, but we decided to give it a try. It’s worked out well.”
That first season culminated with the team of Hank Gomric and Jake Pollock defeating Avery Irwin and Lucas Alred in the final.
“Each team is named after an NBA team and the league has two conferences and four divisions. We each have our own logos to put an individual spin on it,” Ysursa said. “Some of us play for the Althoff High School team but others don’t. It isn’t a great league for basketball itself.
“It’s more like a group of friends doing something together and doing something that is fun.”
Showing initiative
On top of playing basketball, the league also provides its own stats. Points for each of the 26 players were kept in the first season along with awards given for the YBL’s most valuable player and most improved player. In season two, statistics are also being kept for assists and rebounds.
Players from other teams who are not competing at the time help keep score.
“I feel like we have players in the league who are very good players, average players and then maybe some who are a little below average,” Ysursa said. “All of us have played before, maybe at grade school, and a lot of us play different sports so we’re all pretty athletic. So it’s not like a bunch of kids who haven’t played before. We all have some background in it.”
One person impressed by the league is Althoff boys basketball coach Greg Leib, who admires the players for participating in an activity during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think the YBL was a great solution to a difficult time during COVID. Instead of sitting around playing 2K these guys formed their own league. They added the sandlot mentality in the summer of 2020,” Leib said. “People are always saying how ‘when I was a kid we never sat around indoors all day.’ Well these young men took a page out of the 1970’s of what summer entertainment looked like.”
Scheduling games and promoting the YBL
The 14-game regular season schedule played by league teams isn’t easy to navigate for the athletes. While most of the players attend Althoff, there a couple from Belleville East.
The vast majority are either seniors or freshmen and many live in the same neighborhood as Ysursa and Wilhelm. Their job is to play the games they are required to play.
“It’s hard to schedule games because we’re all involved in other sports and things outside of school. But each team has teams they are required to play and it’s their job to get it done,” Wilhelm said. “There are times when you may only play one game in a week and other times when you may four times.
“As long as you get it done and you are playing at a fairly consistent level ... when you have the opportunity to, it’s not an issue.”
Promoting the league on social media
Both Wilhelm and Ysursa are doing their best to promote the league on social media. The league currently has over 500 followers on Instagram: https://instagram.com/ysursabl?igshid=148gjn4xibbjv.
“Our main social media platform for the league is Instagram. The league does its own pictures and there is some graphic design done as well,” Wilhelm said. “We put a YouTube up. We didn’t do it so much so that people could go out and watch it, but more so for the archives and stuff. We did it for the playoffs so that we could go back and watch it.”
Several other players in the league have also done their part in supporting the YBL. Some in charge came up with the idea of designing YBL clothes. The league sold hats, T-shirts and sweatshirts, making nearly $1,000, which was put back into the league.
“We made about $900 and we had a bunch of family, friends and fans who just wore the clothes,” Ysursa said. “We used some of the profits to help our league. We wanted to buy a nicer camera and we wanted to buy a bigger light to light up the court so that we can play more night games.”
The league also has reversible gray and white game jerseys which have been sponsored.
“It’s cool. It’s got the full league logo on it,” Wilhelm said. “We’re trying to promote a little more now. We have guys coming up to us and wanting to know how they can get into the league. I remember talking to a buddy of mine in the league and saying how cool it would be if we were able to get to 100 followers. Now we’re at 500 and growing.
“We’ve stuck ourselves out there. A friend‘s dad worked at Country Financial and so we — jokingly at first — said ... ‘oh cool a Country Financial Player of the Game.’ Well they heard about it and sent us a bunch of T-shirts. It’s kind of neat to think that all of this started with a group of kids playing the sport of basketball.”
The past and future of the YBL
One of the state’s top high school golfers, Irwin, a senior at Althoff, is one of those athletes who, on top of playing for the Crusaders golf team, found time to compete in the YBL. While he and Alred lost in the final, Irwin said the league was rewarding and just a great experience.
“We were all very nervous with all of our friends there watching. It felt like a real event!! It was so much fun to be able to turn a few small basketball games into a huge league,” Irwin said. “We are all working together as a team and are trying to make the league grow and expand even more.
“We keep coming up with new ideas to make it better and more efficient. We ranked every player and made sure each team was fair so we had the best competition we could.”
