Players jump for corporate hoops
Moms chat, preschoolers color and elementary school-age children wait for halftime so they can shoot some hoops.
The main event, though, is men of all ages in matching T-shirts competing in the Friday-night corporate basketball league at the Butler County Family YMCA.
Youngsters Brooke and Alyssa Bellis were there with their mom, Linda, one recent Friday to watch their dad, Joe, play a game with his team from Armstrong utilities.
"We've been doing this for about 15 years I think," Joe Bellis said. "Whatever year this league started, we started playing in it."
That was even before he and his wife were married. "We were dating then, I was at (Indiana University of Pennsylvania) and he would drive out to visit after the games on Friday nights," Linda Bellis said.
The Bellis family now makes an evening of it. "It's our social time," Linda said. "We usually go out afterward to go to dinner."
If her husband's team plays an early game, that is. "Not if it's a 9 o'clock game," she said. "They had a lot of late games last year. This year they have a lot of earlier games."
The corporate basketball league at the Y is about two games into the season. Nine teams play on Friday nights, with games starting hourly beginning at 6 p.m., with the last game beginning at 9 p.m.
Jamie Knauff, sport and family director at the Y on North Washington Street, has run the league for about two years, but it goes back 15 years, she said.
The season runs 18 weeks from Dec. 5 to April 10, which includes 16 regular season games and playoff and championship games.
Black-shirted Armstrong won their game against green-clad Kelly Automotive that evening with some great rebounding. The team usually makes the playoffs, said Joe Bellis.
"It depends on the year," he said. "We've had good years and we've had bad years."
What do the league champions win? Usually T-shirts that say "corporate league champs." They like that, Knauff said.
Any one of the league teams — such as Butler Preowned, Dittman Eye Care, or Hema-Chem Solutions — would enjoy winning those championship shirts, but that's not the reason for playing."The corporate competition's not really there, that's not why we're doing it," Joe Bellis said. "It's social and it's a little exercise. Most of the times the guys are all good guys and we have fun and that's why we do it.""Some of us are from the corporate office, some of us are from the cable system and some of us are from customer service," Bellis added."Most of us know each other. That's how we end up on the team. Because we know who plays basketball."One of the gentlemen on the team is a director, kind of higher up," he said. "It doesn't matter. The relationships were already good."There are young and not-so- young men on the court. Players in this league must be at least age 18 but they range up to their 50s, Knauff said. One player left about half time to go watch his son play basketball at Freeport."There was a girl but she hasn't been back," Knauff said. "There have been girls in previous years; they're allowed in the league."Some women may prefer to play in the Y's women's league, Knauff said. There's a regular men's basketball league, too. In those two leagues, the players call their own fouls.Referees make the calls in the corporate league, which also can include teams from other groups, such as churches. The Y has a team, too.Players out on the floor signal to teammates on the bench they'd like a sub, who in turn tells the timekeeper/scorekeeper, during each 20-minute half. A statistician keeps each player's fouls and points.Timeouts don't seem to be too much about strategy, really more about exchanging a few pointers and catching a few breaths.Fouling looks to be minimal, though Kelly player Tyler Makstutis set up to take a charge under the hoop in the last five minutes of the game and went out with an ankle injury that necessitated a trip to the emergency room. He already had both ankles taped and braced. "I'll play again. ... I don't sit out," he said.Teams have 10 to 12 players, and rules say each team can have two players who don't work for the company that sponsors the team, Knauff said.Cost is $420 per team in corporate league. Call Knauff at 724-287-4733 for more information.
