Everyone knows that Upper St. Clair High School takes great pride in their varsity sports teams. But what about the recreational ones? For boys at Upper St. Clair who aren’t involved with the high school Basketball team, winter doesn’t only mean winter break and snow days. With the first week of winter comes one of the most exciting times of the year, rec basketball season.

In USC, rec basketball is a religion. Boys from all grades come together to play in one of the most competitive recreational leagues in the South Hills. Over Thanksgiving break is when it all begins, draft day. Seniors Mike Krenn (first round draft pick) and Mike McGinness (head coach of the “Carolina Blue team”) described the process.

“All the captains get together at the township rec center [for draft day] and pick names out of a big black top hat. […] We get really dressed up in suits to mimic the draft process in the pros to make it more fun and as realistic as possible,” says McGinness. “The teams are then each assigned a color and choose their team names, while a roster is posted up on the Twitter page or sent to every player.”

From freshmen to seniors, everyone can enjoy rec basketball. Seniors have the opportunity to be captains and coaches, while all other classmen are ranked in the official draft. Teams can range from 8 to 15 people and are usually pretty evenly stacked according to grade and skill. Everyone gets playing time and games are played on Thursday nights at Boyce Middle School. On the day of a big game, just like for official high school sports, every player is required to wear his team’s jersey to school that day.

The boys take a lot of pride in those jerseys and take the league very seriously. Scores of each game and stats on each player are kept and then posted onto the league’s twitter page for all to see and for everyone to follow the teams, since fans and a crowd is generally frowned upon. The teams enjoy the quieter setting without the eyes of people in the stands on them. Players say that it makes for a “more relaxed” and fun atmosphere.

“[Rec basketball league is] a great way to get involved in the community and is a tradition in Upper St. Clair,” says Krenn, and McGinness then says, “It’s great for exercise and gets kids involved in a healthy and fun activity. […] You can learn so many life lessons through this league and that is why every guy should play rec basketball.”

The season will wrap up in February and March with sudden-death playoffs. Best of luck to all boys competing in this year’s league.