By Chris Agnone ’18
THE ROUNDUP

With the completion of the Broncos basketball season, basketball players and spectators switch gears and begin playing in recreational leagues.

A popular recreational, off season league is the Young Men’s Christian Association or YMCA.

The YMCA was founded in 1844 in London, according to their website. Today, they host many athletic events and leagues for men and women of all ages.

In this basketball league, off season players and even non high school athletes compete in age grouped divisions to break up the competition.

This league has teams that unofficially represent highschool across Arizona. For example, Brophy has multiple teams of students competing in this years league.

Andrew Shear ’17 who plays varsity basketball, said he enjoys playing in the league with his friends.

“It is just for fun for me. I do my own off-season training and just play in this league to get shots up for fun,” Shear said.

Playing alongside Shear are his friends, Curtis Clemmenson ’17, Matt Kempton ’17, Nick Ryan ’17, George Rivera ’17, Jake Vice ’17, Britton Brunkhorst ’17, and Preston Kuhl ’17.

The league is more for recreation than for competition, but if it was for competition, Shear’s team would do quite well.

“We are all pretty good basketball players, so we usually beat teams by about 40 points or so,” Shear said.

Michael Collins ’18 also plays on a YMCA team and said that it is fun, casual competition that is something to look forward to on the weekends.

“We all do it for the fun of the game,” said Collins. “Sometimes we compete hard, but sometimes we try and run crazy plays or just shoot fun shots.”