This year the Interparish Basketball League (IBL) will be celebrating its 20th year as part of the Interparish Sports Association (ISA), and it’s looking for more teams to register for the 2015-16 basketball season.
This nonprofit organization creates a basketball league for teams of players, boys and girls alike, aged 8 to 17 years-old, with different divisions for each age group.
“Right now we are trying to get more teams involved,” said Mark Mellone, vice president of the IBL. “We are trying to push more donations so we can do more things for the kids. This year we are trying to do some tournaments as well. On one or two weekends during the season we will try to hold tournaments.”
Mellone runs the IBL along with the organization’s president, Mike Rossetti. Together they have seen the IBL grow from just a handful of teams to an impressive 50 to 70 teams per year.
The IBL does not register individuals, only already formed teams. The teams are then placed in a division based on the age of the players.
“We accept teams from everywhere, it doesn’t matter, as long as they can meet the schedule,” Mellone said. “We do our best to work around the CYO schedule as well.”
The IBL is hosting a registration meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 30, at the Knights of Columbus located at 3051 Nostrand Ave. in Brooklyn at 6:30 p.m. Any organization that registers and pays for their team for the 2015-16 winter season at this meeting will receive a 10 percent discount.
The winter season runs from the first week in December to just before the Easter and Passover holidays, and usually has eight to 12 games per season.
“It’s exciting because not many organizations have made it this far,” Mellone said of the IBL celebrating its 20th year. “It’s a nice feeling knowing that for 20 years we’ve helped get kids off the street so they have a place to go to play organized sports and learn the aspects of the games.”
For more information about the IBL, call 718-645-0269 or visit their website.
