A foundation is hoping to be laid here shortly by Louisville High School basketball coach Kylan Tippett for the future of basketball in the city.
The Wildcats have had a competitive basketball team for many years but Tippett believes that there’s still been a lot of meat left on thebone. A lot of it has been the fact that Winston County has been such a tradition-richfootball culture that basketball often takes a back seat. That often leads tokids coming into the game without a fundamental base he’s hoping to change thatwith the start of the Jr. Wildcat Basketball League.
Tippett’s league will be available for both boys and girls in 5th and 6th grade in Louisville and he plans to introduce the fundamentals and rules of basketball. By plugging this in at anearly age, the goal is to have the players ready to learn the X’s and O’s by the time they hit the hardwood in junior high at Louisville and, ultimately, playing for the Wildcats in high school.
“Just seeing the ability level of the kids that are coming to us the last couple of years, I’ve noticed that the kids aren’t fundamentally prepared to play basketball,” Tippett said. “We’re teaching fundamentals to seventh, eighth and ninth grade kids and it’s taking away our ability to teach strategy. I’m hoping this will instill in kids at an earlier age to learn the fundamentals and the game so that maybe we can have that same desire that football has around here.”
Tippett has opened registration at Eiland Middle School and Louisville Elementary this week and forms can be picked up there. It’s a $25 fee for registration and a late fee of $35 if signing up from March 25-29. TIppett said that he hopes to have an online registration link as well soon.
As far as the league is concerned, dependent on the amount of players that sign up, there will be players broken up into teams with practices starting on April 5 and running through the 16th. On April19, they will begin playing games that will culminate on May 11 in a championship. It allows for the kids to have a chance to learn the game along with getting to compete for an ultimate goal.
While registration has just begun, Tippett has already felt a desire from people in the community for something like this to happen for the children of Louisville. It’s a chance to begin building basketball culture that he feels is lacking.
“I feel like there’s a lot of people that are excited about it based on what the community has been talking about with what needs to happen with basketball,” Tippett said. “I’ve heard parents saying that they wished their kids had something to do or wish they were able to play at an earlier age. I’ve had people contact me asking what they can do to donate to the cause and a nice response so far. I hope that in the next few days we’ll have it turn into something big.”
