By Ryan Auger
Staff Writer

In the view of many boys at the Academy, recreational basketball is one of their favorite things during the year. It causes a great deal of excitement for the players, fans, coaches, and parents of all involved.

This year, for the first time, there is a new 8th and 9th grade league. One of the causes of this change is due to the different abilities of seniors versus freshmen. There were many problems such as hard fouls that occurred when the seniors were playing against the freshmen. Now the league for the high school boys is made up of 180 10th to 12th grade students, consisting of 24 teams of about 7-8 players each.

Rosters were released Sunday night, and emails were sent out from the coaches.

On Wednesday, all the team members met with their coaches to get their shirts and have a quick scrimmage against another team. This helped to get reacquainted with the game and process and was also extra court time for those who hadn’t played in a while.

Some teams look promising and others could struggle.

One team has one of the greatest pair of stars, Joe and Ralph Barisano. These two players are very dynamic scorers, rebounders, and extremely athletic. They make a strong pair to hopefully bring their team, The Thunder, far this year.

Peter Russo and Chris Mariano, two talented seniors who can both shoot the deep three and drive to the hoop with intensity, with teammates Dustin Parks and Will Clark, make The Magic look like one of the top teams in the league.

The 76er’s, another team who looked strong in their preseason scrimmage, with seniors Christian Prusaczyk and Josh Gallo, have excellent ball handling and a strong drive to the basket. This team will be rather good in not just on the half court offense but the fast break as well.

Last year’s champion, The Warriors look to be a strong team with players Alex Eaton, Eric Cajolet, and Jason Welch, who were stars on their respective teams last year, and hope to combine their different styles of play and high scoring abilities to make a great team.

Great players Mike Mizzoni and Adam Champi look to bring their hustle play all season long, starting in the first game of the Rec season Sunday at 10 against The Knicks who currently are missing Brady Flynn to a hip injury. This team has a lot of height and looks to be one of the better rebounding teams in the league.

Lastly, The Pistons and Pacers seem to have two of the more solid lineups in the league, with all of their players contributing to their teams’ talent.

This year looks to be much more fair than the past with not many super teams in the league. In the past freshmen did not get the ball much and were not able to contribute as much to their teams as the upperclassmen. Now in a separate league, the freshmen will have fair competition with the 8th graders. There will surely be some close games and one of the best championship teams in a while.