The Aroostook Youth Basketball League (AYBL) looks to kick off its 2010-2011 season with the start of its boys and girls’ season.
Tryouts for the Caribou fifth- and sixth-grade basketball teams will be held this week.
The Caribou Middle School will be the site of the first tryout session for boys on Thursday from 5-6:30 p.m. On Friday, girls tryouts will also be at CMS from 5-6:15 p.m. The boys will have another tryout session Friday from 6:15-7:30 p.m., also at CMS.
On Saturday, a second girls tryout will take place at the Caribou Wellness and Recreation Center from 11-12:30 p.m.
Last year, AYBL had a record 48 teams from around the County serving approximately 442 boys and girls representing grades 3-8.
This is a long way from its inaugural season six years ago in which the league had only three communities – Caribou, Presque Isle and Fort Kent – participating. Last season featured teams from Fort Kent, Wisdom, Madawaska, Limestone, Fort Fairfield, Caribou, Washburn, Central Aroostook, Presque Isle, Easton, Houlton and Southern Aroostook.
The participation of the smaller communities was paramount to the continued success of the league as Class D schools are the majority of the demographic makeup of Aroostook County.
“Running true to our vision and mission statements has been the key,” said Michael Eaton, board member and former president of AYBL. Eaton went onto to say “our all-volunteer organization has bought into that shared goal and has done a lot of work to make this happen.”
AYBL’s vision and mission has been to serve as a type of ‘feeder program’ for the high school level basketball programs around the County. AYBL does this by providing a structure with ‘sustainable resources’ that can aid in the development of our youth in the game of basketball. The fact that AYBL is an all-volunteer organization shows there is a genuine commitment from community members around the County to serve in the growth of young players.
For more information about AYBL can visit the website at www.ayblmaine.org. The local contact is Brian Massey at 498-6354.
