Draft day on Saturday starts at 9 a.m. and is open to the public. Interested volunteers can contact one of the four participating centers to get more info.
The Inner City Educational (ICE) League will kick off its second season with a draft day for sixth to eighth grade girls and seventh to eighth grade boys on Feb. 6 at Muncie Central High School.
Founded in 2015 with the help of Project Leadership and the Ball Brothers Foundation, the basketball league is the only of its kind in the nation, motivating participants to get good grades as they move toward high school by basing play time on grade-point average.
“The league focuses on student growth and development by encouraging students to improve their GPAs to earn play time,” said Kaye Harrell, Project Leadership coordinator and former Muncie basketball coach. “Last year’s league really took us by surprise in terms of turnouts and overall participation. This year, we’re hoping to see the same.”
A student needs to have a 2.5 GPA or higher to fully participate, Harrell said. If the student’s GPA is above 2.5, that’s the key to playing in all four quarters of the game.
Last year, the league had 11 coaches and 70 seventh grade boys participate, and 50 percent of the players improved their GPAs, Harrell said.
“We finished the season with 69 of the 70 participants last year,” Harrell said. “It goes to show how well students are responding to the program and how impactful integrating sports and academics can be.”
Students can be drafted by one of four teams through the YMCA, Ross Center, Buley Center or the Boys & Girls Club. Eighty-eight boys – 44 seventh grade boys and 44 eighth grade boys – are able to participate in the leagues. This year, a girl’s league for 44 students will also be open to middle school girls in sixth through eighth grade.
The Boys and Girls Club — one of four community centers to host the leagues — has incorporated athletics into programs in the past, and the ICE league has been a continued effort at the club.
“The basketball leagues are a big part of youth involvement at the Boys and Girls Club,” said Micah Maxwell, director of Muncie’s Boys and Girls Club. “ICE is encouraging students to get students involved in something that combines an activity they love with the knowledge and the push to do well or to do better in school.”
Maxwell said he would love for even more youth at the Boys and Girls Club and around Muncie to get involved in the league. As of early February, Harrell said the league already had over 130 interested participants.
“We’re going into the local schools and we’re pushing the 2.5 GPA, but that’s just the beginning,” Harrell said. “We want kids to work hard and have fun, and we want a 4.0 to be an ultimate goal for our students.”
Stacia Johnson, parent of a seventh grader at Muncie Southside Middle School, said she’s taking her son to draft day because of the great motivation she hopes it will foster for students.
“My son doesn’t have bad grades, but they could be better,” Johnson said. “[My son] loves basketball. He’s never played on the team at school, but he’s really passionate about playing on a team.”
Prior experience is not required to be a member of the league, but ICE organizers check participant’s grades twice a week to ensure that students have adequate GPAs to pay on Tuesday and Thursday nights.
“Accountability is really great, especially for young people today,” Johnson said. “I think ICE is going to show my son what it means to be good basketball player, but, more importantly, I hope it shows him the benefits of being a good student.”
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