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Now that school is out for the summer, many kids throughout Sumter County and the surrounding counties will be looking for something fun to do during the summer months. One activity that has been a tremendous success for the past 13 years in getting kids and adults into a healthy, safe and fun environment is the Dwight Harris Boys Club Basketball League.

The league was started 13 years ago by Dwight Harris, Athletic Manager for the Sumter County Parks and Recreation Department. Harris wanted to provide a healthy alternative for kids and adults ages 6-28 that would keep them off the streets during the summer months and therefore, cut down on the crime among youth and teenagers.

“I have documentation from the sheriff’s department from Sheriff Bryant stating that during the summer basketball league, crime among children and teens has gone down tremendously because they are either playing basketball or they’re at the gym watching the game,” Harris said. “Also, its gives the adults some entertainment. They can come out and watch these young kids play basketball.”

Harris went on to say that the league also gives the kids the opportunity to hewn their basketball skills and to compete with other kids from Sumter and surrounding counties. Many of the kids who play in the league also play high school ball for Sumter County, Southland Academy, Schley County, Macon County and Webster County.

“In the long run, what we hope this does is make the local middle school and high school basketball teams better because they compete every night against different teams and different players,” Harris said. “It also gives kids that wanted to be on their school’s basketball team that didn’t make it or for some other reason, maybe they didn’t try. Here, they’re put on a team and they have an opportunity to play.”

The league consists of boys and girls starting at age six all the way up to adults at age 28. All of the games are played at the Ninth Grade Academy on North Lee Street and games are played every day of the week. League play begins on Monday, June 3 at 5 p.m. and the league will run throughout June and July, with an end-season tournament scheduled for late July.