It’s that time of year again: basketball season. Yet there is a league this year that is catching the attention of hundreds of State High students. IMBA, or the Intramural Basketball League is back for another season, and is where hundreds of State High students form their own basketball teams and compete in a league with a season, playoffs, and championship.
Head IMBA commissioner, junior Dylan Briggs is tackling his first year as a commissioner alongside junior Jack Synder. After getting the green light from State High Assistant Athletic Director Loren Crispell, taking on the role of his job was all about Briggs’ love for the game.
“It actually happened because last year at one of our IMBA games, Mr. Crispell came up to me and told me that he loved my enthusiasm and saw a lot of dedication out of me and Jack Snyder. He thought he would love to have us on board to help him out,” Briggs said.
But with this new major position came a lot of operations that had to take place.
“I do tasks such as building the schedule, looking for gym space, finding refs, you know, getting all the teams together, holding captains meetings, to keep the league running and functioning,” Briggs said.
The long season starts in December and runs all the way until mid-February. During the madness, 17 teams partake in 12 game long season and strive for a chance to win in the playoffs to ultimately win the championship. Junior Derrick Campbell is entering his second year in the league and his goals are like many that participate.
“This is my second year in the IMBA, and I’m hoping to bring home a Rice chip this year,” Campbell said.”For myself, I want to grow as a player and have my team grow as well. We’ve been in the gym, grinding together, balling out, and if we don’t win it this year, I want to win it next year.”
This year the league has other goals in mind to make the experience even better than before.
“Well, one thing we’re looking at doing this year is we actually want to hold an all-star night where we do things like a three point contest. We want to lower the hoop and do a dunk contest. And we want to actually switch up the format of where they don’t really keep track of stats. We want to make sure to keep track of stats so we can actually have an all-star game with what we think are the best players in the league,” Briggs said.
A key concern was about how to keep the league competitive due to the fact teams and the players on each team are not decided by the commissioner, but by the students themselves. Briggs explained what he hopes can help with the balance.
“Well, there’s nothing that we can directly do that will, like, force them [players] to be competitive, but we know that a lot of the teams are actually focused, especially since there’s a lot of, like, friendly competition and actual, like, there’s a lot of competition, and between these teams, you know, there’s teams that are already going out and scrimmaging before the season starts, so usually we just keep the stakes as high as we can. That’s why you got to incorporate the playoffs to keep teams that you want to make sure they’re playing for something,” Briggs said.
Campbell shared Briggs’ sentiment. “I think the ability to have competitive spirit against your buddies is what makes IMBA so special and popular throughout the community. Being able to play against your friends and have some social interaction outside of school,” Campbell said.
The start is near for the league and for all 17 teams. They must compete tooth and nail through the hard fought season before hopefully reaching their aspirations of holding the title of IMBA Champ.
