TOP PLAYERS HEAD OUTDOORS
It’s not often you see an outdoor basketball league for high schoolers announce its presence with a live press conference. Then again, the CJ2K League isn’t your typical rec league.
“I think you’ve seen on Twitter — we’re kind of a mix between real life and cartoons,” said Joe Kirschner, the league’s executive director. “I think the kids like that, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that we’re going to play competitive basketball and we’re going to do it with some of the better players in the area.”
Not many outdoor basketball leagues take place in Western Pennsylvania in the fall, a time typically reserved for football in these parts. But with the COVID-19 pandemic forcing so many summer leagues to close down, Kirschner and his longtime friend Scott Alaksin realized now was the perfect time to put a plan of theirs into motion.
The two started reaching out to prospective players in the area to gauge their interest in taking part in an upstart outdoor league. Once they decided to make it official, Alaksin created a Twitter page to begin promoting signups for the league, using some elaborate photoshop creations featuring some of the league’s headlining talent.
Kirschner then hosted a press conference Sunday from Big Shot Bob’s House of Wings in Monaca, with top WPIAL players such as Dante Spadafora (Our Lady of the Sacred Heart), Alivia Thompson (Blackhawk) and Emma Pavelek (Beaver) on hand. Spadafora even donned an eye-popping outfit complete with a fur coat and sunglasses for the photoshoot, fully embracing his inner Joe Namath.
“Honestly, we were just taking pictures casually, and then underneath the table they had a bunch of hats and glasses, too, and everyone saw the fur coat hanging on the chair. Then [Kirschner] just kind of put it over me and took more pictures,” Spadafora said. “It was for fun.”
Kirschner, who also helped Alaksin form the Alxn Basketball Association summer league for college and post-college players in 2017, said the CJ2K League will be played under a similar format, only with high school-age players instead. Games will be played at the Concrete Jungle facility in New Brighton.
Because of COVID-19 restrictions, games will be closed off to public spectators, but each player will be allotted two tickets per game to give out to family members, who will be allowed to watch while following social distancing guidelines.
Featuring several of the top boys and girls basketball players from Beaver County and its surrounding areas, the league will serve as a “DLeague” counterpart to the ABA
League. Being that high school players in the area have been out of action for so long, Kirschner wanted to allow them to experience live competition for the first time in several months as they prepare to begin their varsity seasons.
“Being that myself and Scott both coached basketball in the area, we felt we had enough of a following that we could get a competitive league together and have the kids really enjoy it in the same model operating under the same umbrella as the ABA,” Kirschner said.
Signups for the league began Aug. 12 and will run through Aug. 31, at which point the league’s coaches will then get together to draft their teams on Sept. 1. There will be eight boys teams and six girls teams, with six teams making the playoffs in each league. The three-week regular season will begin Sept. 14, culminating in a playoff tournament and bestof-three championship series in early October.
Spadafora, who helped guide OLSH to back-to-back WPIAL Class 2A championships in 2019-20, plans on bringing his trademark intensity and fiery point guard play to each game on the blacktop.
“I’m definitely going to start training harder than I usually do now for this league, to show people that I have been putting in the work,” Spadafora said. “I kind of want it to be a preview of what’s going to happen this year in the WPIAL.
“It’s cool that it’s outdoors. We’ll see who the real hoopers are outdoors.”
Although he is sure to be one of the first boys players selected on draft night, he may have some familiar competition for the No. 1 overall pick. His OLSH teammate, junior Jake DiMichele, finished third in the WPIAL in scoring at 29 points per game last season and has verbally committed to take part in the league.
Even though he’s going to have to go through DiMichele one way or another if he hopes to hoist the championship trophy, Spadafora had no problem making a bold declaration of what’s to come. Not only did Spadafora guarantee a championship — without even knowing what team he’ll play for yet — he plans on winning one in style, too.
“I’m going to say I’m going to win the league now, and I’m going to take my picture with the championship trophy in that fur coat to top it off,” Spadafora said.