Summer league play returning to Cedar Beach
While the 2020-21 high school basketball season winds down with the state playoffs over the next 12 days, plans are underway for summer basketball to make its return to Cedar Beach starting in June.
Glen Klein, the longtime Allentown Summer League director, said the rims have gone back up in the city after being taken down last year so kids wouldn’t congregate on the courts during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
Klein said the league will begin in the first week of June on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Each game night will start at 6 p.m. and feature three games on four different courts.
“We will have a big-school division of 20 teams and the small-school division will have 12,” he said. “That’s a full schedule.”
The Cedar Beach “Bash at the Beach” Showcase, a four-day double-elimination tournament, will also return. It is currently scheduled for June 17-20 with a new sponsor, Master Home Solutions, joining with Service Electric Cable and St. Luke’s University Health Network.
The tournament will feature boys and girls varsity teams and JV boys.
Klein said both the league and tournament will follow all CDC guidelines. There will be no limit on who can attend the games played outside, but if inclement weather forces games inside no parents will be allowed, at least as of now.
In 2019, the last time the tournament was held, Wilson West Lawn won the big-school championship and Marquette-bound star Stevie Mitchell was named MVP. Wilson also won the league title later that summer. Jim Thorpe won the girls tournament championship.
Salisbury won the tournament’s small-school boys title and Quinn Warmkessel was voted MVP. Southern Lehigh won the small-school league crown.
“It’s going to be great to be back,” Klein said. “We were happy to get the go-ahead from the mayor. A lot of people missed it last summer. The kids love to play in the summer and love playing at Cedar Beach. “
For more information, contact Klein at kleiny6@ptd.net or go to cedarbeachbasketball.com or call him at 610-533-2168.