Sports Editor

When young, basketball is such an easy sport to play.

As a person ages though, the swiftness that was once used to glide down the court fades away with each passing year.

But so what.

Grab the Nike’s and ointment, because the Troy Parks and Recreation Department is once again offering its Adult Basketball Leagues, starting up in January. TPRD Adult Sports Director Pam Nix said there should be three leagues available this season, which men of various ages and skill can compete in. Nix is also looking to offer a women’s league this season as well.

"We have the Men’s Open League, which is the slam dunkers and is usually made up of former high school and college players. These are the players that have played the game of basketball for a long time and know what they’re doing," Nix said. "Then we have the Men’s B League where the players are good and mediocre. Anyone can play in this league, regardless of their level of talent and skill."

The Men’s Open usually consists of four teams, while the Men’s B league has seven or eight teams in competition.

Nix said she would like to have a Men’s 35 and over league this season, but in the past it’s been hard to organize.

"I hope we’ll be able to pull that league together this year," said Nix. "Last season I had only two teams that were 35 and over and had to put them in the B League. And really you can’t compete a 21 year old with a 42 year old, you just can’t. The 42 year old will get killed."

Nix said she offered a women’s league last season and there was some interest shown, but not enough to start a league.

"Right now I’m saying $225 per team for the women’s league, but I might end up just going with $25 per player and doing it sort of like a pick-up game," she said. "We would have a time set for them and if they payed they could go to the gym and play."

TPRD is also offering an adult coed volleyball league this winter and Nix said that’s her favorite league to be involved in. Teams of six players are divided evenly with three men and three women on each team.

"They just go in there and have fun," she said. "There’s no fussing and no pressure to win. We have certain rules that keep it competitive on all levels. We don’t let men spike the ball and have other rules, which allow the women to get involved in the contest and it doesn’t become dominated by just the male players."

Nix said the volleyball league is usually comprised of six or seven teams, but only had four teams participating in the fall.

"In the winter I get more teams because most of the players that play in the volleyball league are parents and their kids aren’t involved in as much activity as they are in the fall," she said.

Nix is also offering flag football for adults this winter.

"We have these three great soccer fields out at the Sportsplex that aren’t being used," she said. "I just thought that it would be great to have a flag football game on Sunday afternoon."

Like volleyball, Nix is offering a coed as well as an all men’s league, but she is waiting to see which one draws the most interest.

"I think a lot of people prefer coed. I really do," Nix said. "But then again you have these guys that are ‘weekend warriors’ and just want to get out there and play football. If I can just get three teams together for flag football, I’m going to go ahead with it."