YOUTHS HEATING IT UP ON THE HARDWOOD; LOCAL KIDS HIT THE BASKETBALL COURTS DURING WINTER MONTHS

GOIN' UP: St. Vincent's Angie Fehr (with ball) looks to put up a shot against Trinity's Sarah Bruenning as St. Vincent's Minoy Iten (behind Fehr) waits to help out during Kiwanis/Excelsior Optimist League game Saturday. (Photo by Mark Sterkel)

IN CONTROL: A Nell Holcomb Hawk basketball player caroms a loose ball and looks to clear it during a Kiwanis/Excelsior Optimist League basketball game Saturday. (Photo by Mark Sterkel)

CAPE GIRARDEAU - How do high school, college and pro basketball players get to be as good as they are?

Certainly, it takes talent.

But another aspect overlooked many times is the time a player puts into the game in his younger years.

Most of the time it starts well before high school.

That's were leagues such as the Kiwanis/Excelsior Optimist Club Girls Basketball League come in.

The league is the first step in organized basketball for area girls who aspire to become high school hoop stars.

"It gets them ready for high school basketball," said Brad Altenthall, league commissioner and coach of one of the teams.

"The kids get exposed to organized basketball for the first time in the league," he said. "You can see a lot of talent come through the league. I'm convinced it helps girls prepare for later on."

Approximately 100 girls play on the nine teams in the league, which is funded by the Kiwanis Club and ran by the Excelsior Optimist Club.

"This is actually the first organized competition the girls have," said Janet Robert, who heads up the league for the Excelsior Optimists Club.

"The kids seem to have a lot of fun, too. The have a lot of parental support and a lot of people go to the games," said Robert. "The first weekend of the season, the stands at Franklin School were full."

It is the first year for the Excelsior Optimists Club to be involved with the league. They provided most of the people power to keep the league going.

"The Kiwanis Club has been sponsoring this league for about 10 years and they were getting kind of low on manpower," said Robert. "They approached the Excelsior Optimist Club to see if we could help with the manpower while they took care of the funding.

"When it came time for volunteers I said, `I'll help do that'," she said, explaining how she became involved.

"It's a lot of fun. It's real interesting."

"The coaches in the league went ahead and set everything up when the Kiwanis told them they wouldn't be physically involved anymore. So the coaches take care of all of the things like scheduling the games, the score keeping and other things like that," said Robert.

"We really couldn't do it without the Kiwanis and the Excelsior Optimist Club," said Altenthall, in his second year of coaching in the league. "Without those two groups there wouldn't be a girls league.

"The Excelsior Optimist Club has done a great job in their first year involved," he said.

Robert said the coaches do their share of the organizing though.

"The coaches kind of go out and organize their own teams," she said. "Most of the teams are sponsored by churches, but the girls really don't have to attend a particular church to play for that team."

Some teams, though, are more structured.

"Nell Holcomb has three teams in the league. Their school coach (Garry Pirch) also coaches those teams," Robert said. "All of the girls who play on that team go to Nell Hollcomb.

"He's had several girls who've gone on and been really successful in high school and beyond," she said. "You can always tell a Nell Holcomb girls basketball player from the others. They've usually had a lot more experience than the other girls."

Altenthall, who use to coach boys basketball before his daughter played in the Kiwanis League three years ago, says that's what all the coaches strive for.

"The girls really improve a lot during the season," he said. "This is where it all starts. It gets the girls excited about playing basketball."