Ellington

Flowood resident Eddie Young, the co-director of the Reservoir Youth Basketball and Cheerleading League, has a vision. He wants his league to not only be the best youth basketball league in the metro area but also the most inclusive one.

Young, 35, says when he was growing up in Natchez, the city had two leagues—one for white kids and one for African American kids. One summer, the leagues combined into one, and he says that it was one of the best years of summer-league basketball in his hometown.

"It was great to watch the best black and white kids balling out on the same court," Young says.

He and his co-director, Lewis Lowe, are hoping to achieve the same result with their league, which first launched in winter 2014 at Sunnybrook Children's Home. They organized a season this past summer at Mississippi Basketball and Athletics in Jackson, but Young wanted a location that would be more visible to families around the metro area for the league's third season, which began play Sunday, Dec. 6, at Hits and Hoops (1576 Old Fannin Road, Suite B). Now, the league has more than 200 boys and girls signed up for basketball, and Young says that it is the only league that has cheerleading for basketball games.

"You mainly see cheerleading for football in this area," Young says. "We wanted to bring cheerleading to basketball to make our league stand out even more."

Young's wife, Kimberly Young, helps to coordinate the cheerleading squads and works with coaches to get them ready for games. The home team for each game has their cheerleaders perform a dance routine at halftime. "This is a league for everybody," Young says. "We are currently 70 percent black and 30 percent white, but as time goes along we hope those numbers get closer to a near 50-50 split."

The league motto is "basketball the right way," Young says. That means all kids wear the same uniform, coaches teach the fundamentals and referees do the best job possible.

At the end of the season, starting in February, the league will have playoffs and an end-of-the-year cheer-off competition.

Young says he is excited for this winter league, but he might be even more excited about the upcoming summer league.

"This winter league filled up fast with a lot of word of mouth. After this season, we expect even more people to be interested in the summer league," he says.

Young and his wife have four children: son Kaiden, 5, and daughters Jarnae, 11, Kamyron, 9, and 5-year-old JaKaylyn, all of whom are active in basketball, cheerleading or both.

Registration for the summer league will begin in April. For more information, find Hits and Hoops' Facebook page, visit msplaysports.com or call 1-877-824-0096, extension 101.