Youth boys basketball Traveling League orbits through Valley

The Color Country Series of the Traveling League met in the two gyms of Valley High School on its first leg Saturday, January 6.

Ball and boy, McKoy Hoyt, both suspended in midair matched symbiotically by white-shirted referee and Valley Varsity star, Johnny Cox. In addition to scoring on this fast-break play, the 4th-grader also sank the winning go-ahead 33-32 basket. Photo by Jerry Melrose.

As local coordinator Sammi Leinbach explains it, “We have a fourth grade team, fifth grade, sixth grade and a seventh and eighth grade teams. And a lot of local businesses actually sponsored them so that they could play. They start the first week of January and go to the middle of February. They play every Saturday and have two games each. They go anywhere from Beaver to Richfield, Wayne County … all over Southern Utah.”

As VHS athletic legend Colby Spencer, who coached his seventh and eighth-grade team versus Kanab and South Sevier, explains, “They’re doing good; they’re making a lot of improvement. I mean, you can’t complain. Like, it’s how you start. If you’ve got kids, you’ve got up-and-comers.” The fourth, fifth and sixth graders are being mentored by brothers Nick and Owen Hoyt, both of whom are Valley Varsity coaches, as well as dads.

The next installment will congregate on this campus again on January 20.