Looking to fill a need in the area, Bobby Felder was a leader in bringing competitive adult basketball to Pike County.
Felder is the founder of the Ballas League, which is in its second season of existence. The adult league consists of six teams with games taking place every Tuesday and Thursday evenings at the Summit Rotary gym. The games run back-to-back with the first game starting at 6:30 p.m.
Felder said the idea to start a league began with a thought, since the gym was open for the public various days out of the week. It sparked an idea and Felder, along with James Morris and Cavadas “Bunk” Nunnery went with it to make it happen.
“We don’t have much to do in McComb on a day-to-day basis,” Felder said. “I love playing basketball personally and it was just something that I know a lot of cities around the United States have basketball leagues and we were one of the ones that didn’t, but we have people here that love to play basketball. We wanted to try to see if we could start something to keep people in shape and to give people something positive to do around here and give everybody something to look forward to.”
Similar to the first season, there are six teams this season, but Felder added the interest in the league was greater with several teams looking to join after the deadline to register. This season also brought changes to season schedule as well as the playoff format.
The teams will play 10 regular-season games and all six teams will make the playoffs. The top two seeds will have a bye and the first two rounds will be best-of-three series leading up to the championship, which will be the best-of-five.
On a given night, it is unpredictable what level of greatness could be on the display. A highlight dunk or crossover is certainly a given and the league has even produced a 78-point scoring performance.
The teams have each played four games so far this season, with Felder’s team, Unknown, sitting with a record of 3-1, following a 114-51 shellacking over Southside Thursday evening in the first game of the night.
Dee Coleman led the way with 32 points, followed by Nunnery’s 26 points. In addition to former high school and college standouts playing in the league, there are also current college players participating in the league, one of which is former McComb and Southwest standout and current Morehead State Eagle guard Emanuel “Trell” Thompson who plays on the team named Soup A Star.
“We have more college guys playing,” Felder said. “We don’t have a rule against it. I just ask that they take care of themselves. You have NBA players who go out and play in the Drew League and these guys are getting paid millions and they can go out and play in the Drew league. I don’t want to stop a basketball player from playing, but I do want them to go out there and protect themselves because I don’t want collegiate athletes getting hurt in something that’s really for the community.”
For the bargain of $2, spectators are able witness three games that are highly competitive. For those who can’t make it, the league has a Facebook page that routinely posts highlights from the games, as well as box scores.
The games are played in a venue that is without air conditioning, which makes it tough on the both players and spectators at times, but Felder expressed thanks to the rotary for providing them access to gym.
“It’s just a great venue for everybody. We try to keep the prices reasonable for people to come in so it’s affordable for everyone to come to the game,” he said. “It’s something positive that we’d like to keep going.”
