High school basketball powerhouses set to form national league
Eight powerhouse high school basketball teams are set to form a national league to begin play in the 2021-22 season.
Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Virginia, IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, Montverde Academy in Florida, La Lumiere School in La Porte, Indiana, Wasatch Academy in Mount Pleasant, Utah and Sunrise Christian in Bel Aire, Kansas are six teams that have committed to play and will make up the National Interscholastic Basketball Conference.
A 10-game regular season, along with a postseason tournament will fill out the schedule next season.
"With games being canceled last season due to COVID, the NIBC schools created a series of contests among themselves and brought us in to help manage the events, secure sponsorship revenue and place the games on the ESPN networks," Rashid Ghazi, a partner at Paragon Marketing Group said to ESPN.com. "During the course of the season, the schools realized the power of building their brands together and we worked with them over the past several months to put a formal conference together. We believe the tradition and history of the six schools combined with the expertise of Paragon creates a winning formula that will make the NIBC truly unique in the world of high school sports."
Kasey Kesselring, who is Montverde Academy's head of school, will serve as chair of the board of governors.
Monteverde features two of the top five high school prospects in the nation. Jalen Duren, a 6'10'' center from Philadelphia is ranked second in the 2022 ESPN 60, and Dariq Whitehead, a 6'6" small forward, is rated fourth. IMG Academy will feature forward Jarace Walker (No. 8 in ESPN 60) and Jaden Bradley (No. 8).
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: High school basketball: League to feature top HS basketball programs
