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Show Utah Guard Sponsors Youth Hoop Program Junior high school cagers with a yen for organized basketball can get into one of some 27 Bantam Ban-tam leagues throughout the state this year. Utah's Adjutant General, Maj. General Maxwell E. Rich, says the Utah National Guard hopes to muster 110 teams of 11 to 13 I year olds in four-team f leagues nearly everywhere the Guard has an armory. That takes in 27 Utah communities. The Guard's Bantam Basketball Basket-ball program, organized in 1957, had 40 teams last year, most of them in the Salt Lake City area, i "The success of the program led to the expansion throughout the state," he said. The program will jump off Saturday, November 28, with an organizational meeting in the Sunnyside Avenue Armory in Salt Lake City. Players, coaches and sponsors will attend. Young cagers will practice Saturdays through December, with daily drills during Christmas Christ-mas vacation. League nlav will run through January and part of February. State playoffs will be held early in March. Each team in the four team leagues will play six games during dur-ing a double round robin. Then they go into playoffs for regional region-al and state championships. Teams are made up of 12 youngsters three 11 year olds, three 12 year olds, and the other six usually 13 year olds. Bantam basketball rules require each team to have an 11 year old and a 12 year old on the floor at all times to assure the youngsters a chance to play. The kids are coached by University Uni-versity and high school physical education majors who want to compile a little coaching experience, experi-ence, A coaching clinic is held late in the season. Last year's clinic in Salt Lake City included demonstrations by University of Utah Coach Jack Gardner and his varsity Utes. Sponsors are businessmen who furnish uniforms and equipment. Following regional and state playoffs the cagers are guests at an awards banquet. Each player will receive a certificate signifying signify-ing the rung his team reached on the ladder to state competition. The defending champs are the Beeline Bees of Salt Lake City, j They whipped the Southeast Builders Supply Darts in state finals last season. Four regions are planned for this year's competition. Region one takes in Northern Utah from Bountiful to Smithfield. Region . two is the Salt Lake City and County area, Region three is the Provo area, and Region four takes in the area from Mt. Pleasant Pleas-ant to St. George. |