Jackson Friends Church 7th/8th Grade Basketball League is a Co-Ed basketball league with 7th and 8th grade playing together. Based on league history, normally around 90% or so of the league is boys, with less than 10% being girls. We normally try to put around two or three girls together on a team, for them to be able to stick together somewhat (ex. - last year had 10 total teams. Seven had all boys and three teams had seven boys and three girls, still split talent wise, as evenly as possible). This league is recreational and will focus on developing youths' basketball skills, teaching good practice techniques, and developing interpersonal and teamwork skills. All players evaluate and then are split up into teams as evenly as possible by the league director (you may have a friend request, but too many kids linked together may be broken up for fairness). Each game will feature a half time devotion/prayer with the players. During the week we will pass out a weekly devotional for coaches to read at the end of practice, similar to our K-6th group. We want to make sure participants have an enjoyable experience with the game, learn about Jesus, and increase their basketball skills! Jackson Friends Sports Leagues give equal playing time for all kids!

Season Dates: December 1st, 2025 - February 27th, 2025

Cost of registration: $97 Jersey Fee: $20 (if you don't have one from last season)

Practices for MOST teams will be once a week on either Tuesday or Thursday evenings , with a few teams potentially on a Monday or Wednesday. All practices and games will be at Jackson Friends Church, starting the week of December 1st, 2025. Games will be on FRIDAY evenings, as early as 5 PM and as late as 9 PM. There will be a total of 11 practices and 8 regular season games, along with at least one playoff/extra game for each team. There will be ONE Friday practice on Friday, December 5th. Games will start on Friday, December 12th. We will play games December 12 and 19, take a break for Christmas and games will start back up January 9th, regular season running through February 13th. The top eight teams at the end of the regular season will make the normal playoff bracket. Teams that fall outside the top eight will play in a consolation game (so all teams will get at least 9 games) OR we may do an upper and lower bracket, depending on how the records turn out. Playoffs will start on Friday, February 20th at Jackson Friends Church. Depending on how the playoff bracket lines up, we may have a play in game during the week BEFORE the first playoff bracket game February 20th. We will plan to have everything wrapped up by Friday February 27th OR Saturday, February 28th (if we play a Saturday championship game, TBD).

There will be two evaluation dates options taking place at Jackson Friends Church, that league participants may choose from, to be evaluated before teams are created. The main two evaluation nights are Monday, November 17th, from 7:30 - 8:30 PM OR Tuesday, November 18th, from 7:30 PM - 8:30 PM. On both dates, you may come ANYTIME during that time frame. We will be sending out the expectations for players and parents via email. We want to make sure we are all on the same page with expectations for both Jackson Friends and participants/parents! Our 7th/8th grade basketball league ensures that all kids play AT LEAST half the game, and we do ask coaches to keep playing time as even as possible.

There will be a brief coaches meeting on Tuesday, November 18th, at 8:30 PM (immediately following the last evaluation night). It will take place in the bistro area, just outside the gym. We ask that all parents interested in helping coach attend this meeting. There will be a coaches application/background check for first time coaches and we will also go over the rules, expectations, etc. for the season. We always need more coaches, so please sign up to help us if you can (even if just in an assistant role).

As always, we will do our best to keep the facilities clean and safe for kids, parents and fans alike!

We hope you will join us this season!

Joel Bankert

Director of Sports & Recreation

Jackson Friends Church