Youth league enjoys electrifying season

Published 6:45 pm Tuesday, April 2, 2024

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The Franklin Department of Parks and Recreation/Camp25 Basketball and Cheer League has firmly established itself as an exciting and enjoyable outlet for youth and their families in the Western Tidewater area.

“The 2024 FDPR/CAMP25 Basketball & Cheer League was a huge success,” Camp25 Founder and Executive Director Eric Benton said. “The atmosphere on game days was electric.”

Game days unfolded on Sundays at the J.P. King Jr. Middle School gymnasium from mid-January through the beginning of March for the league, which is the product of a partnership between Franklin Parks and Rec and Benton’s nonprofit Camp25.

Benton noted that this year, the league featured 168 basketball players distributed across 13 different teams that were divided into three age divisions.

There were also three age divisions for cheerleaders and three cheer squads featuring a combined 40 cheer participants overall.

The FDPR/Camp25 Basketball and Cheer League drew participants from several different localities, with 43% of them coming from Southampton County, 37% coming from Franklin, 10% coming from Isle of Wight County, 5% coming from Suffolk and 5% coming from North Carolina.

Three championship basketball teams were crowned at the end of the season. 

The Raptors won the Rookie Division, which was for children ages 4-7; the Coach P LLC team won the Junior Division, for children ages 8-10; and the Lakers won the Senior Division, for children ages 11-14.