Donald Breault and Greg Hancock are smiling today.
Breault is one of the Chelsea Youth Basketball League’s greatest players of all time, averaging 25 points a game as a 6-foot-4-inch, eighth grader. Breault went on to excel at Don Bosco Tech, playing alongside Bosco legends such as Dwan Chandler and Joe Beaulieu.
Hancock was the CYBL’s first unstoppable guard, leading Larry Notkin’s Nets to a title as the league’s unanimous MVP before entering the Chelsea High School boys basketball program.
What Breault and Hancock will be happy about is that the CYBL is back in high gear with 166 boys and girls participating, making it the city’s largest youth sports organization.
The man running the show is Joshua Concepcion, best known as the CHS senior point guard who in 2008 launched then-sophomore (and now CHS head coach) Cesar Castro on the road to his 1,252 career points.
“I played two seasons with Cesar,” said Concepcion. “I would like to say I was the best point guard Cesar ever had. I probably gave him the most assists. He was amazing.”
Concepcion, 37, is in his fourth year as president, overseeing games that are played Friday nights and Saturday mornings and afternoons at the Williams Middle School gymnasium.
CYBL players range in age from 4 to 14 and comprise 16 teams in senior and junior boys’ divisions. For the first time, there is an all-girls league that has four teams.
The season started in January and will continue through April 24 when the championship games will be played at Chelsea High School. Following the season, there will be a banquet featuring team championship trophies and individual awards such as the MVP.
Concepcion credits vice president Marcus Queen, secretary-treasurer Arely Concepcion (Joshua’s wife), and director of coaching development Andres Medina for their outstanding contributions to the league’s resurgence.
Concepcion’s daughter, Jayliana Concepcion, is carrying on the family tradition on the basketball court. She is a two-year starter for the Lynn English High School girls varsity basketball team. “We also have an 18-month-old, Cleopatra, who will be playing basketball in the future,” related Joshua.
Concepcion couldn’t be happier with the players and coaches’ enthusiasm for basketball and the sportsmanship on display each week.
Councilor-at-Large Leo Robinson, who coached in the CYBL for several years and served as league president, stopped by the Williams School last Saturday to show his support for the league. Robinson was impressed.
“Joshua his doing a great job running the league,” lauded Robinson. “I want to thank the coaches and the referees for volunteering their time and giving Chelsea kids an opportunity to enjoy the game of basketball.”
“The league’s doing really well,” said Concepcion. “I’m super proud of the coaches we have involved, the board members, the parents. Charlie [Giuffrida] has been an amazing help, and he’s always updating me about the city’s assistance. He helps me out as much as he can.”
From Breault to Hancock, and Wayne Morris to the Knickerbockers’ Big Three of Chucky Zucco, and Timmy Cannata, and Matt Freese, the CYBL continues to be the home for good times on the basketball court.