What Offseason? Prep Teams Use Summer Leagues For Growth

Summer leagues are not a new phenomenon in high school sports, at least at the football and basketball levels. But their proliferation into a variety of sports, combined with schools looking for creative avenues to develop their own programs, has led to many options taking up the summer schedule.

The old reliable has been the football passing league, which has played effectively 7-on-7 without linemen for countless summers. Broadneck and Severna Park are both involved in local passing leagues, which travel to high schools and college campuses throughout the summer.

Broadneck hosted an event with Severna Park and other notable teams from around the area, including Flowers, North Point and Crofton. The Bruins won an event at the University of Maryland including wins over Quince Orchard (twice) and Mount St. Joseph, while they reached the quarterfinals at Virginia Tech.

While some summer programs and circuits have carried on for years, others have evolved or seen schools do their own thing.

Anne Arundel Community College hosted a high school boys soccer summer league in previous years but two years ago opted to discontinue staging the event. With several local schools desiring to continue their summer programs, Archbishop Spalding stepped in and has hosted the three most recent iterations of the summer league.

The biggest benefit from summer leagues is that they allow high school programs to practice outside of season. Maryland rules permit high school teams to train together in the offseason provided they are part of an organized league. Per those same rules, the training is optional and attendance cannot be factored into tryout decisions for the school’s official season, but it provides coaches an opportunity to work with prospective high school athletes and for players to build chemistry ahead of the upcoming year.

This may show a greater benefit for fall sports teams, which can use the summer league as a longer runway into their upcoming seasons. But there are also benefits for other teams, such as the Severna Park boys basketball team, which now runs their own league at API in Gambrills.

This keeps the team playing together more frequently and allows for a more seamless blending back into basketball once hoops season arrives in December.

The fall high school sports season begins with tryouts starting August 12.