A new league is looking to elevate the game of high school basketball. According to ESPN, the National Interscholastic Basketball Conference has gathered six of the biggest powerhouse schools to form an elite league, which is set to take place during the 2021-22 season.
The six teams set to kick off the National Interscholastic Basketball Conference’s inaugural season are Oak Hill Academy (Virginia), Montverde Academy (Florida), IMG Academy (Florida), La Lumiere School (Indiana), Sunrise Christian Academy (Kansas), and Wasatch Academy (Utah). Two more schools, which have yet to be announced, will also be joining the league.
The eight teams will play in a regular-season made up of 10 regular games, along with special NIBC events and a postseason tournament. According to ESPN, the league already has plans to expand in the upcoming years.
Helming the league will be Rashid Ghazi, partner at Paragon Marketing Group, who will serve as commissioner, while Kasey Kesselring, Montverde Academy head of school, will be the chair of the board of governors.
In an official statement, Ghazi shared, “With games being canceled last season due to COVID, the NIBC schools created a series of contests among themselves and brought us in to help manage the events, secure sponsorship revenue, and place the games on the ESPN networks. During the course of the season, the schools realized the power of building their brands together and we worked with them over the past several months to put a formal conference together. We believe the tradition and history of the six schools combined with the expertise of Paragon creates a winning formula that will make the NIBC truly unique in the world of high school sports.”
The NIBC aims to showcase some of the country’s top prospects consistently playing head-to-head on a national stage, which will be beneficial to both college coaches and NBA scouts, as well as to the student-athletes themselves.
Currently, the NIBC six teams have won the past eight national championships, with Montverde winning five times. Keep it locked here for more details surrounding the new league.
