Spy Report summer league plans to expand

PERKINS TWP. — Jake Meisler's phone has been buzzing. The founder of the scouting service Spy Report and a Margaretta boys basketball assistant coach, Meisler's leadership of the inaugural Spy Report Summer League was a success. More teams want in. "I've had a ton of texts about people wanting in for next year," Meisler said. "I'd like to max this thing out and get up to 30 or 40 teams and be in that place for four hours every week. There's a bit of buzz because I don't think anything like this has existed in Sandusky as far as a summer team basketball setting. This is kind of unique." The league, which played on four weeknights in June at Cedar Point Sports Center, featured 10 varsity teams and eight JV teams. Bellevue, Sandusky, Norwalk, Margaretta, Vermilion, Perkins, Oak Harbor, Fremont Ross, Toledo Central Catholic and Open Door were the varsity clubs, with a similar mix of junior varsity. "We do charge a small gate to help out with facility rental, officiating, cover some insurance," Meisler said. "It's certainly not a money maker, and I don't want it to be. I just want it to be a platform for area basketball." Margaretta had previously hosted a summer league in its own gym for five or six teams. Willard also hosts summer open gyms. Sandusky usually travels to Euclid's summer league, and area teams often go to team camps at colleges during June, which has expanded high school team coaching hours since COVID-19. The Polar Bears decided to ease their own burden and gain a facility upgrade by moving to CPSC, and an increased number of teams joined them. "I told (head coach) Steve (Keller) heading into the summer, let's take that off our plate," Meisler said. "Use a facility that's air conditioned with multiple courts. Pull some different competition in. Keller was all about it. Cedar Point was great. They were all about it. There's not much going on in there on weekday evenings." In Year 1, each night featured three one-hour game windows. Every team in attendance got two games per night. Games featured 22-minute running clock halves and altered foul shot rules to keep things moving. "We're gonna continue to keep the rules kind of loose," Meisler said. "We're not gonna run it as strictly a game format. We're gonna run it like a scrimmage and have teaching opportunities for coaches. We want it to be more about growth than winning… I kind of want it to be no frills, just show up and play basketball." The league allowed coaches to get looks at how their depth is coming along with the season still a long ways off. Margaretta played the final night without star sophomores Julian Washington and Judah Keller, along with a couple of other absences, which created court time in matchups with Vermilion and Oak Harbor's varsity teams for some youngsters. Earlier in the summer, Sandusky was shorthanded due to its Euclid league commitments, giving probable JV athletes a chance at higher competition. "We loved it," Meisler said. "We saw eight different opponents. We were able to tinker with lineups, different combinations of kids playing with different kids against good teams. It is very beneficial to Steve and I, we're only driving 15 minutes and we get different looks and different athletes." Meisler has also heard interest about adding a girls league, which would likely require a separate night at the complex. The most consistent area girls summer league is currently hosted by Norwalk High School. He hopes to keep a good mix of local teams with some out-of-area competition, too, which allows squads to get a glance at potential conference opponents without necessarily playing them nonstop, doing it all at a great host for hoops. "We can dictate who plays who," Meisler said. "Instead of playing a team two or three times, you can get a local team and then get a Central Catholic or a St. Francis. That facility is just incredible."