By Ken Jackson
Sports Writer

Yes, those are floor screeches and the sound of dribbling basketballs you’ve heard coming from local high school gyms.

School isn’t in session, but the Osceola County Midnight Basketball League most definitely is.

The league, the brainchild of Osceola girls’ coach Barner Cooks, is in its second season. Last year’s league featured only girls teams, but this year 10 boys squads have joined girls teams from all the public schools except for Poinciana.

Each county boys team aside from St. Cloud is involved, along with Heritage Christian, New Dimensions, Freedom High in Orlando and Landmark Christian in Haines City.

The schedule winds down this weekend with playoffs and a championship game against Orange County’s summer league.

“We were lucky to find places to play,” Cooks said. “The (350-team) YBOA tournament has everything around here filled up.”

The games aren’t really played at midnight. The league is under the umbrella of a group that started a night league in Daytona Beach when Vince Carter was a student at Mainland High School.

Carter remains involved with the league, and with his help funding Midnight Basketball, along with a sponsorship from the Center for Drug Free Living, the Osceola County league is able to offer a roster spot for just $20.

The league gives players who want to use the summer break to hone their skills that opportunity, without the expense of joining a travel-ball club team, for which fees can quickly add up.

“We don’t interfere with travel ball. They do most of their tournaments on the weekends, so we scheduled our games during the week,” Cooks said.  “Travel ball expenses can add up. The goal here is to make an affordable opportunity to play available to kids who want it. We can put a team on the floor for $200.”

The girls’ championship will be decided starting tonight  at Gateway High School.

Liberty will play Harmony at 5 p.m., and the winner will face Wednesday’s Osceola-Celebration winner on Friday at 5:30 p.m. at the Downtown Recreation Center next door to the Amway Arena in Orlando. The winner plays Orange County’s champion on Saturday at 5:30.

The boys playoffs will be played on Thursday and Friday at 6:30 at New Dimensions. The champion goes to downtown Orlando to play Saturday at 6:30 against Orange County’s winner.

Poinciana, Gateway, Celebration (who all entered this week at 8-1) and New Dimensions are the top boys seeds.

“I wanted to bring the level of Osceola County basketball to that of Orange and Seminole counties,” Cooks said. “All of the high school head coaches are coaching their teams, which is great.”

The Florida High School Athletic Association used to frown on such leagues. It allowed for off-season tournaments like the Midnight League, but if a varsity coach was also a club coach, a maximum of 50 percent of the club roster could come from that high-school team.

The FHSAA repealed the “50/50 rule” in 2006, to the relief of many a coach.

“In this day and age, if you’re not working with your kids over the summer, you’re falling behind,” Cooks said. “I like to use this to introduce new kids, like incoming freshmen, to the program.”

The league is beneficial to St. Cloud and Harmony, which will have new coaches this season. Chad Ansbaugh, the new Bulldogs coach, used it as an introduction to his players, and vice versa.

“This gives me a chance to see how they work together, and gives them a chance to see how I operate,” he said.

Summer ball also can reveal the true gym rats. Harmony’s Marie Gilbert said she’d rather be on the court working on her game and getting to know her teammates than vacationing.

“This beats going to the beach or the mall,” she said. “Any day. Really.”