The Hoopsters are at it again, this time they have taken their game to Holcom Rec Center to beat the summer heat. The Hoopster 3-on-3 League began on May 30 and will run until July 7.

The league, which is in its eighth year, will help more than 300 young players hone their basketball skills during the summer months. The players break up into groups of three according to their age range, from first-grade to 10th-grade, and play games once or twice a week.

Rick McNabb, Hoopster league director, said each player will play at least 10 games during the six-week-long league. McNabb said the league is also all about fun and games and learning the fundamentals of basketball.

“We started the league as a way to have fun and easy games to play during the summer,” McNabb said. “We don’t put pressure on team standings or seriously keep track of scores to keep it all about the fun. It’s easy to coach and it’s another sport to play that doesn’t conflict with baseball or swimming.”

Jacob Seratte, a player for the fifth-grade Pink Panthers, said he liked the league because it allowed him to play both basketball and baseball. He said the games were a good way for him to focus on another sport before his baseball games in the evenings. He said he also enjoyed the laid-back atmosphere of the summer games.

“I like playing in this basketball league because it helps me to get away from baseball,” Seratte said. “I think this is easier than the 5-on-5 style of the regular season because you get the ball more and don’t have all the pressure on you.”

Seratte is making his second appearance in the league and many other players have also returned this summer after playing last year. For another second-year player, Carter Francisco, who plays on the Ballers fifth-grade team, the tournaments are the best chance he gets to stay on top of his game.

“I played last year too, and this is just the only way that I can play basketball in the summer,” Francisco said.

Not only has the league been popular among young male players who want to play all year long, McNabb said this year there has been a surge in both female players and coaches. He said the league has had more female players than ever this year and that the number of mothers who coach teams outweighs the number of fathers who do.

The league also tried to diversify itself by adding an intern program five years ago. The league takes a number of high school players each summer who get to attend for free and learn the ins and outs of managing a league.

“These are kids who will be sophomores in high school next year, they volunteer and keep score and also get to help coach and referee some of the teams,” McNabb said. “The league is such a great training place for them.”

McNabb said one of the greatest goals this year was to get the interns and the players to focus on and understand basketball in its purest form. All the games are played on half court, which forces the players to focus on the smaller and more intricate aspects of the game.

“One of the great things about the games are that they can’t ever get too far from the other players since they are played on half court,” McNabb said. “It is the true essence of basketball because it is more one-on-one. We work a lot with the basics like a lot of pass and cuts and pass and picks. The players are learning as they go to have better defense and team play.”

The players will get a chance to showcase all their fortified defensive strategies, new approaches to shooting lay-ups and all the other things they will learn in the league in July. The last week and a half of the league culminates in a tournament for teams to battle it out for league titles.