The Barrington Summer League basketball season features 24 teams and is run entirely by teenagers. Founders, Austin Molinaro, from left, Nick Bordenet, Ryan Chang and Christian Katris act as commissioners. (Burt Constable | Staff Photographer)
Burt Constable
Remember those good old days, when bunches of boys would get together in the summer to play basketball on an outdoor court with no adults telling them what to do?
That’s happening now on the court at Countryside Elementary School in Barrington.
“It’s just for fun,” says Austin Molinaro, who founded the Barrington Summer League with Nick Bordenet, Ryan Chang and Christian Katris, all 18-year-olds who just graduated from Barrington High School. The four, who call themselves “commissioners,” started the league last summer as a way to keep playing basketball when traditional adult-run programs were canceled due to pandemic restrictions.
With 24 teams and about 180 players playing a 14-game regular season and then playoffs, the league is about more than putting a ball through a hoop.
“This year, every team has an Instagram account,” Katris says.
The league posts schedules, results and rankings on its barringtonsummerleague Instagram account. Players post photos and videos, and they also dole out compliments and some trash-talking. Teams, with seven or eight players, buy matching uniforms and give themselves names such as the Solar Bears, Cocoa Puffs or Goofy Goobers. Some team names recognize players’ backgrounds with monikers that include Black Panthers, the Wasian Mambas and the Rednecks.
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